How to become a Delegate Node
With 1 Digital Gem as a reward every block and a 8 second block time, nodes are guaranteed to get their fair share of the rewards as compensation for validating the network.
However, the good part is that once more people are using Digital Gem, nodes will stand to profit because there are transaction fees for every transaction and all of it goes to the nodes.
So initially, nodes will not lose money and in the long term, nodes stand to profit if more people use Digital Gem since every transaction costs fees and all fees will be paid to the nodes. Even if no one uses the network, with 1 Digital Gem per block, nodes will be compensated for as long as they are validating.
Potentially, delegates can earn up to 16 Digital Gems per block. Right now, we can have up to 150 transactions per block. The transaction fee for every transaction is 0.1 Digital Gem so
150 x 0.1 = 15 Digital Gems through transaction fees + 1 Digital Gem forging reward = 16 potential Digital Gems per block.
To become a Delegate Node:
1) Set up a relay node first and make sure that the blockchain is in sync and that it is receiving the correct blocks. The instructions to set up a relay node is found here https://deployer.ark.dev/deploy/adding-network-peers/
Also, you would need the Digital Gem Token ports and Github. The Digital Gem Token Github is at https://github.com/digitalgemtoken
The ports and the installation command are:
bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/digitalgemtoken/core/chore/bridgechain-changes/install.sh)
2) Turn your relay node into a delegate forging node. The instructions are found here https://deployer.ark.dev/deploy/importing-genesis-addresses-and-adding-forgers/
3) That should be all you need to get the delegate node working, but to make sure that the delegate node is working properly, go to the block explorer and check it's status at http://www.explorer.digitalgemtoken.com:4200/#/delegate-monitor