> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.palliora.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Become a Validator

Validators maintain Manas itself: ordering transactions, producing blocks, and finalizing the shared state everything else on Palliora depends on. See [Validator](https://docs.palliora.org/learn/concepts/validator.md) for what the role actually does and how staking and slashing work.

## Prerequisites

The same base setup as [Become a Guardian](https://docs.palliora.org/participate/become-a-guardian.md): Docker, Node.js, and `palliora-cli` installed, and a Palliora account created and funded. Validators have their own hardware and uptime expectations, separate from a Guardian's, confirm current requirements with the Palliora community before provisioning hardware, they aren't settled enough yet to print specific numbers here with confidence.

## Create and fund an account

```bash theme={null}
palliora-cli account-create
palliora-cli fund --amount 1005000
```

## Bond PALI

Validators bond PALI the same way Guardians do:

```bash theme={null}
palliora-cli stake-new --amount=1000000
```

Adjust an existing stake with:

```bash theme={null}
palliora-cli stake-add --amount=10
palliora-cli stake-reduce --amount=10
```

`--amount` is in milliPALI and takes whole numbers: `1000000` is 1,000 PALI. `--reward-destination` sends staking rewards to a different address than the one you staked from, if you don't set it, rewards return to the staking account itself.

## Join as a Validator

Wait for your node to finish syncing, then:

```bash theme={null}
palliora-cli join-validator --commission 5
```

`--commission` is the percentage of delegators' rewards your validator keeps, set to `0` if you don't want to take a cut.

Joining programmatically through the SDK uses the same underlying call:

```ts theme={null}
import { joinValidator } from "@palliora.org/chainsdk";

await joinValidator(account, 5); // commission percentage
```

## What you're signing up for

Validators are expected to maintain high uptime and secure key management, a hardware security module is recommended for production validator keys. Slashable behavior includes signing conflicting blocks, proposing invalid blocks, and extended downtime, see [Validator: rewards and penalties](https://docs.palliora.org/learn/concepts/validator.md#rewards-and-penalties) for the full picture before you bond a meaningful amount of PALI.


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