Joining a Testnet

We provide instructions for running both fullnode deployments and validator deployments. A fullnode will sync with the network but will not have any voting power, and will not be eligible for staking or funding stream rewards. For more information on what a fullnode is, see the CometBFT documentation.

A regular validator will participate in voting and rewards, if it becomes part of the consensus set. Of course, these rewards, like all other testnet tokens, have no value.

Joining as a fullnode

To join a testnet as a fullnode, install the most recent version of pd, run pd testnet join to generate configs, then use those configs to run pd and cometbft. In more detail:

Resetting state

First, reset the testnet data from any prior testnet you may have joined:

pd testnet unsafe-reset-all

This will delete the entire testnet data directory.

Generating configs

Next, generate a set of configs for the current testnet:

pd testnet join --external-address IP_ADDRESS:26656 --moniker MY_NODE_NAME

where IP_ADDRESS (like 1.2.3.4) is the public IP address of the node you’re running, and MY_NODE_NAME is a moniker identifying your node. Other peers will try to connect to your node over port 26656/TCP.

If your node is behind a firewall or not publicly routable for some other reason, skip the --external-address flag, so that other peers won’t try to connect to it. You can also skip the --moniker flag to use a randomized moniker instead of selecting one.

This command fetches the genesis file for the current testnet, and writes configs to a testnet data directory (by default, ~/.penumbra/testnet_data). If any data exists in the testnet data directory, this command will fail. See the section above on resetting node state.

Running pd and cometbft

Next, run pd:

pd start

Then (perhaps in another terminal), run CometBFT, specifying --home:

cometbft start --home ~/.penumbra/testnet_data/node0/cometbft

Alternatively, pd and cometbft can be orchestrated with docker-compose:

cd deployments/compose/
docker-compose pull
docker-compose up --abort-on-container-exit

or via systemd:

cd deployments/systemd/
sudo cp *.service /etc/systemd/system/
# edit service files to customize for your system
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart penumbra cometbft

See the deployments/ directory for more examples on configuration scripts.