Connect to Mainnet or a Public Testnet¶
Running a Lodestar node on mainnet or a testnet only requires basic familiarity with the terminal.
Make sure lodestar is installed in your local environment, following the install guide. The following command should return a non error message.
./lodestar --help
For a complete list of beacon node CLI commands and options, see the Command Line Reference
To select a known testnet or mainnet, use the --network flag. mainnet is selected by default, and a list of available networks is listed with the --help flag. Setting the --network flag will conveniently configure the beacon node or validator client for the selected network. For power users, any configuration option should be able to be overridden.
Initialize a beacon node (optional)¶
If you would like to initialize your beacon node with the basic files required to run on a testnet or mainnet before actually running the node (Especially useful for configuring a new testnet), you can run the following command:
./lodestar init --network $NETWORK_NAME
By default, lodestar stores all configuration and chain data at the path $XDG_DATA_HOME/lodestar/$NETWORK_NAME.
Run a beacon node¶
To start a Lodestar beacon run the command:
./lodestar beacon --network $NETWORK_NAME
This will assume an eth1 client is available at the default location of localhost:8545.
In case eth1 clients are available at different locations, use --eth1.providerUrls to specify these locations in the command:
./lodestar beacon --network $NETWORK_NAME --eth1.providerUrls eth1.url1 eth1.url2
It is also possible to start a Lodestar beacon that does not follow the eth1 chain. For this, use the eth1.enabled option in the command:
./lodestar beacon --eth1.enabled false --network $NETWORK_NAME
Immediately you should see confirmation that the node has started
Jul-09 17:32:34.895 [] info: Lodestar version=0.26.0 master 8058d367, network=prater
Jul-09 17:32:34.920 [DB] info: Connected to LevelDB database name=/home/user/.local/share/lodestar/prater/chain-db
Jul-09 17:32:46.419 [] info: Initializing beacon state slot=0, epoch=0, stateRoot=0x895390e92edc03df7096e9f51e51896e8dbe6e7e838180dadbfd869fdd77a659
Jul-09 17:33:13.502 [NETWORK] info: PeerId 16Uiu2HAmHXf37Pa4whSF1rdwWbkqDuiwd3U7wqTgadQVza48MTn4, Multiaddrs /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/9000
Jul-09 17:33:13.503 [] warn: Low peer count peers=0
Jul-09 17:33:13.504 [] info: Searching for peers - peers: 0 - finalized: 0 0x0000…0000 - head: 0 0x8c0e…ee87 - clockSlot: 780166
Jul-09 17:33:18.001 [] info: Searching for peers - peers: 0 - finalized: 0 0x0000…0000 - head: 0 0x8c0e…ee87 - clockSlot: 780166
Jul-09 17:33:30.000 [] info: Searching for peers - peers: 0 - finalized: 0 0x0000…0000 - head: 0 0x8c0e…ee87 - clockSlot: 780167
Jul-09 17:33:42.002 [] info: Searching for peers - peers: 0 - finalized: 0 0x0000…0000 - head: 0 0x8c0e…ee87 - clockSlot: 780168
Jul-09 17:33:54.000 [] info: Searching for peers - peers: 0 - finalized: 0 0x0000…0000 - head: 0 0x8c0e…ee87 - clockSlot: 780169
Jul-09 17:34:06.000 [] info: Searching for peers - peers: 0 - finalized: 0 0x0000…0000 - head: 0 0x8c0e…ee87 - clockSlot: 780170
Jul-09 17:34:18.386 [] info: Syncing - 30 days left - 0.297 slots/s - finalized: 0 0x0000…0000 - head: 30 0x0bcf…0506 - clockSlot: 780171 - peers: 1
Jul-09 17:34:30.448 [] info: Syncing - 8.1 days left - 1.12 slots/s - finalized: 2 0x8e30…3ce0 - head: 128 0xd4f1…d32b - clockSlot: 780172 - peers: 1
Jul-09 17:34:42.205 [] info: Syncing - 4.2 days left - 2.15 slots/s - finalized: 5 0x2811…5120 - head: 255 0x6c99…033b - clockSlot: 780173 - peers: 1
Jul-09 17:34:54.278 [] info: Syncing - 3 days left - 3.00 slots/s - finalized: 8 0x65e2…52a9 - head: 351 0x0f5a…1cd3 - clockSlot: 780174 - peers: 1
Info
If your node is stuck with Searching for peers review your network configuration to make sure your ports are open.
A young testnet should take a few hours to sync. If you see multiple or consistent errors in the logs, please open a Github issue or reach out to us in Discord. Just by reporting anomalities you are helping accelerate the progress of Ethereum Consensus, thanks for contributing!
Weak Subjectivity¶
If you are starting your node from blank db/genesis (or from last saved state in db) in a network which is now far ahead, your node is susceptible to something called "long range attacks". Read Vitalik's illuminating post on the same
If you have a synced beacon node handy (your friend's or an infrastructure provider) and a trusted checkpoint you can rely on, you can start off your beacon node in under a minute! And at the same time kicking the "long range attack" in its butt!
Just supply these extra args to your beacon node command:
--weakSubjectivitySyncLatest --weakSubjectivityServerUrl <synced node url> [--weakSubjectivityCheckpoint <trusted checkpoint in root:epoch format>]
weakSubjectivityServerUrl then you may skip providing weakSubjectivityCheckpoint, which will then result into your beacon node syncing and starting off a finalized state from the trusted url.
PS¶
Please use this option very carefully (and at your own risk), a malicious server url can put you on a wrong chain with the danger of you loosing your funds by social engineering.
If possible validate your weakSubjectivityCheckpoint from multiple places like different client distributions, or from any other trusted sources. This will highly reduce the risk of starting off on a wrong chain.
Run a validator¶
To start a Lodestar validator run the command:
./lodestar validator --network $NETWORK_NAME
You should see confirmation that modules have started.
2020-08-07 14:14:24 [] info: Decrypted 2 validator keystores
2020-08-07 14:14:24 [VALIDATOR 0X8BAC4815] info: Setting up validator client...
2020-08-07 14:14:24 [VALIDATOR 0X8BAC4815] info: Setting up RPC connection...
2020-08-07 14:14:24 [] info: Checking genesis time and beacon node connection
2020-08-07 14:14:24 [VALIDATOR 0X8E44237B] info: Setting up validator client...
2020-08-07 14:14:24 [VALIDATOR 0X8E44237B] info: Setting up RPC connection...