Run Waterfall Node Testnet8 in Docker

What is new in delegate fork? March 19th at 8:00 UTC, at slot 2,729,920, which corresponds to epoch 85,310

Features

Optimization of storage:
This will reduce disk storage requirements significantly and decrease the number of read/write operations.
At present(15/02/2024), a node synchronized from scratch will require 50 GB of storage.
Integration of stake delegation functions into the protocol.
This functionality will enable the following use cases:
- Distribution of stake ownership and/or rewards. For example, three users sharing a stake and rewards equally.
- Rules for a trial period, during which one or more users can withdraw their stake and rewards, with additional withdrawals permitted afterwards.
- One or more users can initiate reward or stake payouts, while other users receive rewards and/or stakes.
  This will allow hot wallets to send rewards or stake to cold wallets, ensuring the security of your WATER tokens.

Fixes

Enhanced synchronization between coordinators and validators.
Resolution of synchronization errors when a node performs a stake or reward withdrawal operation.
Additional minimum block validation before block retransmission across the network.

What is new?

Features

Optimizations and improvements in synchronization.
During previous synchronization, the coordinating node was synchronized first, and then the shard node. Now synchronization occurs in parallel, which has reduced synchronization time by about 1/3.
Improve search for new peers in the shard. Improved search for new peers in the shard, boot, and regular nodes, with added filtration by genesis. Now nodes initiate a connection only if their genesis matches. This has reduced the amount of spam during connection, and nodes can now find each other faster.
Validators are automatically unlocked.
Previously, it was necessary to specify the addresses that needed to be unlocked when starting the node so that validators could sign blocks. Now it is sufficient to specify the path to the password file and the account will be unlocked before creating the block.
Proposer recommendation.
An improvement on optimistic consensus has been implemented where participants in the previous slot send their DAG to one another, and the leader uses this information to publish an optimal block. This step adds reliability to the operation of optimistic consensus.
Empty block creation.
If there were no blocks in the epoch due to the lack of transactions in the network, the validator can create an empty block. This is necessary in order to generate a new hash, which is used for shuffling and determining the roles for validators. This reduces the risk of predictability of validator roles when there are no transactions in the network.
Estimate of transaction gas.
Previously, transaction gas costs were estimated during block creation and validation, which was irrelevant. We now add gas validation when the transaction is added to the pool and during finalization. We use the value specified in the transaction to validate the block size.
Storage optimization.
We optimized the storage of the state on the coordinator. Compared to testnet7, we reduced it by a factor of 4. Currently, approximate expenses for disk space are increasing by 1 GB every day.

Fixes

Fixed the issue with calculating the hash for the state
Fixed deployment of contracts in Hardhat and Remix
Fixed downloading multiple large blocks simultaneously
Fixed the launch of the node in read mode
Fixed the shard from the last saved checkpoint during node startup.
Fixed the bloom indexer.

Refactoring

Optimized the signature of the block in the shard
Optimized the creation of a block in the shard.
Refactored validation of a block in the shard
Deleted unused Sealer
Deleted unused bad block.
Update version of the blst library
Optimized the propagation of blocks, allowing us to increase the block size to 10,000 transactions.

Video manual

Install Docker

You need to install Docker, which will allow you to perform further steps consistently across any operating system. You can install Docker for your operating system using the following links:

Requirements

Hardware

Minimal

CPU (Cores): 2.0
Memory (GiB): 4.0
SSD Disk (GiB): 512.0
Bandwidth (Mb/s): 10.0

CPU (Cores): 4.0
Memory (GiB): 8.0
SSD Disk (GiB): 1024.0
Bandwidth (Mb/s): 20.0

Windows

For the Windows operating system, you need to use all of the commands in the PowerShell terminal.

MacOS on arm

We recommend enabling the following settings:

The source code for Waterfall is currently closed (it will be opened after a security audit), so the source code and images are stored in a private repository. To access the private Docker image registry, you need to log in. Execute the following command in the terminal:

docker login -u public -p glpat-XvZ6bPe48rFGZ5z14Fxz registry.waterfall.network

Pull image

Download image from the private registry, where you logged in on the previous step. Use the latest Docker image that contains all the necessary software to run the node. To do this, you need to execute the following command in the terminal:

docker pull registry.waterfall.network/waterfall/protocol/docker:testnet8

How to sync faster?

If you don't want to sync from the genesis block, you can download a network state:

Go home directory
```
cd ~
```
You should not have a ~/.wf8 directory.

