# Adding Horcrux

## What is Horcrux?

Horcrux is a secure multi-party computation (MPC) signing service designed for CometBFT nodes (formerly known as Tendermint). It enhances the security and availability of validator infrastructures by introducing fault-tolerant block signing mechanisms and advanced private key protection.

### Key Features

- **High Availability (HA)**: Horcrux replaces traditional remote signers with a cluster of signer nodes, enabling fault-tolerant block signing and minimizing downtime risks.
- **Enhanced Security**: It protects your validator’s private key by splitting it across multiple signer nodes using threshold Ed25519 signatures, ensuring no single point of failure.
- **Optimized Performance**: Provides robust security and availability without compromising block signing performance.


### Why is Horcrux Important?

Validator operators face a critical challenge in balancing operational reliability and security to avoid penalties such as slashing due to downtime or double signing.

Horcrux addresses these challenges by:

1. **Preventing Downtime**: Traditional low-availability setups require manual failovers, which can lead to downtime if intervention is delayed. Horcrux’s fault-tolerant design mitigates this risk.
2. **Avoiding Double Signing**: High-availability systems that rely on hot spares risk double signing in the event of failover detection bugs. Horcrux’s consensus and failover detection mechanisms reduce this risk.
3. **Ensuring Consensus**: Through multi-party computation and Raft-based leader election, Horcrux ensures reliable and secure operations, balancing high availability with robust security.


## Learn More and Install Horcrux

For detailed installation instructions and migration guidance, refer to the official Horcrux installation guide:

[Horcrux Installation Guide](https://github.com/strangelove-ventures/horcrux/blob/main/docs/migrating.md)