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Pre-requisite Readings
The keyring holds the private/public key pairs used to interact with a node. A validator key needs to be set up before running the blockchain node so that blocks can be correctly signed.

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Create a key

  1. Create a new key for your validator:
simd keys add my_validator --keyring-backend test
  1. Store the address for later use:

MY_VALIDATOR_ADDRESS=$(simd keys show my_validator -a --keyring-backend test)
This generates a 24-word mnemonic phrase and stores your key. Save the mnemonic if you’ll use this key for value-bearing tokens.
This tutorial uses the test backend (unencrypted, for testing only). For production, use the os backend which integrates with your system’s secure keyring. See keyring backends below for more information.

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Next steps

You have just created your first key. The keyring is now ready to manage keys for interacting with your blockchain node. If you are running through this tutorial as a test, continue to Run a node to initialize your blockchain and start your node. For more information on the keyring and its various backends, continue reading below.

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Reference: Keyring backends

The Cosmos SDK keyring supports multiple storage backends. The private key can be stored in different locations such as a file or the operating system’s own key storage.

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The os backend

The os backend relies on operating system-specific defaults to handle key storage securely. Typically, an operating system’s credential subsystem handles password prompts, private keys storage, and user sessions according to the user’s password policies. Here is a list of the most popular operating systems and their respective passwords manager: GNU/Linux distributions that use GNOME as the default desktop environment typically come with Seahorse. Users of KDE based distributions are commonly provided with KDE Wallet Manager. Whilst the former is in fact a libsecret convenient frontend, the latter is a kwallet client. keyctl is a secure backend that leverages the Linux’s kernel security key management system to store cryptographic keys securely in memory. os is the default option since operating system’s default credentials managers are designed to meet users’ most common needs and provide them with a comfortable experience without compromising on security. The recommended backends for headless environments are file and pass.

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The file backend

The file backend more closely resembles the keybase implementation used prior to v0.38.1. It stores the keyring encrypted within the app’s configuration directory. This keyring will request a password each time it is accessed, which may occur multiple times in a single command resulting in repeated password prompts. If using bash scripts to execute commands using the file option you may want to utilize the following format for multiple prompts: 
# assuming that KEYPASSWD is set in the environment
$ gaiacli config keyring-backend file                             # use file backend
$ (echo $KEYPASSWD; echo $KEYPASSWD) | gaiacli keys add me        # multiple prompts
$ echo $KEYPASSWD | gaiacli keys show me                          # single prompt
The first time you add a key to an empty keyring, you will be prompted to type the password twice.

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The pass backend

The pass backend uses the pass utility to manage on-disk encryption of keys’ sensitive data and metadata. Keys are stored inside gpg encrypted files within app-specific directories. pass is available for the most popular UNIX operating systems as well as GNU/Linux distributions. Please refer to its manual page for information on how to download and install it.
pass uses GnuPG for encryption. gpg automatically invokes the gpg-agent daemon upon execution, which handles the caching of GnuPG credentials. Please refer to gpg-agent man page for more information on how to configure cache parameters such as credentials TTL and passphrase expiration.
The password store must be set up prior to first use: 
pass init <GPG_KEY_ID>
Replace <GPG_KEY_ID> with your GPG key ID. You can use your personal GPG key or an alternative one you may want to use specifically to encrypt the password store.

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The kwallet backend

The kwallet backend uses KDE Wallet Manager, which comes installed by default on the GNU/Linux distributions that ships KDE as default desktop environment. Please refer to KWallet Handbook for more information.

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The keyctl backend

The Kernel Key Retention Service is a security facility that has been added to the Linux kernel relatively recently. It allows sensitive cryptographic data such as passwords, private key, authentication tokens, etc to be stored securely in memory. The keyctl backend is available on Linux platforms only.

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The test backend

The test backend is a password-less variation of the file backend. Keys are stored unencrypted on disk. Provided for testing purposes only. The test backend is not recommended for use in production environments.

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The memory backend

The memory backend stores keys in memory. The keys are immediately deleted after the program has exited. Provided for testing purposes only. The memory backend is not recommended for use in production environments.

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Setting backend using the env variable

You can set the keyring-backend using env variable: BINNAME_KEYRING_BACKEND. For example, if your binary name is gaia-v5 then set: export GAIA_V5_KEYRING_BACKEND=pass

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Additional key management

By default, the keyring generates a secp256k1 keypair. The keyring also supports ed25519 keys, which may be created by passing the --algo ed25519 flag. A keyring can hold both types of keys simultaneously, and the Cosmos SDK’s x/auth module supports both public key algorithms natively. For help with key management commands, use simd keys --help or simd keys [command] --help.