Registering Your Stake Pool

Create your pool's metadata with a JSON file. Update with your pool information.

ticker must be between 3-5 characters in length. Characters must be A-Z and 0-9 only.

description cannot exceed 255 characters in length.

cat > md.json << EOF
{
"name": "MyPoolName",
"description": "My pool description",
"ticker": "MPN",
"homepage": "https://pool.example.net"
}
EOF

Calculate the hash of your metadata file. It's saved to poolMetaDataHash.txt

cardano-cli conway stake-pool metadata-hash --pool-metadata-file md.json > poolMetaDataHash.txt

Copy poolMetaDataHash.txt to your air-gapped offline machine, cold environment.

Next, upload your md.json file to a Web site that you administer or a public Web site. For example, you can upload your pool metadata to GitHub.

Verify the metadata hashes by comparing your uploaded .json file and your local .json file's hash.

Get the metadata hash from your metadata json URL. Replace <https://REPLACE WITH YOUR METADATA_URL> with your actual URL.

cardano-cli conway stake-pool metadata-hash --pool-metadata-file <(curl -s -L <https://REPLACE WITH YOUR METADATA_URL>)

This above hash must equal the local metadata hash.

cat poolMetaDataHash.txt

If the hashes do no match, then the uploaded .JSON file likely was truncated or extra whitespace caused issues. Upload the .JSON again or to a different web host.

Find the minimum pool cost.

minPoolCost=$(cat $NODE_HOME/params.json | jq -r .minPoolCost)
echo minPoolCost: ${minPoolCost}

minPoolCost is 170000000 lovelace or 170 ADA. Therefore, your --pool-cost must be at a minimum this amount.

Create a registration certificate for your stake pool. Update with your metadata URL and your relay node information. Choose one of the three options available to configure relay nodes -- DNS based, Round Robin DNS based, or IP based.

DNS based relays are recommended for simplicity of node management. In other words, you don't need to re-submit this registration certificate transaction every time your IP changes. Also you can easily update the DNS to point towards a new IP should you re-locate or re-build a relay node, for example.

You MUST register at least one relay node on the blockchain using the registration certificate. If you operate multiple relay nodes, then registering all your relay nodes publicly on the blockchain may create a security risk. You can operate one or more unregistered relays by Implementing Peer Sharing. Do NOT register your block-producing node on the blockchain.

✨ Configuring Multiple Relay Nodes

Update the next operation

cardano-cli conway stake-pool registration-certificate

to be run on your air-gapped offline machine appropriately. Replace with your proper domain names or IP addresses.

DNS based relays, 1 entry per DNS record

    --single-host-pool-relay <relaynode1.pool.example.net> \
    --pool-relay-port 6000 \
    --single-host-pool-relay <relaynode2.pool.example.net> \
    --pool-relay-port 6000 \

Round Robin DNS based relays, 1 entry per SRV DNS record

    --multi-host-pool-relay <relayNodes.pool.example.net> \
    --pool-relay-port 6000 \

IP based relays, 1 entry per IP address

    --pool-relay-port 6000 \
    --pool-relay-ipv4 <your first relay node public IP address> \
    --pool-relay-port 6000 \
    --pool-relay-ipv4 <your second relay node public IP address> \

metadata-url must be less than 64 characters. Shorten your URL or file name.

cardano-cli conway stake-pool registration-certificate \
    --cold-verification-key-file $HOME/cold-keys/node.vkey \
    --vrf-verification-key-file vrf.vkey \
    --pool-pledge 100000000 \
    --pool-cost 345000000 \
    --pool-margin 0.15 \
    --pool-reward-account-verification-key-file stake.vkey \
    --pool-owner-stake-verification-key-file stake.vkey \
    --mainnet \
    --single-host-pool-relay <dns based relay, example ~ relaynode1.pool.example.net> \
    --pool-relay-port 6000 \
    --metadata-url <url where you uploaded md.json> \
    --metadata-hash $(cat poolMetaDataHash.txt) \
    --out-file pool.cert

Here we are pledging 100 ADA with a fixed pool cost of 345 ADA and a pool margin of 15%.

Copy pool.cert to your hot environment.

Pledge stake to your stake pool.

cardano-cli conway stake-address stake-delegation-certificate \
    --stake-verification-key-file stake.vkey \
    --cold-verification-key-file $HOME/cold-keys/node.vkey \
    --out-file deleg.cert

Copy deleg.cert to your hot environment.

This operation creates a delegation certificate which delegates funds from all stake addresses associated with key stake.vkey to the pool belonging to cold key node.vkey

A stake pool owner's promise to fund their own pool is called Pledge.

