How to develop and test a dApp on a local, multi-client testnet
Introduction
This guide walks you through the process of instantiating a configurable local Ethereum testnet, deploying a smart contract to it, and using the testnet to run tests against your dApp. This guide is designed for dApp developers who want to develop and test their dApps locally against different network configurations before deploying to a live testnet or the mainnet.
In this guide, you will:
- Instantiate a local Ethereum testnet with the
eth-network-package
(opens in a new tab) using Kurtosis(opens in a new tab), - Connect your Hardhat dApp development environment to the local testnet to compile, deploy, and test a dApp, and
- Configure the local testnet, including parameters like number of nodes and specific EL/CL client pairings, to enable development and testing workflows against various network configurations.
What is Kurtosis?
Kurtosis(opens in a new tab) is a composable build system designed for configuring multi-container test environments. It specifically enables developers to create reproducible environments that require dynamic setup logic, such as blockchain testnets.
In this guide, the Kurtosis eth-network-package spins up a local Ethereum testnet with support for the geth
(opens in a new tab) Execution Layer (EL) client, as well as teku
(opens in a new tab), lighthouse
(opens in a new tab), and lodestar
(opens in a new tab) Consensus Layer (CL) clients. This package serves as a configurable and composable alternative to networks in frameworks like Hardhat Network, Ganache, and Anvil. Kurtosis offers developers greater control and flexibility over the testnets they use, which is a major reason why the Ethereum Foundation used Kurtosis to test the Merge(opens in a new tab) and continues to use it for testing network upgrades.
Setting up Kurtosis
Before you proceed, make sure you have:
- Installed and started the Docker engine(opens in a new tab) on your local machine
- Installed the Kurtosis CLI(opens in a new tab) (or upgraded it to the latest release, if you already have the CLI installed)
- Installed Node.js(opens in a new tab), yarn(opens in a new tab), and npx(opens in a new tab) (for your dApp environment)
Instantiating a local Ethereum testnet
To spin up a local Ethereum testnet, run:
1kurtosis --enclave local-eth-testnet run github.com/kurtosis-tech/eth-network-packageநகலெடு
Note: This command names your network: "local-eth-testnet” using the --enclave
flag.
Kurtosis will print the steps its taking under the hood as it works to interpret, validate, and then execute the instructions. At the end, you should see an output that resembles the following:
1INFO[2023-04-04T18:09:44-04:00] ======================================================2INFO[2023-04-04T18:09:44-04:00] || Created enclave: local-eth-testnet ||3INFO[2023-04-04T18:09:44-04:00] ======================================================4Name: local-eth-testnet5UUID: 39372d756ae86Status: RUNNING7Creation Time: Tue, 04 Apr 2023 18:09:03 EDT89========================================= Files Artifacts =========================================10UUID Name11d4085a064230 cl-genesis-data121c62cb792e4c el-genesis-data13bd60489b73a7 genesis-generation-config-cl14b2e593fe5228 genesis-generation-config-el15d552a54acf78 geth-prefunded-keys165f7e661eb838 prysm-password17054e7338bb59 validator-keystore-01819========================================== User Services ==========================================20UUID Name Ports Status21e20f129ee0c5 cl-client-0-beacon http: 4000/tcp -> <http://127.0.0.1:54261> RUNNING22 metrics: 5054/tcp -> <http://127.0.0.1:54262>23 tcp-discovery: 9000/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:5426324 udp-discovery: 9000/udp -> 127.0.0.1:6047025a8b6c926cdb4 cl-client-0-validator http: 5042/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:54267 RUNNING26 metrics: 5064/tcp -> <http://127.0.0.1:54268>27d7b802f623e8 el-client-0 engine-rpc: 8551/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:54253 RUNNING28 rpc: 8545/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:5425129 tcp-discovery: 30303/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:5425430 udp-discovery: 30303/udp -> 127.0.0.1:5383431 ws: 8546/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:5425232514a829c0a84 prelaunch-data-generator-1680646157905431468 <none> STOPPED3362bd62d0aa7a prelaunch-data-generator-1680646157915424301 <none> STOPPED3405e9619e0e90 prelaunch-data-generator-1680646157922872635 <none> STOPPED35அனைத்தையும் காட்டுநகலெடு
Congratulations! You used Kurtosis to instantiate a local Ethereum testnet, with a CL (lighthouse
) and EL client (geth
), over Docker.
