##Building A New Sidechain with Elements

This is a basic step-by-step guide to building your own sidechain and setting up a fedpeg. This configuration works to run a sidechain with a 1-of-1 functionary/blocksigner. (Not tested on multiple nodes with more than 1 signer)

####Elements Please look over the Elements Project if you haven't already. Also read Alpha README for building dependencies and to follow along. The instructions for building the dependencies are pretty cut and clear, however, the building of a new fedpeg isn't as detailed. Keep the Elements Project's Alpha-README open in a separate tab for reference.

####Prerequisites

1. Linux. Building with Windows is possible - publish a guide if you know how as there isn't one publicly available! :)
2. All dependencies for Elements-Alpha. Build Notes

####Build Try to follow this order to avoid unneccessary recompilations. This is an extension of the instructions to "Run a fedpeg operator" in the Element's alpha README.

Edit your .bashrc. We'll come back to this file later:

RPC_USER=your_username_here
RPC_PASSWORD=your_super_random_long_password_here
export RPC_USER
export RPC_PASS

Build bitcoin (mainchain):

git clone https://github.com/ElementsProject/elements
cd elements
git checkout mainchain
./autogen.sh && ./configure && make
mv src/bitcoin{d,-cli,-tx} ../

Run testnet. If you get an error asking to rebuild the blockchain, replace -txindex with -reindex. If you have to rebuild it, continue these instructions while it syncs:

./bitcoind -rpcuser=$RPC_USER -rpcpassword=$RPC_PASS -testnet -txindex -daemon

Checkout alpha.:

git checkout alpha

With bitcoin testnet, generate an address and obtain the private/public key.

./bitcoin-cli -testnet getnewaddress 
//returns some address
./bitcoin-cli -testnet dumpprivkey [address]
//returns private key. Save this - we'll need it later for .bashrc file
./bitcoin-cli -testnet validateaddress [address]
//returns JSON object. Copy the public key.

####C++ You should be on your sidechain branch (alpha). This is the part where we uniquely create your sidechain with the public keys of each functionary/blocksigner. Open src/chainparams.cpp and edit the public keys, ports, and seeds. Line 132 has the public keys for each functionary/blocksigner:

scriptDestination = CScript() << OP_5 << ParseHex("027d5d62861df77fc9a37dbe901a579d686d1423be5f56d6fc50bb9de3480871d1") << ParseHex("03b41ea6ba73b94c901fdd43e782aaf70016cc124b72a086e77f6e9f4f942ca9bb") << ParseHex("02be643c3350bade7c96f6f28d1750af2ef507bc1f08dd38f82749214ab90d9037") << ParseHex("021df31471281d4478df85bfce08a10aab82601dca949a79950f8ddf7002bd915a") << ParseHex("0320ea4fcf77b63e89094e681a5bd50355900bf961c10c9c82876cb3238979c0ed") << ParseHex("021c4c92c8380659eb567b497b936b274424662909e1ffebc603672ed8433f4aa1") << ParseHex("027841250cfadc06c603da8bc58f6cd91e62f369826c8718eb6bd114601dd0c5ac") << OP_7 << OP_CHECKMULTISIG;

For simplicity, let's replace the current 5-of-7 multisig with a 1-of-1. Change to:

scriptDestination = CScript() << OP_1 << ParseHex("[paste public key we just generated]") << OP_1 << OP_CHECKMULTISIG;

Line 139 has the DNS seeds. If you have more than 1 functionary/blocksigner, you'll need to create a DNS of your own in order to communicate. Replace the current 5 seeds with the seeds of your signers. Also delete the testnet seed on L198. If you're creating a local 1-of-1 sidechain on your machine that won't be communicating on any port, you don't need to create any seeds or configure the protocol port.

Still in src/chainparams.cpp, change the testnet port number on L182 - this is the unique channel of communication for your sidechain so don't just increase/decrease it by one. This is one of two ports we'll change. Call this one the protocol port.

