Full Node Build
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Follow the instructions to install Go.
For an Ubuntu LTS, we can use:
Unless you want to configure in a non standard way, then set these in the .zshrc in the user's home (i.e. ~/) folder.
Add the "export Pathing" rules at the bottom, and then save the file:
After updating your ~/.zshrc you will need to source it:
To confirm that the installation has succeeded, you can run:
For this guide, we will be using shell variables. This will enable the use of the client commands verbatim. It is important to remember that shell commands are only valid for the current shell session, and if the shell session is closed, the shell variables will need to be re-defined.
If you want variables to persist for multiple sessions, then set them explicitly in your shell .profile, as you did for the Go environment variables.
To clear a variable binding, use unset $VARIABLE_NAME. Shell variables should be named with ALL CAPS.
These instructions will direct you on how to initialize your node, synchronize to the network and upgrade your node to a validator.
Please replace YOUR_MONIKER with your own moniker.
This will generate the following files in ~/.babylon/config/
genesis.json
node_key.json
priv_validator_key.json
This will replace the genesis file created using babylond init command with the mainnet genesis.json.
Edit the configuration file at ~/.babylond/config/app.toml and modify the btc-network attribute to contain the appropriate BTC network parameters as below.
Either create a new key pair or restore an existing wallet for your validator:
After creating a new key, the key information and seed phrase will be shown. It is essential to write this seed phrase down and keep it in a safe place. The seed phrase is the only way to restore your keys.
Validators are expected to submit a BLS signature at the end of each epoch. To do that, a validator needs to have a BLS key pair to sign information with.
Using the address that you created on the previous step ($ADDR variable):
This command will create a BLS key and add it to the ~/.babylond/config/priv_validator_key.json. This is the same file that stores the private key that the validator uses to sign blocks. Please ensure that this file is secured properly.
A Babylon validator needs to send BLS signature transactions at the end of each epoch. This process is done automatically through the Babylon codebase which identifies which key to use from the ~/.babylond/config/client.toml file. Edit this file and set the keyring backend that you're using. In this guide's case:
Furthermore, you need to specify the name of the key that the validator will be using to submit BLS signature transactions under the ~/.babylond/config/app.toml file. Edit this file and set the key name to the one that holds funds on your keyring:
Do not attempt to upgrade your node to a validator until the node is fully in sync as per the previous step.
To upgrade the node to a validator, you will need to submit a create-validator transaction:
The above transaction is just an example. There are many more flags that can be set to customize your validator, such as your validator website, or keybase.io id, etc. To see a full list:
There are certain files that you need to back up to be able to restore your validator if, for some reason, it damaged or lost in some way. Please make a secure backup of the following files located in ~/.babylond/config/:
priv_validator_key.json
node_key.json
It is recommended that you encrypt and backup of these files.
Edit the configuration file at ~/.babylond/config/config.toml and modify the seeds and persistent_peers attributes to contain appropriate seeds and peers of your choice. The full list of Babylon approved seeds and peers can be found under the .
This can be accomplished by going to the #faucet channel of the official to request funds by providing the address you created before. After joining the channel, users send a request starting with !faucet followed by the request address. For example, !faucet bbn1sajf5fd7tyjt0jjy6lqzahy09jl2nkcnx5qm06.
Follow the instructions to setup cosmovisor and start the node.
After creating a BLS key, you need to restart your node to load this key into memory. If you followed the , you would have to
Finally, it is strongly recommended to modify the timeout_commit value under ~/.babylond/config/config.toml. This value specifies how long a validator will wait before commiting a block before starting on a new height. More information can be found . Given that Babylon aims to have a 10 second time between blocks, set this value to: