ZK Genesis Tool

Table of Contents

1. Prerequisites
2. Usage
3. Troubleshooting

Prerequisites

• Nodejs

Usage

NOTE: Where possible, based on the consensus algorithm selected, the Zk Genesis Tool will create keys and genesis files for both HLF Besu and Geth and you can pick the one you'd like to use. At present only QBFT has cross client compatibility.

Generation of Keys

Create the artifacts with:

npx zk-genesis-tool
  ____  __ __               
 /_  / / //_/               
  / /_/ ,<                  
 /___/_/|_|             _   
 / ___/__ ___  ___ ___ (_)__
/ (_ / -_) _ \/ -_|_-</ (_-<
\___/\__/_//_/\__/___/_/___/
/_  __/__  ___  / /         
 / / / _ \/ _ \/ /          
/_/  \___/\___/_/        

Welcome to the ZK Genesis Tool. This tool can be used
to rapidly generate genesis, account keys, and configs for Besu and Geth.

To get started, be sure that you have read Besu and Geth documentation regarding
genesis config options, then answer the following questions.

Which consensus algorithm will you use? Default: QBFT
        1. IBFT1
        2. IBFT2
        3. QBFT
        4. Clique
        5. RAFT

Set your chainID value: (integer) Default: 1337

Set your blockperiodseconds value: (integer) Default: 5

(GoQ only) Set your emptyblockperiodseconds value: (integer) Default: 60

Set your requestTimeoutSeconds value: (integer) Default: 10

Set your epoch length value: (integer) Default: 30000

Set your difficulty: (integer) Default: 1

Set your gas limit value: (string) Default: 0xFFFF

Set your coinbase address for rewards: (string) Default: 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Choose number of validator node keys to generate: (integer) Default: 4

Choose number of member node keys to generate: (integer) Default: 1

Choose number of bootnode node keys to generate: (integer) Default: 2

Set your account password: (empty for none)

This prompts you to pick a consensus algorithm variant, and specifics for your genesis file. By default, artifact files are stored at ./output/<TIMESTAMP>, where TIMESTAMP is the time in a user friendly string:

Alternatively, you can use cli options and skip the prompt above like so:

npx zk-genesis-tool --help

Options:
  --help                   Show help                                   [boolean]
  --version                Show version number                         [boolean]
  --consensus              Consensus algorithm to use
        [string] [required] [choices: "ibft", "ibft2", "qbft", "clique", "raft"]
                                                               [default: "qbft"]
  --chainID                ChainID for blockchain
                                             [number] [required] [default: 1337]
  --blockperiod            Number of seconds per block
                                                [number] [required] [default: 5]
  --requestTimeout         Minimum request timeout for each round
                                                          [number] [default: 10]
  --emptyBlockPeriod       Reduce number (seconds) of blocks produced when there
                           are no transactions            [number] [default: 60]
  --epochLength            Number of blocks after which votes reset
                                            [number] [required] [default: 30000]
  --difficulty             Difficulty of network[number] [required] [default: 1]
  --gasLimit               Block gas limit
                                         [string] [required] [default: "0xFFFF"]
  --coinbase               Address to pay mining rewards to
                [string] [default: "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000"]
  --validators             Number of validator node keys to generate
                                                [number] [required] [default: 4]
  --members                Number of member node keys to generate
                                                [number] [required] [default: 1]
  --bootnodes              Number of bootnode node keys to generate
                                                [number] [required] [default: 2]
  --accountPassword        Password for keys              [string] [default: ""]
  --outputPath             Output path relative to current directory
                                                  [string] [default: "./output"]
  --zkDevAccounts  Include ZK test accounts
                                           [boolean] [required] [default: false]

To generate keys for QBFT (default) with 4 validators, 2 bootnodes and 2 members:

npx ZK-genesis-tool --consensus QBFT

To generate config for HLF Besu using QBFT

npx ZK-genesis-tool --consensus qbft --chainID 400 --blockperiod 5 --requestTimeout 10 --epochLength 30000 --difficulty 1 --gasLimit '0xFFFFFF' --coinbase '0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000' --validators 4 --members 1 --bootnodes 0

To generate config for Geth using IBFT

npx ZK-genesis-tool --consensus ibft --chainID 400 --blockperiod 5 --requestTimeout 10 --epochLength 30000 --difficulty 1 --gasLimit '0xFFFFFF' --coinbase '0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000' --validators 4 --members 1 --bootnodes 0

Eth Accounts and Tessera Passwords

Eth Accounts

For each node (bootnode/validator/member) an account is generated (files in their respective directories start with account*) to perform transactions and prefilled with a large balance. If you would like to remove or edit certain accounts from the genesis before the network has been spun up, you can find the genesis for Besu and Geth under each of their respective directories (besu/genesis.json or Geth/genesis.json).

If the flag zkDevAccounts is set to true, it will include the ZK-dev-quickstart test accounts. It is important to remove these accounts when going into production!

If the flag is not specified, then it will default to false with the assumption that the genesis is to be used in production. You should specify the flag only if you would like the accounts in testing/dev.

Tessera Passwords and Configuration

If you opt to provide a tesseraPassword to encrypt the tessera private keys, you will need to pass a passwordFile field with the password in a file. You will also need to update the privateKeyPath and publicKeyPath to the paths where you store your keys. See more here.

Using the keys and genesis files on instances

Once generated, the output should resemble the file structure below.

  ├── validator0
  │   └──  nodekey                      # the node private key
  │   └──  nodekey.pub                  # the node's public key which is used in the enode
  │   └──  address                      # the node's address which is used to vote the validator in/out
  │   └──  accountAddress               # Geth only - the accountAddress
  │   └──  accountKeystore              # Geth only - the account's v3 keystore
  │   └──  accountPassword              # Geth only - the account's password (you would have supplied this)
  │   └──  accountPrivateKey            # Geth only - the account's private key
  │               └── ...
  ├── validatorN
  │   └──  nodekey                      # the node private key
  │   └──  nodekey.pub                  # the node's public key which is used in the enode
  │   └──  ...
  |
  ├── bootnodeN
  │   └──  nodekey                      # the node private key
  │   └──  nodekey.pub                  # the node's public key which is used in the enode
  │   └──  ...
  |
  ├── memberN
  │   └──  nodekey                      # the node private key
  │   └──  nodekey.pub                  # the node's public key which is used in the enode
  │   └──  ...
  |
  └── besu
  │   └──  static-nodes.json            # a list of static nodes to make peering faster
  │   └──  genesis.json                 # this genesis file for any HLF Besu nodes
  │   └──  permissioned-nodes.json      # local permissions for any HLF Besu node
  │
  └── Geth
  │   └──  static-nodes.json            # a list of static nodes to make peering faster
  │   └──  genesis.json                 # this genesis file for any Geth nodes
  │   └──  permissioned-nodes.json      # local permissions for any Geth node
  │   └──  disallowed-nodes.json        # disallowed nodes for any Geth node ie this new nodes will not connect to any nodes on this list
  │
  └── userData.json                     # this answers provided in a single map
  └── README.md                         # this file

Please remember to do the following:

1. Update the in both the permissions file and the static nodes files. Please note the selected ports are default and you may need to check firewall rules if using alternate ports
2. As above, update the permissions.json files
3. Update in every Besu nodes' config.toml