Migrate an Existing Validator
Migrate an existing validator by splitting its private key into shares
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Version-v1.4.0 (current)
Migrate an existing validator by splitting its private key into shares
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This process should only be used if you want to split an existing validator private key into multiple private key shares for use in a Distributed Validator Cluster. If your existing validator is not properly shut down before the Distributed Validator starts, your validator may be slashed.
If you are starting a new validator, you should follow a instead.
Split an existing Ethereum validator key into multiple key shares for use in an .
Ensure you have the existing validator keystores (the ones to split) and passwords.
Ensure you have installed.
Make sure docker is running before executing the commands below.
If you use MEV-Boost, you must either:
Turn off your MEV-Boost client before you split your keys, or;
Temporarily use a relay you won't be using when running the Distributed Validator; to prevent registering for MEV with a timestamp more recent than the one Charon prepares at the moment of key splitting.
Create a folder to hold the encrypted keystores, along with the passwords to decrypt them.
Copy the existing validator keystore.json files into this new folder. Alongside them, with a matching filename but ending with .txt should be the password to the keystore (e.g.: keystore-0.json, keystore-0.txt). The files must start with keystore*.
At the end of this process, you should have a tree like this:
Run the following docker command to split the keys (for mainnet):
The above command will create validator_keys along with cluster-lock.json in ./cluster for each node.
Command output:
These split keys can now be used to start a Charon cluster.
Within each folder are the encrypted , along with the decryption passwords. To transmit these folders to the operators/machines where they will run, it might be prudent to encrypt the folder as a .zip to transport them.