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Voluntary Exit

If you decide to stop validating and disable your node, you can initiate a voluntary exit. This will freeze your balance at its current value (rewards and/or penalties will no longer accrue).

If you initiate a voluntary exit, your validator's full balance becomes withdrawable once exit processing is complete. On Gnosis Chain it is then swept to the deposit contract, where you claim it to your configured withdrawal address — see how long that takes and withdrawal credential details.

The easiest way to exit — and the recommended first choice below — only works if your validator already has an execution withdrawal address set (credential prefix 0x01 or 0x02). If you're not sure whether you have one, or still need to set one, check the validator withdrawals page first.

caution

Exits are non-reversible; once you have exited you cannot restart your validator.

It is recommended to set execution withdrawal credentials before exiting your validator. Updating credentials later, after your node is stopped, can be more difficult. See validator withdrawals.

The simplest way to exit, if your validator has an execution withdrawal address (0x01 or 0x02) — no node access, keystore, or client-specific command needed.

  1. Go to the validators app and connect the wallet holding your validator's withdrawal address (not your validator keystore — this method works by sending a request from that address, so it only applies to 0x01/0x02 validators; check here if you're unsure which you have). Give it a few seconds to load your validators — if the list doesn't show up, try refreshing the page.

    Validators app table, showing the Actions column on the right of each validator row

  2. Find your validator in the table and click the withdraw icon in the Actions column, on the right. This opens a withdraw panel for that validator, showing its balance and an amount field:

    • To make a partial withdrawal (only possible if the validator holds more than 1 GNO), enter the amount you want withdrawn and confirm — the button reads Withdraw.
    • To exit the validator entirely, click MAX next to the amount field (or just confirm as-is if the balance is already 1 GNO or less) — the button changes to Exit validator.

    Withdraw panel for a validator, showing its balance, the amount field, network fee, and the Exit validator button

  3. Confirm the transaction in your wallet. You'll need a little xDAI in that wallet to cover the gas (see Faucets if you need some).

Using a Safe as your withdrawal address?

You can open the validators app from inside your Safe: in app.safe.global, go to Apps → My custom apps, add https://validators.gnosischain.com/ as a custom app, then open it from there. Your Safe will need a small amount of xDAI to confirm validator actions like this one.

Running many validators?

Exiting one by one on the validators app works fine for a handful of validators, but if you're running many, requesting the exit directly from Dappnode or your consensus client (below) — which typically let you select and exit several validators at once — will be faster.

Otherwise — for 0x00 validators, or if you'd rather exit directly from your node — voluntary exit procedures vary depending on your client:

Dappnode​

Navigate to the Stakers > Gnosis Chain menu, click on the "Upload Keystores" button on the Web3Signer card. Once you are in the Web3Signer UI, select the validators you want to exit and click on the "Exit Validator" button on the top right part of the UI. Follow the instructions and type I want to exit, followed then click the "Exit" button.

Lighthouse​

In order to initiate an exit, users can use the lighthouse account validator exit command.

lighthouse --network gnosis account validator exit --keystore /path/to/keystore --beacon-node http://consensus:5052

Lodestar​

Follow the syntax of the Lodestar CLI commands and their options.

validator voluntary-exit --network gnosis --pubkeys 0xF00

Nimbus​

To perform a voluntary exit, make sure your beacon node is running with the --rest option enabled, then run:

build/nimbus_beacon_node deposits exit --data-dir=build/data/shared_gnosis_0 --validator=<VALIDATOR_PUBLIC_KEY>

Teku​

Use the voluntary-exit subcommand to initiate a voluntary exit for specified validators.

teku voluntary-exit --beacon-node-api-endpoint=http://consensus:5051 \
--validator-keys=validator/keys/validator_ABC.json:validator/passwords/validator_ABC.txt