It dials out to one or more synchronizers over TLS on port 443 and accepts no inbound connections from the network. Unlike a node on a fully replicated chain, it does not carry global state: it stores only contracts where one of its hosted parties is a stakeholder, and it is only pulled into transactions its parties are party to. That is what Canton calls Proof of Stakeholder — the participants hosting the stakeholders of the affected contracts are the only ones that validate and confirm.
Running one on MainNet is permissioned in practice. It requires approval to join from the Tokenomics Committee of the Global Synchronizer Foundation (renamed the Canton Foundation in September 2025), the node's egress IP added to every super validator's allowlist — normally two to seven days — and a one-time onboarding secret from a sponsoring super validator that expires after 48 hours.
On Canton: A validator is the node an organisation runs to hold its own slice of the Canton ledger.
Validator is listed on Canton as concept.
Validator is categorized under Network role.
Validator belongs to the Validators & node operators segment of Canton.
Listed on Canton as concept, Validator falls under Network role.
Perpetual markets for stocks, gold, indices and pre-IPO names — settled on-chain, no wallet-to-exchange transfers.
