GB’s Magical Guide to Being Awesome at Being a BP! Testnet

GB’s Magical Guide to Being Awesome at Being a BP! Testnet

Hello, GoodBlock Systems Administrator Nathaniel here. This article is part of a series that serves as a distillation of all the knowledge I have gained as a Block Producer on the Telos Blockchain Network. 

In this part, we’re going to set up a testnet node! These are my recommendations for setting up a node in a professional manner for a general block producing usage case. You also learn more about being a block producer from later articles or somewhere else and you may find more specifics than what I detail here which fits your needs. Feel free to deviate to your own needs.

Before installing any software, we need to make sure you’ve got the hardware:

First, you’ll need a server focused on single-thread CPU usage. Nodeos is the program central to running on Antelope blockchains. The nodeos program is single-threaded and does not use GPU to calculate the block hashes which is standard in Proof-of-Stake blockchains.
The server will need to run debian-based Linux, so Ubuntu LTS, CentOS, Amazon Linux, or MacOS. In my experience, running in a VMware environment slows block production by as much as 25%; and running dockerized is another 10% performance hit. Therefore, nodeos is best installed without a hypervisor. I personally am running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS as my operating system. All are fine to use while not producing.

Next, Logical drives should have around 1TB SSD array or drive for the OS.And then use a second array for block storage to separate disk usage. Splitting the arrays will increase disk access speeds. SATA drives are fine types of drives, SSDs are better, NVMe is cutting edge. Speeds on NVMe drives can reach an interface rate of 32 Gb/s with a throughput of 3.9 GB/s. That’s blazing fast. Whichever drive type you choose, you’ll want 12 TB storage space for the entire chain. But you can have less, down to 4TB, if you don’t intend on keeping the entire chain on your drive array; which is useful for history nodes.

RAM is very important to nodeos. You will need at least 12GB to get started. But go big here. In a future article, we will talk about selling RAM for TLOS. As much as you can get. ECC RAM slows down production by 2%, but also prevents random crashes that non-ECC RAM may cause to nodeos when the RAM access-errors. It’s up to you which you want to use. You can always disable ECC RAM in the BIOS but you can’t enable ECC on non-ECC RAM. Just something to consider when choosing your RAM.

Graphics cards are not needed by Telos (and Antelope blockchains) and you can just use an onboard card.

Once your OS is installed, you’ll want to create a user like ‘telos’ and mount the second disk as /telos owned by the telos user.

Next, get Leap. For Telos, the Antelope’s Leap repository has the tools you need to run a node. You can find the github for Leap here. Once installed, make sure the commands nodeos and cleos and keosd are accessible by typing their names into the prompt.
$ wget https://github.com/AntelopeIO/leap/releases/download/v3.1.2/leap-3.1.2-ubuntu20.04-x86_64.deb

$ sudo dpkg -i leap-3.1.2-ubuntu20.04-x86_64.deb

 The install created several folders in your user’s home directory. Move the contents of the testnet folder into the /telos folder. Make sure to edit start.sh which is in your home directory and change the paths to:  –data-dir /telos/data –config-dir /telos/config 

If there isn’t a start.sh, make a new start.sh and paste in:

nodeos –data-dir /telos/data –config-dir /telos/config >> nodeos.log 2>&1 &

Then, ‘chmod start.sh 755’ to give it execute privileges.

Next, move it to the /telos directory. 

After that, we’ll want to visit the config.ini file to add peers. Testnet peers can be found in a variety of places on the Telosnetwork repo, at EosNation’s validator, or generate a live list here at Telos UK. Peering is good for the chain and ultimately block production times. One small task regarding peers, it is good to check in on the nodeos.log occasionally and see if there are connection issues which might mean missing peers. Remove them from your config when you notice them failing.This will help nodeos not wait on peers that won’t ever connect. Peers will be added as a p2p-peer-address at the end of the config.ini. 

Once you have peers, you can launch start.sh and the start script will start outputting logs to the screen. If you ctrl+c here it will not kill the nodeos process, only the logging to the screen. You can also tail -f nodeos.log that was created in your home directory when you launched start.sh. 

Without a snapshot or genesis block, nodeos won’t be able to run. 

TelosCentral has a great repository for snapshots which walks you through how to modify your start.sh for the snapshot. Put the snapshot in /telos/snapshots. Extract it with tar -zvf, and copy the .bin file that you created. Modify start.sh to have two new options: –delete-all-blocks –snapshot ~/path/to/snapshot/snapshot_file.bin

Make sure to remove these after running, as it –delete-all-blocks will delete everything you’ve downloaded from the chain every time it is run as an option. 

