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Celestia Node Setup Guide for Mocha Testnet

Celestia is a modular data availability network that securely scales with the number of users, making it easy for anyone to launch their own blockchain. By decoupling execution from consensus and introducing data availability sampling (DAS), Celestia enables a new generation of scalable blockchain architectures.

Hardware Requirements

Section titled “Hardware Requirements”

The following minimum hardware specifications are recommended for running a Celestia validator node:

ComponentMinimum Requirement
Memory8 GB RAM
CPU6 Cores
Disk500 GB SSD Storage
Bandwidth1 Gbps Download / 1 Gbps Upload

System Preparation

Section titled “System Preparation”

Update the local package index and install the necessary dependencies for building the Celestia binary.

Terminal window
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install curl lz4 tar wget clang pkg-config libssl-dev jq build-essential bsdmainutils git make ncdu -y

Install Go

Section titled “Install Go”

Celestia requires Go. The following block installs version 1.21.1 and configures your shell profile.

Terminal window
cd $HOME
ver="1.21.1"
wget "https://golang.org/dl/go$ver.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go
sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf "go$ver.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
rm "go$ver.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
echo "export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin:$HOME/go/bin" >> $HOME/.bash_profile
source $HOME/.bash_profile
go version

Installation and Configuration

Section titled “Installation and Configuration”

Build Binary

Section titled “Build Binary”

Clone the official repository and build the celestia-appd binary from source.

Terminal window
cd $HOME
git clone https://github.com/celestiaorg/celestia-app.git
cd celestia-app
git checkout tags/v1.11.0 -b v1.11.0
make install

Initialize Node

Section titled “Initialize Node”

Initialize the configuration files for the Mocha testnet.

Terminal window
celestia-appd init "your-node-name" --chain-id mocha-4
celestia-appd config chain-id mocha-4
celestia-appd config keyring-backend test

Network Configuration

Section titled “Network Configuration”

Download the genesis file and configure gas prices, address books, and peers.

Terminal window
# Genesis and Gas
curl -Ls https://raw.githubusercontent.com/celestiaorg/networks/master/mocha-4/genesis.json > $HOME/.celestia-app/config/genesis.json
sed -i -e "s|^minimum-gas-prices *=.*|minimum-gas-prices = \"0.002utia\"|" $HOME/.celestia-app/config/app.toml


# Addrbook and Peers
curl -Ls https://snapshots.kjnodes.com/celestia-testnet/addrbook.json > $HOME/.celestia-app/config/addrbook.json


SEEDS="9aa8a73ea9364aa3cf7806d4dd25b6aed88d8152@celestia-testnet.seed.mzonder.com:11156"
PEERS="77244576dd7734b5f0b07a24a5d9a9ac3f6bd3d1@141.94.135.203:26656,59b72c3ef197ee18371a7bf2de5be0065e516843@62.171.148.127:26656,7c841f59c35d70d9f1472d7d2a76a11eefb7f51f@136.243.69.100:43656"


sed -i -e "s|^seeds *=.*|seeds = \"$SEEDS\"|" $HOME/.celestia-app/config/config.toml
sed -i -e "s|^persistent_peers *=.*|persistent_peers = \"$PEERS\"|" $HOME/.celestia-app/config/config.toml

Pruning and Indexer Optimization

Section titled “Pruning and Indexer Optimization”

To save disk space, configure custom pruning and disable the indexer if it is not required for your use case.

Terminal window
sed -i -e "s/^pruning *=.*/pruning = \"custom\"/" $HOME/.celestia-app/config/app.toml
sed -i -e "s/^pruning-keep-recent *=.*/pruning-keep-recent = \"100\"/" $HOME/.celestia-app/config/app.toml
sed -i -e "s/^pruning-interval *=.*/pruning-interval = \"50\"/" $HOME/.celestia-app/config/app.toml
sed -i -e "s/^indexer *=.*/indexer = \"null\"/" $HOME/.celestia-app/config/config.toml

Service Management

Section titled “Service Management”

Create a systemd service file to manage the node lifecycle and ensure it restarts automatically on failure.

Terminal window
sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/celestia-appd.service > /dev/null <<EOF
[Unit]
Description=Celestia Validator Node
After=network-online.target


[Service]
User=$USER
ExecStart=$(which celestia-appd) start --home $HOME/.celestia-app
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10
LimitNOFILE=65535


[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF


sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable celestia-appd

State Sync (Snapshot)

Section titled “State Sync (Snapshot)”

Accelerate the synchronization process by using a recent snapshot.

Terminal window
sudo systemctl stop celestia-appd


# Backup original state
cp $HOME/.celestia-app/data/priv_validator_state.json $HOME/.celestia-app/priv_validator_state.json.backup


# Reset and Download Snapshot
celestia-appd tendermint unsafe-reset-all --home $HOME/.celestia-app --keep-addr-book
curl -L https://snapshots.kjnodes.com/celestia-testnet/snapshot_latest.tar.lz4 | tar -Ilz4 -xf - -C $HOME/.celestia-app


# Restore state and start
mv $HOME/.celestia-app/priv_validator_state.json.backup $HOME/.celestia-app/data/priv_validator_state.json
sudo systemctl restart celestia-appd

Validator Deployment

Section titled “Validator Deployment”

Wallet Creation

Section titled “Wallet Creation”

Create a new wallet or recover an existing one. Ensure you save your mnemonic seed phrase.

Terminal window
celestia-appd keys add wallet

Check Sync Status

Section titled “Check Sync Status”

Before creating a validator, ensure your node is fully synchronized with the network.

Terminal window
celestia-appd status 2>&1 | jq .SyncInfo.catching_up

Note: Proceed only if the output above is false.

Create Validator Transaction

Section titled “Create Validator Transaction”

Execute the staking transaction to register your node as a validator.

Terminal window
celestia-appd tx staking create-validator \
--amount=1000000utia \
--pubkey=$(celestia-appd tendermint show-validator) \
--moniker="Your_Moniker" \
--chain-id=mocha-4 \
--commission-rate=0.1 \
--commission-max-rate=0.2 \
--commission-max-change-rate=0.01 \
--min-self-delegation=1000000 \
--from=wallet \
--keyring-backend=test \
--fees=36000utia \
--gas-adjustment=1.5 \
--gas=500000 \
-y