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.

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, first you will need to create a JSON with your validator information.

This template can be used when creating the validator:

{
    "pubkey": {"@type":"/cosmos.crypto.ed25519.PubKey","key":"C2xVqc+u101PQShdTJxGOF2HFCtYWwMDYLl4r2swiGE="},
    "amount": "1000000000000000000000akii",
    "moniker": "MY VALIDATOR",
    "identity": "optional identity signature (ex. UPort or Keybase)",
    "website": "validator's (optional) website",
    "security": "validator's (optional) security contact email",
    "details": "validator's (optional) details",
    "commission-rate": "0.1",
    "commission-max-rate": "0.2",
    "commission-max-change-rate": "0.01",
    "min-self-delegation": "1"
}

Where:

• pubkey : Validator's public key used for signing blocks (ed25519).

• amount: Amount of tokens to self-delegate (e.g., 1000 akii with 18 decimals).

• moniker: Validator's display name.

• identity (optional): Identity string (e.g., Keybase or UPort for verification).

• website (optional): Validator’s website URL.

• security (optional): Security contact email for incident disclosure.

• details (optional): Additional description of the validator.

• commission-rate :Initial commission rate (e.g., 0.1 = 10%).

• commission-max-rate: Maximum commission rate allowed (e.g., 20%).

• commission-max-change-rate: Max daily change in commission (e.g., 1%).

• min-self-delegation: Minimum tokens validator must always self-delegate to stay active.

To apply, you can use the following command:

# Basic chain information
CHAIN_ID="oro_1336-1"
VALIDATOR_KEY_NAME=<my-validator-key>

# Apply the create validator transaction
kiichaind tx staking create-validator /
  ./validator.json /
  --chain-id=$CHAIN_ID /
  --gas="auto" /
  --gas-adjustment 1.3 /
  --gas-prices="1000000000akii" /
  --from=$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

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