Nodeos should begin to request the first blocks from any peers and your node should be running for the first time! If you type http://[yourserverIP]:80/v1/chain/get_info into a browser, you should be able to see the status of your node and the blockchain. 

In the next BP Magical Guide, we’ll talk about snapshots and the features of nodeos and config.ini; but for now, you have a test node that isn’t producing blocks just yet, but is collecting old blocks! 

I heavily relied on these resources to get my BP installed and to write this article. Without them, it would have been much more difficult to make my first node. Have a look at them yourself.
Telos Node Template
Telos Docs – Setting up a Telos Validator Node

GoodBlock Technologies is an app developer and Block Producer candidate on the Telos Blockchain Network, with a focus on 2 of the pillars of Web3.0; Governance (decidevoter.app) and Decentralized Cloud Storage (dstor.cloud). Vote for goodblocktls, and learn more at goodblock.io.

Telos is a cost-effective, energy efficient, fast, and scalable DPoS blockchain that has been operational for over 2 years. The Telos blockchain has leading on-chain governance (Telos Decide), and is built and developed by a core development team using the EOSIO codebase.

GoodBlock Resources and Social Media:

Website: https://goodblock.io/
Twitter: @goodblockio
Medium: https://medium.com/goodblock-io
Telegram: t.me/goodblocktls

Telos Validators Explained – Why be a BP?

Telos Validators Explained with TelosUSA & TheTelosCrew

Block producers carry forward the vision of their blockchains – and if you’re looking to become one yourself, there are a few things you’ll need to know. So we’ve gathered the BP pros to tell you all about the ins, outs, and fine-print of becoming a block producer on Telos!

In this episode of Around the Block, join Nathaniel & Douglas and special guests Michael EOS USA and Kylan from The Telos Crew! They’ll tell you all about why you should want to be a Block Producer. And you’ll hear about some Alpha Drops, Market Minutes, and more!

LINKS:
Follow EOS USA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ivote4_eos_usa
Follow TelosCrew on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TelosCrew
Check out Kylan’s work on Decide Voter: https://decidevoter.app/
Read the TEDP3 Proposal (Now PASSED!)
Intergenerational Wealth Concentration
Taxes on Inherited Wealth 
Wealth Inequality Over Time 
Interpol Issues Red Notice for Do Kwon
Founder of Failed Crypto Exchange QuadrigaCX Starts DeFi Protocol UwU Lend

Special thanks to the team at Corduroy Earth for producing this video, vote for their BP, @Telos Culture on the Telos Network!

GoodBlock is hiring! Check out open positions at goodblock.io/careers

GoodBlock Technologies is an app developer and Block Producer candidate on the Telos Blockchain Network, with a focus on 2 of the pillars of Web3.0; Governance  and Decentralized Cloud Storage. Vote for goodblocktls, and learn more at goodblock.io.

Telos is a cost-effective, energy efficient, fast, and scalable DPoS blockchain that has been operational for over 2 years. The Telos blockchain has leading on-chain governance (Telos Decide), and is built and developed by a core development team using the Antelope codebase.

*** 

GoodBlock Resources and Social Media
Website | Twitter | MediumTelegram

 

Leaping forward on EOS Independence Day

Leaping Forward on EOS Independence Day

We’ve got a very special episode of Around the Block for you today! Join Douglas Horn and several key leaders from each network in the Antelope Coalition; Yves La Rose from the EOS Network Foundation, Guillaume Babin-Tremblay from UX Network and Lukas Sliwka from WAX network. This is the first time all leaders have sat down to talk in this format and it’s an important time as today marks EOS Independence Day! Today the EOS network officially upgrades to Leap 3.1 and takes control of their codebase as a community.

We’ll talk about the launch of Antelope Leap 3.1 and how this marks the beginning of a new era for all Antelope powered blockchains. On top of discussing the current upgrade to Leap 3.1, we chat about what this means for the future of all our respective blockchains and what the community can look forward to!

