> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.celo.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Operating a Community RPC Node

> How to operate a community RPC node on Celo and meet the uptime requirement for elected providers

This guide covers how to operate a community RPC node on Celo.

***

<Note>
  ****Terminology****

  The term "validator" appears in code and documentation due to historical reasons, but refers to community RPC providers.
</Note>

Registered and elected nodes must operate independent RPC endpoints; see [Penalties](/contribute/community-rpc-nodes/penalties) for how uptime is scored. This guide assumes your node has been properly [registered](/contribute/community-rpc-nodes/registering-as-rpc-node).

## Running the RPC service

To operate the required RPC endpoint, follow the [Running a node guide](/operate/operators/run-node).

## Rewards

The per-epoch USDm payment to elected providers is 0: governance set `targetValidatorEpochPayment` on the `EpochRewards` contract to 0 in [CGP-0218](https://github.com/celo-org/governance/blob/main/CGPs/cgp-0218.md). Elections continue, and voters for elected groups still earn CELO rewards. The commands below send and track any payment already allocated to a validator and not yet sent.

### Claiming Rewards

If a payment was allocated before CGP-0218 and not yet sent, claim it with this CLI command:

```bash theme={null}
celocli epochs:send-validator-payment --from $YOUR_ADDRESS --for $VALIDATOR_ADDRESS
```

Where:

* `$YOUR_ADDRESS` is your Celo account address sending the transaction
* `$VALIDATOR_ADDRESS` is your validator's Celo account address

Note: anyone can run this command; the payment is split according to your validator group's commission rate.

### Verifying Rewards

Confirm successful reward distribution by checking for `ValidatorEpochPaymentDistributed` events on a block explorer like [CeloScan](https://celoscan.io/address/0xf424b5e85b290b66ac20f8a9eab75e25a526725e).

### Tracking Rewards

For accounting purposes, you can:

* Query Celo nodes for `ValidatorEpochPaymentDistributed` events.
* Query the [EpochManager contract](/contracts/core-contracts) for `validatorPendingPayments` to view total allocated payments.

### Group Commission Settings

The group commission rate applies to any validator payment allocated before CGP-0218 and not yet sent; a rate of `1` sends the whole payment to the group. Since [CGP-0241](https://github.com/celo-org/governance/blob/main/CGPs/cgp-0241.md), a group can also set a separate voter reward commission on the CELO rewards paid to its voters.

Check commission settings with:

```bash theme={null}
celocli validatorgroup:show $CELO_GROUP_ADDRESS
```

Update commission settings with the [celocli validatorgroup:commission](/cli/validatorgroup) command.


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