The current Gaia Version of the Cosmos Hub mainnet is v5.0.2. However if you want to build a node from scratch you need to first run v4.2.6 until the node panics at block height 6910000. The node should stop running after the panic, if it does not stop automatically, wait for 5-10 minutes and then kill it manually. Now install the latest version of gaia (v5.0.2) and then begin running the binary agian with the optional flag --x-crisis-skip-assert-invariants. This will begin syncing the node since the last upgrade until it is at the current height.
You can skip this process if you have access to a snapshot of the blockchain after height 6910000. You can find snapshots at cosmos.quicksync.io.
Instant Gratification Snippet
git clone -b v4.2.0 https://github.com/cosmos/gaia
cd gaia
make install
gaiad init chooseanicehandle
wget https://github.com/cosmos/mainnet/raw/master/genesis.cosmoshub-4.json.gz
gzip -d genesis.cosmoshub-4.json.gz
mv genesis.cosmoshub-4.json ~/.gaia/config/genesis.json
gaiad start --p2p.seeds bf8328b66dceb4987e5cd94430af66045e59899f@public-seed.cosmos.vitwit.com:26656,cfd785a4224c7940e9a10f6c1ab24c343e923bec@164.68.107.188:26656,d72b3011ed46d783e369fdf8ae2055b99a1e5074@173.249.50.25:26656,ba3bacc714817218562f743178228f23678b2873@public-seed-node.cosmoshub.certus.one:26656,3c7cad4154967a294b3ba1cc752e40e8779640ad@84.201.128.115:26656 --x-crisis-skip-assert-invariantsNow wait until the chain reaches block height XXXX. It will panic and you will see a message like:
ERR UPGRADE "Gravity-DEX" NEEDED at height: 6910000: v5.0.0-4760cf1f1266accec7a107f440d46d9724c6fd08
panic: UPGRADE "Gravity-DEX" NEEDED at height: 6910000: v5.0.0-4760cf1f1266accec7a107f440d46d9724c6fd08
Then you should run the following commands:
git checkout -b v5.0.2
make install
gaiad start --x-crisis-skip-assert-invariants --p2p.seeds bf8328b66dceb4987e5cd94430af66045e59899f@public-seed.cosmos.vitwit.com:26656,cfd785a4224c7940e9a10f6c1ab24c343e923bec@164.68.107.188:26656,d72b3011ed46d783e369fdf8ae2055b99a1e5074@173.249.50.25:26656,ba3bacc714817218562f743178228f23678b2873@public-seed-node.cosmoshub.certus.one:26656,3c7cad4154967a294b3ba1cc752e40e8779640ad@84.201.128.115:26656Note: If your node is unable to connect to any of the seeds listed here, you can find seeds and peers in this document maintained by community members, and at Atlas, which is automatically generated by crawling the network.
If you'd like to save those seeds to your settings put them in ~/.gaia/config/config.toml in the p2p section under seeds in the same comma-separated list format.
You need to install gaia before you go further
Gaia nodes on cosmoshub-4 take longer than 45 min to startup. The development team are evaluating solutions.
These instructions are for setting up a brand new full node from scratch.
First, initialize the node and create the necessary config files:
gaiad init <your_custom_moniker>Note Monikers can contain only ASCII characters. Using Unicode characters will render your node unreachable.
You can edit this moniker later, in the ~/.gaia/config/config.toml file:
# A custom human readable name for this node
moniker = "<your_custom_moniker>"You can edit the ~/.gaia/config/app.toml file in order to enable the anti spam mechanism and reject incoming transactions with less than the minimum gas prices:
# This is a TOML config file.
# For more information, see https://github.com/toml-lang/toml
##### main base config options #####
# The minimum gas prices a validator is willing to accept for processing a
# transaction. A transaction's fees must meet the minimum of any denomination
# specified in this config (e.g. 10uatom).
minimum-gas-prices = ""
Your full node has been initialized!
