What are the different states a validator can be in?

After a validator is created with a create-validator transaction, the validator is in one of three states:

  • in validator set: Validator is in the active set and participates in consensus. The validator is earning rewards and can be slashed for misbehavior.

  • jailed: Validator misbehaved and is in jail, i.e. outside of the validator set.

    • If the jailing is due to being offline for too long (i.e. having missed more than 95% out of the last 10,000 blocks), the validator can send an unjailtransaction in order to re-enter the validator set.

    • If the jailing is due to double signing, the validator cannot unjail.

  • unbonded: Validator is not in the active set, and therefore not signing blocks. The validator cannot be slashed and does not earn any reward. It is still possible to delegate OM to an unbonded validator. Undelegating from an unbondedvalidator is immediate, meaning that the tokens are not subject to the unbonding period.

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