Celestia Light Node Blockspace-Race

Selcuk

3 min readMar 30, 2023

Learn how to run a Celestia Light Node by using it as a service file and installing the necessary dependencies

Hardware requirements

The following minimum hardware requirements are recommended for running a light node:

Memory: 2 GB RAM
CPU: Single Core
Disk: 5 GB SSD Storage
Bandwidth: 56 Kbps for Download/56 Kbps for Upload

1. Let's start with a system upgrade

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

sudo apt install curl tar wget clang pkg-config libssl-dev jq build-essential \
git make ncdu -y

2. Installing Go

ver="1.20.2"
cd $HOME
wget "https://golang.org/dl/go1.20.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go
sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf "go1.20.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
rm "go1.20.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
echo "export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin:$HOME/go/bin" >> $HOME/.bash_profile
source $HOME/.bash_profile
go version

The go version result should respond as go1.20.2 Linux/AMD

3. Installing Celestia-node

cd $HOME
rm -rf celestia-node
git clone https://github.com/celestiaorg/celestia-node.git
cd celestia-node/
git checkout tags/v0.8.0
make build
make install
make cel-key

check the version

celestia version

and the result should be;

Semantic version: v0.8.0

4 . Starting the Node

Important: do not forget to back up your wallet information after executing this command.

celestia light init --p2p.network blockspacerace

the result should be like this

INFO    node    nodebuilder/init.go:29  Initializing Light Node Store over '/root/.celestia-light-blockspacerace-0'
INFO    node    nodebuilder/init.go:61  Saved config    {"path": "/root/.celestia-light-blockspacerace-0/config.toml"}
INFO    node    nodebuilder/init.go:63  Accessing keyring...
WARN    node    nodebuilder/init.go:135 Detected plaintext keyring backend. For elevated security properties, consider using the `file` keyring backend.
INFO    node    nodebuilder/init.go:150 NO KEY FOUND IN STORE, GENERATING NEW KEY...    {"path": "/root/.celestia-light-blockspacerace-0/keys"}
INFO    node    nodebuilder/init.go:155 NEW KEY GENERATED...

NAME: my_celes_key
ADDRESS: celestiaxxxxxx
MNEMONIC (save this somewhere safe!!!): 
hand change flame prepare satisfy xxxx xxxx xxx xxxx xxxx

check your wallet address and name with this code;

./cel-key list --node.type light --p2p.network blockspacerace

Do not forget to get request a test coin into your wallet on Celestia Discord #faucet channel. write “$request celestiaxxxxxx(your wallet address) “ and claim your coins.

5. Creating a Service File

sudo tee <<EOF >/dev/null /etc/systemd/system/celestia-lightd.service
[Unit]
Description=celestia-lightd Light Node
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=$USER
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/celestia light start --core.ip https://rpc-blockspacerace.pops.one --core.rpc.port 26657 --core.grpc.port 9090 --keyring.accname my_celes_key --metrics.tls=false --metrics --metrics.endpoint otel.celestia.tools:4318 --gateway --gateway.addr localhost --gateway.port 26659 --p2p.network blockspacerace
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=3
LimitNOFILE=4096

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

Start your node;

systemctl enable celestia-lightd
systemctl start celestia-lightd

you can check the log files;

journalctl -u celestia-lightd.service -f

6. Node-ID Information

get your node id information to monitor your node on https://tiascan.com/light-nodes and enter the task on the knack portal;

AUTH_TOKEN=$(celestia light auth admin --p2p.network blockspacerace)


curl -X POST \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $AUTH_TOKEN" \
     -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
     -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":0,"method":"p2p.Info","params":[]}' \
     http://localhost:26658

the node id result should be shown ;

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","result":{"ID":"12D3KooXXXXXX",..........................

7. Back up Your files

Before entering your node information into the knack portal, please save your key folder that is in the “.celestia-light-blockspacerace-0" folder

/home/USER/.celestia-full-blockspacerace-0/keys

MobaXterm folder management. You can upload or download files to your cloud service by simply dragging and dropping files/folders

NOTE: You can either pull this folder using Winscp or MobaXterm Terminal both supporting folder management and terminal.

8. Useful Commands

this section will be updated during the blockspace-race therefore you may check from time to time.

service status check;

systemctl status celestia-lightd

service restart;

systemctl restart celestia-lightd

service stop,

systemctl stop celestia-lightd

USEFUL LINKS & REFERENCES:

To follow the original set-up docs please check the light node set-up documents published by the Celestia team.

https://docs.celestia.org/nodes/light-node/

To enter your Knack Portal and submit your tasks;

Knack

Edit description

celestia.knack.com

To monitor your node’s uptime

https://tiascan.com/light-node/

Official Celestia web page

https://celestia.org/

I wish all Celestia participants good luck and successful testnet