Running a Public Network

Running a Public Network

If you just want to run your own local network for testing, you can learn how to do that here.

Genesis ceremonies

The endless tool supports bootstrapping new blockchains through what is known as a genesis ceremony. The output of the genesis ceremony is the output of move instructions that prepares a blockchain for online operation. The input consists of:

• A set of validators and their configuration

• The initial set of Move modules, known as a framework

• A unique ChainId (u8) that distinguishes this from other networks

• For test chains, there also exists an account that manages the minting of EndlessCoin

Generating genesis

• The genesis organizer constructs a Layout and distributes it.

• The genesis organizer prepares the Endless framework's bytecode and distributes it.

• Each participant generates their ValidatorConfiguration and distributes it.

• Each participant generates a genesis.blob from the resulting contributions.

• The genesis organizer executes the genesis.blob to derive the initial waypoint and distributes it.

• Each participant begins their endless-node. The endless-node verifies upon startup that the genesis.blob with the waypoint provided by the genesis organizer.

• The blockchain will begin consensus after a quorum of stake is available.

Prepare endless-core

The following sections rely on tools from the Endless source. See Building Endless From Source for setup.

The layout file

The layout file contains:

• root_key: an Ed25519 public key for EndlessCoin management.

• users: the set of participants

• chain_id: the ChainId or a unique integer that distinguishes this deployment from other Endless networks

An example:

root_key: "0xca3579457555c80fc7bb39964eb298c414fd60f81a2f8eedb0244ec07a26e575"
users:
  - alice
  - bob
chain_id: 8

Building the Endless Framework

From your Endless repository, build the framework and package it:

cargo run --package framework
mkdir endless-framework-release
cp endless-framework/releases/artifacts/current/build/**/bytecode_modules/* endless-framework-release

The framework will be stored within the endless-framework-release directory.

The ValidatorConfiguration file

The ValidatorConfiguration file contains:

• account_address: The account that manages this validator. This must be derived from the account_key provided within the ValidatorConfiguration file.

• consensus_key: The public key for authenticating consensus messages from the validator

• account_key: The public key for the account that manages this validator. This is used to derive the account_address.

• network_key: The public key for both validator and fullnode network authentication and encryption.

• validator_host: The network address where the validator resides. This contains a host and port field. The host should either be a DNS name or an IP address. Currently only IPv4 is supported.

• full_node_host: An optional network address where the fullnode resides. This contains a host and port field. The host should either be a DNS name or an IP address. Currently only IPv4 is supported.

• stake_amount: The number of coins being staked by this node. This is expected to be 1, if it is different the configuration will be considered invalid.

An example:

account_address: ccd49f3ea764365ac21e99f029ca63a9b0fbfab1c8d8d5482900e4fa32c5448a
consensus_key: "0xa05b8f41057ac72f9ca99f5e3b1b787930f03ba5e448661f2a1fac98371775ee"
account_key: "0x3d15ab64c8b14c9aab95287fd0eb894aad0b4bd929a5581bcc8225b5688f053b"
network_key: "0x43ce1a4ac031b98bb1ee4a5cd72a4cca0fd72933d64b22cef4f1a61895c2e544"
validator_host:
  host: bobs_host
  port: 6180
full_node_host:
  host: bobs_host
  port: 6182
stake_amount: 1

To generate this using the endless CLI:

1. Generate your validator's keys:

cargo run --package endless -- genesis generate-keys --output-dir bobs

1. Generate your ValidatorConfiguration:

cargo run --package endless -- \\
    genesis set-validator-configuration \\
    --keys-dir bobs \\
    --username bob \\
    --validator-host bobs_host:6180 \\
    --full-node-host bobs_host:6180 \\
    --local-repository-dir .

1. The last command will produce a bob.yaml file that should be distributed to other participants for genesis.blob generation.

Generating a genesis and waypoint

genesis.blob and the waypoint can be generated after obtaining the layout file, each of the individual ValidatorConfiguration files, and the framework release. It is important to validate that the ValidatorConfiguration provided in the earlier stage is the same as in the distribution for generating the genesis.blob. If there is a mismatch, inform all participants.

To generate the genesis.blob and waypoint:

• Place the layout file in a directory, e.g., genesis.

• Place all the ValidatorConfiguration files into the genesis directory.

• Ensure that the ValidatorConfiguration files are listed under the set of users within the layout file.

• Make a framework directory within the genesiss directory and place the framework release .mv files into the framework directory.

• Use the endless CLI to generate genesis and waypoint:

cargo run --package endless -- genesis generate-genesis --local-repository-dir genesis

Starting an endless-node

Upon generating the genesis.blob and waypoint, place them into your validator and fullnode's configuration directory and begin your validator and fullnode.