[Node] Run your BABYLON node (bbn-test-3)

As communicated on the 22/02/2024 via Discord, Babylon has stopped their “bbn-testnet-2” and transitioned to “bbn-testnet-3”. All related services, including the explorer, RPC, wallet, and faucet, have been seamlessly migrated. I’ve prepared an updated guide to help you set up your node on this new testnet!

Babylon introduces a groundbreaking method for Bitcoin staking, allowing Bitcoin owners to stake directly on Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchains without the need for intermediaries, bridges, token wrapping, third-party custody, or oracles. It includes Bitcoin timestamping, a protocol which sends succinct and verifiable timestamps of any data (such as PoS blockchains) to Bitcoin and Bitcoin staking, a protocol which allows bitcoin the asset to provide economic security to any decentralized systems through trustless (and self-custodian) staking.

Currently, in the testnet phase, Babylon has already secured $18 million in funding from leading venture capital firms. In this step-by-step guide, you will learn to set up and run your node as well as becoming your own validator !

Welcome to Node Science! Here, you will learn and understand how to set up your node easily and quickly, without any prior technical knowledge.

Feel free to follow us on Twitter to stay updated on everything related to nodes and join our Discord for further discussion or any questions with our community!

I) VPS configuration

To run a node you’ll need a VPS (Virtual Private Server) and one of the most reliable and cheapest solutions is Contabo. It’s a cost-effective German VPS solution built in 2003, known for its robust performance and reliability, catering to a wide range of computing needs and budgets.

You can choose the CLOUD VPS 2 by clicking here. Note that you can opt for a more powerful server (VPS 3 or 4) to run multiple different nodes on it more economically.

Don’t forget to choose a password.

Once payment is complete, you’ll receive an e-mail with your IP address entitled “Your login data!”. To connect to your VPS and securely run your node, you must download and install the Putty software, which enables a secure connection.

Type your IP address and Open.

II) Node deployment

Ensure you copy each command line using (Ctrl+C), and then paste it into your terminal by right-clicking your mouse. Execute them sequentially, pressing Enter after each, if required.

Start by refreshing the local package index to incorporate the most recent modifications made in the repositories and installs several essential tools and dependencies.

sudo apt-get update && \
sudo apt-get upgrade -y && \
sudo apt -qy install git build-essential curl jq lz4 screen

• git: A distributed version control system widely used for collaborative software development.
• build-essential: A meta-package that installs essential items for compiling software on Ubuntu, including compilers and development libraries.
• curl: A command-line tool for transferring data with URLs. It’s commonly used for downloading files from the web.
• jq: A command-line tool for processing JSON data. It helps manipulate and analyze JSON data in shell scripts.
• lz4: A fast compression algorithm.
• screen: allows you to create multiple virtual terminals within a single terminal window or session.

Now you need to install Go. First start by removing the possibly existing Go installation directory. Then download the Go programming language binary, extract the contents of the downloaded tar.gz file, and install them into your /usr/local directory. Then update the PATH environment variables to include directories where Go executable binaries are located.

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go
wget "https://golang.org/dl/go1.22.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf "go1.22.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
echo "export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin:$HOME/go/bin" >> $HOME/.bash_profile
source $HOME/.bash_profile

You can check your Go version and ensure that it is indeed 1.22.0.

go version

Change your current directory to your home directory, clone the babylon repo, switch the current state of the repository to the v0.8.3 version and execute the Makefile script.

cd $HOME
git clone https://github.com/babylonchain/babylon.git
cd babylon
git checkout v0.8.3
make build

Create a specific directory structure in your home directory for babylond.

mkdir -p $HOME/.babylond/cosmovisor/genesis/bin

Install cosmovisor, a tool designed by the Cosmos SDK team to facilitate automatic updates for blockchain nodes, particularly those built with the Cosmos SDK. The cosmovisor tool ensures that your node can smoothly transition through software upgrades without manual intervention, which is crucial for maintaining consensus and participating in the network during upgrades.

go install cosmossdk.io/tools/cosmovisor/cmd/cosmovisor@latest

Move the babylond executable from the build directory into the newly created bin directory under genesis.

mv build/babylond $HOME/.babylond/cosmovisor/genesis/bin/

Finally, remove the build directory and its contents to clean up your workspace. The rm -rf command forcefully deletes the directory and everything inside it, ensuring no leftover build artifacts remain.

rm -rf build

Create a symbolic link from the genesis directory to a directory named current within the .babylond/cosmovisor structure in your home directory. The -f (force) option ensures that if a link named current already exists, it will be replaced by this new link. This setup allows cosmovisor to easily switch between different versions of babylond by simply updating this link, facilitating smooth upgrades.

sudo ln -s $HOME/.babylond/cosmovisor/genesis $HOME/.babylond/cosmovisor/current -f

Create another symbolic link, this time from the babylond binary located in your .babylond/cosmovisor/current/bin directory to a more accessible location in your system's PATH, specifically /usr/local/bin. This step makes the babylond command available system-wide, allowing any user to run babylond from any location in the terminal without specifying the full path to the binary. The -f option is used again to overwrite any existing link.

sudo ln -s $HOME/.babylond/cosmovisor/current/bin/babylond /usr/local/bin/babylond -f

Assign the name of your choice to your node, such as MONIKER=”NodeScience”.

MONIKER="YOUR_MONIKER"

You can now initiate your node, ensuring to specify the bbn-test-3 testnet.

babylond init $MONIKER --chain-id bbn-test-3

Once your node is initialized, you need to download and decompress the genesis.tar.bz2 file then removes the archive. Finally move the genesis.json file to your ~/.babylond/config/ directory.

wget https://github.com/babylonchain/networks/raw/main/bbn-test-3/genesis.tar.bz2
tar -xjf genesis.tar.bz2 && rm genesis.tar.bz2
mv genesis.json ~/.babylond/config/genesis.json

Use sed (a stream editor for filtering and transforming text), to modify configuration settings in the config.toml and app.toml files of your Babylon node setup. Each command searches for specific lines in these configuration files and replaces them with new settings.

