Registering a Stake Pool

Once you have got all the operational node certificate and the Cold, KES and VRF keys for your stake pool, it is time to register your stake pool in the blockchain.  You need to:

1. Create a stake pool registration certificate. 
2. Delegate to your own pool at least the pledged amount (delegation certificate) 
3. Submit the pool registration certificate and the delegation certificate to the blockchain by including them in a transaction.

Generate the pool registration certificate (pool.cert), for example: 

cardano-cli shelley stake-pool registration-certificate \
--cold-verification-key-file cold.vkey \
--vrf-verification-key-file vrf.vkey \
--pool-pledge 100000000000 \
--pool-cost 10000000000 \
--pool-margin 0.05 \
--pool-reward-account-verification-key-file stake.vkey \
--pool-owner-stake-verification-key stake.vkey \
--testnet-magic 42 \
--out-file pool.cert

Parameter	Explanation
stake-pool-verification-key-file	verification cold key
vrf-verification-key-file	verification VRS key
pool-pledge	pledge (lovelace)
pool-cost	operational costs per epoch (lovelace)
pool-margin	operator margin
pool-reward-account-verification-key-file	verification staking key for the rewards
pool-owner-staking-verification-key	verification staking key(s) for the pool owner(s)
testnet-magic	identifies the testnet
out-file	output file to write the certificate to

Generate the delegation certificate (delegation.cert): 

cardano-cli shelley stake-address delegation-certificate \
--stake-verification-key-file stake.vkey \
--cold-verification-key-file cold.vkey \
--out-file delegation.cert

Registering a stake pool requires a deposit of 500000000 lovelaces (500 Ada) as specified in the tesntet genesis.json file . This deposit is included in the transaction to register the stake pool. 

"poolDeposit": 500000000

To learn how to do this, please check Register a Stake Pool with Metadata