Quip Network node

Quip Network solochain node (quip-network-node).

Chain specs Copy Chapter

Omit --chain to join the live public Quip Testnet (EIP-155 20033).
--chain=local is a disposable Alice-and-Bob chain. It is not the public testnet.

Aliases for the public testnet: quip_testnet, testnet. A path argument loads that JSON file and uses the chain ID in its genesis.

Getting Started Copy Chapter

Depending on your operating system and Rust version, there might be additional
packages required to compile this template. Check the
Install instructions for your platform for
the most common dependencies. Alternatively, you can use one of the alternative
installation options.

Fetch solochain template code:

git clone https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot-sdk-solochain-template.git solochain-template

cd solochain-template

Build Copy Section

🔨 Use the following command to build the node without launching it:

cargo build --release

Join the live public testnet Copy Section

Omit --chain to select quip-testnet (EIP-155 20033).

# Live public testnet (EIP-155 20033). Default if you omit --chain.
./target/release/quip-network-node

Embedded Docs Copy Section

After you build the project, you can use the following command to explore its
parameters and subcommands:

./target/release/solochain-template-node -h

You can generate and view the Rust
Docs for this template
with this command:

cargo +nightly doc --open

Single-Node Development Chain Copy Section

The following command starts a single-node development chain that does not
persist state. --dev is the Alice-only local preset (EIP-155 1337), not
the public testnet.

# Alice-only local chain (EIP-155 1337)
./target/release/solochain-template-node --dev

To purge the development chain's state, run the following command:

# Alice-only local chain (EIP-155 1337)
./target/release/solochain-template-node purge-chain --dev

To start the development chain with detailed logging, run the following command:

# Alice-only local chain (EIP-155 1337)
RUST_BACKTRACE=1 ./target/release/solochain-template-node -ldebug --dev

Development chains (--dev / --chain=dev):

• Maintain state in a tmp folder while the node is running.
• Use the Alice account as the sole validator authority.
• Use the Alice account as the default sudo account.
• Are preconfigured with a genesis state (/node/src/chain_spec.rs) that
  includes several pre-funded development accounts.
• Use EIP-155 chain ID 1337.

To persist chain state between runs, specify a base path by running a command
similar to the following:

// Create a folder to use as the db base path
$ mkdir my-chain-state

// Alice-only local chain (EIP-155 1337)
$ ./target/release/solochain-template-node --dev --base-path ./my-chain-state/

// Check the folder structure created inside the base path after running the chain
$ ls ./my-chain-state
chains
$ ls ./my-chain-state/chains/
dev
$ ls ./my-chain-state/chains/dev
db keystore network

Connect with Polkadot-JS Apps Front-End Copy Section

After you start the node template locally, you can interact with it using the
hosted version of the Polkadot/Substrate
Portal
front-end by connecting to the local node endpoint. A hosted version is also
available on IPFS. You can
also find the source code and instructions for hosting your own instance in the
polkadot-js/apps repository.

Quip uses hybrid BABE and GRANDPA consensus keys. Polkadot.js Apps does not
require custom types for Quip anymore; for usage notes, see
docs/polkadotjs/README.md.

Multi-Node Local Testnet Copy Section

A scripted three-validator local network is available two ways.
Both use --chain=local3 (EIP-155 1337). This is not the public testnet.

• Native build: scripts/start-local3.sh builds the debug binary and starts
  three validators (Alice/Bob/Charlie) against the embedded local3 chain spec.
• Docker: docker compose up --build starts the same three-validator
  topology in containers. See the Docker section below.

Both paths use the same hardcoded libp2p node-keys and bootnode peer ID, so
they're interchangeable for development.

For background on multi-node consensus, see Simulate a
network.

Template Structure Copy Chapter

A Substrate project such as this consists of a number of components that are
spread across a few directories.

Node Copy Section

A blockchain node is an application that allows users to participate in a
blockchain network. Substrate-based blockchain nodes expose a number of
capabilities:

• Networking: Substrate nodes use the libp2p networking
  stack to allow the nodes in the network to communicate with one another.
• Consensus: Blockchains must have a way to come to
  consensus on the state of
  the network. Substrate makes it possible to supply custom consensus engines
  and also ships with several consensus mechanisms that have been built on top
  of Web3 Foundation
  research.
• RPC Server: A remote procedure call (RPC) server is used to interact with
  Substrate nodes.

There are several files in the node directory. Take special note of the
following:

• chain_spec.rs: A chain
  specification is a source code
  file that defines a Substrate chain's initial (genesis) state. Chain
  specifications are useful for development and testing, and critical when
  architecting the launch of a production chain. Take note of the
  development_config and testnet_genesis functions. These functions are
  used to define the genesis state for the local development chain
  configuration. These functions identify some well-known
  accounts and
  use them to configure the blockchain's initial state.
• service.rs: This file defines the node
  implementation. Take note of the libraries that this file imports and the
  names of the functions it invokes. In particular, there are references to
  consensus-related topics, such as the block finalization and
  forks
  and other consensus
  mechanisms
  such as BABE for block authoring and GRANDPA for finality.

Runtime Copy Section

In Substrate, the terms "runtime" and "state transition function" are analogous.
Both terms refer to the core logic of the blockchain that is responsible for
validating blocks and executing the state changes they define. The Substrate
project in this repository uses
FRAME to construct
a blockchain runtime. FRAME allows runtime developers to declare domain-specific
logic in modules called "pallets". At the heart of FRAME is a helpful macro
language that makes it easy
to create pallets and flexibly compose them to create blockchains that can
address a variety of needs.

