Setup

Validators are responsible for committing new blocks to the blockchain through voting. A validator's stake is slashed if they become unavailable or sign blocks at the same height. Please read about Sentry Node Architecture to protect your node from DDOS attacks and to ensure high-availability.

WARNING If you want to become a validator for the mainnet, you should research security.

1. Run a full node​

To become a validator, you must first have realio-networkd installed and be able to run a full node. You can first setup your full node if you haven't yet.

The rest of the documentation will assume you have followed our instructions and have successfully set up a full node.

TIP Running a validator node should be done on a separate machine, not your local computer. This is due to the fact that validators need to be constantly running to avoid getting slashed (and thus loosing funds). We highly recommend setting up a local machine that can run 24/7, even a Raspberry can do the job.

2. Create your validator​

In order to create a validator, you need to create a local wallet first. This will be used in order to hold the tokens that you will later delegate to your validator node, allowing him to properly work. In order to create this wallet, please run:

realio-networkd keys add <key_name>

or use the --recover flag if you already have a secret recovery phrase (mnemonic phase) you'd want to use:

realio-networkd keys add <key_name> --recover

KEY NAME Please select a key name that you will easily remember and be able to type fast. This name will be used all over the places inside other commands later.

Once that you have created your local wallet, it's time to get some tokens to be used as the initial validator stake so that it can run properly. If you are setting up a validator inside one of our testnets, you can request some testnet tokens inside our Discord. Once you have joined, go inside the #testnet-tokens channel and ask us for tokens. Be sure to post your node information (RPC address and Operator account address).

To run a validator node you need to first get your current validator public key that was created when you ran realio-networkd init. Your realiovalconspub (Realio Network Validator Consensus Pubkey) can be used to create a new validator by staking tokens. You can find your validator pubkey by running:

realio-networkd tendermint show-validator

To create your validator, just use the following command:

DON'T USE MORE STAKING TOKEN THAN YOU HAVE! On the testnet, we are using ario as the staking token and it will be the example below.

Testnet:​

realio-networkd tx staking create-validator \
  --amount=1000000000000000000ario \
  --pubkey=$(realio-networkd tendermint show-validator) \
  --moniker="<Your moniker here>" \
  --chain-id=<chain_id> \
  --commission-rate="0.10" \
  --commission-max-rate="0.20" \
  --commission-max-change-rate="0.01" \
  --min-self-delegation="1" \
  --gas="auto" \
  --gas-adjustment=1.2 \
  --gas-prices="0.025ario" \
  --from=<key_name>

TIP When specifying the value of the moniker flag, please keep in mind this is going to be the public name associated to your validator. For this reason, it should represent your company name or something else that can easily identify you among all the other validators.

TIP When specifying commission parameters, the commission-max-change-rate is used to measure % point change over the commission-rate. E.g. 1% to 2% is a 100% rate increase, but only 1 percentage point.

TIP is a strictly positive integer that represents the minimum amount of self-delegated staking token your validator must always have. A min-self-delegation of 1 means your validator will never have a self-delegation lower than 1ario. A validator with a self delegation lower than this number will automatically be unbonded.

You can confirm that you are in the validator set by using a block explorer:

3. Edit the validator description​

You can edit your validator's public description. This info is to identify your validator, and will be relied on by delegators to decide which validators to stake to. Make sure to provide input for every flag below. If a flag is not included in the command the field will default to empty (--moniker defaults to the machine name) if the field has never been set or remain the same if it has been set in the past.

The <key_name> specifies which validator you are editing. If you choose to not include certain flags, remember that the --from flag must be included to identify the validator to update.

The --identity can be used as to verify identity with systems like Keybase or UPort. When using with Keybase --identity should be populated with a 16-digit string that is generated with a keybase.io account. It's a cryptographically secure method of verifying your identity across multiple online networks. The Keybase API allows some block explorers to retrieve your Keybase avatar. This is how you can add a logo to your validator profile.

realio-networkd tx staking edit-validator \
  --moniker="choose a moniker" \
  --website="https://realio.network" \
  --identity=6A0D65E29A4CBC8E \
  --details="To infinity and beyond!" \
  --commission-rate="0.10" \
  --chain-id=<chain_id> \
  --from=<key_name>

Note: The commission-rate value must adhere to the following invariants:

  • Must be between 0 and the validator's commission-max-rate

  • Must not exceed the validator's commission-max-change-rate which is maximum % point change rate per day. In other words, a validator can only change its commission once per day and within commission-max-change-rate bounds.

View the validator description​

View the validator's information with this command:

realio-networkd query staking validator <account_realio>

4. Confirm your validator is running​

Your validator is active if the following command returns anything:

realio-networkd query tendermint-validator-set | grep $(realio-networkd status 2>&1 | jq '.ValidatorInfo.PubKey.value')

When you query the node status with realio-networkd status, it includes the validator pubkey in base64 encoding. If your node is an active validator, the validator pubkey will be shown when you query the validator set.

You should now see your validator in one of the Realio Network explorers. You are looking for the bech32 encoded operator address starts with realiovaloper. It is another representation of your <key_name> that you have used to create this validator.

To show the operator address, you can run:

realio-networkd keys show <key_name> -a --bech val

NOTE To be in the validator set, you need to have more total voting power than the last validator.

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