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Join Public Testnet

::: tip Current Testnet See the testnet repo for information on the latest testnet, including the correct version of the Cosmos-SDK to use and details about the genesis file. :::

::: warning You need to install gaia before you go further :::

Setting Up a New Node

NOTE: If you ran a full node on a previous testnet, please skip to Upgrading From Previous Testnet.

These instructions are for setting up a brand new full node from scratch.

First, initialize the node and create the necessary config files:

gaiad init --moniker <your_custom_moniker>

::: warning Note Only ASCII characters are supported for the --moniker. Using Unicode characters will render your node unreachable. :::

You can edit this moniker later, in the ~/.gaiad/config/config.toml file:

# A custom human readable name for this node
moniker = "<your_custom_moniker>"

You can edit the ~/.gaiad/config/gaiad.toml file in order to enable the anti spam mechanism and reject incoming transactions with less than a minimum fee:

# This is a TOML config file.
# For more information, see https://github.com/toml-lang/toml

##### main base config options #####

# Validators reject any tx from the mempool with less than the minimum fee per gas.
minimum_fees = ""

Your full node has been initialized! Please skip to Genesis & Seeds.

Upgrading From Previous Testnet

These instructions are for full nodes that have ran on previous testnets and would like to upgrade to the latest testnet.

Reset Data

First, remove the outdated files and reset the data.

rm $HOME/.gaiad/config/addrbook.json $HOME/.gaiad/config/genesis.json
gaiad unsafe-reset-all

Your node is now in a pristine state while keeping the original priv_validator.json and config.toml. If you had any sentry nodes or full nodes setup before, your node will still try to connect to them, but may fail if they haven't also been upgraded.

::: danger Warning Make sure that every node has a unique priv_validator.json. Do not copy the priv_validator.json from an old node to multiple new nodes. Running two nodes with the same priv_validator.json will cause you to double sign. :::

Software Upgrade

Now it is time to upgrade the software:

cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk
git fetch --all && git checkout master
make update_tools && make get_vendor_deps && make install

::: tip NOTE: If you have issues at this step, please check that you have the latest stable version of GO installed. :::

Note we use master here since it contains the latest stable release. See the testnet repo for details on which version is needed for which testnet, and the SDK release page for details on each release.

Your full node has been cleanly upgraded!

Genesis & Seeds

Copy the Genesis File

Fetch the testnet's genesis.json file into gaiad's config directory.

mkdir -p $HOME/.gaiad/config
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cosmos/testnets/master/latest/genesis.json > $HOME/.gaiad/config/genesis.json

Note we use the latest directory in the testnets repo which contains details for the latest testnet. If you are connecting to a different testnet, ensure you get the right files.

To verify the correctness of the configuration run:

gaiad start

Add Seed Nodes

Your node needs to know how to find peers. You'll need to add healthy seed nodes to $HOME/.gaiad/config/config.toml. The testnets repo contains links to the seed nodes for each testnet. If you are looking to join the running testnet please check the repository for details on which nodes to use.

If those seeds aren't working, you can find more seeds and persistent peers on the Cosmos Explorer. Open the the Full Nodes pane and select nodes that do not have private (10.x.x.x) or local IP addresses. The Persistent Peer field contains the connection string. For best results use 4-6.

You can also ask for peers on the Validators Riot Room

For more information on seeds and peers, you can read this.

Run a Full Node

Start the full node with this command:

gaiad start

Check that everything is running smoothly:

gaiacli status

View the status of the network with the Cosmos Explorer. Once your full node syncs up to the current block height, you should see it appear on the list of full nodes. If it doesn't show up, that's ok--the Explorer does not connect to every node.

Export State

Gaia can dump the entire application state to a JSON file, which could be useful for manual analysis and can also be used as the genesis file of a new network.

Export state with:

gaiad export > [filename].json

You can also export state from a particular height (at the end of processing the block of that height):

gaiad export --height [height] > [filename].json

If you plan to start a new network from the exported state, export with the --for-zero-height flag:

gaiad export --height [height] --for-zero-height > [filename].json

Upgrade to Validator Node

You now have an active full node. What's the next step? You can upgrade your full node to become a Cosmos Validator. The top 100 validators have the ability to propose new blocks to the Cosmos Hub. Continue onto the Validator Setup.