Fetch the mainnet's genesis.json file into gaiad's config directory.
mkdir -p $HOME/.gaia/config
wget https://github.com/cosmos/mainnet/raw/master/genesis.cosmoshub-4.json.gz
gzip -d genesis.cosmoshub-4.json.gz
mv genesis.cosmoshub-4.json $HOME/.gaia/configIf you want to connect to the public testnet instead, click here
To verify the correctness of the configuration run:
gaiad startYour node needs to know how to find peers. You'll need to add healthy seed nodes to $HOME/.gaia/config/config.toml. The launch repo contains links to some seed nodes.
If those seeds aren't working, you can find more seeds and persistent peers on a Cosmos Hub explorer (a list can be found on the launch page).
On Cosmos Hub mainnet, the accepted denom is uatom, where 1atom = 1.000.000uatom
Transactions on the Cosmos Hub network need to include a transaction fee in order to be processed. This fee pays for the gas required to run the transaction. The formula is the following:
fees = ceil(gas * gasPrices)
The gas is dependent on the transaction. Different transaction require different amount of gas. The gas amount for a transaction is calculated as it is being processed, but there is a way to estimate it beforehand by using the auto value for the gas flag. Of course, this only gives an estimate. You can adjust this estimate with the flag --gas-adjustment (default 1.0) if you want to be sure you provide enough gas for the transaction.
The gasPrice is the price of each unit of gas. Each validator sets a min-gas-price value, and will only include transactions that have a gasPrice greater than their min-gas-price.
The transaction fees are the product of gas and gasPrice. As a user, you have to input 2 out of 3. The higher the gasPrice/fees, the higher the chance that your transaction will get included in a block.
For mainnet, the recommended gas-prices is 0.025uatom.
Your full-node keeps unconfirmed transactions in its mempool. In order to protect it from spam, it is better to set a minimum-gas-prices that the transaction must meet in order to be accepted in your node's mempool. This parameter can be set in the following file ~/.gaia/config/app.toml.
The initial recommended min-gas-prices is 0.025uatom, but you might want to change it later.
There are three strategies for pruning state, please be aware that this is only for state and not for block storage:
PruneEverything: This means that all saved states will be pruned other than the current.PruneNothing: This means that all state will be saved and nothing will be deleted.PruneSyncable: This means that only the state of the last 100 and every 10,000th blocks will be saved.
By default every node is in PruneSyncable mode. If you would like to change your nodes pruning strategy then you must do so when the node is initialized. For example, if you would like to change your node to the PruneEverything mode then you can pass the ---pruning everything flag when you call gaiad start.
Note: When you are pruning state you will not be able to query the heights that are not in your store.
Start the full node with this command:
gaiad startCheck that everything is running smoothly:
gaiad statusView the status of the network with the Cosmos Explorer.
Gaia can dump the entire application state to a JSON file, which could be useful for manual analysis and can also be used as the genesis file of a new network.
Export state with:
gaiad export > [filename].jsonYou can also export state from a particular height (at the end of processing the block of that height):
gaiad export --height [height] > [filename].jsonIf you plan to start a new network from the exported state, export with the --for-zero-height flag:
gaiad export --height [height] --for-zero-height > [filename].jsonHelp to prevent a catastrophe by running invariants on each block on your full node. In essence, by running invariants you ensure that the state of mainnet is the correct expected state. One vital invariant check is that no atoms are being created or destroyed outside of expected protocol, however there are many other invariant checks each unique to their respective module. Because invariant checks are computationally expensive, they are not enabled by default. To run a node with these checks start your node with the assert-invariants-blockly flag:
gaiad start --assert-invariants-blocklyIf an invariant is broken on your node, your node will panic and prompt you to send a transaction which will halt mainnet. For example the provided message may look like:
invariant broken:
loose token invariance:
pool.NotBondedTokens: 100
sum of account tokens: 101
CRITICAL please submit the following transaction:
gaiad tx crisis invariant-broken staking supply
When submitting a invariant-broken transaction, transaction fee tokens are not deducted as the blockchain will halt (aka. this is a free transaction).
You now have an active full node. What's the next step? You can upgrade your full node to become a Cosmos Validator. The top 125 validators have the ability to propose new blocks to the Cosmos Hub. Continue onto the Validator Setup.