Run a Validator Node on an EVM Sidechain

Create Your Validator

Use your node consensus public key (exrpvalconspub...) to create a new validator by staking XRP tokens. You can find your validator public key by running:

exrpd tendermint show-validator

To create your validator on Devnet, use the following command:

exrpd tx staking create-validator \
  --amount=1000000000000000000000axrp \
  --pubkey=$(exrpd tendermint show-validator) \
  --moniker="<your_custom_moniker>" \
  --chain-id=<chain_id> \
  --commission-rate="0.05" \
  --commission-max-rate="0.10" \
  --commission-max-change-rate="0.01" \
  --min-self-delegation="1000000" \
  --gas="auto" \
  --gas-prices="0.025aphoton" \
  --from=<key_name>

Note When specifying commission parameters, the commission-max-change-rate is used to measure % point change over the commission-rate. For example, 1% to 2% is a 100% rate increase, but only 1 percentage point.

Note 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 axrp.

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 identifies your validator, and delegators use it when they decide to stake XRP tokens to a particular validator. Make sure to provide input for every flag below. If a flag is not included in the command, the field defaults to empty (--moniker defaults to the machine name), if the field has never been set, or remains the same, if it has been set in the past.

The 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 must be populated with a 16-digit string that is generated with a keybase.io account. It is 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. 

exrpd tx staking edit-validator
  --moniker="<your_custom_moniker>" \
  --website="https://xrpl.org" \
  --identity=6A0D65E29A4CBC8E \
  --details="<your_validator_description>" \
  --chain-id=<chain_id> \
  --gas="auto" \
  --gas-prices="0.025axrp" \
  --from=<key_name> \
  --commission-rate="0.10"

Note that 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 the 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:

exrpd query staking validator <account>

Track Validator Signing Information

To track a validator's signatures from past transactions use the signing-info command. 

exrpd query slashing signing-info <validator-pubkey> --chain-id=<chain_id>

Unjail Validator

When a validator is "jailed" for downtime, you must submit an Unjail transaction from the operator account to restore block proposer awards (depending on the zone fee distribution).

exrpd tx slashing unjail --from=<key_name> --chain-id=<chain_id>

Confirm Your Validator is Running

Your validator is active if the following command returns anything:

exrpd query tendermint-validator-set | grep "$(exrpd tendermint show-address)"

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

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

Halting Your Validator

When attempting to perform routine maintenance or planning for an upcoming coordinated upgrade, it can be useful to have your validator systematically and gracefully halt. Set the halt-height to the height at which you want your node to shut down, or pass the --halt-height flag to exrpd. The node shuts down with a 0 exit code at that given height after committing the block.