::: tip See the launch repo for information on the mainnet, including the correct version of the Cosmos-SDK to use and details about the genesis file. :::
::: warning You need to install gaia before you go further :::
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>
::: warning Note Monikers can contain only ASCII characters. Using Unicode characters will render your node unreachable. :::
You can edit this moniker
later, in the ~/.gaiad/config/config.toml
file:
# A custom human readable name for this node
moniker = "<your_custom_moniker>"
You can edit the ~/.gaiad/config/gaiad.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 testnet's genesis.json
file into gaiad
's config directory.
mkdir -p $HOME/.gaiad/config
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cosmos/launch/master/genesis.json > $HOME/.gaiad/config/genesis.json
Note we use the latest
directory in the launch repo which contains details for the mainnet like the latest version and the genesis file.
::: tip If you want to connect to the public testnet instead, click here :::
To verify the correctness of the configuration run:
gaiad start
Your node needs to know how to find peers. You'll need to add healthy seed nodes to $HOME/.gaiad/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).
You can also ask for peers on the Validators Riot Room
For more information on seeds and peers, you can read this.
::: warning
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 = 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.
::: tip
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 ~/.gaiad/config/gaiad.toml
.
The initial recommended min-gas-prices
is 0.025uatom
, but you might want to change it later.
Start the full node with this command:
gaiad start
Check that everything is running smoothly:
gaiacli status
View 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].json
You can also export state from a particular height (at the end of processing the block of that height):
gaiad export --height [height] > [filename].json
If 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].json
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 100 validators have the ability to propose new blocks to the Cosmos Hub. Continue onto the Validator Setup.