Kava testnet-3000 will test the functionality of the Kava blockchain prior to deployment of mainnet. If no bugs are found, this version of Kava will be the same as the version used on mainnet. If you are planning on running a validator on mainnet, it is strongly recommended that you participate in testnet-3000.
To join testnet-3000 as a validator, you should submit both a genesis transaction and an account addresss. The genesis transaction will be for your validator and the account address will control vesting coins that can be delegated. Coins held by the account address will be in a new account type called a Validator Vesting Account, which vests the coins over time based on whether or not your validator participates in consensus. For testnet-3000, coins will be released every ~12 hours if the validator has signed 90% or greater pre-commits.
Since this is new functionality, we encourage participants to test regular account actions like delegating/undelegating coins, sending coins, and taking your validator offline. If you suspect you have found a bug, file an issue in the Kava repo or post it in the riot chat
- Install Kava
Requires Go 1.13+
git clone https://github.com/kava-labs/kava
git checkout v0.3.0-rc1
make install
kvd init --chain-id=kava-testnet-3000 <moniker>kvd version --long should output:
name: kava
server_name: kvd
client_name: kvcli
version: 0.3.0-rc1
commit: 247ccc288678da0d30b24a4589164eecbcd031ed
build_tags: netgo,ledger
go: go version go1.13 darwin/amd64- Create a gentx for your validator
kvcli keys add <validator>
kvd add-genesis-account $(kvcli keys show validator -a) 50000000ukava
kvd gentx --name <validator> --amount 50000000ukava- Create your account address and save it to a text file.
kvcli keys add <account>
kvcli keys show <account> -a > <account>.txt- Submit your gentx and account address as a PR.
First, fork https://github.com/kava-labs/kava-testnets to your $HOME directory.
cd $HOME/kava-testnets
# Make a directory for your gentx
mkdir ./3000/gentx/<your directory>
cp $HOME/.kvd/config/gentx/gentx-* $HOME/kava-testnets/3000/gentx/<your directory>/.
cp $HOME/kava/<account>.txt $HOME/kava-testnets/3000/gentx/<your director>/.The structure of your PR should look like 
Push the changes to github and submit a PR at the kava-testnets repo.
For general troubleshooting, please use the riot chat.
Warning: The documentation for the kava blockchain is incomplete as it's still early in the development roadmap. Due to this, becoming a validator currently requires familiarity with the cosmos-sdk, as well as managing and deploying production IT systems.