Becoming a Validator

Hardware Requirements

Minimum	Recommendation
RAM Memory 32GB	RAM Memory 64GB
CPU 8 cores	CPU 8 cores
Storage 2TB	Storage 2TB
Network 5Gbps+	Network 5Gbps+
AWS Instance type t2.2xlarge	AWS Instance type r6i.2xlarge

Step 1: Create a Validator Account

First, run the keygen command with your desired validator key name.

export VALIDATOR_KEY_NAME=[my-validator-key]
injectived keys add $VALIDATOR_KEY_NAME

This will derive a new private key and encrypt it to disk. Make sure to remember the password you used.

# EXAMPLE OUTPUT
- name: myvalidatorkey
  type: local
  address: inj1queq795wx8gzqc8706uz80whp07mcgg5nmpj6h
  pubkey: injpub1r0mckeepqwzmrzt5af00hgc7fhve05rr0q3q6wvx4xn6k46zguzykdszg6cnu0zca4q
  mnemonic: ""
  threshold: 0
  pubkeys: []


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

⚠️ important ⚠️
The output will contain a mnemonic phrase that represents your key in plain text. Make sure to save this phrase as a backup of your key, since without a key you will not be able to control your validator. The phrase is better be backed up on physical paper, storing it in cloud storage may compromise your validator later.

Remember the address starting from inj, this is going to be your Injective Chain Validator Account address.

Step 2: Obtain INJ

In order to proceed with the next step, you will have to obtain some INJ on Injective.

You can request funds from the Testnet Faucet.

After a few minutes, you should be able to verify that your deposit was successful on the UI. Alternatively, you can query your account balance using the injectived CLI with the following command:

injectived q bank balances <my-validator-inj-address>

Step 3: Create your validator account

Obtain your node's tendermint validator Bech32 encoded PubKey consensus address.

VALIDATOR_PUBKEY=$(injectived tendermint show-validator)
echo $VALIDATOR_PUBKEY

# Example: {"@type": "/cosmos.crypto.ed25519.PubKey", "key": "GWEJv/KSFhUUcKBWuf9TTT3Ful+3xV/1lFhchyW1TZ8="}

Then create your new validator initialized with a self-delegation with your INJ tokens. Most critically, you will need to decide on the values of your validator's staking parameters.

• --moniker - Your validator's name
• --amount - Your validator's initial amount of INJ to bond
• --commission-max-change-rate - Your validator's maximum commission change rate percentage (per day)
• --commission-max-rate - Your validator's maximum commission rate percentage
• --commission-rate - Your validator's initial commission rate percentage
• --min-self-delegation - Your validator's minimum required self delegation

Once you decide on your desired values, set them as follows.

MONIKER=<my-moniker>
AMOUNT=100000000000000000000inj # to delegate 100 INJ, as INJ is represented with 18 decimals.
COMMISSION_MAX_CHANGE_RATE=0.1 # e.g. for a 10% maximum change rate percentage per day
COMMISSION_MAX_RATE=0.1 # e.g. for a 10% maximum commission rate percentage
COMMISSION_RATE=0.1 # e.g. for a 10% initial commission rate percentage
MIN_SELF_DELEGATION_AMOUNT=50000000000000000000 # e.g. for a minimum 50 INJ self delegation required on the validator

Then run the following command to create your validator.

injectived tx staking create-validator \
--moniker=$MONIKER \
--amount=$AMOUNT \
--gas-prices=500000000inj \
--pubkey=$VALIDATOR_PUBKEY \
--from=$VALIDATOR_KEY_NAME \
--keyring-backend=file \
--yes \
--node=tcp://localhost:26657 \
--chain-id=injective-888
--commission-max-change-rate=$COMMISSION_MAX_CHANGE_RATE \
--commission-max-rate=$COMMISSION_MAX_RATE \
--commission-rate=$COMMISSION_RATE \
--min-self-delegation=$MIN_SELF_DELEGATION_AMOUNT

Extra create-validator options to consider:

--identity=             The optional identity signature (ex. UPort or Keybase)
--pubkey=               The Bech32 encoded PubKey of the validator
--security-contact=     The validator's (optional) security contact email
--website=              The validator's (optional) website

You can check that your validator was successfully created by checking the staking dashboard or by entering the following CLI command.

injectived q staking validators

If you see your validator in the list of validators, then congratulations, you have officially joined as an Equinox Staking validator! 🎉

Step 4: (Optional) Delegate Additional INJ to your Validator

To gain a deeper empirical understanding of user experience that your future delegators will experience, you can complete the remaining steps in the Staking Guide.

These steps will allow you to experience the delegation flow using MetaMask Transactions. 🦊

Alternatively, you can always use the Injective CLI to send a delegation transaction.

injectived tx staking delegate [validator-addr] [amount] --from $VALIDATOR_KEY_NAME --chain-id=injective-888 --keyring-backend=file --yes --node=tcp://localhost:26657

Next Steps

Next, proceed to setup your Ethereum Bridge Relayer. This is a necessary step in order to prevent your validator from being slashed. You should do this immediately after setting up your validator.