ALEO : TESTNET 3

The third and final testnet for Aleo has been announced before the launch of the mainnet. There are three distinct phases to Testnet 3, namely the Developer Phase, the Prover Phase, and the Validator Phase.

PHASE 1 : DEVELOPER PHASE

• The Aleo Team bootstraps the network with genesis beacons

• Developers can start writing, deploying, and executing programs locally

• At the end of the Phase 1 there will be a stage of judging, which will determine the rewards for developers.

PHASE 2 : PROVERS PHASE (WE ARE HERE)

• Provers start solving coinbase puzzles (PoSW) to earn credits.

• The Aleo team kickstarts the bug bounty program for snarkOS and snarkVM.

PHASE 3 : VALIDATOR PHASE

• Validators start producing blocks and earning rewards.

• Provers with 1 million Aleo credits from PROVERS PHASE will be able to become validators.

• The Aleo team will bootstrap the network for Phase 3 with AleoBFT.

ALEO : PROVERS PHASE

A few notes to whoever want to participate in the PROVERS PHASE

• The current Prover Node isn’t incentivize yet, they’re planning to enable the incentivize in 4-8 coming weeks. Do not take part until the incentive is enabled.

• Provers phase are subject to competitive, the higher your machine specifications; the more credits/points/rewards you get (The competition is expected to be high).

• There is no more winner take all strategy. The accrual of credits/points is supposed to be more efficient and fair than the old testnet, but you can't let your guard down because it's still a competition.

• In this phase, GPUs can be used to increase miners' efficiency and output while working on a block.

• Since the AMD RYZEN series is the market's most cost-effective and fastest CPU architecture in under $200 price range, a dedicated server equipped with these processors would be an excellent starter investment.

• Navigate to

  https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_value_available.html

Just in case if you need a specific comparison between CPUs

The following are minimum requirements to run an Aleo node (Client & Provers) :

• CPU: 16-cores (32-cores preferred)

• RAM: 16GB of memory (32GB preferred)

• Storage: 128GB of disk space

• Network: 10 Mbps of upload and download bandwidth

• Machine Type: Dedicated server

• Since your competitors is likely making use of a high-powered dedicated server, you shouldn't set your sights too high if you're only planning on running it on a virtual private server (VPS) nor the below specs of the minimum requirement (Dedicated server).

  Whether you go by the bare minimum or the recommended standard, it's still not worth it if you're expected to hit an unrealistically high bar. It's worth it if you're just curious about runing Aleo Prover Node, despite the expectedly stiff competition.

• There are many companies that offer AMD dedicated servers; before deciding on one, be sure to check with their support team to see if they permit the use of their hardware for PoSW node testnet.

HOW TO RUN ALEO PROVER

Here is the guide how to run Aleo Node : Client & Prover Node written by Nodes Guru. Or you can follow the official instructions.

INSTALL

install the Aleo Client & Prover Node automatically (Aleo Prover node will automatically running after the installation).

wget -q -O aleo_snarkos3.sh https://api.nodes.guru/aleo_snarkos3.sh && chmod +x aleo_snarkos3.sh && sudo /bin/bash aleo_snarkos3.sh

Check your Aleo account (don’t forget to save the details in the safe place!)

cat $HOME/aleo/account_new.txt

Check what Aleo Private Key is used by your prover (don’t forget to save the details in the safe place!)

grep "prover" /etc/systemd/system/aleo-prover.service | awk '{print $5}'

Check aleo prover logs

journalctl -u aleo-prover -f -o cat

Check the aleo client logs if it is running

journalctl -u aleo-client -f -o cat

If you've completed all of these steps, your prover node is up and running. And you can skip using the USEFUL COMMANDS down below. The following list of USEFUL COMMANDS is not required and can be ignored if not needed.

USEFUL COMMANDS

Stop the aleo prover and start the aleo client

systemctl stop aleo-prover
systemctl restart aleo-client

Running the prover

systemctl stop aleo-client
systemctl restart aleo-prover

Remove snarkos and all source files, including aleo miner address

wget -q -O aleo_remove_snarkos.sh https://api.nodes.guru/aleo_remove_snarkos2.sh && chmod +x aleo_remove_snarkos.sh && sudo /bin/bash aleo_remove_snarkos.sh