Mocha testnet

This guide contains the relevant sections for how to connect to Mocha, depending on the type of node you are running. Mocha testnet is designed to help validators test out their infrastructure and node software. Developers can also deploy sovereign rollups on Mocha.

Mocha is a milestone in Celestia, allowing everyone to test out core functionalities on the network. Read the announcement . Your best approach to participating is to first determine which node you would like to run. Each node’s guide will link to the relevant networks, to show you how to connect to them.

Mocha-5 network restart

Mocha-5 is live. It is a hardspoon of mocha-4 at block 13205115 : only account balances recorded at that height carried over. Transactions and balance changes after that height do not exist on mocha-5, and account sequences were reset to 0. Delegations, unbonding delegations, and pending staking rewards were redeemed as liquid balances.

The initial validator set was created from separately coordinated genesis transactions. Other validators can join by submitting MsgCreateValidator once their node is synced. The mocha-4 validator set, governance proposals, IBC channels, Hyperlane state, community pool, and all other chain state did not carry over.

mocha-4 remains running until it is officially shut down on September 1, 2026. All services still pointing at mocha-4 should move to mocha-5 before then. If you operate a mocha-4 validator, keep it running while you migrate if possible; if you need to stop it sooner, unbond it from the active set first so it does not affect mocha-4 block production.

Accessing mocha-4 history

Because mocha-5 started from a new genesis, mocha-4 history is not queryable on the new network. Blobs and rollup data posted to mocha-4 are not retrievable on mocha-5. Individual node operators are not expected to retain mocha-4 data. An exported copy of the final mocha-4 state will be available for one month after the shutdown.

If you depend on specific mocha-4 transaction history, export what you need before the September 1, 2026 shutdown.

Prepare a separate consensus-node home

If you already operate a mocha-4 consensus node or validator, do not initialize mocha-5 in the existing $HOME/.celestia-app directory. That directory’s data/priv_validator_state.json records the last mocha-4 height you signed, and a validator will not sign at a height at or below that value. Because mocha-5 restarts at height 1, a node reusing the old home would refuse to sign. The old data directory also holds blocks from a different chain, which will not reconcile with the mocha-5 genesis.

Using a separate home avoids both problems and leaves your mocha-4 node runnable if you need to fall back during the cutover. Back up your wallet keys and $HOME/.celestia-app/config/priv_validator_key.json before continuing.

Initialize mocha-5 with its own home directory:

MOCHA_5_HOME="$HOME/.celestia-app-mocha-5"
 
celestia-appd init "node-name" \
  --chain-id mocha-5 \
  --home "$MOCHA_5_HOME"
 
celestia-appd download-genesis mocha-5 \
  --home "$MOCHA_5_HOME"
# if this command doesn't exist in the binary, use this instead:
# curl -sL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/celestiaorg/networks/main/mocha-5/genesis.json" -o "$MOCHA_5_HOME/config/genesis.json"

Configure the new Mocha seeds and peers in that directory:

SEEDS=$(curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/celestiaorg/networks/main/mocha-5/seeds.txt | tr '\n' ',')
 
sed -i.bak -e "s/^seeds *=.*/seeds = \"$SEEDS\"/" "$MOCHA_5_HOME/config/config.toml"

Do not copy the mocha-4 data directory or data/priv_validator_state.json into the new home.

Run mocha-5 under a separate service whose start command includes the new home:

celestia-appd start --home "$MOCHA_5_HOME"

You have a list of options on the types of nodes you can run to participate in Mocha:

Consensus:

• Consensus node
• Validator node

Data Availability:

• Bridge node
• Light node

Select the type of node you would like to run and follow the instructions on each respective page. Whenever you are asked to select the type of network you want to connect to in those guides, select Mocha to refer to the correct instructions on this page on how to connect to Mocha.

Network details

Software version numbers

Network status

For real-time network status information, including uptime, incident reports, and service availability, visit the official Celestia Mocha testnet status page .

Network constants

For the current Mocha testnet network constants, see mocha.celenium.io/constants .

RPC for DA bridge, full, and light nodes

Production RPC endpoints

These RPC providers are meant to be used in production environments and for specific use cases that require reliable access to full block history, such as:

• Running Bridge Nodes that download data from core RPC endpoints
• Applications that need Bridge Node endpoints with guaranteed uptime and SLAs
• Submitting blobs in production settings (free RPC endpoints have no guarantees, even for submitting transactions)

Warning: Do not rely on the free community endpoints listed below for production deployments. Production deployments should rely on service providers with SLAs or your own node.

