BakeBuddy - Making Tezos Baking Easier
Whether you are an advanced baker or a novice, BakeBuddy is intended to make the process easy.
500 words, 3 minute read
Photo by Nadya Spetnitskaya / Unsplash
is a tool designed to help members of the Tezos community get their own ‘bakeries’ up and running. In the Tezos community, a ‘baker’ is someone who helps to maintain and secure the blockchain, and, to use a metaphor, a ‘bakery’ would be the virtual location where a baker handles their maintenance and security duties.
Generally speaking, in the world of blockchains there are certain network participants - call them ‘validating nodes’ or ‘block producers’ - that keep track of all network activity and publish the events for others to verify. The primary job and function of these validators is to ensure that there are no nefarious actors on the blockchain trying to get away with things they shouldn’t be (for example, spending funds that they don’t have). In exchange for the network validators’ good efforts, the protocol rewards them with native cryptocurrency.
In addition to protecting the network and producing blocks, Tezos bakers can participate in governing the direction and evolution of Tezos by using their ‘stake’ to vote on new features and other protocol amendments
In the case of Tezos specifically, with its unique form of on-chain governance, a baker is a unique kind of blockchain validator: In addition to protecting the network and producing blocks, Tezos bakers can participate in governing the direction and evolution of Tezos by using their ‘stake’ to vote on new features and other protocol amendments. Tezos uses a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, so anyone who holds the native cryptocurrency tez can participate in the governance process by delegating their cryptocurrency to a baker, but only bakers directly cast votes on upgrade proposals.
Anyone can become a baker, and the more bakers come online, the more decentralized the network becomes. The more decentralized the network becomes, the more secure and resilient it is. Hence, bakers have an important role to play. All it takes to become a baker is the appropriate hardware, software, and a reliable internet connection. (It also requires what is called a ‘roll’ of tez, which is equal to 6,000 XTZ.)
This is where BakeBuddy comes in. Whether you’re an advanced baker or a novice looking to become a baker with as little technical friction as possible, BakeBuddy is intended to make the process easy. BakeBuddy offers a complete guide that covers everything from what kind of hardware you will need, to how to install the client, how to monitor/update your bakery, and how to vote on governance proposals with BakeBuddy.
BakeBuddy currently runs on Linux, and still requires management from a command line.
If you have general questions, or if you or someone you know is interested in becoming a Tezos baker, you can reach out to the community of developers who oversee BakeBuddy either on the BakeBuddy Discord server or Telegram. Happy baking!