Join the XRPL EVM Sidechain Devnet

This tutorial walks you through the steps to join the existing XRPL EVM Sidechain Devnet.

For ease of use, create an alias, exprd, to run all commands inside your Docker container.

XRPL EVM Sidechain Node Hardware Requirements

• Linux/AMD64 operating system.
• 4 or more physical CPU cores.
• At least 500GB of NVME SSD disk storage.
• At least 32GB of RAM.
• At least 100Mbps network bandwidth.

Installation Methods

Downloading Raw Binaries

A straightforward method that involves downloading the latest binaries and running them on your system. This method requires minimal prerequisites and is quick to set up.

Pre-requisites

• None (Ensure your system meets the hardware requirements).

Steps

1. Download the latest binaries from the official repository.
2. Extract the binaries and move them to your preferred directory.
3. Make the binaries executable:
   chmod +x exrpd
   

Building from Source

This method involves cloning the source code repository and building the binaries from source. It is ideal for developers who want to customize the node.

Pre-requisites

• make and gcc installed.

Steps

1. Clone the repository:
   git clone https://github.com/xrplevm/node.git
   

2. Navigate to the project directory:
   cd node
   

3. Build the project:
   make build
   

4. The binaries will be available in the build directory.

Using Docker

A containerized approach that ensures the node runs in a consistent environment. This method is highly recommended for users who want to avoid dependency issues.

Pre-requisites

• Docker 19+ installed.

Steps

1. Pull the Docker image:
   docker pull peersyst/exrp:latest
   

2. Create an alias to run all commands inside the Docker container:
   alias exrpd="docker run -it --rm -v ~/.exrpd:/root/.exrpd --entrypoint=\"\" peersyst/exrp:latest exrpd"
   

Using Cosmovisor for automated upgrades

A more advanced method using Cosmovisor, which automates the process of binary management and upgrades.

For detailed steps, refer to Using Cosmovisor for automated upgrades.

Initialize Node

The first task is to initialize the node, which creates the necessary validator and node configuration files.

1. Initialize the chain parameters using the following command:

   exrpd config chain-id exrp_1440002-1
   

2. Create or add a key to your node. For this tutorial, we use the test keyring:

   exrpd keys add <key_name> --keyring-backend test
   

   Note the key_name you enter as you need to reference it in subsequent steps.

   Note For more information on a more secure setup for your validator, refer to cosmos-sdk keys and keyrings and validator security.

3. Initialize the node using the following command:

   exrpd init <your_custom_moniker> --chain-id exrp_1440002-1
   

   Monikers can contain only ASCII characters. Using Unicode characters renders your node unreachable.

All these commands create your ~/.exrpd (i.e $HOME) directory with subfolders config/ and data/. In the config directory, the most important files for configuration are app.toml and config.toml.

Genesis & Seeds

1. Copy the Genesis File.

   Download the genesis.json file from here and copy it to the config directory: ~/.exrpd/config/genesis.json. This is a genesis file with the chain-id and genesis accounts balances.

   wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Peersyst/xrp-evm-archive/main/poa-devnet/genesis.json -O ~/.exrpd/config/genesis.json
   

   Attention

   Before jumping to the next item, make sure that the contents of the file ~/.exrpd/config/genesis.json match the contents of the file genesis.json.

   Verify the genesis configuration file:

   exrpd validate-genesis
   

2. Add Persistent Peer Nodes

   Set the persistent_peers field in ~/.exrpd/config/config.toml to specify peers with which your node maintains persistent connections. You can retrieve them from the list of available peers on the archive repo (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Peersyst/xrp-evm-archive/main/poa-devnet/peers.txt).

   To get a list of entries from the peers.txt file in the PEERS variable, run the following command:

   PEERS=`curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Peersyst/xrp-evm-archive/main/poa-devnet/peers.txt | sort -R | head -n 10 | awk '{print $1}' | paste -s -d, -`
   

   Use sed to include them in the configuration. You can also add them manually:

   sed -i.bak -e "s/^persistent_peers *=.*/persistent_peers = \"$PEERS\"/" ~/.exrpd/config/config.toml
   

   At this point you should have the list of the peers copied to the persistent_peers field in the config.toml file. You can verify this by running the following command:

   cat ~/.exrpd/config/config.toml | grep persistent_peers
   

Run and Synchronize Your Node

To run and synchronize your node, follow the instructions in the Run and Synchronize Your Node guide.