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# Custom Blockchain

This article explains how to setup custom Waves blockchain to be used for experimental activities.

For most tasks such as getting familiar with blockchain, sending transactions and developing smart contracts its enough to deploy one node with custom blockchain in Docker.

To setup private blockchain with multiple nodes proceed with Setup Jar Node With Custom Blockchain section.

# Deploy Node With Custom Blockchain in Docker

The easiest way to setup custom Waves blockchain with one private node is to install docker (opens new window) and run Docker container with Waves custom blockchain node (opens new window).

# Setup Jar Node With Custom Blockchain

You can run one or multiple Jar-nodes to setup custom blockchain. For that, create genesis block and specify blockchain parameters in node configuration file.

# Step 1

Install Java 8 or 11 (opens new window).

# Step 2

Download the latest version of jar node (opens new window) (waves-all-{version}.jar file).

# Step 3

Create genesis.example.conf file with genesis block parameters in the .jar file location folder.

Example:

genesis-generator
{
  network-type: "L"  #your custom network identifier byte
  initial-balance: 10000000000000000  #initial balance in wavelets
  base-target: 153722867  #the initial complexity parameter
  average-block-delay: 60s #average block delay
  timestamp: 1500635421931 #comment this to use the current time

  # the sum of shares should be = initial-balance
  distributions
  {
    foo0 { # name for this account. Will be printed in generator's output
      seed-text: "foo0"
      nonce: 0
      amount: 10000000000000000
    }
  }
}

# Step 4

Run the genesis block generator command:

java -cp waves-all-{version}.jar com.wavesplatform.GenesisBlockGenerator genesis.example.conf

The result will be written to the genesis.conf file (you can use arbitrary file name), and it will look as follows:

Addresses:
foo0:
 Seed text:           foo0
 Seed:                3csAfH
 Account seed:        58zgAnBg775J6NKd4qVtfeX3m5TBMeizHNY9STvm2N87
 Private account key: FYLXp1ecxQ6WCPD4axTotHU9RVfPCBLfSeKx1XSCyvdT
 Public account key:  GbGEY3XVc2ohdv6hQBukVKSTQyqP8rjQ8Kigkj6bL57S
 Account address:     3JfE6tjeT7PnpuDQKxiVNLn4TJUFhuMaaT5
Settings:
genesis {
  average-block-delay: 60000ms
  initial-base-target: 153722867
  timestamp: 1500635421931
  block-timestamp: 1500635421931
  signature: "3NELFXiQqQoYUfgLba5YAS1z8gJLc19zfzSvmYRX9eLso4zGByRGDpWdL4cooHTocyi5boFiu6H7hyW3ukVGtswP"
  initial-balance: 10000000000000000
  transactions = [
    {recipient: "3JfE6tjeT7PnpuDQKxiVNLn4TJUFhuMaaT5", amount: 10000000000000000}
  ]
}

The Addresses section lists the accounts to which the assets are distributed in the genesis block, the genesis section will be used later in Step 5.

# Step 5

In the .jar file location folder create *.conf file with any name (for example waves-custom-network.conf) and edit it with a text editor. Use example configuration file (opens new window) for reference.

See Node Configuration article for more information about Waves configuration file.

If the directory parameter is not redefined, the default node folder is:

*nix macOS Windows
$XDG_DATA_HOME/waves-custom-<character>* or $HOME/.local/share/waves-custom-<character>* $HOME/Library/Application Support/waves-custom-<character>* %LOCALAPPDATA%/waves-custom-<character>*

The waves.blockchain.custom.functionality section allows to set the timestamps of activation of different blockchain validations. In this section developers can add new parameters, which are not present in the standard node configuration. You can enable/disable features on your node by modifying the pre-activated-features parameter. The supported features are listed in Features article.

Paste the content generated in Step 4 in waves.blockchain.custom.genesis section of configuration file. Instead of pasting the section manually, you can write include "genesis.conf", where the genesis.conf is a filename from the Step 4.

The waves.blockchain.custom.address-scheme-character parameter value must be the same as the network-type value in Step 3.

Set waves.wallet parameters. Use Seed (Seed text in base58) value generated with genesis generator tool in Step 4 as the value of waves.wallet.seed parameter.

In waves.network section set port, known-peers (list the nodes of your custom network), node-name and declared-address parameters.

To enable REST API for your node set enable, port and api-key-hash (can be created here (opens new window)) parameters in waves.rest-api section.

# Step 6

Start your custom node with the following command:

java -jar waves-all-{version}.jar waves-custom-network.conf

Note: You can run an existing node (deb or jar) with your custom configuration file manually.

# Add Nodes to Your Network

You can add more nodes to your network using waves.network.known-peers parameter. Specify the address and port of the existing node with the same network parameters like "127.0.0.1:6860". If you are making several nodes locally, then do not forget to change for the new nodes the network port waves.network.port, the API port waves.rest-api.port, folder for the data waves.directory and wallet seed waves.wallet.seed.

# Setup Other Services

You can setup your custom blockchain with other services such as:

Activation protocol
Node REST API