Your balance needs to be greater than the pledge amount.
You pledge funds are not moved anywhere. In this guide's example, the pledge remains in the stake pool's owner keys, specifically payment.addr
Failing to fulfill pledge will result in missed block minting opportunities and your delegators would miss rewards.
Your pledge is not locked up. You are free to transfer your funds.

You need to find the tip of the blockchain to set the invalid-hereafter parameter properly.

currentSlot=$(cardano-cli conway query tip --mainnet | jq -r '.slot')
echo Current Slot: $currentSlot

Retrieve the UTXOs available for your payment address and calculate the balance.

# Retrieve the list of UTXOs available for your payment address
utxo_json=$(cardano-cli conway query utxo --address $(cat payment.addr) --mainnet)

# Initialize variables
tx_in=""
total_balance=0
txcnt=0

# Loop through the list of UTXOs
while read -r utxo; do
    # Retrieve the values for the current UTXO
    values=$(jq -r --arg k "${utxo}" '.[$k]' <<< "${utxo_json}")
    # Retrieve datum associated with the UTXO
    datum=$(jq -r '.datum' <<< "${values}")
    # Retrieve the reference script associated with the UTXO
    script=$(jq -r '.referenceScript' <<< "${values}")
	# If limits on spending the UTXO may exist, then skip the UTXO
    if [[ ${datum} == 'null' && ${script} == 'null' ]]
    then
        hash=${utxo%%#*}
        idx=${utxo#*#}
        utxo_balance=$(jq -r '.value.lovelace' <<< "${values}")
        total_balance=$((${total_balance}+${utxo_balance}))
        echo "TxHash: ${hash}#${idx}"
        echo "ADA: ${utxo_balance}"
        tx_in="${tx_in} --tx-in ${hash}#${idx}"
		txcnt=$((txcnt + 1))
    fi
done <<< "$(jq -r 'keys[]' <<< "${utxo_json}")"

echo
echo "Total available ADA balance: ${total_balance}"
echo "Number of UTXOs: ${txcnt}"
echo "Final --tx-in string:${tx_in}"

Find the deposit fee for a pool.

stakePoolDeposit=$(cat $NODE_HOME/params.json | jq -r '.stakePoolDeposit')
echo stakePoolDeposit: $stakePoolDeposit

Run the build-raw transaction command.

The invalid-hereafter value must be greater than the current tip. In this example, we use current slot + 10000.

cardano-cli conway transaction build-raw \
    ${tx_in} \
    --tx-out $(cat payment.addr)+$(( ${total_balance} - ${stakePoolDeposit} ))  \
    --invalid-hereafter $(( ${currentSlot} + 10000 )) \
    --fee 200000 \
    --certificate-file pool.cert \
    --certificate-file deleg.cert \
    --out-file tx.tmp

Calculate the minimum fee:

fee=$(cardano-cli conway transaction calculate-min-fee \
    --tx-body-file tx.tmp \
    --tx-in-count ${txcnt} \
    --tx-out-count 1 \
    --mainnet \
    --witness-count 3 \
    --byron-witness-count 0 \
    --protocol-params-file params.json | jq -r '.fee')
echo fee: $fee

Ensure your balance is greater than cost of fee + minPoolCost or this will not work.

Calculate your change output.

txOut=$((${total_balance}-${stakePoolDeposit}-${fee}))
echo txOut: ${txOut}

Build the transaction.

cardano-cli conway transaction build-raw \
    ${tx_in} \
    --tx-out $(cat payment.addr)+${txOut} \
    --invalid-hereafter $(( ${currentSlot} + 10000 )) \
    --fee ${fee} \
    --certificate-file pool.cert \
    --certificate-file deleg.cert \
    --out-file tx.raw

Copy tx.raw to your cold environment.

Sign the transaction.

cardano-cli conway transaction sign \
    --tx-body-file tx.raw \
    --signing-key-file payment.skey \
    --signing-key-file $HOME/cold-keys/node.skey \
    --signing-key-file stake.skey \
    --mainnet \
    --out-file tx.signed

Copy tx.signed to your hot environment.

Send the transaction.

cardano-cli conway transaction submit \
    --tx-file tx.signed \
    --mainnet

🛑 Critical Security Reminders 🔥

Block-producing Node

The only stake pool keys and certs that are required to run a stake pool are those required by the block producer, specifically the following three files.

###
### On block producer node
###
KES=${NODE_HOME}/kes.skey
VRF=${NODE_HOME}/vrf.skey
CERT=${NODE_HOME}/node.cert

All other keys must remain offline in your air-gapped offline cold environment.

Relay Nodes

Relay nodes must NOT store any operational certificates, vrf, skey or cold` ``` keys.

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Last updated 3 months ago