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

Chain specs

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.

Flag	Preset	Network	EIP-155
(omit --chain)	quip-testnet	live public testnet	20033
--chain=quip-testnet	quip-testnet	live public testnet	20033
--dev or --chain=dev	Development	Alice-only local	1337
--chain=local	Local Testnet	Alice and Bob local	1337
--chain=local3	Local Testnet (3 Validators)	Alice, Bob, and Charlie local	1337

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

Runtime 117 is the H2/H4 chain-wipe relaunch. It starts from fresh genesis and is not an in-place upgrade of the earlier H1/H3 network. Operators must use a fresh chain database, re-insert the H4 BABE and H2 GRANDPA keys, and sync from the new genesis; old signed extrinsics are incompatible (transaction_version is 7).

Getting Started

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

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

cargo build --release

Join the live public testnet

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

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

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

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.

Multi-Node Local Testnet

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

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

Node

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

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.

Custody vesting

Both runtimes include stock vesting at pallet index 32. Mainnet allocation amounts, custody identity, recipients and tranche terms remain unresolved and block mainnet export. Genesis creates no vesting schedules; later signed multisig custody transfers issue one schedule per tranche.

Vesting constrains the recipient's total balance, including held stake: ordinary transfers preserve total >= frozen. Held stake discounts the amount that must stay free, so a pre-bonded account with enough held stake can transfer a new grant immediately, even before its vesting start. Both initial bond and bond_extra from vested funds are intentionally allowed. Guaranteeing that the grant itself stays illiquid requires a new owner decision and a hold-based design; the current pallet does not provide that guarantee.

The minimum vested transfer is 100 * EXISTENTIAL_DEPOSIT (0.1 QUIP). This raises the cost of filling an account's 28 schedule slots: at the former ED floor, 28 × ED (0.028 QUIP) could fill them, while council Root force-remove is denied. The higher floor prices this attack; it does not prevent it. Completed schedules can be cleaned up with vest/vest_other; merging requires the recipient.

The immutable pre-vesting evidence is in tests/fixtures/pre-vesting/manifest.json. The original f7da5ec post-vesting capture is preserved in tests/fixtures/post-vesting-f7da5ec/manifest.json; its validation claims predate the review corrections above. The corrected 100×ED capture is recorded separately in tests/fixtures/post-vesting-fix/manifest.json. SDK weights remain provisional until the reference-machine run and final metadata/storage/signing review tracked by QUI-2101, owned by roman@postquant.xyz.

Pallets

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

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

Nix

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

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-validator/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/<bootnode-host>/tcp/30333/p2p/<peer-id> \
  --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

quip-testnet is the live public testnet ("AGLS" tokens, 12 decimals, EIP-155 20033). Omitting --chain, or using quip-testnet, quip_testnet or testnet, loads the exact raw artifact embedded from chain-specs/quip-testnet.json. Its historical runtime and genesis storage are independent of the runtime compiled into a new node binary.

The file is a byte-for-byte copy of the public testnet raw spec published as chain-specs/aglais-network.json in the nodes.quip.network repository. It is vendored here as quip-testnet.json because the local filename identifies the network it serves; the upstream name refers to the same network under its older AGLS label. The upstream file's SHA-256 was verified against GitLab's reported content hash at upstream commit d65ab5b7ad62dad2de603c2611c14a72b24c1537. Its pinned SHA-256 is 0aeeddaf5b546a491d96c35fd636614c6ab42d4e5d9724126182b52c8c694ad4; its genesis hash is 0x542a9915acf840b8940d35ca6de242f669a0c6e3b40f9a8d8c14b9bf7b8ebecb. The blocking live-testnet-spec CI job checks the file's exact bytes, including formatting. Node tests check all four aliases and the genesis hash.

The registered runtime quip_testnet preset remains available through GenesisBuilder for policy auditing. Exporting that preset with a newly compiled runtime does not reproduce the published live genesis. dev, local, local3 and rehearsal continue to use their runtime builders. The unfinished quip-mainnet and quip-testnet-relaunch presets have no built-in node chain aliases.

Quickstart (built node)

cargo build --release -p quip-network-node
# Live public testnet (EIP-155 20033). Omit --chain for the same artifact.
./target/release/quip-network-node --chain=quip-testnet --base-path=./quip-data

The three canonical bootnodes (bootnode-{1,2,3}.aglais.quip.network) are embedded in the raw file, with the live protocol ID agls-network and AGLS properties unchanged.

Using the raw file with an existing image

Explicit file loading also works with existing images; those images do not acquire this new embedded-artifact behavior merely because this repository changed. Validate the checked-out artifact before using its path:

python3 scripts/check-live-testnet-spec.py

docker run --rm -v "$PWD/chain-specs:/spec:ro" -v quip-data:/data \
  -p 9944:9944 -p 30333:30333 \
  registry.gitlab.com/quip.network/quip-validator/quip-network-node:v0.3.0 \
  --chain=/spec/quip-testnet.json --base-path=/data

The vendored path represents the public network currently selected by the four aliases. A future approved relaunch must replace the artifact and update its checksum, genesis-hash tests and provenance in the same reviewed activation commit. The old artifact remains in Git history and release provenance. A new genesis requires fresh databases; this change does not activate a relaunch.

CI also starts a non-validator against a temporary copy with only bootnodes removed, checks its genesis over RPC, and restarts the same genesis-only DB. Isolation relies on empty bootnodes and reserved-peer lists, disabled mDNS, and disabled ordinary peers. The pinned litep2p backend still runs periodic Kademlia queries. The smoke test therefore verifies empty bootnodes before launch, observes at least ten seconds after RPC readiness, requires a Kademlia query log marker, and rejects outbound dial logs across the full run. Missing discovery logging fails the smoke test instead of silently shortening coverage. This smoke test checks startup and DB reopen, not the shipped peer list, live sync, consensus, or compatibility with an existing production DB.

Running a validator

Operator validator slots are committed in runtime/src/genesis_config_presets.rs. The scripts/derive-operator-keys.sh helper derives operator keys.