sed -i -e 's|^seeds *=.*|seeds = "49b4685f16670e784a0fe78f37cd37d56c7aff0e@3.14.89.82:26656,9cb1974618ddd541c9a4f4562b842b96ffaf1446@3.16.63.237:26656"|' $HOME/.babylond/config/config.toml
sed -i -e "s|^\(network = \).*|\1\"signet\"|" $HOME/.babylond/config/app.toml
sed -i -e "s|^minimum-gas-prices *=.*|minimum-gas-prices = \"0.00001ubbn\"|" $HOME/.babylond/config/app.toml
PEERS="3774fb9996de16c2f2280cb2d938db7af88d50be@162.62.52.147:26656,b82b321380d1d949d1eed6da03696b1b2ef987ba@148.251.176.236:3000,3fb6251a235480e81c8f964ff25304b2b4e7a071@43.128.69.178:26501,c0ee3e7f140b2de189ce853cfccb9fb2d922eb66@95.217.203.226:26656,e46f38454d4fb889f5bae202350930410a23b986@65.21.205.113:26656,25abb614b96fa606fb5514fcf711635e8e861d8f@217.72.207.107:26656,670d3cc0b1b4d008db95110557190b1d51c3cc87@43.156.24.202:26501,8e4e408a2e157e7ed3fce000525ff8ba22e8f6a8@135.181.58.31:26656,c3e82156a0e2f3d5373d5c35f7879678f29eaaad@144.76.28.163:46656,82191d0763999d30e3ddf96cc366b78694d8cee1@162.19.169.211:26656,26acaa8356468376abcfbbafb92e45fcb9fb14c7@65.109.64.179:26656,bb60df4fc43fd4915e16a779611e919fda4a57cb@95.216.187.89:26656,73d0b886307757aa7e0778ca272851c1d24c2e7d@135.181.246.250:3400,35abd10cba77f9d2b9b575dfa0c7c8c329bf4da3@104.196.182.128:26656,26cb133489436035829b6920e89105046eccc841@178.63.95.125:26656,2b9433ec17f98c902ce6bf0031342f20fb6e9cf8@80.64.208.1:26656,9d840ebd61005b1b1b1794c0cf11ef253faf9a84@43.157.95.203:26656,59b484e1370f211ba74f5b8e1316a0752a55d090@65.108.75.197:26656,fd837edb83d1ad175041b9a72ae6b0f5874d1df7@3.136.250.177:26656,564af85d70a1f7227146b1840f467015f8e9af5a@141.95.110.70:26656,a1a0ec58bf2be5ba114a648f84e53e776f5e4902@3.139.218.231:26656,868730197ee267db3c772414ec1cd2085cc036d4@148.251.235.130:17656,ce1caddb401d530cc2039b219de07994fc333dcf@162.19.97.200:26656,79973384380cb9135411bd6d79c7159f51373b18@133.242.221.45:26656,94039e66a22103ce28c85852c594cacabc6decd1@37.27.54.184:27656,e2a105f8da7a3653fe8149471d84ca1e39d51e53@161.97.131.159:20656,163ba24f7ef8f1a4393d7a12f11f62da4370f494@89.117.57.201:10656,ac65cb7c09f9b0f8aaf2605a9cf9d5684cda87d9@3.129.218.47:26656,2cc3d19c8126a3cecdb95401a525d6a2832a76b8@121.78.247.252:33656,11a40047f142b07119b29262da9f7800640b0699@88.217.142.242:16456,4d992a77957f6937a275a7966ad906f9c3e2f0be@114.203.200.187:26656,09ecb5c2c5c039b35e87be56b43263d1b1552208@109.199.114.30:26656,3bd2dbed00eab2bdf777ecb012ceff403659f8ef@18.171.248.222:26656,be1ff98cfdad3b765d3ef0ebd44ead182a020d23@95.217.35.179:26656,1bdc05708ad36cd25b3696e67ac455b00d480656@37.60.243.219:26656,26240e4061426d22d5594f91f2754a28a80494bc@109.199.96.75:26656,7720914dd724043a1cd5950fad726f67e155fb15@88.198.54.190:43656,ddd6f401792e0e35f5a04789d4db7dc386efc499@135.181.182.162:26656,5afce223a3b96954d0fbbac00c22318600c7b6b9@173.249.44.69:26656,798836777efb5555cfb940129e2073b44f9117e5@141.94.143.203:55706,21d9dd05fa924cbcdaf501b92b74bf106af29c95@89.58.32.218:25000,8566da036cb96a50b011f7a04eb796748f71a71e@51.89.40.26:26656,90eac330252ff51bf461602e7b8df054ce8583ae@65.109.64.57:26656,d43f2ed7961c199dc304e3e34d03247f0aa0615e@51.158.77.69:26656,424325d33fcc86c1cfc085cf412b105348ac2fcd@65.109.85.221:2050,86e9a68f0fd82d6d711aa20cc2083c836fb8c083@222.106.187.14:56000,5b197ab8f05c0140d622b258f0734a3bb7c4128d@88.198.8.79:2050,326fee158e9e24a208e53f6703c076e1465e739d@193.34.212.39:26659,259e9bdb6aabf01f42cdd5367f69aab5996afea4@37.27.59.71:20656,5463943178cdb57a02d6d20964e4061dfcf0afb4@142.132.154.53:20656,b9aaacb74ff31b304c294bdfc7d59c616e8b811a@213.202.212.75:26656,179a498904d880587cc37d07ebd1e01ff81a02fe@3.139.215.161:26656,a25c37941e272b5ed0ea40e8f39e95c0d9c55083@178.63.105.185:26656,05ec92459362ea3969a8980ec87e64df49cf8826@65.108.236.43:21156,e3b214c693b386d118ea4fd9d56ea0600739d910@65.108.195.152:26656,f7c9542e9d9af79f37d1698839787a86f7f8aef0@37.60.234.51:26656,59df4b3832446cd0f9c369da01f2aa5fe9647248@65.109.97.139:26656,5e02bb2c9a644afae6109bf2c264d356fad27618@15.165.166.210:26656,49b15e202497c231ebe7b2a56bb46cfc60eff78c@135.181.134.151:46656,6990fd085c9e2e8c9256f144799d18df51f74022@141.94.195.144:26656,118d4b1b0f58d9c038fafc18085808a593539e7a@78.46.71.227:26656,6359d70612b9abf7d4d458dc1938ec06f2a21652@129.226.152.250:26501,b4215706647068b234d8b72da1736b0e460e5cf1@65.21.228.25:26656,e27df9014fd0d37d917fb33f2d9de7500a8fab70@35.91.9.184:26656,5145171795b9929c41374ce02feef8d11228c33b@160.202.128.199:55706,1eb7b2585cf32255abc0371cd07624cba0706e29@103.35.191.186:26656,2abdfe743b995a8d86fa32f8a38127f1e36a628d@207.180.204.34:26656,4e893ae5671ac29b90229ec69528f731b5e359bb@36.153.240.230:26656,197d15d24b7f83bff06ef6e8ecc6120c5a14a556@37.60.227.81:26656,5b124ed79f5f0c02ffca4bfb8a73469265f46de1@3.132.112.231:26656,f887f4a18019563bcf3fc23079eb68b86931a766@37.60.226.84:16456,f0043c64dff1f95d356107b9f31ace39b4154990@38.242.253.112:26656,bcc5bd089b30bc8c96095a5cd4a8cd45e8c197a0@112.213.190.1:26656,bdd106eaa1b0ecb5ea13e03344147f34d1f457a1@65.108.43.51:26656,89a4dbf6593caa6d337cf02b049cab245ceb6ede@128.140.73.180:26656,7138083f9a513a33d3fd4d477d28436ff368367a@84.247.133.117:26656,0c9f976c92bcffeab19944b83b056d06ea44e124@5.78.110.19:26656,8f618f4f40d1c27e27b760ca10246b8b113e94be@18.222.121.72:26656,10b483d706782dd53834eca77562e081e52b16dd@3.137.160.91:26656,b1783b0d95ffeeac6c81be47ff8552bbc27bc054@18.191.27.217:26656,6460741d8b2701f6d733e0c5a9a52a9d5a924c9f@217.76.63.213:26656,94a6b8d058bc3db464ab8ec0b824cd40c09a2385@3.131.193.119:26656,9f7fd2aebea04d099eb9a60c8483a5b88a5b1db6@161.97.123.142:26656,d9b3f259aa6271351485e75c1adfc949a6c8919d@38.242.253.115:26656,73c9f1a0eba78497adadfd3a23b6391219eae29d@43.128.123.8:26501,d06147e71166c7e5fdf97378aa32ba5ef2a2be2f@43.134.176.53:26501,dbceef939143cdbf7131d9a185314c4849c81a98@202.61.199.52:26656,395af7ddf487e3adb1600adfdf276e9410d2bc39@36.189.234.219:26656,fad3a0485745a49a6f95a9d61cda0615dcc6beff@89.58.62.213:26501,f90d6a73190698aaec5554839229cad20693e04a@37.27.14.222:26656,9e36d595b69c75f94771d9dee791f822578e14da@173.212.244.215:26656,be95de5f28496fe8b7e93ce5ccbeec9db271520b@162.19.95.240:14656,e8f550ed3fea54eda7fa3f8ed3d6b17cb222fedf@95.111.239.100:26656,36123e2b3e3612c6a4abf6c81b71546168f7688d@109.199.114.26:26656,6c14e076d92f715b0a1f7b03b09af8c28f0d9469@65.108.153.90:26656,a31b620c076899133e44d195eae0d6308283230d@57.128.19.189:26656,4dbf5157b735de59fb84be26f2bd40a16cee056c@54.238.212.246:26656,1ecc4a9d703ad52d16bf30a592597c948c115176@165.154.244.14:26656,6e96d1fa4ff9cc573b3c41c3f722aa9b373d886e@154.91.1.78:26656,b5bbe6054b46055242aa72e71614c5b14527dce3@150.109.95.158:26501,37d27ecded8181952f99648628ff2c8d85286432@62.195.206.235:26656,ac0b5e230dfdc573f74642c48898e1398a1e5050@65.108.78.101:26656,0ccb869ba63cf7730017c357189d01b20e4eb277@185.84.224.125:20656,86eecc48c181a2e508852f6f3a170b99a09cae87@74.208.197.25:26656,e9913c53da2a7a1432ee65e17f8b90b072ff3ee6@109.199.113.189:26656,1a0b3386617587ad7e678e0ea522c79f1fe4113a@65.109.88.254:38656,07d1b69e4dc56d46dabe8f5eb277fcde0c6c9d1e@23.88.5.169:17656,fb5ea45358d13679518f43d995f42442a79b161f@185.246.87.105:56656,b80b2fb6002557b468add907074d0bf2ef4f911e@158.220.84.179:29656,ef83feb0f03af81e65a9fa511f7a99401308a99a@43.156.182.164:26501,3deaff1478542cf7f28123ad33be50d4bc08b728@2.56.97.152:26656,40662747f0e01678dbdf1e50879f40a68139d7aa@35.163.58.204:26656,b08f08b8f10103ce97f3b5cbd274795687ce4866@164.68.96.90:26656,68de398f1d36546c002086b91f6018ed5c6105f2@5.189.136.136:26656,34807baef8c02bc202fb14035f7d375a6a5ff30e@95.217.193.182:21656,69c1b7e1eb114703733c3000baa6c008ebc70073@65.109.113.233:20656"
sed -i 's|^persistent_peers *=.*|persistent_peers = "'$PEERS'"|' $HOME/.babylond/config/config.toml

