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When it's your first time, changing your representative can sound like a scary prospect. In this article we're going to explain why you might want or need to change your representative, and what if any risks there are from doing it.
A representative is basically synonymous with a Node, which is a special account that is used to help process and confirm transactions on the Banano network. Every Banano account is linked to a Representative, and the account holder can change their representative at any time without any cost with a few clicks.
There are several reasons for changing your representative, including decentralisation, which is important for a healthy network, and verification, for example as used by JTV. Some nodes also offer incentives for using them, such as sign up bonuses and other promotions.
Changing your representative is simple, whether you are using Kalium or other wallets like Banano Vault or Nault, and the process is basically the same in all of these wallets:
1. Open and unlock your wallet.
2. Select the account you want to change
3. Select the Settings menu.
4. Choose "Change Representative" (Kalium) or Representative (Banano Vault/Nault)
5. Enter the new representative address
That's it! Assuming you've entered a valid address, your wallet will just work as usual. If you happened to choose an invalid address or if the representative goes offline, you will see a big warning telling you that this is the case. If this happens to you, just select a different representative and repeat the steps above.
For a full list of available representatives, you can check out the Banano Creeper: https://creeper.banano.cc/network
All else being equal, try to select one of the smaller nodes if you can, as this helps spread out voting across the network instead of concentrating it in a handful of large nodes.
You can change representatives as often as you like, so have a play and don't worry too much about making mistakes.
I hope this article helped you learn the basics of changing your representative! If you have more questions, please leave a comment below.
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