How to join the Verkle Devnet

Update (12/3/2024): Change to verkle-gen-devnet-4

👋 Intro

This guide will demonstrate how to setup nodes on the Verkle testnet (verkle-gen-devnet-4). Please note that the current verkle testnets change very frequently, so some configurations may be outdated. However, the overall setup flow should look pretty much the same.

⚙️ Preparation

1. Clone repository

git clone https://github.com/ethpandaops/verkle-devnets/

We will need the configuration and genesis files from the above repository later.

2. Create directories

mkdir consensus execution

We will handle the consensus client and the execution client in their respective folder later.

3. Generate JWT token

openssl rand -hex 32 | tr -d "\n" > "jwt.hex"

The JWT token is needed to authenticate the HTTP connection between the consensus client and execution client.

By now, your folder should have the following structure:

├── consensus
├── execution
├── jwt.hex
└── verkle-devnets

🔵 Consensus Client (Lighthouse)

As of writing this guide, only Lighthouse and Lodestar have supported the Verkle Testnet. Here, we will use Lighthouse.

First, go into the consensus client folder:

cd consensus

1. Clone repository

git clone -b verkle-trees-capella https://github.com/macladson/lighthouse

2. Build the binary

Follow the official guide to build the lighthouse binary.

3. Run consensus client

/root/.cargo/bin/lighthouse beacon_node \ 
 --datadir /home/eth-verkle/consensus/lighthouse/data-seed \
 --testnet-dir /home/eth-verkle/verkle-devnets/network-configs/gen-devnet-4 \
 --boot-nodes "enr:-Iq4QF2WB38aEbYwA-zuXk-yZQgTsLmx7cKe8eJ_7jY4CL_eFzOD694n37UCigxi0obDpK0YVInLNK3bxyjQX_Kfuq-GAYwBEDLMgmlkgnY0gmlwhICMaGCJc2VjcDI1NmsxoQJJ3h8aUO3GJHv-bdvHtsQZ2OEisutelYfGjXO4lSg8BYN1ZHCCIyk" \
 --execution-endpoint "http://localhost:8551" \
 --jwt-secrets "/home/eth-verkle/jwt.hex" \
 --metrics

Some notes:

• --testnet-dir: This points to the network-configs/gen-devnet-4 folder of the verkle-devnets repository that you have cloned just now.
• --boot-nodes: Refer to this file.

If you need more details on all flags, do /root/.cargo/bin/lighthouse --help.

You should see something like this when you start the node:

Nov 26 12:55:59.572 INFO Logging to file                         path: "/home/eth-verkle/consensus/lighthouse/data-seed/beacon/logs/beacon.log"
Nov 26 12:55:59.573 INFO Lighthouse started                      version: Lighthouse/v4.5.0-2ffb8a9
Nov 26 12:55:59.573 INFO Configured for network                  name: custom (/home/eth-verkle/verkle-devnets/network-configs/gen-devnet-4)
Nov 26 12:55:59.574 INFO Data directory initialised              datadir: /home/eth-verkle/consensus/lighthouse/data-seed
Nov 26 12:55:59.574 INFO Deposit contract                        address: 0x6f22ffbc56eff051aecf839396dd1ed9ad6bba9d, deploy_block: 0
Nov 26 12:55:59.671 INFO Starting from known genesis state       service: beacon
Nov 26 12:55:59.738 INFO Block production enabled                method: json rpc via http, endpoint: Auth { endpoint: "http://localhost:8551/", jwt_path: "/home/eth-verkle/jwt.hex", jwt_id: None, jwt_version: None }
...

🟢 Execution Client (Geth)

As of writing this guide, only geth supports Verkle Testnet.

First, go into the execution client folder:

cd execution

1. Clone repository

git clone -b kaustinen-with-shapella https://github.com/gballet/go-ethereum

2. Build the binary

cd go-ethereum
make geth

3. Init genesis

./build/bin/geth init --datadir node /home/eth-verkle/verkle-devnets/network-configs/gen-devnet-4/genesis.json

We are using the genesis.json file that is included in the verkle-devnets repository.