Public RPC endpoint

For development, testing, and documentation examples, use the public QuickNode endpoint:

This shared endpoint is pruned and does not provide a production SLA. Do not use it for historical queries or bridge node sync from genesis.

Community consensus endpoints

Use these hosts for --core.ip. celestia-node connects over gRPC with --core.port (default 9090). RPC ports are listed for operators who also need Tendermint RPC from the same provider.

You can also find the list of official Celestia bootstrappers in the celestia-node GitHub repository .

Community Data availability (DA) RPC endpoints for bridge node sync

These RPC endpoints allow bridge nodes to sync blocks from the Celestia network. For users, they will need to provide a –core.ip string from a consensus node’s URL or IP that populates a default RPC port at 26657 to their respective DA node.

Community Data availability (DA) gRPC endpoints for state access

These gRPC endpoints for DA nodes provide state access for querying the chain’s state and broadcasting transactions (balances, blobs, etc.) to the Celestia network. For users, they will need to provide a –core.ip string from a consensus node’s URL or IP that populates a default gRPC port at 9090 to their respective DA node.

Tip for bridge nodes: Community RPC endpoints do not guarantee full block downloads. If you are running a bridge node, also run a local consensus node to download full blocks.

Use one of the --core.ip values from the community consensus endpoints table above.

Community RPC endpoints

The RPC endpoint is to allow users to interact with Celestia’s nodes by querying the node’s state and broadcasting transactions on the Celestia network. The default port is 26657.

• rpc-mocha.pops.one
• rpc-1.testnet.celestia.nodes.guru
• rpc-2.testnet.celestia.nodes.guru
• celestia-testnet-rpc.itrocket.net:443

Community API endpoints

The API endpoint is to allow users to interact with the REST API in Cosmos SDK which is implemented using gRPC-gateway, which exposes gRPC endpoints as REST endpoints. This allows for communication with the node using REST calls, which can be useful if the client does not support gRPC or HTTP2. The default port is 1317.

• https://api-mocha.pops.one
• https://api-1.testnet.celestia.nodes.guru
• https://api-2.testnet.celestia.nodes.guru
• https://celestia-testnet-api.itrocket.net

Community gRPC endpoints

The gRPC endpoint is to allow users to interact with a Celestia Node using gRPC, a modern open-source and high-performance RPC framework. The default port is 9090. In the Cosmos SDK, gRPC is used to define state queries and broadcast transactions.

• grpc-mocha.pops.one
• grpc-1.testnet.celestia.nodes.guru:10790
• grpc-2.testnet.celestia.nodes.guru:10790
• celestia-testnet-grpc.itrocket.net:443

Community bridge node endpoints

The mocha-5 DA network has not started yet; it is planned to launch during the week of August 24, 2026. Bridge node endpoints will be added here once the DA network is live.

Mocha testnet faucet

Warning: Using this faucet does not entitle you to any airdrop or other distribution of mainnet Celestia tokens.

Discord

You can request from Mocha testnet Faucet on the #mocha-faucet channel on Celestia’s Discord server with the following command:

$request <CELESTIA-ADDRESS>

Where <CELESTIA-ADDRESS> is a celestia1****** generated address.

Note: Faucet has a limit of 10 tokens per week per address/Discord ID.

Web

The web faucet is available at https://mocha.celenium.io/faucet .

Analytics

The following websites provide analytics for Mocha Testnet:

• https://itrocket.net/services/testnet/celestia/  - Monitoring and chain status tools

Node maps

The following websites provide visual maps of Celestia DA nodes:

• https://probelab.io/celestia/  (community contribution)

Explorers

There are several explorers you can use for Mocha:

• https://mintscan.io/celestia-testnet/
• https://mocha.celenium.io
• https://explorer.nodestake.top/celestia-testnet/
• https://stakeflow.io/celestia-testnet
• https://testnet.celestia.explorers.guru
• https://testnet.itrocket.net/celestia
• https://testnet.celestia.valopers.com/
• https://explorer.chainroot.io/celestia-testnet-mocha-5

Network upgrades

There are a few ways to stay informed about network upgrades on the Mocha testnet:

• Telegram announcement channel 
• Discord Mocha announcements 

See the network upgrades page to learn more about specific upgrades like the Ginger network upgrade.