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Registering a Stake Address

version reference

This document was written in May 2026 with reference to cardano-node and cardano-cli v11

Before registering a pool, the stake address must be registered on-chain. This costs a deposit (currently 2 ADA on mainnet, returned when you deregister) plus transaction fees.

This page assumes you have completed Generating Wallet Keys and that CARDANO_NODE_SOCKET_PATH and CARDANO_NODE_NETWORK_ID are set.

Create the registration certificate​

cardano-cli stake-address registration-certificate \
    --stake-verification-key-file stake.vkey \
    --out-file stake.cert

Build, sign, and submit the transaction​

Query the current slot (used for --invalid-hereafter):

currentSlot=$(cardano-cli query tip | jq -r '.slot')

Build the transaction — transaction build calculates fees and change automatically:

cardano-cli conway transaction build \
    --tx-in $(cardano-cli query utxo --address $(cat payment.addr) --out-file /dev/stdout | jq -r 'keys[0]') \
    --change-address $(cat payment.addr) \
    --certificate-file stake.cert \
    --invalid-hereafter $(( currentSlot + 1000 )) \
    --witness-override 2 \
    --out-file tx.raw
note

--witness-override 2 tells the fee estimator that two keys will sign (payment + stake). If you have more signers, adjust accordingly.

Sign with both the payment and stake signing keys:

cardano-cli conway transaction sign \
    --tx-body-file tx.raw \
    --signing-key-file payment.skey \
    --signing-key-file stake.skey \
    --out-file tx.signed

Submit:

cardano-cli conway transaction submit --tx-file tx.signed

Next: Register your pool.