Become a validator

Illium validators validate and process transactions, create blocks, participate in the consensus process, and earn newly generated coins for their effort.

Becoming a validator is extremely simple. The following steps will walk you through it.

1. Make sure your node is publicly reachable.

   While the libp2p networking stack used by ilxd will go through great lengths to try to make your node reachable from the outside (upnp, hole punching, circuit relaying, etc.), there no guarantee that it will work. For that reasons we strongly recommend that those wishing to be a validator set up port-forwarding in their firewall (if applicable) and forward connections to port 9001 (the default port). If other validators cannot connect to you, you make get flagged as having poor uptime and lose your rewards.

2. Get some coins

   Validators must post coins as stake in order to become a validator. The default minimum stake is currently set to 1000000 ILX.

   To get your wallet's address use:

   $ ilxcli getaddress
   
   reg1p6fyg6w5lvrw5ku7v55d6ctv4qsnyxflvaejfm4dzuwu05ln6mjjccgzrvkfc07gj90xrz9j499ma4348jq2h2zh5tgrn0tkpfdqfqqqcnxz3q

   Have at least the minimum stake amount sent to that address.

3. Stake your coins

   List your wallet utxos:

   $ ilxcli getutxos
   
   [
      {
          "address": "reg1p6fyg6w5lvrw5ku7v55d6ctv4qsnyxflvaejfm4dzuwu05ln6mjjccgzrvkfc07gj90xrz9j499ma4348jq2h2zh5tgrn0tkpfdqfqqqcnxz3q",
          "commitment": "110d2d4a3516fd399c248972ff3b3268c856140f3587ffae9348e9b890d16e29",
          "amount": 115292150459298487,
          "watchOnly": false,
          "staked": false
      },
      {
          "address": "reg1p6fyg6w5lvrw5ku7v55d6ctv4qsnyxflvaejfm4dzuwu05ln6mjjccgzrvkfc07gj90xrz9j499ma4348jq2h2zh5tgrn0tkpfdqfqqqcnxz3q",
          "commitment": "8ad4cc17bcf1f0a3f3eda0754a92cb29e183b9cea74a9bb760e168ffab5d48a0",
          "amount": 115292150460684697,
          "watchOnly": false,
          "staked": false
      }
   ]

   Pick one of them (with an amount at or above the minimum stake) to stake and copy the commitment field.

   Stake the coins:

   $ ilxcli stake -c 8ad4cc17bcf1f0a3f3eda0754a92cb29e183b9cea74a9bb760e168ffab5d48a0
   
   success

   Note: You may stake more than one utxo.

   Note2: Keep your node up and running. You will not earn rewards if your node is off.

Earning rewards

Rewards are distributed at the beginning of each new epoch (1-week period). The ilxd software will detect when the new epoch is reached and will automatically create and broadcast a coinbase transaction claiming your reward. By default, the coins will be sent to the wallet's internal address.

If you wish the coins to go to a different address you can specify the address with a command line/config file option:

$ ./ilxd --coinbaseaddr=reg1pvuxrsstxqcye5pzau9w27h42gukqjmpv8qeze88nadnqf4xx84aursjg6qd608vlxkcrda7zyzmuhwyzxu5q6j5s48htc60q065fu5cdvhnq9

Timelocking

You can increase the amount of reward you earn by locking your coins in a timelock address before staking them. Your stake weighting and reward increases according to a yield curve based on how much you stake (the reward increases superlinearly as the timelock increases.)

To first timelock your coins run:

$ ilxcli timelockcoins --amount=105292150459298487 --lockuntil=1722321036

Now you can stake the locked utxo:

$ ilxcli stake -c 8ad4cc17bcf1f0a3f3eda0754a92cb29e183b9cea74a9bb760e168ffab5d48a0

You won't be able to spend your staked utxo until after the time-lock expires.

Autostake

By default, rewards are not automatically staked. They go into your wallet and are spendable coins like any others. Ilxd does offer an option to automatically stake coinbase rewards.

To turn on autostake use the following ilxcli command:

$ ilxcli setautostakerewards -a true

This setting persists even after the node is restarted.

Note: The internal wallet must not be pruned or encrypted to auto stake rewards.

Destaking

You can cease being a validator simply by spending your staked coins. By default, the internal wallet will not spend staked coins unless you explicitly tell it to.

To tell it spend your stake first list your wallet utxos:

   $ ilxcli getutxos
   
   [
       {
           "address": "reg1p6fyg6w5lvrw5ku7v55d6ctv4qsnyxflvaejfm4dzuwu05ln6mjjccgzrvkfc07gj90xrz9j499ma4348jq2h2zh5tgrn0tkpfdqfqqqcnxz3q",
           "commitment": "110d2d4a3516fd399c248972ff3b3268c856140f3587ffae9348e9b890d16e29",
           "amount": 115292150459298487,
           "watchOnly": false,
           "staked": true
       }
    ]

Notice staked utxos are marked as such. Copy the commitment of the staked utxo(s) you want to spend.

Spend the coins:

$ ilxcli spend --all \
               --addr=reg1pvuxrsstxqcye5pzau9w27h42gukqjmpv8qeze88nadnqf4xx84aursjg6qd608vlxkcrda7zyzmuhwyzxu5q6j5s48htc60q065fu5cdvhnq9 \
               --commitment=110d2d4a3516fd399c248972ff3b3268c856140f3587ffae9348e9b890d16e29

Note: the --all flag sweeps the entire value from this utxo only and the fee is subtracted from the utxo value. However, you don't need to do a full sweep of the utxo to destake. Just spending any amount will spend the utxo and create change (if applicable).

Note2: since you are allowed to stake multiple utxos, you must spend all your staked utxos to cease being a validator.

Stake Expiration

Stake automatically expires after a 26-week period. You can obviously re-stake your coins after expiration by executing the same command you used to initially stake them. However, illium lets you do this as early as 1-week before expiration to avoid losing your status as a validator, even just temporarily.