Review
In this section, you executed a command that directed Kurtosis to use the eth-network-package
hosted remotely on GitHub(opens in a new tab) to spin up a local Ethereum testnet within a Kurtosis Enclave(opens in a new tab). Inside your enclave, you will find both "file artifacts" and "user services".
The File Artifacts(opens in a new tab) in your enclave include all the data generated and utilized to bootstrap the EL and CL clients. The data was created using the prelaunch-data-generator
service built from this Docker image(opens in a new tab)
User services display all the containerized services operating in your enclave. You will notice that a single node, featuring both an EL client and a CL client, has been created.
Connect your dApp development environment to the local Ethereum testnet
Setup the dApp development environment
Now that you have a running local testnet, you can connect your dApp development environment to use your local testnet. The Hardhat framework will be used in this guide to deploy a blackjack dApp to your local testnet.
To set up your dApp development environment, clone the repository that contains our sample dApp and install its dependencies, run:
1git clone https://github.com/kurtosis-tech/awesome-kurtosis.git && cd awesome-kurtosis/smart-contract-example && yarnநகலெடு
The smart-contract-example(opens in a new tab) folder used here contains the typical setup for a dApp developer using the Hardhat(opens in a new tab) framework:
contracts/
(opens in a new tab) contains a few simple smart contracts for a Blackjack dAppscripts/
(opens in a new tab) contains a script to deploy a token contract to your local Ethereum networktest/
(opens in a new tab) contains a simple .js test for your token contract to confirm each player in our Blackjack dApp has 1000 minted for themhardhat.config.ts
(opens in a new tab) configures your Hardhat setup
Configure Hardhat to use the local testnet
With your dApp development environment set up, you will now connect Hardhat to use the local Ethereum testnet generated using Kurtosis. To accomplish this, replace <$YOUR_PORT>
in the localnet
struct in your hardhat.config.ts
config file with the port of the rpc uri output from any el-client-<num>
service. In this sample case, the port would be 64248
. Your port will be different.
Example in hardhat.config.ts
:
1localnet: {2url: 'http://127.0.0.1:<$YOUR_PORT>',// TODO: REPLACE $YOUR_PORT WITH THE PORT OF A NODE URI PRODUCED BY THE ETH NETWORK KURTOSIS PACKAGE34// These are private keys associated with prefunded test accounts created by the eth-network-package5// <https://github.com/kurtosis-tech/eth-network-package/blob/main/src/prelaunch_data_generator/genesis_constants/genesis_constants.star>6accounts: [7 "ef5177cd0b6b21c87db5a0bf35d4084a8a57a9d6a064f86d51ac85f2b873a4e2",8 "48fcc39ae27a0e8bf0274021ae6ebd8fe4a0e12623d61464c498900b28feb567",9 "7988b3a148716ff800414935b305436493e1f25237a2a03e5eebc343735e2f31",10 "b3c409b6b0b3aa5e65ab2dc1930534608239a478106acf6f3d9178e9f9b00b35",11 "df9bb6de5d3dc59595bcaa676397d837ff49441d211878c024eabda2cd067c9f",12 "7da08f856b5956d40a72968f93396f6acff17193f013e8053f6fbb6c08c194d6",13 ],14},அனைத்தையும் காட்டுநகலெடு
Once you save your file, your Hardhat dApp development environment is now connected to your local Ethereum testnet! You can verify that your testnet is working by running:
1npx hardhat balances --network localnetநகலெடு
The output should look something like this:
10x878705ba3f8Bc32FCf7F4CAa1A35E72AF65CF766 has balance 1000000000000000000000000020x4E9A3d9D1cd2A2b2371b8b3F489aE72259886f1A has balance 1000000000000000000000000030xdF8466f277964Bb7a0FFD819403302C34DCD530A has balance 1000000000000000000000000040x5c613e39Fc0Ad91AfDA24587e6f52192d75FBA50 has balance 1000000000000000000000000050x375ae6107f8cC4cF34842B71C6F746a362Ad8EAc has balance 1000000000000000000000000060x1F6298457C5d76270325B724Da5d1953923a6B88 has balance 10000000000000000000000000நகலெடு
This confirms that Hardhat is using your local testnet and detects the pre-funded accounts created by the eth-network-package
.
Deploy and test your dApp locally
With the dApp development environment fully connected to the local Ethereum testnet, you can now run development and testing workflows against your dApp using the local testnet.
