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How to ...

Run a node

Prepare

git clone https://github.com/lab10-coop/tau1
cd tau1
./download-parity.sh

Run
./parity -c node.toml

Run a trustnode

A trustnode or validator node is a node which does not just passively sync and verify the chain, but also actively participates in the consensus protocol and co-authors blocks.
The current version of the tau1 testnet is configured to use the Aura consensus algorithm together with POSDAO, a smart contract based protocol for permissionless management of consensus protocol participants.
In its previos version, tau1 employed voting based governance contracts for managing consensus protocol participants. The sigma1 mainnet still uses that mechanism, but will also be upgraded to POSDAO in the future.

Create a user
This step is optional.
For the smoothest setup journey (least changes necessary), create a user named "artis".
Execute as root:

adduser --disabled-password artis
su artis
cd

Now you are in directory /home/artis as user artis.
In case you prefer to have an account which allows login with password, omit --disabled-password and make sure you're using a strong password!

Prepare

git clone https://github.com/lab10-coop/tau1`
cd tau1
./download-parity.sh

Create an account

./parity -c node.toml account new

This will ask you for a password. Hint: use pwgen
After entering the password twice, there will be a new file (a JSON formatted keystore file) in data/keys/tau1.artis/.

Now, create a file password.txt and paste the password into it.

(If you prefer another method for creating the mining key, feel free to do so.)

Adapt the config

  • Copy trustnode.toml.example to trustnode.toml.
  • Open trustnode.toml with your favourite editor and set the missing values for identity, unlock and engine_signer (see inline comments and examples)

Initial run
./parity -c trustnode.toml
On first run, Parity creates a node key which is stored in data/network/key. This key, the IP address and P2P port are combined to an enode (more details here) which uniquely identifies your node. Your node's enode is printed to the console after a few seconds.
Example: enode://65ef6f4a59fcbbd0567de0671588ab03e6d0628005f5b514af3295736a76f3ea30b5ecde8e64a5cc0aa20bfa8c5b7bb425470b8e9c9e6b05b34892f2a7f7ec15@94.130.160.202:30303 Make sure the contained IP address is Internet routable (if your host system has multiple network interfaces / IPs, Parity may not choose the correct one) and that the selected port (default: 30303) is accessible from the outside (not blocked by a firewall).

If Parity started syncing the chain, you can stop it with Ctrl-C and proceed with the next step.

Keep running
A trustnode is supposed to be always on, thus running it in an interactive shell isn't the best option.
This repository includes a systemd template config you can use to make parity a system service.
The following steps require root privileges (sudo).

  • Copy artis-tau1-parity.service.example to /etc/systemd/system/artis-tau1-parity.service (if that directory doesn't exist, you're likely not using systemd and can't use this method).
  • Open the copied file and set User, Group, WorkingDirectory and ExecStart to values matching your setup
  • Start the service: systemctl start artis-tau1-parity
  • Enable start-on-boot: systemctl enable artis-tau1-parity

Finally, make sure the service is running: systemctl status artis-tau1-parity.
In order to see a live log, do journalctl -f -u artis-tau1-parity (Ctrl-C will get you back).

Create staking account

As tau1 validator, you need a staking address aka pool address.
We recomment to set up that account in Metamask (see instructions below for how to set up Metamask).

Get collateral

In order to avoid trivial sybil attacks in this permissionless setting, validator nodes need to stake at least 750000 ATS. You can get those testnet ATS by sending an E-Mail request to [tau1@artis.eco](mailto:tau1@artis.eco?subject="request for tau1 staking collateral"). Please provide your staking address, the ATS will be needed on that account.

Activate

In order to activate your validator node, the following prerequisites must be met:

  • your node is running and synced and you know its mining address
  • you have Metamask set up and pointed to tau1 (see instructions below)
  • you have Metamask set to the staking account
  • your staking account has a balance of at least 750000 ATS

Now you can go to http://posdao-ui.dev.lab10.io/ - give it a few seconds to load.
Once it has loaded, you should see something like this: (TODO: add screenshot)
At the bottom of the page, there is a form for adding a new Pool (aka validator). The pool address is already set according to the account set in Metamask. You only need to enter the mining address of your validator node and then click Add Pool. After confirming the transaction in Metamask, your validator node will be added to as a candidate and may be chosen as active validator in any subsequent staking epoch.

