Citrea Devnet Node Guide

About Citrea

Citrea is the first rollup that enhances the capabilities of Bitcoin blockspace with zero-knowledge technology, making it possible to build everything on Bitcoin.

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This guide explains step-by-step how to run a Citrea Devnet Node.

Note: This node can be run in 2 ways. Today we will run it with Configurable Setup. I will add the other way to the guide in the coming days.

System Requirements

• CPU: 4 core
• RAM: 8 GB
• Storage: 256 GB SSD (NVMe recommended)
• Network: 25+ Mbps network connection

Step 1: System Updates and Installation of Required Tools

Update System Packages

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Docker Installation

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common -y
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable"
sudo apt update
sudo apt install docker-ce -y

# Launch Docker and Set to Autostart:
sudo systemctl start docker
sudo systemctl enable docker

To confirm that Docker is installed successfully:

docker --version

Docker Compose Installation

sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.29.2/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

To confirm that Docker Compose is installed successfully:

docker-compose --version

Install Development Tools and Rust

sudo apt install build-essential -y
sudo apt install clang -y

# For Rust:
# Note: When installing Rust, we select the 1st option "Proceed with standard installation".
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source $HOME/.cargo/env

To confirm that Rust is installed successfully:

rustc --version

Step 2: Setup Bitcoin Signet

Clone the Bitcoin Signet Container

git clone https://github.com/chainwayxyz/bitcoin_signet && cd bitcoin_signet

Create and Run the Signet Container

docker build -t bitcoin-signet .

docker run -d --name bitcoin-signet-client-instance \
  --env MINERENABLED=0 \
  --env SIGNETCHALLENGE=512102653734c749d5f7227d9576b3305574fd3b0efdeaa64f3d500f121bf235f0a43151ae \
  --env BITCOIN_DATA=/mnt/task/btc-data \
  --env ADDNODE=signet.citrea.xyz:38333 -p 38332:38332 \
  bitcoin-signet

To see the logs of Bitcoin Signet docker:

docker logs bitcoin-signet-client-instance

Step 3: Setup Citrea Client

Clone the Citrea Client

cd
git clone https://github.com/chainwayxyz/citrea --branch=v0.4.1 && cd citrea

Edit the Rollup Configuration File

nano configs/devnet/rollup_config.toml

In this section, we will change "node_url", "node_username" and "node_password".

Since we setup Bitcoin Signet on the same server as our Citrea client, we make the "node_url" part as http://0.0.0.0:38332.

As in the picture, we change the "node_username" and "node_password" parts to bitcoin.

mkdir -p ~/citrea/configs/devnet/genesis-files

Build the Project

# this part takes a little longer
screen -S citrea
SKIP_GUEST_BUILD=1 make build-release

Start Citrea Client

./target/release/citrea --genesis-paths configs/devnet/genesis-files --da-layer bitcoin --rollup-config-path configs/devnet/rollup_config.toml

Note: If you get logs as you see in the image, our node is running successfully. When xxxx in the finalise_l2{l2_block_height=xxxx} output reaches the current block, it means that our node has synced.

You can follow the blocks from the explorer in this link. This step takes a little longer.

Install Bitcoin Core

wget https://bitcoincore.org/bin/bitcoin-core-25.0/bitcoin-25.0-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
tar -xzf bitcoin-25.0-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
sudo install -m 0755 -o root -g root -t /usr/local/bin bitcoin-25.0/bin/*

Check Block Count of Signet Container via bitcoin-cli

# In the Rollup Configuration File we set user and password to "bitcoin". so don't change it if you did it as in the manual here.
bitcoin-cli -rpcconnect=0.0.0.0 -rpcport=38332 -rpcpassword=bitcoin -rpcuser=bitcoin -signet getblockcount

You can check it from Citrea Bitcoin Signet Explorer at this link

Note: You can ask your questions about Node on the Discord.

My Node Running Experience

The process of running the Citrea Devnet Node was generally smooth. The guide doc was detailed and clear, covering important steps like Docker and Rust installation. However, the process might be a bit complex for someone setting up a node for the first time, and some steps could benefit from clearer explanations. Additionally, some configuration files required extra checks and adjustments to work correctly. Overall, the performance and stability were quite good, and the node synchronized without issues.