To compile and deploy the ChipToken.sol
smart contract for local prototyping and development, run:
1npx hardhat compile2npx hardhat run scripts/deploy.ts --network localnetநகலெடு
The output should look something like:
1ChipToken deployed to: 0xAb2A01BC351770D09611Ac80f1DE076D56E0487dநகலெடு
Now try running the simple.js
test against your local dApp to confirm each player in our Blackjack dApp has 1000 minted for them:
The output should look something like this:
1npx hardhat test --network localnetநகலெடு
The output should look something like this:
1ChipToken2 mint3 ✔ should mint 1000 chips for PLAYER ONE45 1 passing (654ms)நகலெடு
Review
At this point, you’ve now set up a dApp development environment, connected it to a local Ethereum network created by Kurtosis, and have compiled, deployed, and ran a simple test against your dApp.
Now let’s explore how you can configure the underlying network for testing our dApps under varying network configurations.
Configuring the local Ethereum testnet
Changing the client configurations and number of nodes
Your local Ethereum testnet can be configured to use different EL and CL client pairs, as well as a varying number of nodes, depending on the scenario and specific network configuration you want to develop or test. This means that, once set up, you can spin up a customized local testnet and use it to run the same workflows (deployment, tests, etc.) under various network configurations to ensure everything works as expected. To learn more about the other parameters you can modify, visit this link.
Give it a try! You can pass various configuration options to the eth-network-package
via a JSON file. This network params JSON file provides the specific configurations that Kurtosis will use to set up the local Ethereum network.
Take the default configuration file and edit it to spin up two nodes with different EL/CL pairs:
- Node 1 with
geth
/lighthouse
- Node 2 with
geth
/lodestar
- Node 3 with
geth
/teku
This configuration creates a heterogeneous network of Ethereum node implementations for testing your dApp. Your configuration file should now look like:
1{2 "participants":3 [4 {5 "el_client_type": "geth",6 "el_client_image": "",7 "el_client_log_level": "",8 "cl_client_type": "lighthouse",9 "cl_client_image": "",10 "cl_client_log_level": "",11 "beacon_extra_params": [],12 "el_extra_params": [],13 "validator_extra_params": [],14 "builder_network_params": null,15 },16 {17 "el_client_type": "geth",18 "el_client_image": "",19 "el_client_log_level": "",20 "cl_client_type": "lodestar",21 "cl_client_image": "",22 "cl_client_log_level": "",23 "beacon_extra_params": [],24 "el_extra_params": [],25 "validator_extra_params": [],26 "builder_network_params": null,27 },28 {29 "el_client_type": "geth",30 "el_client_image": "",31 "el_client_log_level": "",32 "cl_client_type": "teku",33 "cl_client_image": "",34 "cl_client_log_level": "",35 "beacon_extra_params": [],36 "el_extra_params": [],37 "validator_extra_params": [],38 "builder_network_params": null,39 },40 ],41 "network_params":42 {43 "preregistered_validator_keys_mnemonic": "giant issue aisle success illegal bike spike question tent bar rely arctic volcano long crawl hungry vocal artwork sniff fantasy very lucky have athlete",44 "num_validator_keys_per_node": 64,45 "network_id": "3151908",46 "deposit_contract_address": "0x4242424242424242424242424242424242424242",47 "seconds_per_slot": 12,48 "genesis_delay": 120,49 "capella_fork_epoch": 5,50 },51}அனைத்தையும் காட்டு
Each participants
struct maps to a node in the network, so 3 participants
structs will tell Kurtosis to spin up 3 nodes in your network. Each participants
struct will allow you to specify the EL and CL pair used for that specific node.
The network_params
struct configures the network settings that are used to create the genesis files for each node as well as other settings like the seconds per slot of the network.
Save your edited params file in any directory you wish (in the example below, it is saved to the desktop) and then use it to run your Kurtosis package by running:
1kurtosis clean -a && kurtosis run --enclave local-eth-testnet github.com/kurtosis-tech/eth-network-package "$(cat ~/eth-network-params.json)"நகலெடு
Note: the kurtosis clean -a
command is used here to instruct Kurtosis to destroy the old testnet and its contents before starting a new one up.
