Hardware

Hardware is the physical layer of Terp Network. Every interaction — from validating blocks to broadcasting transactions — runs on some hardware device.

Node Hardware

Anyone running a Terp Network node needs:

Full Node (Minimum)

Validator Node (Recommended)

Sentry Node

Same as full node, but with:

• Public IP with DDoS protection
• Higher bandwidth allocation
• Rate limiting configured

Hardware Security Modules (HSMs)

Validators can use HSMs to protect their consensus key:

• YubiHSM2 — USB-connected, supports Ed25519 signing
• Ledger — Cosmos app for transaction signing
• SGX/TEE — future support for trusted execution environments

Specialized Hardware

Terp Network extends beyond validators:

Hardware topology diagram scaffold — a diagram showing different hardware types in the Terp Network ecosystem: validator, sentry, full node, relayer, storage server, sensor. Show connectivity between them.

Hardware Security Considerations

1. Physical access — keep validator hardware in a secure, locked location
2. Network isolation — validators should not face the public internet directly (use sentries)
3. Key storage — consensus keys should use HSMs or encrypted storage
4. Backup — maintain offline backups of validator state

Further Reading

• Node setup guides — hardware provisioning walkthrough
• Validator guide — operational security
• O-Line deployment — ephemeral test hardware