License setup

All staking participants on Autheo Chain must hold an on-chain license record before operating a validator or delegating. Licenses originate as ERC-721 NFTs on Arbitrum and are bridged automatically when transferred to your Autheo Chain EVM address.

License tiers

Tier	Purpose	Annual THEO emission	Required for
Sovereign	Create and operate a validator	~187,969	Validator operators
Prime	External delegation (higher tier)	~18,797	Prime delegators
Core	External delegation (standard tier)	~1,880	Standard delegators

Only one Sovereign license can bind to a given validator at any time. This enforces a strict 1:1 relationship between Sovereign licenses and validators.

Step 1: Acquire the NFT on Arbitrum

Purchase the appropriate ERC-721 NFT on the Node Sale Platform. View contract addresses:

autheod query license params

Step 2: Transfer to your Autheo Chain EVM address

Use the Autheo Bridge to send the NFT from Arbitrum to your EVM address (0x... format). This triggers an automatic on-chain hook that mints a LicenseRecord in ISSUED status — no separate transaction needed.

autheod keys show <key-name> --bech eth --keyring-backend file

Step 3: Verify the license record

autheod query license licenses-by-owner <cosmos-address>
autheod query license license <license-id>

You should see status: ISSUED.

Step 4: Bind the license

Sovereign license
Prime / Core license

autheod tx license bind <license-id> \
  --from <owner-key> \
  --chain-id autheo_2127-1 \
  --keyring-backend file

The validator address is derived automatically from your operator key.

autheod tx license bind <license-id> \
  --validator-address <autheovaloper-address> \
  --from <owner-key> \
  --chain-id autheo_2127-1 \
  --keyring-backend file

The target validator must be bonded and not jailed.

Step 5: Verify BOUND status

autheod query license license <license-id>

Confirm status: BOUND. Your license is ready for validator creation or delegation.

License status after binding

Action	Resulting status
`MsgCreateValidator`	BOUND → ACTIVE
`MsgDelegate`	BOUND → ACTIVE
Full undelegation	ACTIVE → BOUND
Validator jailed	ACTIVE → BOUND
Full unbind	BOUND → ISSUED

Claiming NFT rewards

Once ACTIVE, the license accrues per-block NFT rewards. Claim them manually:

autheod query emissions license-accrued-rewards <license-id>

autheod tx licensedistribution claim-nft-rewards <license-id> \
  --from <owner-key> \
  --chain-id autheo_2127-1 \
  --keyring-backend file

See NFT rewards for full details.

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License tiers

Step 1: Acquire the NFT on Arbitrum

Step 2: Transfer to your Autheo Chain EVM address

Step 3: Verify the license record

Step 4: Bind the license

Step 5: Verify BOUND status

License status after binding

Claiming NFT rewards

​License tiers

​Step 1: Acquire the NFT on Arbitrum

​Step 2: Transfer to your Autheo Chain EVM address

​Step 3: Verify the license record

​Step 4: Bind the license

​Step 5: Verify BOUND status

​License status after binding

​Claiming NFT rewards

License tiers

Step 1: Acquire the NFT on Arbitrum

Step 2: Transfer to your Autheo Chain EVM address

Step 3: Verify the license record

Step 4: Bind the license

Step 5: Verify BOUND status

License status after binding

Claiming NFT rewards