Review the FRAME runtime implementation included in this
template and note the following:

• This file configures several pallets to include in the runtime. Each pallet
  configuration is defined by a code block that begins with impl $PALLET_NAME::Config for Runtime.
• The pallets are composed into a single runtime by way of the
  #[runtime]
  macro, which is part of the core FRAME pallet
  library.

Pallets Copy Section

The runtime in this project is constructed using many FRAME pallets that ship
with the Substrate
repository and a
template pallet that is defined in the
pallets directory.

A FRAME pallet is comprised of a number of blockchain primitives, including:

• Storage: FRAME defines a rich set of powerful storage
  abstractions that makes it
  easy to use Substrate's efficient key-value database to manage the evolving
  state of a blockchain.
• Dispatchables: FRAME pallets define special types of functions that can be
  invoked (dispatched) from outside of the runtime in order to update its state.
• Events: Substrate uses
  events to notify users
  of significant state changes.
• Errors: When a dispatchable fails, it returns an error.

Each pallet has its own Config trait which serves as a configuration interface
to generically define the types and parameters it depends on.

Alternatives Installations Copy Chapter

Instead of installing dependencies and building this source directly, consider
the following alternatives.

Nix Copy Section

Install nix and
nix-direnv for a fully
plug-and-play experience for setting up the development environment. To get all
the correct dependencies, activate direnv direnv allow.

Docker Copy Section

A multi-stage Dockerfile builds the quip-network-node binary on top of
debian:bookworm-slim (~80 MB runtime image). The image exposes the binary
directly as ENTRYPOINT, so any Substrate CLI flag works at docker run time.

Build

docker build -t quip-network-node:local .

The first build compiles the full workspace and takes a while. BuildKit cache
mounts (declared in the Dockerfile) keep the cargo registry and target
directory between local rebuilds.

Pre-built images

Every push to main and every git tag publishes an image to the project's
GitLab Container Registry, so you don't have to build locally:

docker pull registry.gitlab.com/quip.network/quip-protocol-rs/quip-network-node:latest

Tag scheme:

• :latest — tip of main. Floating, advances on every merge.
• :sha-<short> — pinned to a specific commit on main or to a tagged release.
• :<git-tag> — pinned to a release tag (e.g. :v0.1.0).

Run as a validator

# Three-validator local chain (EIP-155 1337). Not the public testnet.
docker run --rm -v quip-data:/data -p 9944:9944 -p 30333:30333 \
  quip-network-node:local \
  --chain=local3 --base-path=/data \
  --validator --alice \
  --unsafe-rpc-external --rpc-cors=all

--unsafe-rpc-external is required because Substrate refuses to combine
--rpc-external with --validator by default (a safety guard against
exposing a validator's RPC to the public internet). For local development
the unsafe flag is fine; for production validators you almost certainly do
not want any external RPC at all.

Run as a full node

Same command, omit --validator (and the --alice/--bob/--charlie shortcut):

# Three-validator local chain (EIP-155 1337). Not the public testnet.
docker run --rm -v quip-data:/data -p 9944:9944 -p 30333:30333 \
  quip-network-node:local \
  --chain=local3 --base-path=/data \
  --bootnodes=/dns//tcp/30333/p2p/ \
  --rpc-external --rpc-cors=all

Local 3-node network via docker-compose

docker-compose.yml reproduces scripts/start-local3.sh in containers.
Each service passes --chain=local3 (EIP-155 1337). This is not the public
testnet.

docker compose up --build           # start local3 (EIP-155 1337)
docker compose down                 # stop, keep chain state
docker compose down -v              # stop and wipe state

Then connect Polkadot.js Apps to ws://localhost:9944 (node1),
ws://localhost:9945 (node2), or ws://localhost:9946 (node3).

Public testnet Copy Chapter

quip-testnet is the live public testnet ("AGLS" tokens, 12 decimals,
EIP-155 20033). Omitting --chain selects this preset. The canonical
genesis is baked into the v0.2.0+ binary and also published as a raw JSON
file at nodes.quip.network/chain-specs/quip-testnet.json.

Quickstart (Docker) Copy Section

# Pull the matching release image
docker pull registry.gitlab.com/quip.network/quip-protocol-rs/quip-network-node:v0.2.0

# Live public testnet (EIP-155 20033). Omit --chain for the same preset.
docker run --rm -v quip-data:/data -p 9944:9944 -p 30333:30333 \
  registry.gitlab.com/quip.network/quip-protocol-rs/quip-network-node:v0.2.0 \
  --chain=quip-testnet --base-path=/data \
  --name="my-quip-node"

The three canonical bootnodes (bootnode-{1,2,3}.testnet.quip.network) are
embedded in the chain spec, so peer discovery happens automatically.

Using the hosted raw chain spec Copy Section

Alternatively, fetch the published JSON spec from nodes.quip.network and
pass its path to --chain. That file is the live public testnet
(EIP-155 20033).

curl -fsSL https://gitlab.com/quip.network/nodes.quip.network/-/raw/main/chain-specs/quip-testnet.json \
    -o quip-testnet.json

# Live public testnet JSON (EIP-155 20033)
docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/spec" -v quip-data:/data -p 9944:9944 -p 30333:30333 \
  registry.gitlab.com/quip.network/quip-protocol-rs/quip-network-node:v0.2.0 \
  --chain=/spec/quip-testnet.json --base-path=/data

Running a validator Copy Section

Operator validator slots are committed at genesis (see
docs/genesis-quip-testnet.md). To rotate or
add a slot, follow docs/testnet-keys.md and the
scripts/derive-operator-keys.sh helper.