Validators

Validators are members of Aleph Zero community who run the nodes responsible for creating and securing the Aleph Zero blockchain.

To become a validator on the Aleph Zero network, one needs to bond at least, 25,000 AZERO and align with the hardware requirements; see our extensive docs on validating. Validators are responsible for running nodes that verify the truthfulness of transactions conducted on the Aleph Zero network. Validators are a crucial element of the decentralized governance of the chain and will be vouched for by the nominators, who can delegate their stake to validators they deem trustworthy. Rewards assigned to a particular validator are split between the validator himself and his nominators proportionally to their stake. In case of malicious behavior, coins staked by a validator and his nominators can be slashed.

Keeping track on the validator

To make sure you are updated and aware when your validator has stopped produsing blocks, you can subscribe to it via the Telegam bot Aleph Zero Alerts, see the page for more info.

Switching from nomination to validation

If you are starting as a validator and would like to include in your bond some AZERO that is currently being nominated to another validator, you will most likely not need to unbond and wait for the unbonding period to end. Below, we cover some possible cases that you might find yourself in and explain the steps that you can take to minimize the number of coins that need to be unbonded (we use standard web wallets here: Testnet or Mainnet):

1. Case: You nominate X>=25k AZERO from a single account acc_1 and would like to use the whole X as your validator stake.

   Solution: This is the simplest case. Choose your account and click "Stop" to stop nominating. Then follow the standard steps to generate and set your session keys. Afterwards, click "Validate". Once a new era starts, the changes will take effect. No unbonding happens.

2. Case: You nominate X>=25k AZERO from a single account acc_1 and would like to use a smaller amount Y<X as your validator stake.

   Solution: Choose your account and click "Stop" to stop nominating. Then click "Unbond funds" to reduce your total bond to Y. Then follow the standard steps to generate and set your session keys. Afterwards, click "Validate". Once a new era starts, the changes will take effect. You will unbond X-Y AZERO and they will be available to you after the unbonding period.

3. Case: You nominate X<25k AZERO from a single account acc_1 and would like to add some stake to reach Y>=25k and become a validator.

   Solution: Choose your account and click "Stop" to stop nominating. Then click "Bond more funds" in order to increase your total bond to Y. Then follow the standard steps to generate and set your session keys. Afterwards, click "Validate". Once a new era starts, the changes will take effect.

4. Case: You nominate a total of X>=25k AZERO, but from multiple accounts and would like to become a validator.

   Solution: Unfortunately, you will need to unbond all but one account and wait for the unbonding period to pass. In this case, it is optimal to keep the account with the most funds bonded and, after the unbonding period for the remaining accounts ends, gather all your funds on that account and follow Case 3.