Set up guide for a Validator Node on Celestia’s Mocha Testnet, this also applies to set up a Consensus full node, up to Step 7.
Validator Node’s are responsible for the proof-of-stake consensus on the Celestia network, validators put up stake to be economically incentivised to keep the network secure and in doing so get rewarded.
Consensus Full Node, talk to other full nodes via peer-to-peer networking to verify the chain state. Consensus concerns how the network comes to agreement on the state of balances and accounts for the Celestia chain. Every Validator will run a consensus full node, but its not necessary for a full node to run a validator.
Note there can only be 100 active validators, nodes with the highest stake + delegation. If a validator does not have the required votes it will be inactive, still a live peer on the network but will not be selected to produce blocks until it reaches the active set.
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 Validator here, This document is designed for an easy step by step setup
1. Setup Dependencies
Update the OS
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
Install essential packages for Celestia
These are essential packages that are necessary to execute many tasks like downloading files, compiling and monitoring the node:
sudo apt install curl tar wget clang pkg-config libssl-dev jq build-essential bsdmainutils git make ncdu -y
Change to Root User
Most of the packages to install work best under root, to enter root in the terminal with sudo -i which can be exited back to normal user with exit anytime.
Install Golang
remove any existing installation
cd $HOME
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go
sudo rm -rf ~/go
Install Go and extract
ver="1.19.4"
wget "https://golang.org/dl/go$ver.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf "go$ver.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
rm "go$ver.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
Add Go to PATH
echo "export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin:$HOME/go/bin" >> $HOME/.bash_profile
source $HOME/.bash_profile
Adding to the PATH variable is to allow Linux shell to know where to look for executable files is easy, to confirm this try go version
2. Install Celestia Application
For Celestia Validator Node setup: running a Celestia App daemon with an internal Celestia Core node. https://docs.celestia.org/developers/celestia-app/, the application will be configured as a validator later.
Install Celestia App
create a binary file named celestia-appd inside $HOME/go/bin folder which will be used later to run the node. Check the Discord ‘Mocha Testnet’ announcements for the latest version (currently this is v0.11.0)
cd $HOME
git clone https://github.com/celestiaorg/celestia-app.git
cd celestia-app
git checkout v0.11.0
make install
confirm installation with, in the directory
celestia-appd version
3. Set Variables
CELESTIA_NODENAME="MY_NODE"
CELESTIA_WALLET="MY_WALLET"
CELESTIA_CHAIN="mocha" # do not change
Save Variables
echo "export CELESTIA_CHAIN=$CELESTIA_CHAIN
export CELESTIA_NODENAME=${CELESTIA_NODENAME}
export CELESTIA_WALLET=${CELESTIA_WALLET}
" >> $HOME/.bash_profile
source $HOME/.bash_profile
you should be able to echo the $VAR and see the correct result returned, or check the .bash_profile itself
4. Initialise Node
celestia-appd init $CELESTIA_NODENAME --chain-id $CELESTIA_CHAIN
Copy Genesis
Download network configs, and move to .celestia-app
cd $HOME
git clone https://github.com/celestiaorg/networks
cp $HOME/networks/mocha/genesis.json $HOME/.celestia-app/config/
Reset
celestia-appd tendermint unsafe-reset-all --home $HOME/.celestia-app
5. Configurations
Peers and Seeds
SEEDS="9aa8a73ea9364aa3cf7806d4dd25b6aed88d8152@celestia.seed.mzonder.com:11156"