Download backup (~50G).

wget https://storage.googleapis.com/wf-snapshots/wf8-3427744.tar

Extract archive
```
tar -xvf wf8-3168380.tar.gz
```

Check results

> ls ~/.wf8
coordinator gwat 

> ls ~/.wf8/coordinator
beaconchaindata

> ls ~/.wf8/coordinator/beaconchaindata
beaconchain.db

> ls ~/.wf8/gwat
gwat

> ls ~/.wf8/gwat/gwat
LOCK chaindata lightchaindata nodes triecache

Run Node

Execute the following command in the terminal:

cd ~

Executing the following command in the terminal:

docker run --platform linux/amd64 --name wf -d --rm -p 4000:4000 -p 13000:13000 -p 12000:12000/udp -p 30303:30303 -p 9545:9545 -p 9546:9546 -v $PWD/.wf8/logs:/opt/wf/data/logs -v $PWD/.wf8/gwat:/opt/wf/data/gwat -v $PWD/.wf8/coordinator:/opt/wf/data/coordinator registry.waterfall.network/waterfall/protocol/docker:testnet8

This leads to the following:

the generation of coordinator and validator keys
keys are imported into the node wallets
the node starts up
The database data is stored in the home directory ~/.wf8

Check status

You can check the status of the node by executing the following command in the terminal:

docker exec -it wf /opt/wf/sh/status.sh

The script may return any of the following answers:

Main:
- The Coordinator Node isn't running - the Coordinator node is not running, it is still starting
- The Coordinator node is syncing. Distance: 9294 - the Coordinator node is synchronizing, synchronization occurs when Distance will be equal to 0
- The Validator Node isn't running - the Validator node is synchronizing
- The Validator node is synchronizing:
```
The Validator node is syncing. Status {
  currentBlock: 0,
  currentSlot: 15738,
  finalizedSlot: 0,
  highestBlock: 0,
  knownStates: 0,
  maxDagSlot: 0,
  pulledStates: 0,
  startingBlock: 0
}
```
- The node is synchronized. - the node is synchronized.
- Node ID: a6032d0be6164bb2d534c4b5a34ff71d11be9f6af927fdaafc3b700f914a958a - Node ID
- Coordinator peers: 5 - number of connected nodes with coordinators
- Validator peers: 10 - number of connected nodes with validators
- Keys weren't generated - this means that the keys are still being generated and the node has not yet started
Worker #<workers index>
- Coordinator public key: 0xad7aac64a8ab9507a3b06ac46a30d48d89c8bfb4f36d402cfa4e5817ecc37cb01dfd339295f99565367af78aa727a2c1 - the coordinator's public key, which holds the stake and earns in the coordinating network.
- Validator address: 0x2cd4289d5d5246ccb557a493e65a2ac94914b8b0 - the validator's address, that creates blocks in the BlockDAG network and gets rewards for it.
- Withdrawal address: 0x2cd4289d5d5246ccb557a493e65a2ac94914b8b0 - The address that can send a deactivation transaction and take the rewards and stake of the coordinator and validator.
- The coordinator has not been activated - indicates that either the transaction with the stake has not been sent, or this transaction has not yet been processed.
- Coordinator status: active_ongoing - coordinator status:
  - pending_initialized - When the first deposit is processed, but not enough funds are available (or it is not yet the end of the first epoch) to get the coordinator into the activation queue.
  - pending_queued - When the coordinator is waiting to get activated, and it has enough funds, etc. While in the queue, the coordinator activation epoch keeps changing until it gets to the front and makes it through (finalization is a requirement here too).
  - active_ongoing - When the coordinator is still attesting, and has not initiated any exit.
  - active_exiting - When the coordinator is still active, but has filed a voluntary request to exit.
  - active_slashed - When the coordinator is still active, but has a slashed status and is scheduled to exit.
  - exited_unslashed - When the coordinator has reached a regular exit epoch, not being slashed, and no longer has to attest, but cannot withdraw yet.
  - exited_slashed - When the coordinator has reached a regular exit epoch, but was slashed, and has to wait for a longer withdrawal period.
  - withdrawal_possible - After the coordinator has exited, and is later permitted to move funds, and is truly out of the system.
  - withdrawal_done - funds have actually been moved
- Stake: 3200.000000000 WATER - the stake that was sent
- Coordinator balance: 3200.038794846 WATER - the coordinator balance, along with the stake
- Validator balance: 0.000000000000000000 WATER - the validator balance
The Coordinator node needs to synchronize. The Distance field should decrease when you run the status command next time
The Validator node needs to synchronize. The FinalizedSlot field is catching up to the CurrentSlot when you run the status command next time.

Usually, the synchronization process takes hours and depends on your hardware, internet speed and other factors.

Onboarding

If the node is running and synchronized (See the result of the status command – The node is synchronized), you can add and activate the worker by taking the following steps:

Install Metamask according to the instructions
Add a new network in Metamask by specifying the following parameters:
- Network Name: Waterfall 8 Test Network
- RPC URL: https://rpc.testnet8.waterfall.network/
- Chain ID: 8601152
- Currency symbol: WATER
- Block Explorer URL: https://explorer.testnet8.waterfall.network
In the advanced settings of Metamask, enable the display of the data field when sending a transaction:
Create an account address in Metamask if you don't have one already
On the faucet page, get 4000 WATER for your account.

Generate keys if you don't have already mnemonic phrases to add a new first worker to your node by running the following command in the terminal:

docker exec -it wf /opt/wf/sh/add.sh new-mnemonic <withdrawals address>

You have to save mnemonic phrases to add new worker in future or restore keys
Example 1:

docker exec -it wf /opt/wf/sh/add.sh new-mnemonic