Ergo

This repository contains the reference implementation of the Ergo Platform protocol, which is an alternative to the Bitcoin protocol.

Ergo Platform website: https://ergoplatform.org/

Differences from Bitcoin

• Powerful contracts in the multi-stage extended UTXO model (see ErgoScript whitepaper)
• Memory-hard Proof-of-Work function Autolykos2
• Support for stateless clients (asymmetric, based on https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/994), NiPoPoWs, hybrid modes
• Alternative transactional language, which is more powerful that Bitcoin Script but also safe against heavy validation attacks
• Alternative fee model with mandatory storage-rent component

Specifications

A White Paper with a brief description is available. A Yellow Paper with detailed specification is underway and will be available shortly. At the moment, there are drafts of the Yellow Paper available, and currently the reference implementation code should be considered as the specification.

Installation

You can check our Setup A Full Node wiki page to learn how to manually setup and configure a node.

Alternatively you can run the prepared ergo-installer.sh script. With this script you'll have the latest Ergo node installed without any hassle (only availalbe for Linux distributions):

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ergoplatform/ergo/master/ergo-installer.sh | sh -s -- --api-key=<YOUR_API_KEY>

Build from source

In order to build the Ergo node from sources you need JDK (>= 1.8) and SBT to be installed on your machine.

In order to simply get a single jar run: sbt assembly - assembly would appear in target/scala-2.12/ directory.

If you want to create a package for a specific platform with launching scripts the one of the following packager commands could be chosen (depending on desired system type you want to build for):

• universal:packageBin - Generates a universal zip file
• universal:packageZipTarball - Generates a universal tgz file
• debian:packageBin - Generates a deb
• docker:publishLocal - Builds a Docker image using the local Docker server
• rpm:packageBin - Generates an rpm
• universal:packageOsxDmg - Generates a DMG file with the same contents as the universal zip/tgz.
• windows:packageBin - Generates an MSI

The final build command should look like: sbt <packager_command>, example: sbt universal:packageBin. A resulted package could be found in the target/scala-2.12/<platform_type> directory.

Running the node

The node can be started in a couple different ways:

• In case you only have a jar: java -jar /path/to/ergo-<version>.jar --<networkId> -c /path/to/local.conf
• Using start script from sbt-native-packager: sh /path/to/bin/ergo --<networkId> -c /path/to/local.conf

Available networkId options: mainnet, testnet, devnet.

UI

Node UI (graphical interface) could be accessed at <node_ip>:<api_port>/panel in your browser.

Docker Quick Start

Ergo has officially supported Docker package. To run last Ergo version in mainnet as a console application with logs printed to console:

sudo docker run --rm -p 9030:9030 -p 127.0.0.1:9053:9053 -v /path/on/host/to/ergo/data:/home/ergo/.ergo ergoplatform/ergo --mainnet

This will connect to Ergo mainnet with default config and open port 9030 globally and 9053 locally on the host system. All data will be stored in your host directory /path/on/host/to/ergo/data.

To run specific Ergo version <VERSION> as a service with custom config /path/on/host/system/to/myergo.conf:

sudo docker run -d \
    -p 9030:9030 \
    -p 127.0.0.1:9053:9053 \
    -v /path/on/host/to/ergo/data:/home/ergo/.ergo \
    -v /path/on/host/system/to/myergo.conf:/etc/myergo.conf \
    -e MAX_HEAP=3G \
    ergoplatform/ergo:<VERSION> --<networkId> -c /etc/myergo.conf

Available versions can be found on Ergo Docker image page, for example, v4.0.23.

This will connect to the Ergo mainnet or testnet following your configuration passed in myergo.conf and network flag --<networkId>. Every default config value would be overwritten with corresponding value in myergo.conf. MAX_HEAP variable can be used to control how much memory can the node consume.

This command also would store your data in /path/on/host/to/ergo/data on host system, and open ports 9030 (node communication) globally and 9053 (REST API) locally on host system. The /path/on/host/to/ergo/data directory must has 777 permissions or has owner/group numeric id equal to 9052 to be writable by container, as ergo user inside Docker image (please refer to Dockerfile).

Ergo node works normally behind NAT, so you can keep closed your 9030 port, hence other nodes could not discover and connect to yours one, only your node could initiate connections.

It is also a good practice to keep closed REST API port 9053, and connect to your node from inside another container in the same Docker network (this case not covered by this short quick start manual).

Testing

There are three kinds of tests:

1. Unit and property tests, run them with sbt test command.
2. Integration tests, they require for Docker to be installed, then run sudo sbt it:test.
3. Bootstrapping tests, very slow as they are checking that the node is indeed catching up with the main network in different regimes, they require for Docker too, run as sudo sbt it2:test.

Open project in IDE

Your can use IntelliJ IDEA (Community or Ultimate edition) or VSCode + Metals. Before opening the project in IDE make sure it can be built with sbt. You may need to fix dependency resolution errors first.

After that you can open the project folder in Idea (File / Open) which will run Project Import Wizard. The wizard will use SBT configuration (build.sbt file) to generate Idea's project configuration files. You can open File / Project Structure... dialog to see project configuration. If everything is successful you can compile the project in IDE.

Contributions

Ergo is open-source and open movement, always in need for testers and developers! Please feel free to discuss development in Ergo Discord, #development channel.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions