AZTEC-SEQUENCER NODE

Aztec is a L2 protcol on Ethereum that provides privacy and enable private transanction onchain. Details Guide on how to Run Sequencer Node on Aztec Network Testnet, Earn Apprentice Role on discord and Produce blocks on the network.

• What does sequencer nodes does in the testnet?
  • Sequencer Nodes proposes blocks, validates blocks from others, and votes on upgrades.

Roles Info

Hardware Requirements

• Sequencer Node: Minimum of 8 cores CPU, 16GB RAM, 100GB+ SSD (Most Vps will return 132 error, best exprience is gotten from Baremetal servers)

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Windows Users For windows 10+ and above, Open your cmd and type wsl.exe , it should take you to your window subsytem where the commands below will work fine or just download ubuntu if you don't have wsl ready.

1. Install Dependecies

• Update packages:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y

• Install Packages:

sudo apt install curl iptables build-essential git wget lz4 jq make gcc nano automake autoconf tmux htop nvme-cli libgbm1 pkg-config libssl-dev libleveldb-dev tar clang bsdmainutils ncdu unzip libleveldb-dev  -y

• Install Docker:

sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade -y
for pkg in docker.io docker-doc docker-compose podman-docker containerd runc; do sudo apt-get remove $pkg; done

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl gnupg
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

echo \
  "deb [arch="$(dpkg --print-architecture)" signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  "$(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME")" stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade -y

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

# Test Docker
sudo docker run hello-world

sudo systemctl enable docker
sudo systemctl restart docker

2. Install Aztec Tools

bash -i <(curl -s https://install.aztec.network)

• Restart your Terminal now to apply changes.
• Check if you installed successfully:

aztec --version

3. Update Aztec to the latest version

aztec-up alpha-testnet

4. Obtain RPC URLs

• You can create a Sepolia RPC URL in Alchemy and Use this https://rpc.drpc.org/eth/sepolia/beacon as free BEACON RPC. (You can run your own prysm, lighthouse nodes to get your own BEACON RPC or find other 3rd party solutions)

5. Generate Ethereum Keys (You can use your metamask to create a new wallet and use here)

Get an EVM Wallet with Private Key and Public Address saved.

6. Get Sepolia ETH

Fund your Ethereum Wallet with ETH Sepolia you can get sepolia eth from alchemy https://www.alchemy.com/faucets/ethereum-sepolia

7. Find IP

curl ipv4.icanhazip.com

• Save it somewhere, you will need it later

8. Enable Firewall & Open Ports

# Firewall
sudo ufw allow ssh
sudo ufw enable

# Sequencer
sudo ufw allow 40400
sudo ufw allow 40500
sudo ufw allow 8080

9. Sequencer Node

• Open screen or use Tmux

screen -S aztec

• Start the Node

aztec start --node --archiver --sequencer \
  --network alpha-testnet \
  --l1-rpc-urls RPC_URL  \
  --l1-consensus-host-urls BEACON_URL \
  --sequencer.validatorPrivateKeys YourPrivateKey \
  --sequencer.coinbase YourevmAddress \
  --p2p.p2pIp IP

Replace the following variables before you Run Node:

• RPC_URL & BEACON_URL: Step 4
• YourPrivateKey: Your EVM wallet private key
• YourAddress: Your EVM wallet public address
• IP: Your server IP (Step 7)

10. Sync Node

After entering the command, your node starts running, It takes a few hours for your node to get sync to the tip of the block and mostly depend on how powerful your device is.

11. Geting Apprentice Role on Aztec Discord

Go to the discord channel :https://discord.com/channels/1144692727120937080/1367196595866828982 . Get the below details before you use the commands

Open a New terminal and run the below command without shutting your Node Step 1: Get the latest proven block number:

curl -s -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"node_getL2Tips","params":[],"id":67}' \
http://localhost:8080 | jq -r ".result.proven.number"

• Save this block number for the next steps
• Example output: 23546
• replace http://localhost:8080 with your server ip addr if you're running on one, retain 8080 for port.

