How to Run and Use a Full Node

In order to improve decentralization of service, every user can run his own full node (often referred to non-block-producing witness node) and we here show how to do so.

Installation and build the Node

For the installation of the BitShares Core, please see the Installation Guide:

To reduce compilation time, you can tell the compile infrastructure to only compile the witness_node by running.:

$ make witness_node

instead of:

$ make

Run a Full Node

In order to run a full node that we can connect to, we need to open the RPC interface, this can be done by:

./programs/witness_node/witness_node --rpc-endpoint="0.0.0.0:8090"

This will open port 8090 and make it available over the internet (unless you run behind a router/firewall).

If you want to open only your (local) machine, replace 0.0.0.0 by localhost (e.g., –rpc-endpoint=”127.0.0.1:8090” ).

Note

Full node needs to synchronize the blockchain with the network first, which might take a few hours or days.


Connect to your own Full Node (GUI)

In your wallet (may it be the light wallet or a hosted wallet) you can can define the full node to which is should connect to in the preferences:

  1. Open Side Menu and selsct [Settings]

  2. In the Settings, click Nodes

  3. If **Automatically select node is ON, click to OFF the switch.

BitShares

There are four tabs. [AVAILABLE], [PERSONSL], [HIDDEN], and [TESTNET].

  1. Click [PERSONAL] and [ADD NODE]

BitShares

  1. An Add Node form opens. Type,

  • NAME: (a node name )

  • ADDRESS: (a node address)

For your own full nodes address, type:

ws://localhost:8090
BitShares

  1. Click [CONFIRM].

Congratulation, you are now connected to the network via your own full node.