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Chain Owners, Validators, and Access Nodes

TL;DR;​

  • Chain Owners: As the primary governors of a chain, chain owners control validator committees and dictate the chain's governance model.
  • Validator Nodes: Validator nodes are crucial for block production and achieving consensus on state updates, with their composition managed by chain owners.
  • Access Nodes: Access nodes, having only read access, are key for querying the chain's state and managing external interactions with the blockchain.

Chain Owners​

Chain owners are the primary governing entities of a chain. They hold significant control over the chain, including the power to manage the committee of validators. They can rotate validators to ensure the chain's integrity and efficient operation. Chain owners establish and maintain the governance model of the chain, which dictates how validators are selected and rewarded.

Validator Nodes​

Validator nodes are the workhorses of a blockchain, possessing write access and thus responsible for producing blocks. These nodes form a committee that collaboratively runs smart contracts and reaches consensus on state updates. Each validator plays their part in executing code, verifying the results, and committing these updates to the chain.

This process involves adding new blocks to the chain and updating the state hash in the Layer 1 (L1) ledger. Chain owners can change the composition of this committee , allowing for flexibility and adaptability in the network's management.

Often, validator nodes operate within a private subnet for security, with a designated group of access nodes serving as the interface with the external world. The management of both validator and access nodes is coordinated through the governance core contract.

Access Nodes​

In contrast to validator nodes, access nodes only have read access to the blockchain. They play a crucial role in responding to queries about the chain's state and forwarding requests to the committee of validators. These nodes provide external access to smart contracts, enabling queries (view calls) and the sending of off-ledger requests.

Dive Deeper

You can gain a deeper understanding of validators and access nodes in the IOTA Smart Contracts documentation.