sed -i "s|^seeds *=.*|seeds = \"$SEEDS\"|" $HOME/.celestia-app/config/config.toml
Pruning and Snapshots
pruning_keep_recent="10000"
pruning_interval=$(shuf -n1 -e 11 13 17 19 23 29 31 37 41 43 47 53 59 61 67 71 73 79 83 89 97)
snapshot_interval="5000"
sed -i "s/^pruning *=.*/pruning = \"custom\"/;\
s/^pruning-keep-recent *=.*/pruning-keep-recent = \"$pruning_keep_recent\"/;\
s/^pruning-interval *=.*/pruning-interval = \"$pruning_interval\"/;\
s/^snapshot-interval *=.*/snapshot-interval = $snapshot_interval/" $HOME/.celestia-app/config/app.toml
This sets the values we want for certain variables stored in $HOME/.celestia-app/config/app.toml
Client Config
celestia-appd config chain-id $CELESTIA_CHAIN --home $HOME/.celestia-app
celestia-appd config keyring-backend test
6. Run Node with SystemD
tee $HOME/celestia-appd.service > /dev/null <<EOF
[Unit]
Description=celestia-appd
After=network-online.target
[Service]
User=$USER
ExecStart=$(which celestia-appd) start
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=3
LimitNOFILE=65535
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF
Move to directory
mv $HOME/celestia-appd.service /etc/systemd/system/
Enable Service and Start
systemctl enable celestia-appd
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start celestia-appd
Display Logs
journalctl -u celestia-appd -f -o cat
It will take a while to find peers, be patient
Once Peers have been found, it will begin syncing, logs should look similar to this
7. Setup Validator Key (Validator Only)
Before continuing the node must be synced this can be checked with
curl -s localhost:26657/status
This outputs the sync info, and catching_up will be false once synced
Recover existing key
celestia-appd keys add $CELESTIA_WALLET --recover
Input your seed/mnemonic, (assuming this wallet has tokens and set up for mocha Testnet)
Check Balance
celestia-appd q bank balances $CELESTIA_ADDR
Save addresses to Variables
The validator address (VALOPER) is a derived address from your seed that is different from the normal address
CELESTIA_ADDR=$(celestia-appd keys show $CELESTIA_WALLET -a)
echo $CELESTIA_ADDR
echo 'export CELESTIA_ADDR='${CELESTIA_ADDR} >> $HOME/.bash_profile
CELESTIA_VALOPER=$(celestia-appd keys show $CELESTIA_WALLET --bech val -a)
echo $CELESTIA_VALOPER
echo 'export CELESTIA_VALOPER='${CELESTIA_VALOPER} >> $HOME/.bash_profile
source $HOME/.bash_profile
Set up QGB Keys
celestia-appd keys add ORCHESTRATOR_ADDRESS
SAVE THE SEED THAT IS OUTPUT
Save Orchestrator address to variables
ORCHESTRATOR_ADDRESS=$(celestia-appd keys show ORCHESTRATOR_ADDRESS -a)
echo $ORCHESTRATOR_ADDRESS
echo 'export ORCHESTRATOR_ADDRESS='${ORCHESTRATOR_ADDRESS} >> $HOME/.bash_profile
Save an EVM address to variables
This should be an address under your control
EVM_ADDRESS=<ETH ADDRESS WALLET HERE>
echo $EVM_ADDRESS
echo 'export EVM_ADDRESS='${EVM_ADDRESS} >> $HOME/.bash_profile
8. Create Validator
celestia-appd tx staking create-validator \
--amount=1000000utia \
--pubkey=$(celestia-appd tendermint show-validator) \
--moniker=$CELESTIA_NODENAME \
--chain-id=$CELESTIA_CHAIN \
--commission-rate=0.1 \
--commission-max-rate=0.2 \
--commission-max-change-rate=0.01 \
--min-self-delegation=1000000 \
--from=$CELESTIA_WALLET \
--evm-address=$EVM_ADDRESS \
--orchestrator-address=$ORCHESTRATOR_ADDRESS \
--fees 5000utia \
--gas auto \
--gas-adjustment 1.5
NOTE: 1000000 is equal to 1 TIA
Check the Validator
celestia-appd q staking validator $CELESTIA_VALOPER
this will only work after the transaction is confirmed, may take a few minutes. alternatively validator can be seen on an explorer
Additional Commands
Change Moniker
celestia-appd tx staking edit-validator --identity "YOUR_KEYBASE_ID" --from $CELESTIA_WALLET --fees 500utia
Delegate More
celestia-appd tx staking delegate $CELESTIA_VALOPER 10000000utia --from=$CELESTIA_WALLET --fees 500utia