Getting Started - Binaries

Prerequisites

To run a zkVerify node, it is recommended users use a Linux machine for a better deployment experience.

Below is a list of prerequisites that need to be available on your machine in order to build the zkVerify source code:

• Rustup tool for Rust programming language: can be installed with curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh,
• Rust source code for Rust toolchain: can be added with rustup component add rust-src,
• Wasm target for Rust toolchain: can be added with rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown,
• protoc compiler: can be installed with sudo apt install protobuf-compiler,
• clang compiler: can be installed with sudo apt install clang,

Check the releases page and note the latest tag latest_tag. Lastly, clone the repository zkVerify with the command:

git clone --branch latest_tag https://github.com/HorizenLabs/zkVerify.git

Recommendation: use the latest tag

It is recommended that you use the latest tag in order to run the latest and most updated software. Check the releases page to find the latest tag and if needed update it accordingly via the command or link provided above (e.g latest_tag -> x.x.x). You can also target directly main branch using git clone https://github.com/HorizenLabs/zkVerify.git but ensure that you fully understand the implications of doing so.

This repository contains the implementation of a zkVerify node. It is based on the Substrate framework.

Building the Binaries from Source Code

warning

Compilation of one of the dependencies requires you to fulfill the following requirements. Please take extra care, especially if you are a Mac user, where we know issues come up quite frequently. Feel free to reach us out on Discord if you need help in troubleshooting. We are working towards removing this dependency in the upcoming future.

To build the source code, open a terminal at root and type:

cargo build -p mainchain --profile production

or:

cargo build -p mainchain

For a debug build.

The build process downloads all the dependencies and can take several minutes on the first run. When finished, you can find the build output in directory target/production (or target/debug). The node executable is zkv-node.

In case you need to clean your workspace removing the previous build output, run:

cargo clean

Node Command-Line Utilities

Apart from the execution of the node itself, zkv-node provides some command-based utility features. Important features to note are:

• Command key:
  • Subcommands generate, inspect, insert allow you to handle generation, parsing and insertion of account keys (those used for example by Babe and Grandpa algorithm). These are important if you choose to run a validator node.
  • subcommands generate-node-key, inspect-node-key allow you to handle generation and parsing of node keys (those used for signing peer-to-peer messages and for uniquely identifying the node within the network). These are important if you decide to run a boot node.
  • Use target/production/zkv-node key --help for additional details,
• Command build-spec:
  • Allows you to create chain-spec file.
  • Use target/production/zkv-node build-spec --help for additional details.

Node Common Configuration

In the next pages you'll find instructions on how to run zkv-node in different modes and how to set the proper command-line arguments. Keep in mind that zkVerify nodes are based on the Substrate node template. Therefore they support the same set of command-line arguments as the template. To get a detailed description for each command, run:

target/production/zkv-node --help

The common command-line arguments you want to set regardless of the node type you pick are:

Name	Description	Value
--name	The human-readable name for this node. It's used as network node name.	Whatever you want.
--base-path	Specify custom base path.	Absolute or relative path.
--chain	Specify the chain specification. It can be one of the predefined ones (dev, local, or staging) or it can be a path to a file with the chainspec (such as one exported by the build-spec subcommand).	test for joining zkVerify testnet.
--port	Specify p2p protocol TCP port	Any number, but make sure the port is not already in use on your machine.