Setup your own Mysterium Node VPN in Linode Cloud for FREE

Milind Patel -
Run A Mysterium Node & Earn While You Sleep

Mysterium is an open-source ecosystem of protocols, tools, and infrastructure to liberate the web. Their node network empowers both builders and users to access free information.

So you'll be setting up your own personal Wireguard powered open-source decentralized VPN in the cloud for FREE (at least for the first 2 months). After that, it's one of the cheapest ones out there.

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Myst Node Setup

  1. Go over to mystnodes.com and sign up for a new account.
  2. Note down your API key that you'll need to claim your node.

Metamask Wallet Setup

You can use any other wallet that supports the polygon network (The network that the MYST token operates on).

I'll show you the steps to set up a new metamask wallet for the MYST token.

  1. Download the metamask wallet extension for your browser from here.
  2. Open MetaMask console and switch the connected blockchain (network) by clicking on the tab saying Ethereum Mainnet, we need to add the Polygon network.
  3. Scroll down until you find Custom RPC.
  4. Enter in the Polygon Mainnet settings as follows:
Network Name: Polygon Mainnet
New RPC URL: https://polygon-rpc.com/
Chain ID: 137
Currency Symbol (optional): MATIC
Block Explorer URL (optional): https://polygonscan.com/

You have now connected to the Matic mainnet with your Metamask Wallet! You can now interact with Polygon tokens like $MYST while connected to Polygon. Note that transactions on the Polygon network requires its native token MATIC which will be used as gas fee. You can get MATIC tokens in any DEX available in the Ethereum Mainnet (such as at @Uniswap) and then bridge the tokens to Polygon.

Adding MYST token to MetaMask on the Polygon Mainnet

To add MYST token to your MetaMask, go to the main MetaMask account page. Click on the Assets tab, where you’ll see Add Token at the bottom.

After you click Add Token, navigate to the Custom Token tab and manually enter the MYST token details. Copy the Token Contract Address (please find below) and paste that onto the Custom Token tab on MetaMask.

MYST token details:

Token Contract Address on PolygonScan : 0x1379e8886a944d2d9d440b3d88df536aea08d9f3

Symbol: MYST

Decimals: 18

Linode Setup

  1. Head over to linode.com and sign-up for a free account. You'll get 100$ free credits on signup valid for 2 months.
  2. For Mysterium Node, you'll need the cheapest available option "Nanode 1GB" which costs 5$/month to run. So in theory, you could run 10 mysterium nodes for 2 months for free. 😏
  3. After sign-up, create a new Linode and choose the below options
    Images: Ubuntu 21.10
    Region: Select accordingly
    Plan: Shared CPU -> Nanode 1 GB
    Linode Label: Give your Linode a name
    Root password: Enter a secure root password and note it down
  4. Then click "Create Linode", and wait a while for it to provision.
  5. After your new Linode has booted up, copy its IP address.
  6. Open your favorite terminal application, and type
    ssh root@IP
  7. Enter the root password you noted down previously.

Follow the below commands to setup mysterium node application

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mysteriumnetwork/node
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install myst

Now you can log in to your mysterium node WebUI by going to

http://IP:4449

  1. Click on Start Node setup
  2. Go over to your metamask wallet, make sure you have selected "Polygon Network" on the right side, and copy its Account ID.
  3. Next, you can either choose to register for free or if that option is not available, you can select the debit/credit card option and verify your wallet by doing a small transaction.
  4. After that, enter a WebUI password and click on the "claim node" check box and enter the mystnodes.com API key that you copied earlier.

And, That's it. You have set up your own mysterium node in the cloud and you'll start earning their MYST token whenever anyone uses your node as their VPN.

Backup your Node Identity to google drive

If you ever plan to move away from Linode or want to backup the mysterium node identity that you created, you will need to backup it somewhere.

Use the below commands to install and setup rclone

apt-get install rclone

then type

rclone config

and configure a new remote for google drive and enter your appropriate details.

Save the below script as "mystbackup.sh" in /root directory

#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/rclone --config="/root/.config/rclone/rclone.conf" sync --verbose --transfers 8 --checkers 8 --contimeout 60s --timeout 300s --retries 3 --low-level-retries 10 --stats 1s --stats-file-name-length 0 --fast-list --tpslimit 32 /var/lib/mysterium-node YourGoogleDriveRemote:somefolder

Replace,

YourGoogleDriveRemote: with the google drive remote name you created in rclone config earlier.

somefolder: a folder on google drive where you will store mysterium node identity

After that type,

chmod +x mystbackup.sh
crontab -e

and paste below in crontab file

0 0 * * * /root/mystbackup.sh

This will set up a cron job that will backup your mysterium node identity every night to google drive at 12 AM UTC.

Review

  1. You can check your node status on mystnodes.com
  2. You can access your Mysterium Node WebUI by going to http://linodeip:4449
  3. Your Mysterium Node identity will be backup up daily to google drive at 12 AM UTC.
  4. After you have reached 5 MYST on earnings, you can withdraw them to your Metamask wallet.

References

  1. Linode
  2. Mysterium Node Documentation
  3. Rclone
  4. Metamask