# Joining Testnets

Below is the list of Rebus testnets and their current status. You will need to know the version tag for installation of the rebusd binary.

For details of upgrades on the current testnet, as well as syncing, you can check out the testnets repo, which is the definitive source of truth.

If you get stuck, then please ask on Discord.

The minimum recommended hardware requirements for running a validator for the Rebus testnets are:

To get up and running with the rebusd binary, please follow the instructions here

For this guide, we will be using shell variables. This will enable the use of the client commands verbatim. It is important to remember that shell commands are only valid for the current shell session, and if the shell session is closed, the shell variables will need to be re-defined.

If you want variables to persist for multiple sessions, then set them explicitly in your shell .profile, as you did for the Go environment variables.

To clear a variable binding, use unset $VARIABLE_NAME . Shell variables should be named with ALL CAPS.

Choose the <chain-id> testnet you would like to join from here. Set the CHAIN_ID:

CHAIN_ID=<chain-id>

#Example
CHAIN_ID=reb_3333-1

Choose your <moniker-name>, this can be any name of your choosing and will identify your validator in the explorer. Set the MONIKER_NAME:

MONIKER_NAME=<moniker-name>

#Example
MONIKER_NAME="ValidatorT1000"

Active and running peers will be required to tell your node where to connect to other nodes and join the network. To retrieve the peers for the Rebus testnet:

#Set the base repo URL for the testnet & retrieve peers
CHAIN_REPO="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rebuschain/rebus.testnet/master" && \
export PEERS="$(curl -s "$CHAIN_REPO/seeds.txt")"

# check it worked
echo $PEERS

In $HOME/.rebusd/config/app.toml, set gas minimum prices:

# note testnet denom
sed -i.bak -e "s/^minimum-gas-prices *=.*/minimum-gas-prices = \"0.0008arebus\"/" ~/.rebusd/config/app.toml

These instructions will direct you on how to initialise your node, synchronise to the network and upgrade your node to a validator.

rebusd init $MONIKER_NAME --chain-id $CHAIN_ID

This will generate the following files in ~/.rebusd/config/

• genesis.json
• node_key.json
• priv_validator_key.json

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rebuschain/rebus.testnet/master/genesis.json > ~/.rebusd/config/genesis.json

This will replace the genesis file created using rebusd init command with the genesis file for the testnet. ****

Using the peers variable we set earlier, we can set the persistent_peers in ~/.rebusd/config/config.toml:

sed -i.bak -e "s/^persistent_peers *=.*/persistent_peers = \"$PEERS\"/" ~/.rebusd/config/config.toml

Create a new key pair for your validator:

rebusd keys add <key-name> --coin-type 118 --algo secp256k1

# Query the keystore for your public address
rebusd keys show <key-name> -a

Replace <key-name> with a key name of your choosing.

If you already have a key from a previous testnet, you can recover it using the mnemonic:

rebusd keys add <key-name> --recover  --coin-type 118 --algo secp256k1

The key is Keplr and Keplr+Ledger wallet compatible. (type=118 algo=secp256k1)

Testnet tokens can be requested from the #faucet channel on Discord.

To request tokens type $request <your-public-address> in the message field and press enter.

Follow these instructions to setup cosmovisor and start the node.

After starting the rebusd daemon, the chain will begin to sync to the network. The time to sync to the network will vary depending on your setup, but could take a very long time. To query the status of your node:

# Query via the RPC (default port: 26657)
curl http://localhost:26657/status | jq .result.sync_info.catching_up

If this command returns true then your node is still catching up. If it returns false then your node has caught up to the network current block and you are safe to proceed to upgrade to a validator node.

To upgrade the node to a validator, you will need to submit a create-validator transaction:

rebusd tx staking create-validator \
  --amount 9000000arebus \
  --commission-max-change-rate "0.1" \
  --commission-max-rate "0.20" \
  --commission-rate "0.1" \
  --min-self-delegation "1" \
  --details "validators write bios too" \
  --pubkey=$(rebusd tendermint show-validator) \
  --moniker $MONIKER_NAME \
  --chain-id $CHAIN_ID \
  --gas-prices 0.0025arebus \
  --from <key-name>

There are certain files that you need to backup to be able to restore your validator if, for some reason, it damaged or lost in some way. Please make a secure backup of the following files located in ~/.rebusd/config/:

• priv_validator_key.json
• node_key.json

It is recommended that you encrypt the backup of these files.