Becoming a Validator

How to run your own Kiichain Validator

The configuration followed before, set your node as a full node, this page will guide you to upgrade your node into a validator.

Set the node as a validator node

Run the following command to change the flag that determines the type of your node.

# Set the node as validator
sed -i 's/mode = "full"/mode = "validator"/g' $NODE_HOME/config/config.toml

Becoming a validator

Validators are mainly responsible

• The build must be done on top of the upgrade tag (E.g. v1.0.1, v2.0.0)

• Check the section Binary Installation on how to do it

Make sure that the binary has the correct version with:

kiichaind version

To add a new upgrade you must run the following command on Cosmovisor:

cosmovisor add-upgrade <upgrade-name> <path-to-binary>

Where:

• <upgrade-name> is the on-chain upgrade name

• <path-to-binary> is the full path for the binary

Example:

cosmovisor add-upgrade 1.3.0 /home/ubuntu/kiichain/build/kiichaind

validating and committing blocks. The main advantages of becoming a validator are:

• Fees. Each transaction has fees, and validators are the main entry points of fee distribution. And due to his help on decentralization, part of the fee is exclusive for validators.

Creating a validator

1. Key creation

To create a validator, you first must have a key available for transactions. A new key can be created with:

kiichaind keys add $VALIDATOR_KEY_NAME

You will get an output such as:

- name: asd
  type: local
  address: kii1507zhg2k7al477zqarzru7n4566lvcp9xnsxll
  evm_address: ""
  pubkey: '{"@type":"/cosmos.crypto.secp256k1.PubKey","key":"Ak5kTpx4OIzXYWAOPjEVNFnn/9O+6BUgSbYCYpnUpRU5"}'
  mnemonic: ""

**Important** write this mnemonic phrase in a safe place.
It is the only way to recover your account if you ever forget your password.

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1. Transfer funds

Ensure your account has sufficient funds for fees and self-delegation.

1. Create the validator

A validator will be created based on your consensus public key. You can check your current public key using:

kiichaind tendermint show-validator

To create a validator, you can use the following command:

# Basic chain information
CHAIN_ID=kiichain3

# Define the validator information
MONIKER=<my-moniker>
AMOUNT=1000000000ukii # 1000 kii as self delegation
COMMISSION_MAX_CHANGE_RATE=0.1
COMMISSION_MAX_RATE=0.1
COMMISSION_RATE=0.1
MIN_SELF_DELEGATION_AMOUNT=1000000000

kiichaind tx staking create-validator \
  --amount=$AMOUNT \
  --pubkey=$(kiichaind tendermint show-validator) \
  --moniker=$MONIKER \
  --chain-id=$CHAIN_ID \
  --commission-rate=$COMMISSION_RATE \
  --commission-max-rate=$COMMISSION_MAX_RATE \
  --commission-max-change-rate=$COMMISSION_MAX_CHANGE_RATE \
  --min-self-delegation=$MIN_SELF_DELEGATION_AMOUNT \
  --gas="auto" \
  --gas-adjustment 1.3 \
  --gas-prices="0.01ukii" \
  --from=$VALIDATOR_KEY_NAME

The transaction must be done on the machine running the node

• An additional flag --node can be passed to point to an available RPC node

In order to avoid being jailed, since version v4.0.0, validators need to run a price feeder.

Check it on the next page.

Further instructions on how to run a validator can be found at Running a Validator.