Perform a voluntary exit

Voluntary exits allow validators to permanently stop performing their duties, and eventually recover the deposit.

Exits are subject to a wait period that depends on the length of the exit queue. While a validator is exiting, it still must perform its duties in order not to lose funds to inactivity penalities.

Warning

Voluntary exits are irreversible. You won't be able to validate again with the same key.

Note

Voluntary exits won't be processed if the chain isn't finalizing.

To perform a voluntary exit, make sure your beacon node is running with the --rest option enabled (e.g. ./run-mainnet-beacon-node.sh --rest), then run:

build/nimbus_beacon_node deposits exit --validator=<VALIDATOR_KEYSTORE_PATH>

Note

In the command above, you must replace <VALIDATOR_KEYSTORE_PATH> with the file-system path of an Ethereum ERC-2335 Keystore created by a tool such as staking-deposit-cli or ethdo.

Tip

You can perform multiple voluntary exits at once by supplying the --validator option multiple times on the command-line. This is typically more convenient when the provided keystores share the same password - you'll be asked to enter it only once.

rest-url parameter

The --rest-url parameter can be used to point the exit command to a specific node for publishing the request, as long as it's compatible with the REST API.