# Signer Onboarding

The Stacking DAO protocol delegates stake to onboarded signers in the ecosystem (see [Signer Delegations & Analytics](/stackingdao/the-stacking-dao-app/signer-delegations-and-analytics.md)). Running a signer on the Stacks network is permissionless. Anyone can run the software and participate in signing. The onboarding process for a new signer on Stacking DAO, however, is permissioned in order to prevent malicious actors.

**To onboard as a signer, you may get in touch by filling out this** [**contact form**](https://www.stackingdao.com/contact) **or through X (@StackingDAO or @philiphacks).** 

The steps to onboard are as follows:

* After a short intro call with the Stacking DAO team, we would formalise the agreement with a simple SLA (which has details on required uptime and rewards processing)
* The Stacking DAO Signer program requires signers to run a separate pool for Stacking DAO delegations. An example of such a pool can be found [here (e.g. for Kiln)](https://explorer.hiro.so/txid/SP4SZE494VC2YC5JYG7AYFQ44F5Q4PYV7DVMDPBG.stacking-pool-signer-kiln-v1). We (Stacking DAO) will take care of this deployment and then set your signer as the pool owner (**IMPORTANT**: needs to be the signer address, i.e. the keys with which you will be signing blocks with)
* Once the Clarity pool is deployed and your Signer address is the pool owner, we require a signature for this pool every PoX cycle (`set-cycle-signer-info'` on the pool). This can be generated through our own UI (see [here](https://app.stackingdao.com/signer?pool=SP4SZE494VC2YC5JYG7AYFQ44F5Q4PYV7DVMDPBG.stacking-pool-signer-kiln-v1)) or through a script of your own. The Bitcoin reward address will be set to the Stacking DAO reward address (bc1q9ll6ngymkla8mnk5fq6dwlhgr3yutuxvg3whz5 in hashbytes).
* With each signature, we can then aggregate commit the delegations into PoX and receive the BTC rewards on our address, with your signer signing the blocks.

Delegations will happen based on a queuing system, and depending on the net inflow, the protocol sees each PoX cycle.


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