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How to start solo staking on Ethereum using Erigon and Nimbus

· 3 min read
Andrew Robbins

Ideas

  • Make a detailed youtube video for blog post
  • Make a youtube channel (link to blog + twitter)

Steps

  • Assemble your NUC

  • Plugin backup power, etc

  • Flash Linux (Ubuntu Server) onto USB drive

  • Instal Linux (follow steps) -- Install with snap and openSSH turned on

  • Within home dir, create a folder called ethereum. We'll install everything inside here to keep things organized

  • Test your Network speed

    • Install sudo apt install speedtest-cli
    • Run speedtest-cli

  • Install network tools: run sudo apt install net-tools

  • Enable SSH on your NUC https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-enable-ssh-on-ubuntu-20-04/

    • Run sudo systemctl status ssh to ensure SSH is turned on
    • Open ssh in the firewall: sudo ufw allow ssh

  • Run sudo apt update to ensure your packages are updated

  • Run sudo apt install build-essential This will install two important dependencies that are required before running Erigon and Nimbus: gcc and make.

  • Verify that gcc is installed by running gcc --version

  • Verify that make is installed by running make --version

  • Install golang by running sudo snap install go --classic

Resources​

Lock down your NUC​

Install Chrony to ensure time clock is synced​

Ensure your entire hard drive is available​

Install Erigon​

  • Run cd ~/ethereum
  • Refer to Erigon's installtion guide and system requirements: https://github.com/ledgerwatch/erigon#system-requirements
  • Run git clone --recurse-submodules -j8 https://github.com/ledgerwatch/erigon.git
  • Run cd erigon
  • Run make erigon
  • Start the Erigon client ./build/bin/erigon --chain goerli --datadir data-goerli --authrpc.jwtsecret data-goerli --torrent.download.rate=20mb

Useful commands​

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Terminology

  • Nodes: a computer running a piece of Ethereum client software
  • Clients: an implementation of Ethereum that verifies all transactions in each block, keeping the network secure and the data accurate.
  • Validators: active participants in the Ethereum proof-of-stack consensus
  • JSON RPC:
  • Full node: A full “Ethereum Node” after the proof-of-stake upgrade must consist of both an Execution and Consensus client.
  • CL: Consensus layer
  • EL: Execution layer
  • Epoch: (~6.4 minutes)

Commands

  • sudo apt update - Update package version
  • sudo apt upgrade - Actually Update packages
  • pidof geth
  • kill -9 60098
  • ./build/bin/downloader torrent_hashes --verify --datadir=
  • free -h See how much RAM is being used
  • systemctl --type=service List all running services
  • sudo systemctl stop nimbus-eth2-prater.service Stop nimbus service
  • sudo /usr/local/bin/noip2 -S See status of noip daemon
  • systemctl reset-failed Reset all failed services
  • lsof -n -i:9090 | grep LISTEN Figure out what's running at a specific port:

geth --goerli --ws --datadir /home/andrew/ethereum/geth/data-goerli

sudo apt-get install -y prometheus prometheus-node-exporter

sudo ufw allow https

Steps:

Start Geth​

geth --goerli --authrpc.jwtsecret /home/andrew/ethereum/jwt --http --ws --metrics --metrics.expensive --pprof

Start the Nimbus validator:​

./run-prater-beacon-node.sh --web3-url="ws://127.0.0.1:8546" --subscribe-all-subnets --metrics --metrics-port=8008

Create the validator(s):​

  1. Generate keys (turn off internet) detection active - skipping validator duties while observing activity on the network