Again, Kurtosis will work for a bit and print out the individual steps that are taking place. Eventually, the output should look something like:
1Starlark code successfully run. No output was returned.2INFO[2023-04-07T11:43:16-04:00] ==========================================================3INFO[2023-04-07T11:43:16-04:00] || Created enclave: local-eth-testnet ||4INFO[2023-04-07T11:43:16-04:00] ==========================================================5Name: local-eth-testnet6UUID: bef8c192008e7Status: RUNNING8Creation Time: Fri, 07 Apr 2023 11:41:58 EDT910========================================= Files Artifacts =========================================11UUID Name12cc495a8e364a cl-genesis-data137033fcdb5471 el-genesis-data14a3aef43fc738 genesis-generation-config-cl158e968005fc9d genesis-generation-config-el163182cca9d3cd geth-prefunded-keys178421166e234f prysm-password18d9e6e8d44d99 validator-keystore-01923f5ba517394 validator-keystore-1204d28dea40b5c validator-keystore-22122========================================== User Services ==========================================23UUID Name Ports Status24485e6fde55ae cl-client-0-beacon http: 4000/tcp -> http://127.0.0.1:65010 RUNNING25 metrics: 5054/tcp -> http://127.0.0.1:6501126 tcp-discovery: 9000/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:6501227 udp-discovery: 9000/udp -> 127.0.0.1:544552873739bd158b2 cl-client-0-validator http: 5042/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:65016 RUNNING29 metrics: 5064/tcp -> http://127.0.0.1:65017301b0a233cd011 cl-client-1-beacon http: 4000/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:65021 RUNNING31 metrics: 8008/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:6502332 tcp-discovery: 9000/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:6502433 udp-discovery: 9000/udp -> 127.0.0.1:5603134 validator-metrics: 5064/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:6502235949b8220cd53 cl-client-1-validator http: 4000/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:65028 RUNNING36 metrics: 8008/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:6503037 tcp-discovery: 9000/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:6503138 udp-discovery: 9000/udp -> 127.0.0.1:6078439 validator-metrics: 5064/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:6502940c34417bea5fa cl-client-2 http: 4000/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:65037 RUNNING41 metrics: 8008/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:6503542 tcp-discovery: 9000/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:6503643 udp-discovery: 9000/udp -> 127.0.0.1:6358144e19738e6329d el-client-0 engine-rpc: 8551/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:64986 RUNNING45 rpc: 8545/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:6498846 tcp-discovery: 30303/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:6498747 udp-discovery: 30303/udp -> 127.0.0.1:5570648 ws: 8546/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:6498949e904687449d9 el-client-1 engine-rpc: 8551/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:64993 RUNNING50 rpc: 8545/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:6499551 tcp-discovery: 30303/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:6499452 udp-discovery: 30303/udp -> 127.0.0.1:5809653 ws: 8546/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:6499654ad6f401126fa el-client-2 engine-rpc: 8551/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:65003 RUNNING55 rpc: 8545/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:6500156 tcp-discovery: 30303/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:6500057 udp-discovery: 30303/udp -> 127.0.0.1:5726958 ws: 8546/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:650025912d04a9dbb69 prelaunch-data-generator-1680882122181135513 <none> STOPPED605b45f9c0504b prelaunch-data-generator-1680882122192182847 <none> STOPPED613d4aaa75e218 prelaunch-data-generator-1680882122201668972 <none> STOPPEDஅனைத்தையும் காட்டுநகலெடு
Congratulations! You’ve successfully configured your local testnet to have 3 nodes instead of 1. To run the same workflows you did before against your dApp (deploy & test), perform the same operations we did before by replacing the <$YOUR_PORT>
in the localnet
struct in your hardhat.config.ts
config file with the port of the rpc uri output from any el-client-<num>
service in your new, 3-node local testnet.
Conclusion
And that's it! To recap this short guide, you:
- Created a local Ethereum testnet over Docker using Kurtosis
- Connected your local dApp development environment to the local Ethereum network
- Deployed a dApp and ran a simple test against it on the local Ethereum network
- Configured the underlying Ethereum network to have 3 nodes
We’d love to hear from you on what went well for you, what could be improved, or to answer any of your questions. Don’t hesitate to reach out via GitHub(opens in a new tab) or email us(opens in a new tab)!
Other examples and guides
We encourage you to check out our quickstart(opens in a new tab) (where you’ll build a Postgres database and API on top) and our other examples in our awesome-kurtosis repository(opens in a new tab) where you’ll find some great examples, including packages for:
- Spinning up the same local Ethereum testnet(opens in a new tab), but with additional services connected such as a transaction spammer (to simulate transactions), a fork monitor, and a connected Grafana and Prometheus instance
- Performing a sub-networking test(opens in a new tab) against the same local Ethereum network
கடைசியாகத் திருத்தப்பட்டது: @pettinarip(opens in a new tab), 10 அக்டோபர், 2023