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🛠️Non-Validator Node Setup

A Non-Validator Node is a node that does not participate in the consensus process or block production. This often used by developers, dApps, exchanges, or individuals who need to query the blockchain.

This section will guide you through setting up a Non-Validator Node on W Chain.

Step 1: Prepare the System

Before starting, ensure your system meets the minimum requirements for running a node:

  • vCPUs: 2 or more

  • Memory: At least 8GB

  • Disk Space: At least 200 GB (SSD or NVMe recommended for optimal performance)

  • Operating System: Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, or 24.04

  • Internet Connection: A broadband connection with at least 5Mbps upload/download speed.

It's possible to run a node from a local dedicated server, but it's recommended to run it on a professional cloud providers such as AWS, Digital Ocean, Azure or GCP.

Step 2: Install Dependencies

Make sure you have up-to-date version of Ubuntu, Git and NPM installed.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install git -y && sudo apt install npm -y

Some system may have different package manager, here we use apt, the most commonly used

Step 3: Prepare Directory

cd ~
mkdir w-chain
cd w-chain

Step 4: Download files from latest Release

To initiate a Node, you need the latest binary and genesis.json. It always available at W Chain's Github Repository for W chain Node.

You need to select the suitable binary based on your Operating System and architecture. You can contact your Cloud Computing Provider if you are not sure about yours.

In this guide, we will use the most common one: Linux (amd64), as it's widely used in AWS EC2 instances.

Download BInary File

In this example we are using v.1.0.6

You can download the latest binary file using wget or curl

curl -L -O https://github.com/w-chain/node/releases/download/v1.0.6/w-chain-node_v1.0.6_linux_amd64.tar.gz

After the download complete, print your directory contents to get the downloaded file name:

ls -lh

The file name will be in this format: "w-chain-node_" + version tag + system + "_" + architecture + ".tar.gz". Extract the file:

tar -xzf w-chain-node_v1.0.6_linux_amd64.tar.gz

Rename the file (Optional, but important for better UX):

mv w-chain-node-linux-amd64 w-chain-node

Download genesis.json

curl -L -O https://github.com/w-chain/node/releases/download/v1.0.6/genesis.json

You don't need to change anything from this genesis.json, just make sure it exists in the same directory with your binary file.

Step 5: Verify Files

Make sure both binary file and genesis.json is correctly downloaded and in stored in same directory.

Turn the binary file into executable:

chmod +x w-chain-node

Verify the version:

./w-chain-node version

[VERSION INFO] Release version = 1.0.6

Step 6: Initialize Keys and Blockchain Data Directories

This command will initialize data directory and validator keys:

./w-chain-node secrets init --data-dir main-chain --insecure

Step 7: Create Server Config

The node is basically a server that will run 24/7, responding to queries and persisting blocks to database. Instead of passing the configs as flags to server command, it's strongly recommended to store the server configs in a json/yaml file.

Run this command (in /w-chain directory) to generate server config template:

./w-chain-node server export --type json
ls -lh

You will see a file, default-config.json created.

Now, we will edit this config file to adjust with your actual server configuration.

You can use any supported text editor, in this example we use nano.

sudo nano default-config.json

This config below assuming you are following previous steps convention on directory creation. It also recommended to use absolute path, which can be different from system to system (usually /home/user/w-chain)

genesis.json location

"chain_config": "/home/ubuntu/w-chain/genesis.json",

Path to Data Directory

"data_dir": "/home/ubuntu/w-chain/main-chain",

Ports

"grpc_addr": "127.0.0.1:9632", 
"jsonrpc_addr": "0.0.0.0:8545",

NAT Address is your server/instance's Public IP

"network": {
    ...
    "libp2p_addr": "0.0.0.0:1478", 
    "nat_addr": "12.34.567.890",
    ...
}

Minimum Gas Price accepted and Seal flag

For Non-Validator Node, Seal must be false. Per v1.0.6 Min Gas Price in W Chain Network is 8 Gwei

"price_limit": 800000000000,
"seal": false

Step 8: Utilizing Blockchain Backup File

Joining a blockchain network will require a new node to sync with other existing nodes, this can take days even weeks, depends on how long the network already running so far. We have prepared backup files to jump start the process for you.

This backup file will be updated from time to time to ensure new node operators will have closer starting point to sync their new nodes to W Chain Network

# In the ./w-chain directory
cd main-chain

Download and unpack Trie

curl -L -O https://w-chain-data.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/trie.tar.gz
tar -xzf trie.tar.gz && rm trie.tar.gz

Download and unpack Blockchain

curl -L -O https://w-chain-data.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/blockchain.tar.gz
tar -xzf blockchain.tar.gz && rm blockchain.tar.gz

Downloading and unpacking the Blockchain backup file will take some time, depends on your internet connection speed and Storage I/O rate

After this step, you should have 2 new directories (blockchain and trie), in addition to the existing consensus and libp2p.

Aligning permission and directory ownership

pwd

This will print your current working directory (i.e. /home/ubuntu/w-chain/main-chain), copy it.

ls -ld /w-chain/main-chain

you will see something like this:

drwxr-x--- 6 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 Apr 12 14:08 /data/w-chain/main-chain

based on the example above, we can see the user and user group is ubuntu:ubuntu (this may vary, depends on your system). Now, that we know the user and user group, we can align the permission:

sudo chown -R ubuntu:ubuntu /home/ubuntu/w-chain/main-chain

Now, your blockchain data is ready!

Step 9: Create a System Service

To keep your Node instance running as a background service, you need to define the service. Run this on your terminal (inside your server/instance).

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/w-chain-node.service

The text editor will open a blank page. Copy-paste the texts below into it:

[Unit]
Description=W Chain Validator Node
After=network.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=1

[Service]
Type=simple
User=ubuntu
ExecStart=/home/ubuntu/w-chain/w-chain-node server --config /home/ubuntu/w-chain/default-config.json

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then save and exit the text editor.

Once again, this is assuming you are following the directory and filename convention from previous steps. Your system may have different absolute path and different user, please adjust as needed.

Step 10: Enable and Run the Node Service

After installing new service, you have to reload the service daemon and enable the service.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable w-chain-node.service

Then start the service:

sudo systemctl start w-chain-node.service

Congratulations! Your node is now running and will start to catch up with the network, this may take few days, depends on the block-height and the I/O performance of your node.

Important Commands to Maintain and Monitor Your Node

Service

sudo systemctl start w-chain-node.service

Logging

journalctl -u w-chain-node
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