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Validating on Mainnet

Synced Node​

Before creating a mainnet validator, ensure you have first followed the instructions on how to join the mainnet

Initialize Wallet Keyring​

If you decide you want to turn your node into a validator, you will first need to add a wallet to your keyring.

While you can add an existing wallet through your seed phrase, we will create a new wallet in this example (replace KEY_NAME with a name of your choosing):

osmosisd keys add KEY_NAME

Ensure you write down the mnemonic as you can not recover the wallet without it. To ensure your wallet was saved to your keyring, check that KEY_NAME is in your keys list:

osmosisd keys list

Validator Public Key​

The last thing needed before initializing the validator is to obtain your validator public key which was created when you first initialized your node. To obtain your validator pubkey:

osmosisd tendermint show-validator

Create Validator Command​

Ensure you have a small amount of OSMO on the wallet address you are using on your keyring in order to successfully send a transaction. Once you have a balance on the address on your keyring, you can send the create-validator transaction.

The validator details are supplied in a JSON file, not as command flags. Create validator.json:

{
  "pubkey": {"@type":"/cosmos.crypto.ed25519.PubKey","key":"oWg2ISpLF405Jcm2vXV+2v4fnjodh6aafuIdeoW+rUw="},
  "amount": "400000000uosmo",
  "moniker": "Wosmongton",
  "identity": "",
  "website": "",
  "security": "[email protected]",
  "details": "",
  "commission-rate": "0.1",
  "commission-max-rate": "0.2",
  "commission-max-change-rate": "0.05",
  "min-self-delegation": "400000000"
}

The pubkey value is the whole JSON object printed by osmosisd tendermint show-validator, not the bech32 osmovalconspub... string. Paste it in verbatim.

Then submit it, passing the file path as the only argument:

osmosisd tx staking create-validator validator.json \
  --from=[KEY_NAME] \
  --chain-id="osmosis-1" \
  --gas="auto" \
  --gas-adjustment=1.3 \
  --gas-prices="0.03uosmo"

What the JSON fields mean:

  • pubkey is the validator consensus public key from osmosisd tendermint show-validator.
  • amount is your self-delegation, in uosmo (in the example, 400000000uosmo is 400 OSMO).
  • moniker is a human readable name you choose for your validator.
  • security is a contact your delegators can reach you at. identity, website, and details are optional and may be left as empty strings.
  • commission-rate is the rate you charge your delegators (10 percent in the example).
  • commission-max-rate is the most you are ever allowed to charge (20 percent in the example).
  • commission-max-change-rate is how much you can raise the rate in a 24 hour period (5 percent per day in the example, until reaching the max).
  • min-self-delegation is the lowest amount of your own funds the validator must keep self-delegated to stay bonded (400 OSMO in the example).

And the flags:

  • --from is the KEY_NAME you created when initializing the key on your keyring.
  • --chain-id is the network you are joining (osmosis-1 for mainnet).
  • --gas-prices is the price per unit of gas in uosmo. It must be at or above the current fee-market base fee, which you can query with osmosisd query txfees base-fee.

Managing a Running Validator​

These are the transactions you send from the operator account, not the consensus key. Add the usual --from, --chain-id, and gas flags to each.

Edit your metadata or commission. Only the fields you pass are changed; anything omitted is left as-is. Note that commission-max-change-rate limits how much you can raise commission-rate in a 24 hour period, and the max rate itself cannot be raised after creation:

osmosisd tx staking edit-validator \
  --new-moniker="NewName" \
  --website="https://example.com" \
  --security-contact="[email protected]" \
  --details="What your validator is about" \
  --commission-rate="0.12" \
  --from=[KEY_NAME] --chain-id=osmosis-1 --gas=auto --gas-adjustment=1.3 --gas-prices=0.03uosmo

Unjail after downtime. Once the jail period has elapsed and your node is caught up and ready to sign again, send:

osmosisd tx slashing unjail --from=[KEY_NAME] --chain-id=osmosis-1 --gas=auto --gas-adjustment=1.3 --gas-prices=0.03uosmo

This fails if the jail period has not elapsed or self-delegation is below min-self-delegation. Unjailing is not possible if the validator was tombstoned for double-signing. Catch up and resolve the cause of the downtime before unjailing, otherwise the validator may miss blocks and be jailed again.

Withdraw rewards and commission. --commission adds your accumulated commission to the withdrawal:

osmosisd tx distribution withdraw-rewards [YOUR_VALOPER_ADDRESS] --commission \
  --from=[KEY_NAME] --chain-id=osmosis-1 --gas=auto --gas-adjustment=1.3 --gas-prices=0.03uosmo

Reduce your self-delegation or retire. There is no "delete validator" transaction. Unbonding your self-delegation below min-self-delegation removes the validator from the active set, and it stays in an unbonding state until the unbonding period elapses:

osmosisd tx staking unbond [YOUR_VALOPER_ADDRESS] [AMOUNT]uosmo \
  --from=[KEY_NAME] --chain-id=osmosis-1 --gas=auto --gas-adjustment=1.3 --gas-prices=0.03uosmo

Keep the consensus key and its state safe until unbonding completes: the validator can still be slashed for a double-sign committed while it was bonded.

Track Validator Active Set​

To see the current validator active set:

osmosisd query staking validators --limit 300 -o json | jq -r '.validators[] |
[.operator_address, .status, (.tokens|tonumber / pow(10; 6)),
.commission.update_time[0:19], .description.moniker] | @csv' | column -t -s","

You can search for your specific moniker by adding grep MONIKER at the end:

osmosisd query staking validators --limit 300 -o json | jq -r '.validators[] |
[.operator_address, .status, (.tokens|tonumber / pow(10; 6)),
.commission.update_time[0:19], .description.moniker] | @csv' | column -t -s"," | grep Wosmongton

If your bond status is BOND_STATUS_BONDED, congratulations, your validator is part of the active validator set!

Please note, you must be in the active validator set (currently the top 70, a governance-set parameter) to be bonded, meaning you must have more OSMO delegated to your validator than the lowest-ranked validator currently in the set. If you did everything above correctly but do not have enough delegated to break into the active set, you will stay unbonded. Query the live size with osmosisd query staking params (max_validators).

Track Validator Signing​

To track your validator's signing history, copy the validator public key:

osmosisd tendermint show-validator

Use your validators public key queried above as the validator-pubkey below:

osmosisd query slashing signing-info [validator-pubkey]

Example:

osmosisd query slashing signing-info '{"@type":"/cosmos.crypto.ed25519.PubKey","key":"HlixoxNZBPq4pBOYEimtSq9Ak4peBISVsIbI5ZHrEAU="}'