Validator program overview

The Autheo validator program enables Sovereign license holders to operate validators and secure the network. Prime and Core license holders do not operate validator nodes; they delegate THEO to existing validators. Each NFT license is a tier-based credential that determines what role you can perform on the network.

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Choose your role

Your license determines how you participate in the Autheo network:

Important: Prime and Core licenses are delegation licenses. They do not require you to run or host a validator node.

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License tiers

Licenses originate as ERC-721 tokens on Arbitrum and are bridged to Autheo Chain. A Sovereign license is required to run a validator; Prime and Core licenses enable delegation without running a node.

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Validator responsibilities

Only Sovereign license holders who operate validators have these infrastructure and validator-operations responsibilities. Prime and Core holders participate through delegation and do not operate validator infrastructure. As a validator, you are responsible for:

• Maintaining a node that meets the hardware requirements
• Keeping the node synced and signing blocks with ≥ the minimum liveness threshold
• Securing both the operator key and consensus key
• Monitoring for liveness failures and responding to incidents promptly
• Keeping the binary version up to date

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Reward streams

Validators earn rewards from two independent sources:

1. Staking rewards — Proportional to bonded stake; auto-accrued via x/distribution; manually withdrawn via withdraw-all-rewards
2. NFT emission rewards — Fixed per-block allocation based on the Sovereign license tier; manually claimed via claim-nft-rewards

See Staking and rewards for the full mechanics.

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How to participate

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Sovereign validator operators

If you want to operate a validator:

1. Acquire a Sovereign NFT license. Purchase a Sovereign license from the Node Sale Platform or an approved secondary market.
2. Set up your infrastructure. Provision a server that meets the hardware requirements or use a supported managed hosting provider.
3. Install and configure the node. Follow the installation and configuration guides.
4. Bridge and bind your license. Follow the License setup guide to bridge the license from Arbitrum and bind it on Autheo Chain.
5. Register your validator. Submit MsgCreateValidator using the validator registration guide.

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Prime and Core delegators

If you want to delegate THEO to an existing validator:

1. Acquire a Prime or Core NFT license.
2. Bridge and bind your license using the License setup guide.
3. Select an eligible validator to delegate to.
4. Delegate your THEO through the Validator Portal.

Prime and Core holders do not need to provision infrastructure or register a validator.

Important: Autheo does not support redelegation. Once you delegate THEO to a validator, you must unstake and wait approximately 21 days for the tokens to unbond before you can delegate to another validator. Choose your validator carefully.

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Resources