Validator Setup ​

Create A Wallet ​

Every validator must have a wallet associated with it. This guide assumes a software wallet will be used, but hardware wallets like a Ledger can also be used.

empowerd keys add <wallet-name>

WARNING: Be sure to back up the mnemonic shown after creating the wallet. This will not be presented again at any point in the future.

To recover an existing wallet, add the --recover flag to the previous command:

empowerd keys add <wallet-name> --recover

This will prompt the user for the bip-32 mnemonic to properly recover the wallet.

Create validator ​

For validators trying to join an existing network, follow this section to join the network.

Ensure the wallet address created in Create A Wallet has funds in it.

Ensure the node is synced to the latest network height. To check if the node is still syncing to the network, run the following command:

empowerd status 2>&1 | jq .SyncInfo.catching_up

The command should output either true to represent that the node is still syncing, or false to represent that the node has been fully synced to the network.

Once the node is synced and the wallet has funds in it, the node can be upgraded from a standard node to a validator node by submitting a create-validator transaction:

empowerd tx staking create-validator \
    --amount 1000000umpwr \
    --chain-id empowerchain-1 \
    --commission-max-change-rate 0.1 \
    --commission-max-rate 0.2 \
    --commission-rate 0.05 \
    --min-self-delegation "1" \
    --moniker "<moniker>" \
    --details="<validator-description" \
    --website "<validator-website>" \
    --security-contact="<validator-security-contact>" \
    --identity="<keybase-id>" \
    --pubkey=$(empowerd tendermint show-validator) \
    --gas-prices 0.025umpwr \
    --from <key-name>