Network > Staking > Accounts not loading stashes for Polkadot & Kusama

[Danielvul]

Issue
The Network > Staking > Accounts - stashes list doesn't load for our Polkadot and Kusama validators. This stops us from being able to set up or manage our Polkadot/Kusama validators.

Impact

• We cannot easily configure our Polkadot and Kusama validators.
• We have spent hours in the past trying repeatedly to get it to work - it does work sometimes.
• We have had customers preparing to purchase the necessary Kusama tokens to run a Validator on OnFinality's infrastructure, but they lost confidence in the Polkadot ecosystem after struggling with the same step
• Other Kusama validators have expressed the same issue

Reproduction

1. Open Network > Staking > Accounts for Kusama
   https://polkadot.js.org/apps/?rpc=wss%3A%2F%2Fkusama.api.onfinality.io%2Fpublic-ws#/staking/actions
2. Create a Stash (if you don't have one already)
3. The page hangs forever. Sometimes there are errors in the console

Alternatives
Polkadot.js is the recommended way to set up a validator in Polkadot/Kusama.

We understand that you can do it via extrinsic manually, but don't know how.

Thank you

[ap211unitech]

This issue appears to be originating from the OnFinality endpoint itself, as it has likely become too slow or unresponsive—this is also reflected in the logs. I tested the same process in the Polkadot Chopsticks environment with Dwellir endpoint, and it runs smoothly there.

Screen.Recording.2025-07-10.at.09.41.50.mov

[Danielvul]

Hey @ap211unitech

Thanks for your response. Is the Polkadot Chopsticks environment querying the real Polkadot Mainnet blockchain with all data?

This only happens in Kusama and Polkadot main nets specifically; with other less busy substrate networks we've been able to set up collators and validators without issues.

Here it is with various different RPC providers. I've tried it with our own dedicated node as well.

I'm requesting from New Zealand using Chrome if that helps

[ap211unitech]

The Chopsticks environment does not connect to the real Mainnet blockchain. Instead, it forks a live Polkadot/Substrate-based chain at a specific block height and simulates the chain locally. It aims to replicate the runtime logic and behavior of the real chain as accurately as possible, but it runs in isolation and may not reflect live network conditions such as peer-to-peer gossip or finality.

To validate against a real chain, I tested the same behavior on the Paseo Relay chain, and it worked perfectly fine there as well. By the way, The logs clearly indicate that it was unable to connect to the specified endpoint, so it is probably the endpoint issue.

[Danielvul]

Hi @ap211unitech

Thanks again for following up

It only happens on the Polkadot and Kusama chains, suggesting it's related to the type or quantity of data it's loading being larger on those specific chains

I've tried with all RPC providers (see screenshots in previous post) and directly connecting to a large dedicated node. If I repeatedly retry for 15-30 minutes it can work eventually.

Is there any way I can provide additional information to help you reproduce it?

[ap211unitech]

I can take another look, but so far, I haven’t been able to reproduce the issue on my end.