Service Providers
'Service Providers' are defined as entities that provide services for end-users that involve some form of interaction with the Cosmos Hub. More specifically, this document is focused on interactions with tokens.
Service Providers are expected to act as trusted points of contact to the blockchain for their end-users. This Service Providers section does not apply to wallet builders that want to provide Light Client functionalities.
This document describes:
Connection Options
There are four main technologies to consider to connect to the Cosmos Hub:
- Full Nodes: Interact with the blockchain.
- REST Server: Serves for HTTP calls.
- REST API: Use available endpoints for the REST Server.
- GRPC: Connect to the Cosmos Hub using gRPC.
Running a Full Node
What is a Full Node?
A Full Node is a network node that syncs up with the state of the blockchain. It provides blockchain data to others by using RESTful APIs, a replica of the database by exposing data with interfaces. A Full Node keeps in syncs with the rest of the blockchain nodes and stores the state on disk. If the full node does not have the queried block on disk the full node can go find the blockchain where the queried data lives.
Installation and Configuration
This section describes the steps to run and interact with a full node for the Cosmos Hub.
First, you need to install the software.
Consider running your own Cosmos Hub Full Node.
Command-Line Interface
The command-line interface (CLI) is the most powerful tool to access the Cosmos Hub and use gaia.
To use the CLI, you must install the latest version of gaia on your machine.
Compare your version with the latest release version
gaiad version --long
Available Commands
All available CLI commands are shown when you run the gaiad command:
gaiad
Stargate Cosmos Hub App
Usage:
gaiad [command]
Available Commands:
add-genesis-account Add a genesis account to genesis.json
collect-gentxs Collect genesis txs and output a genesis.json file
debug Tool for helping with debugging your application
export Export state to JSON
gentx Generate a genesis tx carrying a self delegation
help Help about any command
init Initialize private validator, p2p, genesis, and application configuration files
keys Manage your application's keys
migrate Migrate genesis to a specified target version
query Querying subcommands
start Run the full node
status Query remote node for status
tendermint Tendermint subcommands
testnet Initialize files for a simapp testnet
tx Transactions subcommands
unsafe-reset-all Resets the blockchain database, removes address book files, and resets data/priv_validator_state.json to the genesis state
validate-genesis validates the genesis file at the default location or at the location passed as an arg
version Print the application binary version information
Flags:
-h, --help help for gaiad
--home string directory for config and data (default "/Users/tobias/.gaia")
--log_format string The logging format (json|plain) (default "plain")
--log_level string The logging level (trace|debug|info|warn|error|fatal|panic) (default "info")
--trace print out full stack trace on errors
Use "gaiad [command] --help" for more information about a command.
For each displayed command, you can use the --help flag to get further information.
gaiad query --help
Usage:
gaiad query [flags]
gaiad query [command]
Aliases:
query, q
Available Commands:
account Query for account by address
auth Querying commands for the auth module
bank Querying commands for the bank module
block Get verified data for a the block at given height
distribution Querying commands for the distribution module
evidence Query for evidence by hash or for all (paginated) submitted evidence
gov Querying commands for the governance module
ibc Querying commands for the IBC module
ibc-transfer IBC fungible token transfer query subcommands
mint Querying commands for the minting module
params Querying commands for the params module
slashing Querying commands for the slashing module
staking Querying commands for the staking module
tendermint-validator-set Get the full tendermint validator set at given height
tx Query for a transaction by hash in a committed block
txs Query for paginated transactions that match a set of events
upgrade Querying commands for the upgrade module
Flags:
--chain-id string The network chain ID
-h, --help help for query
Global Flags:
--home string directory for config and data (default "/Users/tobias/.gaia")
--log_format string The logging format (json|plain) (default "plain")
--log_level string The logging level (trace|debug|info|warn|error|fatal|panic) (default "info")
--trace print out full stack trace on errors
Use "gaiad query [command] --help" for more information about a command.
Remote Access to gaiad
When choosing to remote access a Full Node and gaiad, you need a Full Node running and gaia installed on your local machine.
gaiad is the tool that enables you to interact with the node that runs on the Cosmos Hub network, whether you run it yourself or not.
To set up gaiad on a local machine and connect to an existing full node, use the following command:
gaiad config <flag> <value>
First, set up the address of the full node you want to connect to:
gaiad config node <host>:<port
// example: gaiad config node https://77.87.106.33:26657 (note: this is a placeholder)
If you run your own full node locally, use tcp://localhost:26657 as the address.
Finally, set the chain-id of the blockchain you want to interact with:
gaiad config chain-id cosmoshub-4
Next, learn to use CLI commands to interact with the full node. You can run these commands as remote control or when you are running it on your local machine.
Create a Key Pair
The default key is secp256k1 elliptic curve. Use the gaiad keys command to list the keys and generate a new key.
gaiad keys add <your_key_name>
You will be asked to create a password (at least 8 characters) for this key-pair. This will return the information listed below:
NAME: Name of your keyTYPE: Type of your key, alwayslocal.ADDRESS: Your address. Used to receive funds.PUBKEY: Your public key. Useful for validators.MNEMONIC: 24-word phrase. Save this mnemonic somewhere safe. This phrase is required to recover your private key in case you forget the password. The mnemonic is displayed at the end of the output.
You can see all available keys by typing:
gaiad keys list
Use the --recover flag to add a key that imports a mnemonic to your keyring.
gaiad keys add <your_key_name> --recover
Check your Account
You can view your account by using the query account command.
gaiad query account <YOUR_ADDRESS>
It will display your account type, account number, public key and current account sequence.
'@type': /cosmos.auth.v1beta1.BaseAccount
account_number: "xxxx"
address: cosmosxxxx
pub_key:
'@type': /cosmos.crypto.secp256k1.PubKey
key: xxx
sequence: "x"
Check your Balance
Query the account balance with the command:
gaiad query bank balances <YOUR_ADDRESS>
The response contains keys balances and pagination.
Each balances entry contains an amount held, connected to a denom identifier.
The typical $ATOM token is identified by the denom uatom. Where 1 uatom is 0.000001 ATOM.
balances:
- amount: "12345678"
denom: uatom
pagination:
next_key: null
total: "0"
When you query an account that has not received any token yet, the balances entry is shown as an empty array.
balances: []
pagination:
next_key: null
total: "0"
Send Coins Using the CLI
To send coins using the CLI:
gaiad tx bank send [from_key_or_address] [to_address] [amount] [flags]
Parameters:
<from_key_or_address>: Key name or address of sending account.<to_address>: Address of the recipient.<amount>: This parameter accepts the format<value|coinName>, such as1000000uatom.
Flags:
--chain-id: This flag allows you to specify the id of the chain. There are different ids for different testnet chains and mainnet chains.--gas-prices: This flag allows you to specify the gas prices you pay for the transaction. The format is used as0.0025uatom
REST API
The REST API documents list all the available endpoints that you can use to interact with your full node. Learn how to enable the REST API on your full node.
Listen for Incoming Transactions
The recommended way to listen for incoming transactions is to periodically query the blockchain by using the following HTTP endpoint: