Retiring Your Stake Pool

If you no longer want to operate your stake pool, then you can deregister the pool. Deregistering the pool retires the pool.

To retire your stake pool, your stake pool does NOT require valid KES keys. However, you must ensure that your nodes are fully synchronized with the blockchain.

To retire your stake pool:

First, generate the protocol-parameters.

block producer node

cardano-cli conway query protocol-parameters \
    --mainnet \
    --out-file $NODE_HOME/params.json

Calculate the current epoch.

block producer node

startTimeGenesis=$(cat $NODE_HOME/shelley-genesis.json | jq -r .systemStart)
startTimeSec=$(date --date=${startTimeGenesis} +%s)
currentTimeSec=$(date -u +%s)
epochLength=$(cat $NODE_HOME/shelley-genesis.json | jq -r .epochLength)
epoch=$(( (${currentTimeSec}-${startTimeSec}) / ${epochLength} ))
echo current epoch: ${epoch}

Find the earliest and latest retirement epoch that your pool can retire.

block producer node

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

minRetirementEpoch=$(( ${epoch} + 1 ))
maxRetirementEpoch=$(( ${epoch} + ${poolRetireMaxEpoch} ))

echo earliest epoch for retirement is: ${minRetirementEpoch}
echo latest epoch for retirement is: ${maxRetirementEpoch}

🚧 Example: if we are in epoch 39 and poolRetireMaxEpoch is 18,

• the earliest epoch for retirement is 40 ( current epoch + 1).

• the latest epoch for retirement is 57 ( poolRetireMaxEpoch + current epoch).

Let's presume that you want to retire as soon as possible, in epoch 40.

Create the deregistration certificate and save it as pool.dereg. Update the epoch to your desired retirement epoch, usually the earliest epoch or asap.

air-gapped offline machine

cardano-cli conway stake-pool deregistration-certificate \
--cold-verification-key-file $HOME/cold-keys/node.vkey \
--epoch <retirementEpoch> \
--out-file pool.dereg

Copy pool.dereg to your hot environment.

Find your balance and UTXOs.

block producer node

cardano-cli conway query utxo \
    --address $(cat payment.addr) \
    --mainnet > fullUtxo.out

tail -n +3 fullUtxo.out | sort -k3 -nr > balance.out

cat balance.out

tx_in=""
total_balance=0
while read -r utxo; do
    type=$(awk '{ print $6 }' <<< "${utxo}")
    if [[ ${type} == 'TxOutDatumNone' ]]
    then
        in_addr=$(awk '{ print $1 }' <<< "${utxo}")
        idx=$(awk '{ print $2 }' <<< "${utxo}")
        utxo_balance=$(awk '{ print $3 }' <<< "${utxo}")
        total_balance=$((${total_balance}+${utxo_balance}))
        echo TxHash: ${in_addr}#${idx}
        echo ADA: ${utxo_balance}
        tx_in="${tx_in} --tx-in ${in_addr}#${idx}"
    fi
done < balance.out
txcnt=$(cat balance.out | wc -l)
echo Total available ADA balance: ${total_balance}
echo Number of UTXOs: ${txcnt}

Find the tip of the blockchain to set the invalid-here after parameter properly.

block producer node

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

Run the build-raw transaction command.

block producer node

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

Calculate the minimum fee:

block producer node

fee=$(cardano-cli conway transaction calculate-min-fee \
    --tx-body-file tx.tmp \
    --tx-in-count ${txcnt} \
    --tx-out-count 1 \
    --mainnet \
    --witness-count 2 \
    --byron-witness-count 0 \
    --protocol-params-file params.json | awk '{ print $1 }')
echo fee: $fee

Calculate your change output.

block producer node

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

Build the transaction.

block producer node

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

Copy tx.raw to your cold environment.

Sign the transaction.

air-gapped offline machine

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

Copy tx.signed to your hot environment.

Send the transaction.

block producer node

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

Pool will retire at the end of your specified epoch. In this example, retirement occurs at the end of epoch 40.

If you have a change of heart, you can create and submit a new registration certificate before the end of epoch 40, which will then overrule the deregistration certificate.

After the retirement epoch, you can verify that the pool was successfully retired with the following query which should return an empty result.

block producer node

cardano-cli conway query ledger-state --mainnet > ledger-state.json
sudo systemctl stop cardano-node.service
jq -r '.stateBefore.esLState.delegationState.pstate.stakePoolParams."'"$(cat stakepoolid.txt)"'" // empty' ledger-state.json
sudo systemctl start cardano-node.service

In two epochs, after retirement completes:

1. Verify that your pool is retired using a block explorer such as cardanoscan.io
2. Your pool deposit of 500 ADA is returned to your stake address (stake.addr) as a reward.

3. Claim your stake pool rewards.
4. As needed, send funds to another wallet.
5. Optionally, de-register the stake key to re-claim your 2 ADA stake deposit.

Important:

• Do NOT de-register your stake key before your pool deposit of 500ADA is paid back to your rewards address. Nonreturnable pool deposits are sent to the Cardano treasury.

• If there are multiple pool owners, communicate your intention to retire the pool and ensure they do not remove pledge funds until the pool is retired.

• As a courtesy to your delegators, provide advanced notice of your intention to retire so that they may re-delegate their stake.

References

• https://cardano-foundation.gitbook.io/stake-pool-course/stake-pool-guide/stake-pool/retire_stakepool
• https://forum.cardano.org/t/kes-key-expired/98936