Set up guide for a Bridge Node on Celestia Mocha Testnet

Bridge nodes connect the data availability layer and the consensus layer while also having the option of becoming a validator. Validators do not have to run bridge nodes, but are encouraged to in order to relay blocks to the data availability network.

Bridge Node Functions

• Import and process “raw” headers & blocks from a trusted Core process (meaning a trusted RPC connection to a celestia-core node) in the Consensus network.

• Validate and erasure code the “raw” blocks

• Supply block shares with data availability headers to Light Nodes in the DA network.

Hardware Requirements:

4vCPU / 8GB RAM / 250GB SSD / 1 Gbps Download/100 Mbps Upload
OS: Ubuntu Linux 20.04 (LTS) x64

See Official guides for Celestia on setting up a Bridge node here, This document is designed for an easy step by step setup

1. Install Celestia-node

Dependencies

This will require the same prerequisite software dependencies installed in Step 1 of the Validator Node guide, this guide is intended for running a Bridge node in parallel to a Validator/full node, so should already be installed. However this could be run separate.

Change to root

sudo -i

Install celestia-node

cd $HOME
rm -rf celestia-node
git clone https://github.com/celestiaorg/celestia-node.git
cd celestia-node/
git checkout tags/v0.6.1
make install
make cel-key

You should be in celestia-node directory, verify installed correctly

celestia version

NOTE: celestia app is what was installed for validator node

2. Initialise the Bridge node

celestia bridge init --core.ip <ip-address>:<port>

--core.ip port defaults to 9090, RPC Endpoints can be found here:

Example

celestia bridge init --core.ip https://rpc-mocha.pops.one:9090

We now have a working directory .celestia-bridge and our config should be found at ./config.toml

3. Run the Bridge Node

Start the Bridge Node with a connection to a validator node's gRPC endpoint (which is usually exposed on port 9090), find addresses above.

celestia bridge start --core.ip <ip-address>

Connect to your own validator

to connect to your own validator use the above command like so

celestia bridge start --core.ip http://localhost:9090

Connect to a core team public endpoint

otherwise using one of the public endpoints like so

celestia bridge start --core.ip https://rpc-mocha.pops.one:26657

Stop the node with ctrl + c, as it will be set up as a system service to run continuously in the background.

4. Wallet

Once you start the Bridge Node, a wallet key will be generated for you. You will need to fund that address with Testnet tokens to pay for PayForData transactions.

Find address to fund

./cel-key list --node.type bridge --keyring-backend test

Use Existing Key

The custom key must exist inside the Celestia bridge node directory at the correct path default: ~/.celestia-bridge/keys/keyring-test.

Recover Key, with existing seed

./cel-key add <name_of_custom_key> --keyring-backend test --node.type bridge --recover

add flag to the start command from step 3. or to the system service file later at step 5.

--keyring.accname <name_of_custom_key>

Fund the bridge node wallet

Fund the address for the bridge from another wallet, such as sending from validator node/full consensus node. in the working directory

celestia-appd tx bank send [from_key_or_address] [to_address] [amount] --chain-id mamaki --fees  [fee] -y

5. Set up as system service

This is a working example, using your own validator gRPC endpoint on the same server, and bridge wallet named ‘bridgewallet’

--core.ip <ip-address>

--keyring.accname bridgewallet <name_of_custom_key>

tee <<EOF >/dev/null /etc/systemd/system/celestia-bridge.service
[Unit]
Description=celestia-bridge Cosmos daemon
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=root
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/celestia bridge start --core.ip http://localhost:9090 --keyring.accname bridgewallet
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=3
LimitNOFILE=4096

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

Enable and Start Service

systemctl enable celestia-bridge
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start celestia-bridge 

Check Status

systemctl status celestia-bridge

Check logs

journalctl -u celestia-bridge.service -f

Making Changes

such as changing the gRPC endpoint you will need to edit the service file

stop the service

systemctl stop celestia-bridge

Open service for editing

nano /etc/systemd/system/celestia-bridge.service

Restart the service

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start celestia-bridge