ethdo/docs/prysm.md

Using ethdo with Prysm

Installing ethdo

1. To install ethdo, use the instructions on the main page.

Typical validating setups

This section outlines the process of setting up a configuration with two validators and a single withdrawal account using ethdo.

Generating a wallet

To create a non-deterministic wallet, where keys generated from random data, issue the command:

ethdo wallet create --wallet=Validators

If you prefer to have a hierarchical deterministic wallet, where keys are generated from a seed, issue the command:

ethdo wallet create --wallet=Validators --type=hd --walletpassphrase=walletsecret

This creates a wallet called "Validators" in the default wallet directory (see https://github.com/wealdtech/ethdo/#wallets-and-accounts for details) which contains the newly generated seed data.

The --walletpassphrase flag and input is required to protect the seed. It is critical that you keep it private and secure.

Once the wallet is created, fetch its data to ensure it exists by issuing the following command:

ethdo wallet info --wallet=Validators

This command will produce output like so:

Type: non-deterministic
Accounts: 0

Generating accounts

To create two separate accounts with different passphrases, issue the command:

ethdo account create --account=Validators/1 --passphrase=validator1secret
ethdo account create --account=Validators/2 --passphrase=validator2secret

The two accounts are given different passphrases in the above example. This is not required; all accounts can have the same password if you prefer.

Creating a withdrawal wallet and account

It is recommended to set up separate wallets for withdrawals and validator nodes. This allows users to have a validator wallet actively running on the node, while a second wallet can be kept securely offline in cold storage.

Creating a withdrawal wallet and account is very similar to the process above to generate the validator wallet. For example:

ethdo wallet create --wallet=Withdrawal
ethdo account create --account=Withdrawal/Primary --passphrase=withdrawalsecret

This creates a wallet called "Withdrawal" and within it an account called "Primary". It is also possible to apply additional protection to the Withdrawal wallet if desired; see the ethdo documentation for details.

Depositing funds for a validator

The validator now requires deposited funds. If you do not have any Göerli Ether, the best approach is to follow the steps at https://prylabs.net/participate to use the faucet and make a deposit -- however, for step 3, do not run the commands provided. Instead, run the following command to generate the deposit data requested:

ethdo validator depositdata \
      --validatoraccount=Validators/1 \
      --withdrawalaccount=Withdrawal/Primary \
      --depositvalue=32Ether \
      --passphrase=validator1secret \
      --raw

The raw data output of this command can be pasted in to the webpage above to generate the required transaction for validator 1 (and can be repeated for validator 2, or as many validators as you wish).

Alternatively, if you have your own Göerli ETH, you can send deposit transactions directly to the Göerli testnet. You can create JSON output containing the deposit data:

ethdo validator depositdata \
      --validatoraccount=Validators/1 \
      --withdrawalaccount=Withdrawal/Primary \
      --depositvalue=32Ether \
      --passphrase=validator1secret
{"account":"Validators/1","pubkey":"a9ca9cf7fa2d0ab1d5d52d2d8f79f68c50c5296bfce81546c254df68eaac0418717b2f9fc6655cbbddb145daeb282c00","withdrawal_credentials":"0059a28dc2db987d59bdfc4ab20b9ad4c83888bcd32456a629aece07de6895aa","signature":"9335b872253fdab328678bd3636115681d52b42fe826c6acb7f1cd1327c6bba48e3231d054e4f274cc7c1c184f28263b13083e01db8c08c17b59f22277dff341f7c96e7a0407a0a31c8563bcf479d31136c833712ae3bfd93ee9ea6abdfa52d4","value":3200000000,"deposit_data_root":"14278c9345eeeb7b2d5307a36ed1c72eea5ed09a30cf7c47525e34f39f564ef5"}

This can be passed to ethereal to send the deposit (replacing 0x21A1A52aba41DB18F9F1D2625e1b19A251F3e0A9 below with your local Göerli account containing the funds and eth1secret with that account's passphrase; ethereal --network=goerli account list --verbose will provide details of your local accounts and their current funds).

on Linux/OSX:

