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Joining Testnet

Visit the testnets repo for the most up-to-date information on the currently available public testnets:

How to Join​

You can set up a testnet node with a single command using one of the options below:

Create a Validator (Optional)​

If you want to create a validator in either testnet, request tokens through the faucet Discord channel and follow the this guide. If you are creating a validator in the Release Testnet, you can disregard the instructions about joining live consumer chains.

Upgrading Your Node​

Follow these instructions if you have a node that is already synced and wish to participate in a scheduled testnet software upgrade.

When the chain reaches the upgrade block height specified by a software upgrade proposal, the chain binary will halt and expect the new binary to be run (the system log will show ERR UPGRADE "<Upgrade name>" NEEDED at height: XXXX or something similar).

There are three ways you can update the binary:

  1. Without Cosmovisor: You must build or download the new binary ahead of the upgrade. When the chain binary halts at the upgrade height:
  • Stop the gaiad service with systemctl stop gaiad.service.
  • Build or download the new binary, replacing the existing ~/go/bin one.
  • Start the gaiad service with systemctl start gaiad.service.
  1. With Cosmovisor: You must build or download the new binary and copy it to the appropriate folder ahead of the upgrade.
  2. With Cosmovisor: Using the auto-download feature, assuming the proposal includes the binaries for your system architecture.

The instructions below are for option 2. For more information on auto-download with Cosmovisor, see the relevant documentation in the Cosmos SDK repo.

If the environment variable DAEMON_ALLOW_DOWNLOAD_BINARIES is set to false, Cosmovisor will look for the new binary in a folder that matches the name of the upgrade specified in the software upgrade proposal.

Cosmovisor Upgrade Example​

Using the v17 upgrade as an example, the expected folder structure would look as follows:

.gaia
└── cosmovisor
    ├── current
    ├── genesis
    │   └── bin
    |       └── gaiad
    └── upgrades
        └── v17
            └── bin
                └── gaiad

Prepare the upgrade directory

mkdir -p ~/.gaia/cosmovisor/upgrades/v17/bin

Download and install the new binary version.

cd $HOME/gaia
git pull
git checkout v17.0.0-rc0
make install

# Copy the new binary to the v17 upgrade directory
cp ~/go/bin/gaiad ~/.gaia/cosmovisor/upgrades/v17/bin/gaiad

When the upgrade height is reached, Cosmovisor will stop the gaiad binary, update the symlink from current to the relevant upgrade folder, and restart. After a few minutes, the node should start syncing blocks using the new binary.