4. Run execution client

./build/bin/geth --datadir node \
 --networkid=69420 \
 --http \
 --http.api "net,eth,debug,engine,web3" \
 --ws \
 --ws.api "net,eth,debug,engine,web3" \
 --http.corsdomain "*" \
 --syncmode full \
 --authrpc.addr=0.0.0.0 \
 --authrpc.vhosts "*" \
 --authrpc.jwtsecret "/home/eth-verkle/jwt.hex" \
 --bootnodes="enode://3cc0be5b2cd2831b938525198885783c250b2345e16e41d9116f1a15e4584a4703868bc5013072d7125d6ef07579903105e96d666c08531c1e0f0c3acbe92f0c@78.47.30.10:30303?discport=30303" \
 --metrics \
 --metrics.addr 0.0.0.0 \

You should see something like this:

INFO [11-28|10:17:22.650] Starting Geth on Ethereum mainnet...
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.650] Bumping default cache on mainnet         provided=1024 updated=4096
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.650] Enabling metrics collection
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.650] Enabling stand-alone metrics HTTP endpoint address=0.0.0.0:6060
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.650] Starting metrics server                  addr=http://0.0.0.0:6060/debug/metrics
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.657] Maximum peer count                       ETH=50 LES=0 total=50
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.659] Smartcard socket not found, disabling    err="stat /run/pcscd/pcscd.comm: no such file or directory"
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.665] Set global gas cap                       cap=50,000,000
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.667] Initializing the KZG library             backend=gokzg
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.878] Allocated trie memory caches             clean=614.00MiB dirty=1024.00MiB
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.878] Using pebble as the backing database
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.878] Allocated cache and file handles         database=/home/eth-verkle/execution/data-seed/node/geth/chaindata cache=2.00GiB handles=524,288
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.942] Opened ancient database                  database=/home/eth-verkle/execution/data-seed/node/geth/chaindata/ancient/chain readonly=false
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.946] Initialising Ethereum protocol           network=1 dbversion=<nil>
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.952]
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.952] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953] Chain ID:  69420 (unknown)
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953] Consensus: unknown
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953] Pre-Merge hard forks (block based):
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]  - Homestead:                   #0        (https://github.com/ethereum/execution-specs/blob/master/network-upgrades/mainnet-upgrades/homestead.md)
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]  - Tangerine Whistle (EIP 150): #0        (https://github.com/ethereum/execution-specs/blob/master/network-upgrades/mainnet-upgrades/tangerine-whistle.md)
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]  - Spurious Dragon/1 (EIP 155): #0        (https://github.com/ethereum/execution-specs/blob/master/network-upgrades/mainnet-upgrades/spurious-dragon.md)
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]  - Spurious Dragon/2 (EIP 158): #0        (https://github.com/ethereum/execution-specs/blob/master/network-upgrades/mainnet-upgrades/spurious-dragon.md)
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]  - Byzantium:                   #0        (https://github.com/ethereum/execution-specs/blob/master/network-upgrades/mainnet-upgrades/byzantium.md)
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]  - Constantinople:              #0        (https://github.com/ethereum/execution-specs/blob/master/network-upgrades/mainnet-upgrades/constantinople.md)
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]  - Petersburg:                  #0        (https://github.com/ethereum/execution-specs/blob/master/network-upgrades/mainnet-upgrades/petersburg.md)
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]  - Istanbul:                    #0        (https://github.com/ethereum/execution-specs/blob/master/network-upgrades/mainnet-upgrades/istanbul.md)
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]  - Berlin:                      #0        (https://github.com/ethereum/execution-specs/blob/master/network-upgrades/mainnet-upgrades/berlin.md)
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]  - London:                      #0        (https://github.com/ethereum/execution-specs/blob/master/network-upgrades/mainnet-upgrades/london.md)
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953] Merge configured:
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]  - Hard-fork specification:    https://github.com/ethereum/execution-specs/blob/master/network-upgrades/mainnet-upgrades/paris.md
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]  - Network known to be merged: true
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]  - Total terminal difficulty:  0
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]  - Merge netsplit block:       #0
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953] Post-Merge hard forks (timestamp based):
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]  - Shanghai:                    @0          (https://github.com/ethereum/execution-specs/blob/master/network-upgrades/mainnet-upgrades/shanghai.md)
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]  - Prague:                      @1700825700
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.953]
INFO [11-28|10:17:22.954] Loaded most recent local block           number=0 hash=0884fa..de45d7 td=1 age=3d22h42m

📖 Resources

Check out verkle.info for the latest updates. If you need educational materials on Verkle Tree, you can refer to this awesome-verkle repository.