Skip to main content

Create a wallet with Celestia Node

This tutorial will go over using the cel-key utility to generate a wallet on celestia-node.

While this tutorial will go over installation process of cel-key, it is recommended that you complete the following prerequisites first:

Once you completed the prerequisite, you can proceed with this tutorial.

Using the cel-key utility

Inside the celestia-node repository is a utility called cel-key that uses the key utility provided by Cosmos-SDK under the hood. The utility can be used to add, delete, and manage keys for any DA node type (bridge || full || light), or just keys in general.

Installation

You need to first pull down the celestia-node repository:

git clone https://github.com/celestiaorg/celestia-node.git
cd celestia-node/

It can be built using either of the following commands:

# dumps binary in current working directory, accessible via `./cel-key`
make cel-key

or

# installs binary in GOBIN path, accessible via `cel-key`
make install-key

For the purpose of this guide, we will use the make cel-key command.

Steps for generating node keys

To generate a key for a Celestia bridge node, do the following:

./cel-key add <key-name> --keyring-backend test --node.type bridge --p2p.network <network>

This will load the key <key-name> into the directory of the bridge node.

Further flags you can use to customize your key are the following:

  • --node.store: Specifies a different directory you can use to save your node data and configurations. Expects a path to a directory.
  • --p2p.network: Specifies which network you want the key for. Values are arabica and mocha. Please note the default network will be mocha.

Keep in mind that your celestia-node will only pick up keys that are inside the node.store directory under /keys so you should make sure to point cel-key utility to the correct directory via the node.store or p2p.network flags if you have specified a custom directory or network other than Mocha.

Also keep in mind that if you do not specify a network with --p2p.network, the default one will always be mocha.

Steps for exporting node keys

You can export a private key from the local keyring in encrypted and ASCII-armored format.

./cel-key export <key-name> --keyring-backend test --node.type bridge --p2p.network <network>

Steps for importing node keys

Importing from a mnemonic:

./cel-key add <key-name> --recover --keyring-backend test --node.type bridge --p2p.network <network>

You will then be prompted to enter your bip39 mnemonic.

Example:

./cel-key add alice --recover --keyring-backend test --node.type bridge --p2p.network <network>

View all options for cel-key

./cel-key --help

Docker and cel-key

Prerequisites

  • Docker installed on your machine
  • Understanding of the guide on how to run celestia-node with Docker.

Running your node

Run the Docker image (in this example, we are using a light node):

docker run --name celestia-node -e NODE_TYPE=light -e P2P_NETWORK=mocha -p 26659:26659 \
ghcr.io/celestiaorg/celestia-node:sha-747c9e5 celestia light start \
--core.ip rpc-mocha.pops.one --p2p.network mocha
tip

Please refer to the ports section for information on which ports are required to be open on your machine.

List active containers in another window with:

docker ps

The response will look like:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE           COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS          PORTS      NAMES
<container_id> celestia-node "/entrypoint.sh cele…" 22 seconds ago Up 21 seconds 2121/tcp docker-compose-test-celestia-1

Interact with the container by replacing <container_id> for the container ID:

docker exec -ti <container_id> /bin/bash

Now, interact with cel-key to check for the key that was autogenerated when you started the node:

./cel-key list --keyring-backend test --node.type light

You can also export your key from the container. In the next section, you'll learn how to mount existing keys to the container.

Mounting existing keys to container

In this example, we'll be mounting an existing key to the container. We're also using an existing image called celestia-node. This will mount the entire /.celestia-light-<p2p_network>/keys directory to your image.

Write a docker-compose.yml to accomplish this:

version: "3.8"
services:
celestia:
image: celestia-node
environment:
- NODE_TYPE=light
command: celestia light start --core.ip rpc-mocha.pops.one --p2p.network mocha --keyring.accname my_celes_key
volumes:
- ${PWD}/keys:/root/.celestia-light-mocha-4/keys
ports:
- 26659:26659

Start the container by running the following command in the directory with your docker-compose.yml:

docker-compose up

List active containers in another window with:

docker ps

The response will look like:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE           COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS          PORTS      NAMES
<container_id> celestia-node "/entrypoint.sh cele…" 22 seconds ago Up 21 seconds 2121/tcp docker-compose-test-celestia-1

Interact with the container by replacing <container_id> for the container ID:

docker exec -ti <container_id> /bin/bash

Now, interact with cel-key to check your address matches the address you expect with the key you mounted:

root@<container_id>:/# ./cel-key list --keyring-backend test --node.type light
using directory: ~/.celestia-light-mocha-4/keys
- address: celestia1wkhyhr7ngf0ayqlpnsnxg4d72hfs5453dvunm9
name: my_celes_key
pubkey: '{"@type":"/cosmos.crypto.secp256k1.PubKey","key":"A1/NsoY0RGL7Hqt4VWLg441GQKJsZ2fBUnZXipgns8oV"}'
type: local