DEPOSITDATA=`ethdo validator depositdata \
                   --validatoraccount=Validators/1 \
                   --withdrawalaccount=Withdrawal/Primary \
                   --depositvalue=32Ether \
                   --passphrase=validator1secret`
ethereal beacon deposit \
      --network=goerli \
      --data="${DEPOSITDATA}" \
      --from=0x21A1A52aba41DB18F9F1D2625e1b19A251F3e0A9 \
      --passphrase=eth1secret

or on Windows:

ethdo validator depositdata \
      --validatoraccount=Validators/1 \
      --withdrawalaccount=Withdrawal/Primary \
      --depositvalue=32Ether \
      --passphrase=validator1secret >depositdata.json
ethereal beacon deposit \
      --network=goerli \
      --data=depositdata.json \
      --from=0x21A1A52aba41DB18F9F1D2625e1b19A251F3e0A9 \
      --passphrase=eth1secret
erase depositdata.json

The ethereal command can either take a passphrase, if the from address is a local account (confirm with ethereal --network=goerli account list) or a privatekey if not.

Validating

The next step is to start the validator using the validating keys that have been created.

Keymanager options

Although options for the wallet keymanager can be supplied directly on the command-line this is not considered best practice, as it exposes sensitive information such as passphrases, so it is better to create a file that contains this information and reference that file.

To create the relevant directory run the following for Linux/OSX:

mkdir -p ${HOME}/prysm/validator

or for Windows:

mkdir  %APPDATA%\prysm\validator

and then use your favourite text editor to create a file in this directory called wallet.json with the following contents:

{
  "accounts": [
    "Validators/1",
    "Validators/2"
  ],
  "passphrases": [
    "validator1secret",
    "validator2secret"
  ]
}

Starting the validator with Bazel

To start the validator you must supply the desired keymanager and the location of the keymanager options file. Run the following command for Linux/OSX:

bazel run //validator:validator -- --keymanager=wallet --keymanageropts=${HOME}/prysm/validator/wallet.json

or for Windows:

bazel run //validator:validator -- --keymanager=wallet --keymanageropts=%APPDATA%\prysm\validator\wallet.json

Starting the validator with Docker

Docker will not have direct access to the wallet created above, and requires the keymanager to be informed of the mapped location of the wallet. Edit the wallet.json file to include a location entry, as follows:

{
  "location": "/wallets",
  "accounts": [
    "Validators/1",
    "Validators/2"
  ],
  "passphrases": [
    "validator1secret",
    "validator2secret"
  ]
}

Then run the validator by issuing the following command on Linux:

 docker run -v "${HOME}/prysm/validator:/data" \
      -v "${HOME}/.config/ethereum2/wallets:/wallets" \
      gcr.io/prysmaticlabs/prysm/validator:latest \
      --keymanager=wallet \
      --keymanageropts=/data/wallet.json

or for OSX:

 docker run -v "${HOME}/prysm/validator:/data" \
      -v "${HOME}/Library/Application Support/ethereum2/wallets:/wallets" \
      gcr.io/prysmaticlabs/prysm/validator:latest \
      --keymanager=wallet \
      --keymanageropts=/data/wallet.json

or for Windows:

 docker run -v %APPDATA%\prysm\validator:/data" \
      -v %APPDATA%\ethereum2\wallets:/wallets" \
      gcr.io/prysmaticlabs/prysm/validator:latest \
      --keymanager=wallet \
      --keymanageropts=/data/wallet.json

Confirming validation

When the validator is operational, you should see output similar to:

[2020-02-07 10:00:59]  INFO node: Validating for public key pubKey=0x85016bd4ca67e57e1438308fdb3d98b74b81428fb09e6d16d2dcbc72f240be090d5faebb63f84d6f35a950fdbb36f910
[2020-02-07 10:00:59]  INFO node: Validating for public key pubKey=0x8de04b4cd3f0947f4e76fa2f86fa1cfd33cc2500688f2757e406448c36f0f1255758874b46d72002ad206ed560975d39

where each line states a public key that is being used for validating. Confirm that these values match your expectations.