You need to duplicate what you did on L132 of src/chainparams.cpp on L1451 of src/script/interpreter.cpp. Replace this line

CScript scriptDestination(CScript() << OP_5 << ParseHex("0269992fb441ae56968e5b77d46a3e53b69f136444ae65a94041fc937bdb28d933") << ParseHex("021df31471281d4478df85bfce08a     10aab82601dca949a79950f8ddf7002bd915a") << ParseHex("02174c82021492c2c6dfcbfa4187d10d38bed06afb7fdcd72c880179fddd641ea1") << ParseHex("033f96e43d72c33327b6a4631ccaa6ea07f0b106c88b9dc71c9000bb6044d5e88     a") << ParseHex("0313d8748790f2a86fb524579b46ce3c68fedd58d2a738716249a9f7d5458a15c2") << ParseHex("030b632eeb079eb83648886122a04c7bf6d98ab5dfb94cf353ee3e9382a4c2fab0") << ParseHex("02fb54a7fcaa73c307c     fd70f3fa66a2e4247a71858ca731396343ad30c7c4009ce") << OP_7 << OP_CHECKMULTISIG);

with

CScript scriptDestination(CScript() << OP_1 << ParseHex("[paste public key we just generated]") << OP_1 << OP_CHECKMULTISIG); 

Open src/chainparamsbase.cpp, change the port on L43. This is the RPC port - keep it different from the protocol port (i.e. alpha's ports are 4241 and 4242). On L44 of the same file, you can change the name of the data directory for your sidechain (where your blocks, .dat files, etc. will be stored).

At this point, you can compile your sidechain in the same way we compiled the mainchain earlier. There are a few help/console string messages you can change in main.cpp, init.cpp, bitcoind.cpp, but it's not necessary for basic functional purposes.

./autogen.sh && ./configure && make

If there's a error in your compilation, go back to the file the compilation failed on and fix the error. Make sure to run make clean before compilating again. You'll only need to recompile your sidechain branch, not the bitcoin testnet mainchain branch.

Upon successful compilation:

mv src/alpha{d,-cli,-tx} ../
./alphad -rpcuser=$RPC_USER -rpcpassword=$RPC_PASS -testnet -rpcconnect=127.0.0.1 -rpcconnectport=18332 -tracksidechain=all -txindex -blindtrust=false -daemon

####Python

Once your sidechain server is running, we can edit the Python files with your unique details.

Inside contrib/fedpeg/constants.py, change the port number on L9 to the port number you specified above inside of your src/chainparamsbase.cpp. You do NOT change the bitcoin_url port.

We need to create a unique redeem_script and redeem_script_address for your sidechain. To do this, take the public key[s] in chainparmas.cpp and use the createmultisig RPC, which will return an address and a redeem script. Adjust L12-L13 in constants.py with the values given by the following RPC command:

./alpha-cli -testnet createmultisig [sigs_required] "[\"public key\", ...]" 

You can test this by decoding the redeem script (alpha-cli -testnet decodescript [redeem script]), which will return a JSON object with the public keys, signatures required and P2SH address.

Replace the nodes with the network addresses (i.e. IPs) of your sidechain's blocksigners/functionaries. Add your network address to my_node.

Open the .bashrc file we edited earlier and add this to the bottom:

FUNCTIONARY_PRIV_KEY=[private key generated earlier - associated to the public key in chainparmas.cpp]
BLOCKSIGNING_PRIV_KEY=[some separate generated private key]
export BLOCKSIGNING_PRIV_KEY
export FUNCTIONARY_PRIV_KEY

Also be sure to import both private keys into your sidechain wallet using the RPC command:

./alpha-cli -testnet importprivkey [private key]

The default sidechain blocktimes are set at 60 seconds. You can adjust the time on L58 of contrib/fedpeg/blocksign.py. Be sure to change the port number in blocksign.py if you have multiple functionaries/blocksigners.

From here, you can follow Step 6 of the Elements-Alpha README to move money into the sidechain. After the "claim-on-sidechain" part, run blocksign.py to run the blocksigning script(remember you can shorten block times):

./contrib/fedpeg/blocksign.py

Follow the Alpha guide to move money out of the sidechain. The send-to-mainchain will create the sidechain transaction to move money from your sidechain wallet and authorize the 'unlocking' of the mainchain coins.

Run contrib/fedpeg/withdraw_watch.py to claim the mainchain coins. Running withdraw_watch.py can take some time as it scans blocks on the mainchain. If you want to track the progress of the script, add print(height) after withdraw_watch.py:486 which will print the block currently being scanned. Additionally, you can edit the starting block to be scanned on line 593 - the default value of 447000 was the testnet block count when Elements began, therefore you can edit the value to be the testnet block count when you began your sidechain. You'll notice Line 598 is commented out in our patch from earlier because we imported the functionary private key earlier.