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Validating On Testnet

Synced Node​

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

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, the WALLET_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 have a balance on the address on your keyring, you can now send the create-validator transaction.

Get OSMO via the Faucet​

If you need testnet testnet OSMO you have two options.

Here is the empty command:

osmosisd tx staking create-validator \
--from=[KEY_NAME] \
--amount=[staking_amount_uosmo] \
--pubkey=$(osmosisd tendermint show-validator) \
--moniker="[moniker_id_of_your_node]" \
--security-contact="[security contact email/contact method]" \
--chain-id="[chain-id]" \
--commission-rate="[commission_rate]" \
--commission-max-rate="[maximum_commission_rate]" \
--commission-max-change-rate="[maximum_rate_of_change_of_commission]" \
--min-self-delegation="[min_self_delegation_amount]" \

Here is the same command but with example values:

osmosisd tx staking create-validator \
--from=wallet1 \
--amount=400000000uosmo \
--pubkey=$(osmosisd tendermint show-validator)  \
--moniker="Wosmongton" \
--security-contact="wosmongton@osmosis.labs" \
--chain-id="osmo-test-4" \
--commission-rate="0.1" \
--commission-max-rate="0.2" \
--commission-max-change-rate="0.05" \
--min-self-delegation="400000000" \

If you need further explanation for each of these command flags:

  • the from flag is the KEY_NAME you created when initializing the key on your keyring
  • the amount flag is the amount you will place in your own validator in uosmo (in the example, 500000000uosmo is 500osmo)
  • the pubkey is the validator public key found earlier
  • the moniker is a human readable name you choose for your validator
  • the security-contact is an email your delegates are able to contact you at
  • the chain-id is whatever chain-id you are working with (in the osmosis mainnet case it is osmosis-1)
  • the commission-rate is the rate you will charge your delegates (in the example above, 10 percent)
  • the commission-max-rate is the most you are allowed to charge your delegates (in the example above, 20 percent)
  • the commission-max-change-rate is how much you can increase your commission rate in a 24 hour period (in the example above, 5 percent per day until reaching the max rate)
  • the min-self-delegation is the lowest amount of personal funds the validator is required to have in their own validator to stay bonded (in the example above, 500osmo)
  • the gas-prices is the amount of gas used to send this create-validator transaction

Troubleshooting​

If you inspect your create-validator transaction in the explorer, and see the following error:

out of gas in location: WritePerByte; gasWanted: 177140, gasUsed: 177979: out of gas

Please try subsituting:

--gas="auto" \
--gas-prices="0.0025uosmo"

with

--gas=<value significantly larger than gasUsed value from the error>

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!

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:

osmosisd query slashing signing-info [validator-pubkey] --chain-id osmo-test-4

Example:

osmosisd query slashing signing-info '{"@type":"/cosmos.crypto.ed25519.PubKey","key":"HlixoxNZBPq4pBOYEimtSq9Ak4peBISVsIbI5ZHrEAU="}' --chain-id osmo-test-4