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Run a Validator

Learn how to run a validator node.

Prerequisite Readings​

WARNING

Make sure your server timezone configuration is UTC. Having a different timezone configuration may cause a LastResultsHash mismatch error. This will take down your node!

Create Your Validator​

Your node consensus public key can be used to create a new validator by staking gxn tokens. You can find your validator pubkey by running:

gurud comet show-validator
DANGER

Never create your mainnet validator keys using a test keying backend. Doing so might result in a loss of funds by making your funds remotely accessible via the eth_sendTransaction JSON-RPC endpoint.

Ref: Security Advisory: Insecurely configured geth can make funds remotely accessible

To create your validator on testnet, just use the following command:

# Get the validator's pubkey
gurud comet show-validator

# Create a validator JSON file
cat > validator.json << EOF
{
    "pubkey": [Validator's PUB_KEY],
    "amount": "100000000000000000000000agxn",
    "moniker": "new-validator-moniker",
    "identity": "",
    "website": "https://www.new-validator.com",
    "security": "",
    "details": "validator's details",
    "commission-rate": "0.1",
    "commission-max-rate": "0.2",
    "commission-max-change-rate": "0.01",
    "min-self-delegation": "1"
}
EOF

gurud tx staking create-validator validator.json \
  --chain-id=guru_631-1 \
  --gas="auto" \
  --gas-prices=<gas_price> \
  --gas-adjustment 1.5 \
  --from=<key_name>
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

Min-self-delegation is a strictly positive integer that represents the minimum amount of self-delegated voting power your validator must always have. A min-self-delegation of 1000000 means your validator will never have a self-delegation lower than 1 agxn.

You can confirm that you are in the validator set by using a third party explorer.

Edit 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 us to retrieve your Keybase avatar. This is how you can add a logo to your validator profile.

gurud tx staking edit-validator
  --website="https://guru.org" \
  --identity=6A0D65E29A4CBC8E \
  --details="To infinity and beyond!" \
  --commission-rate="0.10" \  
  --chain-id=<chain_id> \
  --gas="auto" \
  --gas-prices=<gas_price> \
  --gas-adjustment 1.5 \
  --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 Validator Description​

View the validator's information with this command:

gurud query staking validator <validator-valoper-address>

Track Validator Signing Information​

In order to keep track of a validator's signatures in the past you can do so by using the signing-info command:

gurud query slashing signing-info <validator-conspub/validator-valcons-address>

Unjail Validator​

When a validator is "jailed" for downtime, you must submit an Unjail transaction from the operator account in order to be able to get block proposer rewards again (depends on the zone fee distribution).

gurud tx slashing unjail \
  --from=<key_name> \
  [flags]

Confirm Your Validator is Running​

Your validator is active if the following command returns anything:

gurud query comet-validator-set | grep "$(gurud comet show-address)"

You should now see your validator in one of Guru explorers. You are looking for the bech32 encoded address in the ~/.gurud/config/priv_validator.json file.

Note

To be in the validator set, you need to have more total voting power than the 100th validator.