Step 2: Generate your sync proof

curl -s -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"node_getArchiveSiblingPath","params":["BLOCK_NUMBER","BLOCK_NUMBER"],"id":67}' \
http://localhost:8080 | jq -r ".result"

• Replace 2x BLOCK_NUMBER with your number, the output from step1 above

Step 3: Register with Discord

• Type the following command in this Discord server: /operator start

• After typing the command, Discord will display option fields that look like this:

• address: Your validator address (Ethereum Address)

• block-number: Block number for verification (Block number from Step 1)

• proof: Your sync proof (base64 string from Step 2)

• Once you paste the proof, ensure your cursor is out of the proof details before you click on send to avoid the send button adding a gap to the details which will invlidate your proof

• After submission, you'll get your Apprentice Role

12. Register Validator once your Node is sync to the tip (YOU CAN NO LONGER REGISTER AS A VALIDATOR EXCEPT BY USING ZKPASSPORT ROUTE)

aztec add-l1-validator \
  --l1-rpc-urls RPC_URL \
  --private-key your-private-key \
  --attester your-validator-address \
  --proposer-eoa your-validator-address \
  --staking-asset-handler 0xF739D03e98e23A7B65940848aBA8921fF3bAc4b2 \
  --l1-chain-id 11155111

Replace RPC_URL, your-validator-address & 2x your-validator-address, then proceed

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You will get this:

Adding validator (xxxxxx83d3442508ad63f3afa7f4e874xxxx, xxxxxd3442508ad63f3afa7f4e874b78269xxxx [forwarder: 0x871e7294B54dA07cFd71A95b6e2E66d86BcE41f8]) to rollup 0x8D1cc702453fa889f137DBD5734CDb7Ee96B6Ba0
[06:34:36.706] INFO: cli Adding validator (xxxx3d3442508ad63f3afa7f4e874b7826xxxxx, xxxx3d3442508ad63f3afa7f4e874b782xxxx [forwarder: 0x871e7294B54dA07cFd71A95b6e2E66d86BcE41f8]) to rollup 0x8D1cc702453fa889f137DBD5734CDb7Ee96B6Ba0
Transaction hash: xxx066cfd1d3a0ec29adfe3fe4ac0b11fb91bfbe049f268179eb9xxxxx
[06:34:37.864] INFO: cli Transaction hash: xxxx66cfd1d3a0ec29adfe3fe4ac0b11fb91bfbe049f268179eb9ee9def27xxx

• check sepolia scan to see if the validators goes through https://sepolia.etherscan.io/

TROUBLESHOOTING:

• world_state error :can be solve by removing the world_state folder

• error registering validator : is due to chain not sync to th current tip

• invalid blocknumber is caused from the public consesus address (BEACON ADDR), get a new one

• archiver error can be cleared by removing the archiver folder cause its mostly happen due to corrupt archive due to network instability

• the data directory is at /home/aztec-data/ and this is where you will find all folders that need to be deleted once they get corrupted

• Unable to fetch blob for upto 5hours will mostly be the issue of your consensus url, the public ones are rate limit and not able to retrieve blob for a long time, solution is to get a private one

If there is need to update the Node

• Stop node with

  Ctrl+C

• update the node

aztec-up latest

If you need to delete the node

• Stop node with Ctrl+C.
• Delete node data:

rm -r /root/.aztec

If you need to restart the node

• Re-run the node using start command.

aztec start --node --archiver --sequencer \
  --network alpha-testnet \
  --l1-rpc-urls RPC_URL  \
  --l1-consensus-host-urls BEACON_URL \
  --sequencer.validatorPrivateKey 0xYourPrivateKey \
  --sequencer.coinbase 0xYourAddress \
  --p2p.p2pIp IP

MONITOR AND AUTOMATIC UPDATE SCRIPT OF THE AZTEC NODE

To use the aztec-monitor.sh file above

This file monitor your node on port 8080 (if you use a different port, you can change it), and print Node is UP, if your node is down, it updates the aztec node and restart your node automatically, it continues to watch out for the port and ready to update then restart the node again. It saves you the stress of frequent update.

• Login into your vps

create the file by with:

  nano aztec-monitor.sh

• copy the content of the aztec-monitor.sh in this repo
• edit the start command and fill it with your details, the urls,private key,ip address. remove "<>" after you fill in your details

make it executable with:

chmod +x aztec-monitor.sh

start the monitor file with:

nohup ./aztec-monitor.sh > aztec-monitor.log 2>&1 &

check log with :

tail -f aztec-monitor.log

This Readme will keep getting update here and on my X https://x.com/HallenjayArt