Create a new systemd service file for your Babylon daemon. Systemd is a system and service manager for Linux operating systems that allows you to manage services as system-level components. After creating this file, you would typically enable and start the service using the systemctl command, making the babylond daemon run as a background service managed by systemd.

sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/babylond.service > /dev/null <<EOF
[Unit]
Description=Babylon daemon
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=$USER
ExecStart=$(which cosmovisor) run start --x-crisis-skip-assert-invariants
Restart=always
RestartSec=3
LimitNOFILE=infinity

Environment="DAEMON_NAME=babylond"
Environment="DAEMON_HOME=${HOME}/.babylond"
Environment="DAEMON_RESTART_AFTER_UPGRADE=true"
Environment="DAEMON_ALLOW_DOWNLOAD_BINARIES=false"

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

Now, refresh the system’s service configuration, ensuring that any changes made to service files are recognized by the system manager.

sudo -S systemctl daemon-reload

Set babylond, to automatically start when the system boots up, ensuring its availability right from the start without manual intervention.

sudo -S systemctl enable babylond

Start the babylond service, making it active and running in the current session without needing to restart the system.

sudo -S systemctl start babylond

You can check the current status of the babylond service. It will provide detailed information, including whether it is active, running, stopped, or has encountered any errors. Make sure it’s active !

systemctl status babylond

Press CTRL+C to leave.

You now need to wait for the synchronization to complete in order to be up-to-date. Your babylond will be updated when the catching_up variable becomes "false" and it can take a looong time !

babylond status | jq

Once your babylond is synced, you can now create a new wallet called “wallet”. Do not forget to write these informations (address, pubkey and mnemonic phrase) in a safe place !

babylond keys add wallet

Go to Babylon Discord by clicking here, go to Faucet Channel and claim 100,000 bbn test tokens by typing !faucet <your_adresse>. There is currently a lot of demand, so it may take some time before you receive them (you must have them for the next stage).

You can check your balance with this command:

babylond q bank balances $(babylond keys show wallet -a)

Then generate your BLS (Boneh-Lynn-Shacham) key associated with your previously created wallet.

babylond create-bls-key $(babylond keys show wallet -a)

And finally, restart your node to apply new configurations/updates.

sudo systemctl restart babylond

You now need to create a validator.json file containing all the information about your validator. Make sure to replace details such as the moniker, website, security and details with your own information.

sudo tee ~/validator.json > /dev/null <<EOF
{
  "pubkey": $(babylond tendermint show-validator),
  "amount": "90000ubbn",
  "moniker": "your_moniker",
  "website": "https://yourwebsite.com",
  "security": "contact@gmail.com",
  "details": "description of your validator",
  "commission-rate": "0.10",
  "commission-max-rate": "0.20",
  "commission-max-change-rate": "0.01",
  "min-self-delegation": "1"
}
EOF

After creating the validator.json , you need to configure the new chain-id with gas parameters.

babylond tx checkpointing create-validator ~/validator.json \
    --chain-id="bbn-test-3" \
    --gas="auto" \
    --gas-adjustment="1.5" \
    --gas-prices="0.025ubbn" \
    --from=wallet

They will request confirmation by prompting you to enter “y”.

You now need to wait a few hours for your validator to become active on the Balyon chain. Its address can be found by typing:

babylond keys show wallet -a --bech val

You can check its status with :

babylond query staking validator wallet

You can also check its status on the explorer by typing your valoper address. Remember that only the top 80 are active, so, you need to delegate a lot of tokens for this !

You can now delegate tokens to your node:

babylond tx epoching delegate $(babylond keys show wallet --bech val -a) 90000ubbn --from wallet --chain-id bbn-test-3 --gas-adjustment 1.2 --gas 500000 --fees 10ubbn -y

You can finally past your txhash on explorers to ensure your transaction is a success.

Congratulations, you’ve successfully become a validator on the Babylon network!

Feel free to follow us on Twitter to stay updated on everything related to nodes and join our Discord for further discussion or any questions with our community!

Official links of Babylon

• Website
• Docs
• Twitter
• Medium
• Github
• Telegram