Follow Antelope.io on Twitter: https://twitter.com/antelopeIO
Follow Yves on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BigBeardSamurai
Follow Guillaume on Twitter: https://twitter.com/eostitanBP
Follow Lukas on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LukasRepublic
Follow Douglas on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Douglas_Horn

More on EOS Independence Day
What Antelope means to the community
More on Antelope’s website
Leap 3.1 features

Crypto BS:
More on the Ethereum Merge
Why finality increased after the Merge

Special thanks to the team at Corduroy Earth for producing this video, vote for their BP, Telosculture on the Telos Network!

GoodBlock is hiring! Check out open positions at goodblock.io/careers

GoodBlock Technologies is an app developer and Block Producer candidate on the Telos Blockchain Network, with a focus on 2 of the pillars of Web3.0; Governance  and Decentralized Cloud Storage. Vote for goodblocktls, and learn more at goodblock.io.

Telos is a cost-effective, energy efficient, fast, and scalable DPoS blockchain that has been operational for over 2 years. The Telos blockchain has leading on-chain governance (Telos Decide), and is built and developed by a core development team using the Antelope codebase.

*** 

GoodBlock Resources and Social Media
Website | Twitter | MediumTelegram

 

Understanding IoT & Web3 with Kanda Weather

Understanding IoT and Web3

The state of African weather data is dire – but that’s where Kanda Weather comes in. They’re using weather balloons and the internet of things, also known as IoT, to collect that critical data. And Telos helps them store that data and reward their users with cryptocurrency.

In this episode of Around the Block, join Douglas, Nathaniel, Sean and special guest Nicolas Lopez from Kanda Weather. They’ll tell you all about the impact that their project is having across continents – and you’ll learn a thing or two about IoT too!

Learn more about the Weather Miner: https://www.ascensionwx.com/miner/p/weather-miner More on Helium: https://www.helium.com/ More on hydrogen tech: https://twitter.com/KandaWeather/status/1564713291775197185?s=20&t=iRSmPqnLqPwqhOAs5jGyug

Vote for Kanda Weather Block Producer Vote using your Decide Voter app or the Telos Open Block Explorer

Follow Kanda Weather on Twitter
Join Kanda Weather’s Discord
Read their Medium
Learn more About Kanda Weather

Block Stuff:

More on the SEC’s new offices

More on LUNC:
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2022/09/09/terras-luna-token-gains-200-in-a-few-hours-amid-speculative-frenzy/  https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2022/09/12/terras-luna-tumbles-more-than-30-making-u-turn-from-surge/ 

Special thanks to the team at Corduroy Earth for producing this video. Vote for their BP Telos Culture on the Telos Network!

GoodBlock is hiring! Check out open positions at goodblock.io/careers

GoodBlock Technologies is an app developer and Block Producer candidate on the Telos Blockchain Network, with a focus on 2 of the pillars of Web3.0; Governance  and Decentralized Cloud Storage. Vote for goodblocktls, and learn more at goodblock.io.

Telos is a cost-effective, energy efficient, fast, and scalable DPoS blockchain that has been operational for over 2 years. The Telos blockchain has leading on-chain governance (Telos Decide), and is built and developed by a core development team using the Antelope codebase.

*** 

GoodBlock Resources and Social Media
Website | Twitter | MediumTelegram

 

Where are the Women in Blockchain?

Where are the Women in Blockchain?

This week, the ladies of GoodBlock chat about the new Lummis Gillibrand bill, and ponder the question: “Where are the women in blockchain?” CJ Walters, Leah Petersen and Erika Elder host for you on this week’s episode of Around the Block with GoodBlock.

First they discuss the Responsible Financial Innovation Act (TLDR) and its implications to projects in the Web3.0 space. 
CoinTelegraph: ‘US crypto regulation bill aims to bring greater clarity to DAOs’ 

Then we get to the meat and potatoes – where are the women in blockchain? The Female Quotient has some ideas and the ladies discuss their own as well.

Finally they dig into some light ‘Block Stuff’ and dive into January Walker’s Tweet about recording government spending on-chain.

GoodBlock Technologies is an app developer and Block Producer candidate on the Telos Blockchain Network, with a focus on 2 of the pillars of Web3.0; Governance  and Decentralized Cloud Storage. Vote for goodblocktls, and learn more at goodblock.io.

Telos is a cost-effective, energy efficient, fast, and scalable DPoS blockchain that has been operational for over 2 years. The Telos blockchain has leading on-chain governance (Telos Decide), and is built and developed by a core development team using the Antelope codebase.

*** 

GoodBlock Resources and Social Media
Website | Twitter | MediumTelegram