huglester / chainweb-node

Chainweb: A Proof-of-Work Parallel-Chain Architecture for Massive Throughput

Chainweb

Read our whitepaper: Chainweb: A Proof-of-Work Parallel-Chain Architecture for Massive Throughput

With our recent release of Chainweb Testnet v3, we now have a public network to which anyone can connect, plus the ability to mine (either by using the new chainweb-miner or by running a node). As before, we provide a binary for Linux users, and Mac users can follow the instructions to build from source and then run their Chainweb node.

Table of Contents

• Chainweb Bootstrap Nodes
• Installing Chainweb
  • Instructions for Linux Users
  • Instructions for Mac Users
• Running Chainweb
  • Running a Chainweb Node
  • Configuring a Chainweb Node
    • Specifying Bootstrap Nodes
    • Specifying your Public Identity
    • Specifying your Mining Identity
    • Specifying a Log Level
  • Mining for a Chainweb Network
• Design
  • Component Structure Details
  • Architecture Overview

Chainweb Bootstrap Nodes

Below are the addresses of the Bootstrap nodes of the public Chainweb Testnet network:

• us1.testnet.chainweb.com
• us2.testnet.chainweb.com
• eu1.testnet.chainweb.com
• eu2.testnet.chainweb.com
• ap1.testnet.chainweb.com
• ap2.testnet.chainweb.com

Linux Users

Download the binaries:

• Chainweb-node Testnet binary: chainweb-node-testnet-v3-ubuntu-18.04
• Chainweb miner Testnet binary: chainweb-miner-testnet-v3-ubuntu-18.04

You will need to install rocksdb with the following command:

sudo apt install librocksdb5.8

At this point, you are ready to run a Chainweb node

Mac Users

Building from Source

Chainweb is a Haskell project, and can be built in several ways.

Getting the Code

Dependencies

• Homebrew: brew install git
• Installer

To get the code, you can either use the Source code (zip) or the Source code (tar.gz)

You have the code, now let's pick a build tool.

Building with Nix

The fastest way to build and run chainweb is to use the Nix package manager which has binary caching capabilities that allow you to download pre-built binaries for everything needed by Chainweb. For detailed instructions see our wiki.

When the build is finished, you can run chainweb with the following command:

./result/ghc/chainweb/bin/chainweb-node

Building with Stack

Dependencies

• stack >= 1.9
  • Mac (Homebrew): brew install haskell-stack
  • General Linux / Mac

(You may also need to install zlib, openssl, and sqlite.)

Stack is a Haskell build tool that manages compiler and dependency versions for you. It's easy to install and use.

To build a chainweb-node binary:

stack build

This will compile a runnable version of chainweb-node, which you can run via:

stack exec -- chainweb-node

Alternatively, stack install will install the binary to ~/.local/bin/, which you may need to add to your path. Then, you can call chainweb-node as-is.

Building with Cabal

Dependencies

• ghc >= 8.4 (Haskell compiler) and cabal >= 2.2 (Haskell build-tool)
  • Linux / Mac

(You may also need to install zlib, openssl, and sqlite.)

Cabal is the original build tool for Haskell. You will need a version of GHC installed on your machine to use it.

To build a chainweb-node binary:

# Only necessary if you haven't done this recently.
cabal new-update

# Build the project.
cabal new-build

To install a runnable binary to ~/.cabal/bin/:

cabal new-install

Running a Chainweb Node

This section assumes you've installed the chainweb-node binary somewhere sensible, or otherwise have a simple way to refer to it. Please note that by default, the in-process mining is turned on; for instructions on how to turn it off, please refer to the Mining Guide.

Chainweb has many configuration options. Although there are command-line flags for all of them, in practice we use a config file:

./chainweb-node --print-config > config.yaml

Then, to run a node:

./chainweb-node --config-file=config.yaml

This will run a local Node on your machine, and you will see a flurry of activity. However, your Node won't be connected to the wider network yet. For that, we must configure Chainweb and change some defaults.

Configuring a Chainweb Node

All available command-line options are shown by running:

chainweb-node --help

But we recommend working with a configuration file. The following instructions assume that you have generated such a file, as shown above.

Specifying Bootstrap Nodes

To connect to the wider network, we must communiciate with some initial Peer. We call such a peer a Bootstrap Node. We define these in the peers list:

chainweb:
  ... # other settings
  p2p:
    ... # other settings
    peers: []

Let's update it to include one of Kadena's public Bootstraps:

peers:
  - address:
      hostname: us1.testnet.chainweb.com
      port: 443
    id: null

Since peers is a list, you can specify as many as you like, including other powerful Nodes that you manage.

Specifying your Public Identity

You need to inform other Nodes how to talk back to you. This is also the information that they send along to their neighbours as part of the Peer Network:

chainweb:
  p2p:
    peer:
      ... # other settings
      hostaddress:
        hostname: localhost
        port: 0

localhost is no good.

hostaddress:
  hostname: <your-public-ip-here>
  port: 443

Keep in mind that you may have to perform Port Forwarding if your machine is behind a router.

Specifying your Mining Identity

See our Mining Guide for details. Without a properly defined Mining Identity, your mining effort will be wasted.

Don't want to mine? Use either --disable-mining on the command-line, or set:

chainweb:
  miner:
    enable: false

Specifying a Logging Level

Chainweb runs on Info by default. If you'd prefer something quieter, like Warn, set:

logging:
  logger:
    log_level: warn

Mine for a Chainweb Network

Detailed mining instructions can be found in our Mining Guide.

Component Structure

The production components are:

• chainweb library: It provides the implementation for the different components of a chainweb-node.

• chainweb-node: An application that runs a Chainweb node. It maintains copies of a number of chains from a given Chainweb instance. It provides interfaces (command-line and RPC) for directly interacting with the Chainweb or for implementing applications such as miners and transaction management tools.

• chainweb-miner: A stand-alone Mining Client.

• chainweb-tests: A test suite for the Chainweb library and chainweb-node.

Architecture Overview

For a detailed description of the chainweb architecture, see here.