POSDAO test setup

This is an integration test of AuRa POSDAO with seven OpenEthereum (or Nethermind) nodes running locally from the genesis block.

Ethereum client installation

OpenEthereum

To integrate with OpenEthereum, the following structure of folders is assumed:

.
├── openethereum
├── posdao-test-setup

So there should be two folders on the same level and posdao-test-setup will use a binary from the openethereum folder, namely the binary is assumed to be at ../openethereum/target/release/openethereum relative to posdao-test-setup root.

If you want to compile a specific branch/version of OpenEthereum, you can clone it directly and build the binary

# move up from posdao-test-setup root
$ cd ..
$ git clone https://github.com/openethereum/openethereum
$ cd openethereum
#
# Next step assumes you have Rust and required dependencies installed,
# for details please check https://github.com/openethereum/openethereum#readme
# Note that you can instruct Rust to always use the latest stable version for this project by running
#     $ rustup override set stable
# in `openethereum` folder.
#
# Build the binary
$ cargo build --release --features final

To save time, you can download a pre-compiled binary from the releases page (versions >= v3.3.5 are supported). But you still need to maintain directory structure and naming conventions:

# move up from posdao-test-setup root
$ cd ..
$ mkdir -p openethereum/target/release/
# an example for macOS binary
$ curl -SfL 'https://github.com/openethereum/openethereum/releases/download/v3.3.5/openethereum-macos-v3.3.5.zip' -o openethereum/target/release/openethereum.zip
$ unzip openethereum/target/release/openethereum.zip -d openethereum/target/release
$ chmod +x openethereum/target/release/openethereum
# check that it works and the version is correct (compare the version from the binary with version on the release page)
$ openethereum/target/release/openethereum --version

Nethermind

To integrate with Nethermind, the following structure of folders is assumed:

.
├── nethermind
├── posdao-test-setup

So there should be two folders on the same level and posdao-test-setup will use a binary from the nethermind folder, namely the binary is assumed to be at ../nethermind/bin/Nethermind.Runner relative to posdao-test-setup root.

A pre-compiled binary can be downloaded from the releases page (versions >= v1.12.7 are supported). You need to maintain directory structure and naming conventions:

# move up from posdao-test-setup root
$ cd ..
$ mkdir -p nethermind/bin
# an example for Linux binary
$ curl -SfL 'https://github.com/NethermindEth/nethermind/releases/download/1.12.7/nethermind-linux-amd64-1.12.7-3b419f1-20220407.zip' -o nethermind/bin/nethermind.zip
$ unzip nethermind/bin/nethermind.zip -d nethermind/bin
$ chmod +x nethermind/bin/Nethermind.Runner
# check that it works and version is correct (compare the version from the binary with version on the release page)
$ nethermind/bin/Nethermind.Runner --version

Usage

After OpenEthereum client is downloaded or built (see above), the integration test can be launched with npm run all (in the root of posdao-test-setup working directory). To use Nethermind client instead, the integration test should be launched with npm run all-nethermind.

To stop the tests, use npm run stop-test-setup (or just use CTRL+C in the console).

To stop and clear directories, use npm run cleanup in a separate console.

To restart the tests from scratch just run npm run all (or npm run all-nethermind) again.

To monitor blocks and transactions, use npm run watcher in a separate console.

Development

Adding new validator nodes and their keys (for OpenEthereum client only)

To add a new validator node, OpenEthereum should generate an account together with its secret key like so:

$ ./openethereum/target/release/openethereum account new --config config/nodeX.openethereum.toml --keys-path ./posdao-test-setup/data/nodeX/keys

given a node configuration file config/nodeX.openethereum.toml and a newly created directory data/nodeX/keys. config/nodeX.openethereum.toml should then be amended with the validator address output by the above command. Also, the keys directory data/nodeX/keys should be committed to the Git repository: it is part of persistent OpenEthereum state which should be kept across state resets which happen when you run npm run all.

With this done, the node can be added to the list of started nodes in scripts/start-test-setup and to the list of stopped nodes in scripts/stop-test-setup.

If the new node has to be an initial validator, the network spec should reflect that: add the node's address to INITIAL_VALIDATORS and STAKING_ADDRESSES in scripts/network-spec.

Simulation

We've created a NetLogo model for simulating the staking and rewards computation on networks of various sizes and having different input parameters.