Abey staking guide

Last updated: January 2026

This guide explains how staking works on Abey and provides step-by-step instructions for running a validator and using the staking CLI.

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Overview

Abey adopts Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS). DPoS committee members use the PBFT protocol to produce fast blocks, which include transactions and confirm previous snail blocks.

Meanwhile, fPoW miners mine:

• Fruits (which reference fast blocks)

• Snail blocks (which include fruits)

This hybrid design helps resist long-range attacks and prevents chain tampering.

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Validator

Validators are DPoS committee members responsible for processing transactions and producing blocks.

• Minimum stake: 20,000 ABEY

Recommended Validator Node Specifications

• 4 CPU cores

• 16 GB RAM

• 200 GB disk space

• 4 Mbps network bandwidth

• Public IP address (required for committee participation)

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Lock Period

Staked assets are subject to a lock period after unstaking.

• Lock duration: 25,000 fast blocks

• Approximate time: 15 days

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Staking Guide

Staking and withdrawal operations are handled by a system staking contract. Anyone may interact with the contract directly, and the node also provides RPC APIs to query staking and reward information.

A dedicated staking CLI is provided for convenience.

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Staking Contract

The Abey staking contract is deployed at:

0x000000000000000000747275657374616b696E67

• Full contract function definitions

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RPC and SDK

• RPC API definitions

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Building the CLI

The Abey Staking CLI allows users to interact with the staking contract and participate in PoS consensus.

More details are available here:

• Staking CLI (Impawn)

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Building Abey

Follow the installation instructions for your platform:

• macOS

• Windows

• Linux / Unix

  • Ubuntu

  • CentOS

• Docker

  • Running in Docker

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Preparing the Node

RPC Support

./gabey --rpc --rpcaddr 127.0.0.1 --rpcport 8545 --rpcapi "abey,net,web3,impawn" console

• Use --rpcaddr 0.0.0.0 to listen on all interfaces.

• Use 127.0.0.1 to restrict RPC access to the local host.

BFT Support

./gabey --bftip <PUBLIC_IP> console

Requirements:

• bftip must be a public IP

• Open firewall ports:

  • 8545 (RPC)

  • 30310 (BFT)

  • 30311 (BFT secondary)

Example Startup Command

./gabey --datadir data --bftip "<PUBLIC_IP>" --rpc --rpcaddr "127.0.0.1" --rpcapi "eth,abey,net,web3,impawn" console

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Building from Source

Building impawn requires both Go and a C compiler.

cd go-abey/cmd/impawn
go build -o impawn main.go query_stake.go impawn.go

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Staking CLI Workflow

The staking workflow consists of the following steps:

1. Impawn (Deposit) Deposit ≥ 20,000 ABEY to become a validator candidate.

2. Cancel (Unstake) Signal intent to leave the committee in the current epoch.

3. Withdraw After ~15 days, actively withdraw unlocked tokens.

Additional actions:

• Use Append if your stake is below the threshold

• Use UpdateFee to change validator fee rate

• Use UpdatePK to update validator public key

• Use QueryReward to check rewards and balances

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Impawn (Deposit)

./impawn --keystore <KEYSTORE_FILE> --rpcaddr <NODE_IP> --rpcport 8545 --value 20000 --fee 5000

Parameters

• --keystore: Keystore file containing the validator private key

• --rpcaddr, --rpcport: Validator node RPC endpoint

• --value: Deposit amount (must be ≥ 20,000 ABEY)

• --fee: Fee rate (0–10000), where fee / 10000 is the percentage

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Cancel (Unstake)

./impawn --keystore <KEYSTORE_FILE> --rpcaddr <NODE_IP> --rpcport 8545 --value 10 cancel

Cancels part of the stake and moves it into the locked state.

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Query Staking

./impawn --keystore <KEYSTORE_FILE> --rpcaddr <NODE_IP> --rpcport 8545 querystaking

Displays:

• Staked balance

• Locked balance

• Unlocked balance

• Withdrawable block height

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Withdraw

./impawn --keystore <KEYSTORE_FILE> --rpcaddr <NODE_IP> --rpcport 8545 --value 10 withdraw

Withdraws unlocked stake after the lock period.

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Append Stake

./impawn --keystore <KEYSTORE_FILE> --rpcaddr <NODE_IP> --rpcport 8545 --value 10 append

Adds additional stake to an existing validator deposit.

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Update Fee

./impawn --keystore <KEYSTORE_FILE> --rpcaddr <NODE_IP> --rpcport 8545 --fee 6000 updatefee

Updates the validator’s fee rate.

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Update Public Key

./impawn --keystore <KEYSTORE_FILE> --rpcaddr <NODE_IP> --rpcport 8545 --bftkey <BFT_PRIVATE_KEY> updatepk

Updates the validator’s BFT public key used for committee communication.

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Query Rewards

./impawn --keystore <KEYSTORE_FILE> --rpcaddr <NODE_IP> --rpcport 8545 queryreward

Displays:

• Available balance

• Locked balance

• Rewards per snail block

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Send Transaction

./impawn --keystore <KEYSTORE_FILE> --rpcaddr <NODE_IP> --rpcport 8545 --value 10 --address <TO_ADDRESS> send

Sends a normal transfer transaction (non-contract call).

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Query Transaction

./impawn --rpcaddr <NODE_IP> --rpcport 8545 --txhash <TX_HASH> querytx

Queries a transaction by hash.