Running a
Sunima Chain Validator

This guide walks you through setting up a full validator node on the Sunima Chain testnet — a sovereign Cosmos SDK + CometBFT chain. Validators propose and sign blocks, earn staking rewards, and form the decentralised foundation of the network.

curl -fsSL https://sunima.uk/install/operator.sh | ROLE=cpu bash

1. What your node does

A Sunima Chain validator node runs the full Cosmos SDK application state machine and the CometBFT consensus engine. It:

• Receives and validates transactions from the mempool
• Participates in BFT consensus rounds — proposing and pre-voting blocks
• Signs committed blocks with its consensus key (ed25519)
• Earns staking rewards proportional to bonded stake

A BFT chain needs at least four validators to tolerate one Byzantine fault. With a healthy multi-validator set the chain keeps producing blocks even if some validators go offline.

2. System requirements

Sunima has three node tiers. Each plays a different role and has different hardware needs.

Tier 1 — Validator

Participates in BFT consensus. Proposes and signs blocks (ed25519 — pure CPU work, no GPU needed). Runs the CURARE rule-based runtime sensor alongside the chain daemon. This is the role that secures the network.

Tier 2 — GPU Worker (intake closed)

Performs encrypted computation off-chain and signs attestations. Not part of consensus. These workers are protocol-operated and are not currently a paid role: the gas-fee split pays burn, the validator set, and the protocol treasury — it has no compute channel, so accelerator hardware earns no fee income on this network. We are not asking anyone to buy a card against revenue that does not exist, so this tier is not open for applications. Tier 1 below is open and needs no GPU.

Tier 3 — RPC / Full Node

Serves API requests (read-only queries: balances, history, staking info). Keeps a full copy of chain history. Not a validator — does not participate in consensus, does not sign blocks, no stake required. Useful for integrators (wallets, exchanges, block explorers) and the wider community.

Tier comparison: Tier 1 (Validator) is the only tier with stake, slashing, and staking rewards — and the only tier the gas-fee split pays. Tier 2 (GPU Worker) is protocol-operated and earns nothing from fees; intake is closed. Tier 3 (RPC) operates on volunteer or service-provider basis (no native rewards). On testnet all tokens are non-transferable test tokens with no monetary value.

3. Downloads

Download the pre-built binary for your operating system and the genesis file.

Build: sunima-8081-2 · 162 MB · build 2026-09-21 (current)

Every binary is signed with a Sunima release key. Verify the signature after download (the public key is pinned in Architecture → Trusted Build):

# 1. Download the binary + sha256 + minisig
curl -LO https://sunima.uk/chain/sunimad-linux-amd64
curl -LO https://sunima.uk/chain/sunimad-linux-amd64.sha256
curl -LO https://sunima.uk/chain/sunimad-linux-amd64.minisig

# 2. Check sha256
sha256sum -c sunimad-linux-amd64.sha256

# 3. Verify minisign signature (requires `brew install minisign`)
minisign -V -p <sunima-release.pub> -m sunimad-linux-amd64

Also download the genesis file:

curl -LO https://sunima.uk/chain/genesis.json
curl -LO https://sunima.uk/chain/genesis.json.sha256
curl -LO https://sunima.uk/chain/genesis.json.minisig
sha256sum -c genesis.json.sha256
minisign -V -p <sunima-release.pub> -m genesis.json

Also download the genesis file:

curl -LO https://sunima.uk/chain/genesis.json

4. Initialise

Replace my-validator with your preferred moniker (display name).

# Make the binary executable
chmod +x sunimad-linux-amd64   # or sunimad-darwin-arm64
mv sunimad-linux-amd64 sunimad  # rename for convenience

# Initialise node (creates ~/.sunima/)
./sunimad init my-validator --chain-id sunima_8081-2

# Install the genesis file
cp genesis.json ~/.sunima/config/genesis.json

5. Configure

Set the seed peer and gas price in your node's config files.

Binary

Pre-built Linux binary (amd64):

curl -fsSL https://sunima.uk/chain/sunimad-linux-amd64 -o sunimad
chmod +x sunimad
echo "f441550625d0256b90275db53763a7efc4736b46d5c8a2f30b2bc175095eef37  sunimad" | sha256sum -c -

Verified release: current (2026-09-21). Checksum (SHA-256): f441550625d0256b90275db53763a7efc4736b46d5c8a2f30b2bc175095eef37

Seed peer — ~/.sunima/config/config.toml

Replace the persistent_peers line. The active seed (mainnet-grade, sunima-8081-2 testnet) is reachable at:

SENTRY="[email protected]:26656"
sed -i "s|^persistent_peers = .*|persistent_peers = \"$SENTRY\"|" ~/.sunima/config/config.toml
sed -i "s|^seeds = .*|seeds = \"$SENTRY\"|" ~/.sunima/config/config.toml
sed -i "s|^pex = .*|pex = true|" ~/.sunima/config/config.toml

Ask the operator for the current <node-id> — it rotates when a seed is rebuilt. If you are the operator yourself, run ./sunimad tendermint show-node-id on your seed to fill the slot.

6. Start the node

Run the node. It will connect to the seed peer and sync the chain.

# Foreground (Ctrl-C to stop)
./sunimad start --minimum-gas-prices="1000000000asuna"

# Background — persists after terminal close
nohup ./sunimad start --minimum-gas-prices="1000000000asuna" > sunimad.log 2>&1 & disown

Tail the log to watch sync progress:

tail -f sunimad.log

You will see lines like received proposal … height=1234 and committed state … height=1234 as the node catches up. Wait until the height matches the live network height before proceeding.

7. Become a validator

The installer script handles the entire validator lifecycle automatically: it downloads the binary and native library, installs genesis and the confidential-layer artifacts, seeds peers, creates your account key, requests a starter stake from the on-chain faucet, registers the operator, submits create-validator, and starts the node in the background.

curl -fsSL https://sunima.uk/install/operator.sh | ROLE=cpu bash

The script prints your sunima1… address and a 24-word mnemonic when done.

7a. Starter stake — automatic

The installer requests your starter stake from the on-chain faucet automatically and waits for it to confirm before bonding. No manual request is needed. The faucet is rate-limited per network address.

7b. Manual create-validator (advanced)

The installer already submits this for you. If you configured the node by hand and want to bond manually, run (replace my-key with the key name you chose):

./sunimad tx staking create-validator validator.json \
  --from=my-key \
  --keyring-backend=test \
  --chain-id=sunima_8081-2 \
  --node=http://localhost:26657 \
  --fees=2000000000asuna \
  --gas=300000 \
  --yes

After one block your validator appears on the Network page with status Bonded.

8. Monitoring

Check your node's sync status and peer count via the local RPC:

# Sync status
curl -s http://localhost:26657/status | python3 -m json.tool | grep -E "latest_block_height|catching_up"

# Peer count
curl -s http://localhost:26657/net_info | python3 -m json.tool | grep n_peers

The live network dashboard shows all bonded validators, block height, and stake in real time:

sunima.uk/network →

9. Troubleshooting