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Coffer

Before you create a Coffer

The first step of the create wizard, Create Your First Coffer, shows a checklist under the heading Before you create. It lists three things to get ready.

  • “Set up the Ethereum node that will run your validator. It does not need to validate yet.” You can create the Coffer first and deposit after.
  • “Copy your validator’s BLS public key. The next step asks for it.” The key is 48 bytes, written as 96 hex characters, and you find it in your validator client or your key generation tool.
  • “Decide how much ETH your validator will hold, your interest rate and the shortest and longest bond you accept. You can change most of them later.” A starting point for the terms is enough.

Under the checklist the wizard has the line “Read more about creating Coffer here”, which opens this page.

Starting without a validator is the easiest case. The page Point your validator at the Coffer links the ethstaker deposit CLI and explains the one instruction that matters, which is to set the predicted Coffer address as your withdrawal address.

The three credential paths

Section titled “The three credential paths”

Which path you take depends on where your validator stands today.

Fresh keys, the recommended path. The Coffer address is predictable before it exists, so you generate keys, predict the address in the wizard, and deposit with 0x02 compounding credentials that point straight at it. No conversion step is ever needed. Point your validator at the Coffer walks through it.

An existing validator with 0x00 credentials. Create the Coffer first, then perform the one time credential change from 0x00 to 0x01 with the Coffer as the withdrawal address, then press the convert action in the app so the validator moves from 0x01 to 0x02 compounding. Until the change lands the Coffer reads Missing Credentials, and its screen says, “Until then this Coffer has no consensus backing at all and shouldn’t be used for issuing bonds.”

An existing validator whose 0x01 credentials point somewhere else. That validator cannot be moved, an execution layer withdrawal address is final. Its path is a fresh deposit with 0x02 credentials pointing at the predicted Coffer address, the same as the recommended flow.