Note that if your validator node repeatedly fails to author valid blocks when it's supposed to - e.g. because it's offline, it will be reported as misbehaving by other nodes and removed from the list of active candidates.
In order to make it elegible as activate validator again, you need to increase the stake by at least 1 ATS.

get listed in status dashboard

There's a nice network status dashboard at http://status.tau1.artis.network/
It only lists nodes which want to be listed.
In order to be on the list, a dedicated status reporting application needs to run alongside parity.

If you run a trustnode, please get it listed.

Prepare
Check which version of nodejs you have installed (if any): node --version
Anything newer than v6 should do.

If you don't have it installed, your options depend on the operating system.

Ubuntu 18.04:

apt install nodejs npm

Ubuntu 16.04:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x -o nodesource_setup.sh
bash nodesource_setup.sh
apt install nodejs

(Of course you can take a look into nodesource_setup.sh before executing it with root permissions.)

Install
Next, get the application:

cd
git clone https://github.com/lab10-coop/node-status-reporter
cd node-status-reporter
npm install

Test run
Now you could run it with
NODE_ENV=production INSTANCE_NAME=<your instance name here> WS_SERVER=http://status.tau1.artis.network WS_SECRET=ahZahhoth3engaem npm start

Keep running

If you installed a service for parity, you should do the same for this application. With root privileges, do:

  • Copy artis-tau1-statusreporter.service.example to /etc/systemd/system/artis-tau1-statusreporter.service.
  • Open the copied file and adapt it to your needs. Important: set values for INSTANCE_NAME and CONTACT_DETAILS and then uncomment both. Please use <nick>.tau1.artis.network as value for INSTANCE_NAME - replace <nick> with a nickname of your choice (using ASCII characters and digits only). Example: randomguy.tau1.artis.network
  • Start the service: systemctl start artis-tau1-statusreporter
  • Flag service to be started on boot: systemctl enable artis-tau1-statusreporter

You can check the status of the service with systemctl status artis-tau1-statusreporter.

use with Metamask

Metamask is a browser extension which implements an Ethereum wallet. It can be used with any Ethereum compatible network.
Once you have Metamask installed:

get ATS

In order to transact with the network, you need ATS for tx fees.
There's a faucet for that: call http://faucet.tau1.artis.network/ats/<ADDRESS_TO_BE_FUNDED>
(replace <ADDRESS_TO_BE_FUNDED> with the address of the account you want to get ATS for). Every call triggers a transfer of 1 ATS.

About

τ1 is an ARTIS testnet.
It makes use of several open source contributions of the fantastic Ethereum community, most importantly those of poa.network and Paritytech.

For convenience, this directory contains a script downloading a binary provided by Paritytech. Instructions for building from source can be found here.
Newer versions of Parity are expected to be compatible (able to sync with this chain). Versions older than 2.0.8 are known to be incompatible with this chain.

Network Upgrades

This section lists upgrades which are mandatory for nodes to remain synced with the chain.

Petersburg

Scheduled for block 1000000.

Why

It disables EIP-1283.
EIP-1283 was enabled from the start on tau1, because it was expected to also be enabled on Ethereum with the Constantinople upgrade. However, briefly before that scheduled upgrade, it was discovered that EIP-1283 enables a new reentrancy attack. As explained in that article, this attack is possible only in the context of a smart contract with very specific properties (basically, if the recommended Checks-Effects-Interactions-Pattern is not applied).
No such vulnerable smart contract exists on tau1. Nevertheless we apply the change in order to keep the EVM configuration as similar as possible to that of Ethereum. In this case, it's about keeping the amount of gas consumed by transactions the same across networks - with EIP-1283 enabled, many transactions consume less gas.

How

  1. Update your local copy of this repository with git pull
  2. Stop the trustnode with systemctl stop artis-tau1-parity
  3. Execute ./download-parity.sh --force. This updates your parity binary to a new version which understands the change in the chain specification file
  4. Start the Parity service with systemctl start artis-tau1-parity
  5. Make sure the service is running: systemctl status artis-tau1-parity
  6. Restart the node-status-reporter with systemctl restart artis-tau1-statusreporter
  7. Report the executed update to the tau1 trustnode chat channel