Lisk Core

Lisk is a next-generation crypto-currency and decentralized application platform, written entirely in JavaScript. The official documentation about the entire ecosystem can be found at https://lisk.com/docs.

Lisk Core is the program that implements the Lisk Protocol. In other words, Lisk Core is what every machine needs to set-up to run a node that allows for participation in the network.

This document details how to install Lisk Core from source and from npm registry, but there are two other ways to participate in the network: binaries and Docker images. If you have satisfied the requirements from the Pre-Installation section, you can jump directly to the next section Installation Steps.

Installation

Dependencies

The following dependencies need to be installed in order to run applications created with the Lisk SDK:

Dependencies	Version
NodeJS	18.20.2

You can find further details on installing these dependencies in our pre-installation setup guide. Clone the Lisk Core repository using Git and initialize the modules.

From Source

git clone https://github.com/LiskHQ/lisk-core.git
cd lisk-core
git checkout main
nvm install
npm i -g yarn
yarn install --frozen-lockfile
npm run build
./bin/run --help

From NPM

$ npm install -g lisk-core
$ lisk-core COMMAND
running command...
$ lisk-core (-v|--version|version)
lisk-core/4.0.6 darwin-arm64 node-v18.20.2
$ lisk-core --help [COMMAND]
USAGE
  $ lisk-core COMMAND
...

Command Topics

lisk-core autocomplete - display autocomplete installation instructions
lisk-core block - Commands relating to Lisk Core blocks.
lisk-core blockchain - Commands relating to Lisk Core blockchain data.
lisk-core config - Commands relating to Lisk Core node configuration.
lisk-core console - Lisk interactive REPL session to run commands.
lisk-core endpoint - Invokes the provided endpoint.
lisk-core generator - Disable block generation for given validator address.
lisk-core genesis-block - Creates genesis block file.
lisk-core hash-onion - Create hash onions to be used by the forger.
lisk-core help - Display help for lisk-core.
lisk-core keys - Return keys corresponding to the given passphrase.
lisk-core passphrase - Commands relating to Lisk Core passphrases.
lisk-core sdk - Commands relating to Lisk SDK development.
lisk-core start - Start Blockchain Node.
lisk-core system - Commands relating to Lisk Core node.
lisk-core transaction - Commands relating to Lisk Core transactions.
lisk-core version

Managing Lisk Node

System requirements

The following system requirements are recommended for validator nodes:

Memory

Machines with a minimum of 8 GB RAM for the Mainnet.
Machines with a minimum of 8 GB RAM for the Testnet.

Storage

Machines with a minimum of 40 GB HDD.

OS

Ubuntu 22
Ubuntu 20
MacOS 13

To start a Lisk Core node as a background process, we recommend using a process management tool, such as PM2.

Example using PM2

nvm install
npm i -g pm2
pm2 start "lisk-core start" --name lisk-mainnet
pm2 status
pm2 logs lisk-mainnet

For a more advanced options refer to PM2 documentation.

Configuring Lisk Node

lisk-core start supports flag and environment variable options to configure a node.

In addition, custom configuration through the JSON file can be made available through the --config, -c flag.

NOTE: As a security measure, access to all the methods on the node over the IPC and HTTP API by default are disabled. To allow access, the rpc.allowedMethods property within the custom node config file may be configured as shown below.

rpc.allowedMethods: ["system_getNodeInfo"] - Expose specific methods

rpc.allowedMethods: ["system", "token"] - Expose all the registered methods under the specified namespaces

rpc.allowedMethods: ["*"] - Expose all available registered methods under all the namespaces

Example

With custom config file ./custom-config.json below:

{
  "system": {
    "dataPath": "~/.lisk",
    "logLevel": "debug",
    "keepEventsForHeights": -1
  },
  "rpc": {
    "modes": ["ipc"],
    "port": 7887,
    "host": "127.0.0.1",
    "allowedMethods": ["*"]
  },
  "generator": {
    "keys": {
      "fromFile": "./config/dev-validators.json"
    }
  },
  "network": {
    "port": 7667,
  },
  "transactionPool": {
    "maxTransactions": 8096,
    "maxTransactionsPerAccount": 1024,
  },
  "plugins": {
    "reportMisbehavior": {
      "encryptedPrivateKey": "kdf=argon2id&cipher=aes-256-gcm&version=1&ciphertext=fb564e463ce46efab010f21b06d01acc62f705049563b58628d4ca23053ba6bdce5be39cb5c0624bd75735ee10a8a12b9c7876d86fc3646d036b414701dc6b01217102480cd327f5eec31b2cf209ea8b6c64505ab8bab81ed315c12c33feaaef982facec63c876def26eeefd1c0d9a5b7dce5e604622c704106a64c27b71eff7&mac=429c65daf7f6e9dba5e105be55fb7a450c74e424ff9a20cd5cb614c31fb8b010&salt=19a15ea6d5925d7104b4db0c8b0ca73a&iv=b5ec03e61586b202a1f4e9aa&tag=82ca4b682f89daa642a13edae085feea&iterations=1&parallelism=4&memorySize=2024"
    },
    "chainConnector": {
      "receivingChainIPCPath": "~/.lisk/sidechain",
      "ccuFee": "5000000",
      "encryptedPrivateKey": "kdf=argon2id&cipher=aes-256-gcm&version=1&ciphertext=f962147c16450604456db731156a31b5fa07bc1a55c32f243f59795414b75fbfcbe13a54426976c98fe21c0a9d918b80fb956d280ceff8a7ca35db29eb77ecfd0afbd359233a863425766815c84d5d20ba17ca0edd07e0eacaa3324e53ade573f7f647097dffaf64368cf40be05636bee58318389843d1f29b587d58c71e34ab&mac=bbe4120b758ba7c541cfb39d1ea9b6a781054cdaffbd4b5e724d375fc5367543&salt=20fdfa08a8e6d158fc1f8b70672f43aa&iv=22cb20bdf0a9f06124a7b53a&tag=37cbecb09493581e476dd4439e8ef1fc&iterations=1&parallelism=4&memorySize=2024",
      "password": "lisk"
    }
  },
}

Running a command will overwrite the default config and use the specified options.

lisk-core start -n devnet -c ./custom-config.json --overwrite-config

For a more detailed understanding of configuration read this online documentation.

Tests

Automated tests

All automated tests will run with the below command.

npm test

Running a local development node

In order to run a node for a local test, in a root folder of lisk-core, run below command.

./bin/run start -n devnet --data-path ./devnet-data --port 3333 --api-ipc --enable-forger-plugin

This command will start a lisk-core node using data path ./devnet-data with Forger Plugins. Data on the node can be obtained by commands like

./bin/run endpoint invoke system_getNodeInfo --pretty
./bin/run system node-info --data-path ./devnet-data
./bin/run block:get 3 --data-path ./devnet-data

Contributors

https://github.com/LiskHQ/lisk-core/graphs/contributors

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.