How to Bake on Ghostnet

Ghostnet

Ghostnet is Tezos’ perpetual testnet. In the context of TezBake, Ghostnet is intended to provide a no-consequences testing environment where you can learn how to properly bake and pay using TezBake and TezPay. It’s highly recommended for all serious bakers to have a Ghostnet setup running, to help test protocol migrations.

Preparation

Installing TezBake CLI and using it to setup your Tezos baker is very simple. You will need the following tools:

Spare computer or existing computer with Linux installed. We recommend Ubuntu Linux. (note: you must have an SSD drive or better & at least 8GB RAM)
Ledger Nano S hardware wallet with Tezos Wallet & Baker apps installed. (note: it’s necessary to use Ledger Live to install the Tezos Wallet & Baking applications; to install the latter you must enable developer mode in Ledger Live settings)

Installation

Download and copy tezbake

To begin, run the script below, which will download the latest version of TezBake and copy it to your /usr/sbin directory. This script works with both x86_64 and arm64 architectures.

wget -q https://github.com/tez-capital/tezbake/raw/main/install.sh -O /tmp/install.sh && sudo sh /tmp/install.sh
# you may be prompted for sudo password

Setup Tezos node, signer and install tezbake dependencies

tezbake setup -a --node-configuration=https://gitlab.com/groktech/xtz.configs/-/raw/main/ghostnet.json
# you may be prompted for sudo password

Bootstrap Tezos node

At this stage, it’s necessary to bootstrap your node, meaning to download a copy of the blockchain so you don’t have to synchronize block-by-block, which takes hours at best.

tezbake bootstrap-node <url> <block_hash>
# example:
tezbake bootstrap-node https://snapshots.eu.tzinit.org/ghostnet/rolling BL8Vq12HX6MJWkB6RLgQAYRKpKZ5fyMoLpWzAoQ6mh55gkKHiQU

You can replace eu above with us or asia if you prefer to use a different mirror closer to you.

Get the block hash and block level from the snapshot provider’s website: https://snapshots.eu.tzinit.org/ghostnet/rolling.html

The <block_hash> argument is optional but encouraged. If you don’t want to borther with this protection, use the second method below which will also be faster.

Verify the hash/checksum provided by the snapshot provider to ensure the snapshot is valid. You can find the correct hashes for all blocks on Tezos blockchain explorers such as: https://tzkt.io/blocks https://tzstats.com/

Simply search for the block level in the search field and verify the hash of the block matches the hash provided by the snapshot provider.

Start Tezos node

After importing the snapshot, you need to start your node and wait until it’s fully synchronized before importing your Ledger key.

tezbake start

After starting the node, run the following command over and over every few minutes and monitor the “level” displayed.

tezbake info

Level refers to the latest block number on mainnet. Navigate to https://tzkt.io or https://tzstats.com and observe the latest block. Once the level in your command matches the latest block on your blockchain explorer, your node is in full sync and you can keep following the steps below.

Import Ledger key

Now that your node is in full sync, you can import your Ledger key. You will need to connect your Ledger and enter your Ledger PIN. Then open the Tezos Baking app.

tezbake import-key --derivation-path="ed25519/0h/0h"
# If you have a custom derivation path, you can change ed to bip as shown (--derivation-path="bip25519/3h/6h/9h")

The ledger will ask you twice to confirm this operation. Make sure the baker you see on the ledger screen matches the one you want to use. If you don’t have this information yet, don’t worry. To get the address of the ledger that’s used by default simply go to https://kukai.app and login with ledger, accepting the default derivation path.

bip is supposed to be more strong in the long term than ed25519, which is the default one. Including it in the command above as shown does not change the default behavior but it shows which path is default so it can be customized for preference and security.

Putting the baker on a non-default derivation path provides an additional layer of security for your baker at the cost of extra complexity for you. Make sure your setup is clearly documented for your own records.

Authorize Ledger to bake for key

Having imported your Ledger key to your signer, it’s time to authorize your Ledger to bake for this key.

tezbake setup-ledger --main-hwm 1
# Pay careful attention to the value of --main-hwm

If your device was used to bake before it might have a “high watermark” aka HWM. If you try to use this device on a testnet, it will not work because the block height on test networks usually starts with 1 while mainnet is up to over a couple of million blocks at the time of writing. If you used to bake on mainnet with the same ledger as you’re trying to use now but it’s been a while, it’s highly recommended to change the 1 above to the current Tezos block, which can be found at.

The watermark is simply a record of the lack block number your ledger helped to bake or endorse. If you’re setting up a brand new device that’s not been used for baking before, there is no need to alter the default command above.

Always make sure you’re not accidentally going to double bake by using your production ledger and/or setup to bake on a testnet. It’s really easy to make this mistake and the only thing preventing it are your personal standard operating procedures.

Register Ledger key as baker on the blockchain

For this step your node level must be synced with the latest block on the blockchain explorer. You must also temporarily open your Ledger Tezos Wallet app to register your key as a baker. For all other operations, you must use the Tezos Baking app.

tezbake register-key

Registering is not necessary if this is already an active baker ledger which is being setup on some kind of failover machine or in a situation where it has not been over 2 weeks of actively baking.

Any questions/comments/concerns? Please contact the Tez Capital team on Discord or Telegram