Deploying the official public network (CORE TEAM ONLY)

For the core team that operates the official seed and validator machines. To simply run a node, see RUN-A-NODE.md. There is only one official testnet and one mainnet; do not create parallel ones.

Everything in this repository runs for real on a single machine (npm run devnet). A public network additionally needs machines on the internet and a domain, which only you can provide. This guide is the exact path from this repo to a public testnet with a wallet and explorer anyone can open.

Mainnet is a different decision with its own gates: see networks/mainnet/README.md. Do not skip them.

What you need

1. Generate the genesis (on a trusted machine)

npm run gen:testnet            # networks/testnet/genesis.json + networks/testnet/_private/

_private/ contains, per genesis validator, a home directory with its consensus key and config, plus accounts.json (faucet key, operator keys). Treat it as secret: copy each nodeN/ to its own host over SSH, then delete the rest or keep it offline. Commit only genesis.json and network.json.

2. Start the validators

On each host (replace the repo path):

node bin/auren-node.js start --home ~/nodeN --rpc-host 0.0.0.0 --website \
  --self-url <this server's address> \
  --peers <the other validators>

Open TCP 9650 between the validators (security group allow-list by IP). Use deploy/auren-node.service to keep it running. One instance per consensus key, ever.

All nodes must be up within a few minutes of genesisTime (printed by gen:testnet).

3. Verify it is one network

node scripts/verify-network.js <the four validator servers>

Passes only if all nodes share the genesis hash and agree on a block hash and state root at a common height, finality certificates exist, and no node lags.

4. Public RPC, wallet and explorer over HTTPS

Put deploy/Caddyfile in front of one or two nodes (not the validators if you can avoid it: run separate full nodes with --website that peer with them). The node serves the landing page, /wallet.html and /explorer.html itself, and the browser pages automatically use the origin they were loaded from as the RPC URL, so there is nothing else to configure.

node bin/auren-node.js init --network testnet --home /var/lib/auren --full-node
node bin/auren-node.js start --home /var/lib/auren --website --peers <the other validators>

Block /p2p/* at the proxy (the Caddyfile does).

5. Faucet

node bin/auren-faucet.js --rpc <the node on this server> \
  --key-file networks/testnet/_private/faucet.json --port 9690 --amount 100 --cooldown-sec 86400

Put the faucet's URL into networks/networks.json (testnet.faucet, testnet.rpc, testnet.seeds) and into the wallet's faucet setting if it is not on the same host name (browser storage key auren.faucet). The faucet refuses to run on a network whose genesis says mainnet.

6. Invite outside validators

Follow docs/validators.md. Give them the genesis file, its hash (node bin/auren-node.js genesis-hash --home <dir>), seed URLs, and some testnet AUR (the faucet's 100 AUR is below the 10,000 AUR minimum self-stake, so transfer stake from the treasury key in accounts.json).

7. Operate it like it matters

• Monitor /metrics (deploy/prometheus.yml) and alert on height stalls and auren_catching_up.
• Run the fault drills from docs/networks.md and publish results.
• Back up each validator's priv_validator_key.json and data/priv_validator_state.json.
• Keep security contact and disclosure policy current (SECURITY.md).

What stays your decision

Hosting, domain, who runs the genesis validators, token distribution, legal review, and when (or whether) to go beyond testnet. The software does not decide these for you.

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