Voluntary Exiting a Validator
Remove a validator from staking duties.
Remove a validator from staking duties.
Use the Voluntary Exit command to signal your intentions to permanently stop your duties as a validator.
Timeline: Voluntary exiting is possible after your validator is actively validating. If there is no exit queue, the exit process requires at least 4 epochs, or 26 minutes. After your validator is "exited", and proceeds through the "withdrawal delay" phase and "withdrawal processing" phase, your ETH is automatically swept back to your withdrawal address.
Consequences: Once a validator is in exited state, it's non-reversible. You would need to re-key, or generate new validator keys to start staking again.
ETH Deposit: In order to re-claim your 32ETH validator deposit and perform a full withdrawal, you must have previously set a Withdrawal Address. If not yet set, see here: 0x01 withdrawal address.
Responsibilities: After your validator leaves the exit queue and is truly exited, it is safe to turn off your execution client, consensus client and validator.
Reference: https://liquidcollective.io/eth-activations-and-exits/
Example:
Troubleshooting: To perform a voluntary exit, make sure your consensus client (aka beacon node) is running with REST-API enabled.