Stake from the Command Line

1Two nodes, one set of commands

Divi has two full nodes. The Divi node (divid, driven by divi-cli) is the original C++ program, also the one inside Divi Desktop and BoxWallet. IronDivi (irondivid, driven by irondivi-cli) is the newer Rust rewrite. They speak the same RPC language, so the commands below are the same; the few places where the answers differ are marked.

If you only want the clicking version, Stake in a wallet covers Divi Desktop and BoxWallet. To set a node up from nothing, see Install the Divi node or Install IronDivi.

2Talk to your node

Both command-line tools read the node's config file to find the RPC port and password, so once the node runs you type only the command. The config files look alike but are not the same format:

# divi.conf (Divi node): key=value, no quotes
rpcuser=pick-a-name
rpcpassword=pick-a-long-random-password
staking=1

# irondivi.conf (IronDivi): TOML, strings in quotes
rpcuser = "pick-a-name"
rpcpassword = "pick-a-long-random-password"
staking = true

Add testnet=1 (Divi node) or pass --testnet to both irondivid and irondivi-cli to do all of this with free coins from the testnet faucet. The config file lives in the data folder; Config files lists where that is on each system.

A quick test that the connection works, and that the chain is synced to the height the explorer shows (mainnet, testnet). On testnet, where we ran everything on this page:

divi-cli getblockcount
360232
irondivi-cli --testnet getblockcount
360232

3Encrypt the wallet

Skip this if getwalletinfo already shows "encryption_status": "locked" or "unlocked". Otherwise, with a long passphrase you have written down somewhere safe:

divi-cli encryptwallet "your passphrase"
Wallet reloaded!

irondivi-cli encryptwallet "your passphrase"
wallet encrypted; the wallet is now locked. Use walletpassphrase to unlock it.
Back up your wallet again: earlier backups are not encrypted.

IronDivi encrypts from 0.2.6, released on 2026-10-22. The 0.2.5 release answers error code: -32601: Method not found: encryptwallet; upgrade before steps 3 and 4.

Divi node 3.0.0 reloads the wallet in place, as above; older versions stopped the whole node and had to be started again. Either way the wallet is now locked, so staking stops until the next step. Then back up your wallet again: the old backup holds unencrypted keys.

4Unlock for staking only

The unlock command takes the passphrase, a timeout in seconds (0 means until you lock it or the node restarts) and, on the Divi node only, a third word: true for staking only.

divi-cli walletpassphrase "your passphrase" 0 true
irondivi-cli walletpassphrase "your passphrase" 0

The Divi node prints nothing when it succeeds; IronDivi prints null. A wrong passphrase gives Error: The wallet passphrase entered was incorrect. on the Divi node and Incorrect passphrase on IronDivi.

A staking-only unlock can sign stakes but cannot send. We proved it on the testnet wallet right after the command above:

divi-cli sendtoaddress yJehBfdK9KbrwPRjYrzkrPES9uG5nFLjY4 1
error: {"code":-13,"message":"Error: Please enter the wallet passphrase with walletpassphrase first."}

divi-cli getwalletinfo
...
    "unlocked_until" : 1792629553,
    "encryption_status" : "unlocked-for-staking"

5Read getstakingstatus

This is the testnet wallet on the Divi node, 13,000 tDIVI, right after the staking-only unlock:

divi-cli getstakingstatus
{
    "validtime" : true,
    "haveconnections" : true,
    "walletunlocked" : true,
    "mintablecoins" : true,
    "staking_balance" : 12999.99997740,
    "enoughcoins" : true,
    "mnsync" : true,
    "staking status" : true,
    "stake split threshold" : 20000.00000000
}

Every line should be true. What each one means, straight from the node's code:

The Divi node also tells you the lock state the same way: getwalletinfo reports unencrypted, locked, unlocked or unlocked-for-staking. IronDivi uses the first three.

6Lock, pause and resume

• Lock on either node with walletlock. Staking stops at once; walletunlocked turns false on the Divi node. (The Divi node's staking status stays true for up to four blocks, because it reports attempts, not the lock.)
• Pause staking on IronDivi without locking: irondivi-cli setstaking false, and setstaking true to resume. The status text flips to Staking Disabled and back.
• Pause staking on the Divi node: there is no setstaking. Put staking=0 in divi.conf and restart, or start it once with divid -staking=0.
• Restarting either node locks an encrypted wallet. Put the unlock in your start script, or set a reminder.

7Keep the passphrase out of your history

Typing the passphrase on the command line writes it to your shell history and, for a moment, shows it to anyone listing processes on the machine. Two habits fix the history half:

# read it without echo, use it, forget it
read -rs PASS
divi-cli walletpassphrase "$PASS" 0 true
unset PASS

In bash and zsh a command that starts with a space is left out of history when HISTCONTROL=ignorespace (bash) or HIST_IGNORE_SPACE (zsh) is set. The process-list half has no clean fix on either node; on a machine only you use, it doesn't matter.

Next

• Why isn't my wallet staking?: the checklist, one fix per field above.
• Split and combine coins: the split threshold and auto-combine on both nodes.
• Stake on a VPS: run these commands on a server that never sleeps.
• Glossary for the words on this page.

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