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Testnet Testing

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Brian Stafford edited this page Jul 27, 2024 · 3 revisions

Testnet Testing

To get started, you must have followed all of the required steps in Client Installation and Configuration. If you have and do not wish to use the testnet RPC wallets, you can proceed to acquiring Testnet funds.

However, if you wish to use testnet RPC wallets, follow the guide below to set up RPC wallet for BTC and DCR.

Prepare RPC Wallets

Run Bitcoin Daemon

To run a full Bitcoin node, Bitcoin Core (bitcoind or bitcoin-qt) is recommended. Pruning is okay for testnet testing, because you won't be running the server, but if you ever plan to test the server, you will need to run without pruning and with the transaction index built, -txindex.

Be sure to set the rpcuser and rpcpassword in your bitcoind configuration file (recommended, shown), or as a command line argument (adjust commands below as needed). You can set rpcuser and rpcpassword to any value you'd like.

> bitcoind -testnet -server -debug=rpc

Create the Bitcoin Testnet Wallet

To create a dedicated "dex" wallet, run

> bitcoin-cli -testnet createwallet dex

Encrypt the wallet with a password of your choosing.

> bitcoin-cli -testnet -rpcwallet=dex encryptwallet mypassword

Note: Normally prefixing the above command with a space will keep it out of your command line history.

Bitcoin Core will not load the wallet on startup, so I recommend you create a testnet section in your configuration file instructing the wallet to be loaded.

Add to bitcoin.conf

[test]

wallet=
wallet=dex

If you do not amend bitcoin.conf, you will need to bitcoin-cli -testnet loadwallet dex every time you start bitcoind.

Create a Bitcoin Exchange Wallet Configuration File

Create a DEX wallet configuration file with your credentials.

Add to btc_testnet.conf

walletname=dex
rpcuser=abc
rpcpassword=def
rpcport=18332

Port 18332 is the default testnet port. If you've specified a different port in your configuration file, you'll need to specify that port instead.

Run Decred Daemon and Wallet Software

Get the dcrd/dcrwallet/dcrctl command line suite from the latest release binaries or building from master (dcrd, dcrwallet, dcrctl or alternatively this dcrbuild.sh script on Linux/Mac), which is fairly simple.

Sync the Decred blockchain. Set the username and password in the dcrd configuration file (recommended, shown), or as a command line argument (adjust commands below as needed). You can set username and password to any value you'd like.

> dcrd --testnet

Once Decred is synchronized, start dcrwallet.

> dcrwallet --testnet

If this is your first time running dcrwallet on testnet, you'll be prompted to run with --create to set your password and create the wallet. You'll need the wallet password later.

At this point, you may choose to specify a new account just for trading. For the remainder of these instructions, is it assumed this step is complete.

> dcrctl --testnet --wallet createnewaccount dex

Create a Decred Exchange Wallet Configuration File

Create a DEX wallet configuration file with your credentials.

Add to dcr_testnet.conf

account=dex
username=abc
password=def
rpccert=/path/to/.dcrwallet/rpc.cert
rpclisten=127.0.0.1:19110

The rpclisten shown is the default for testnet. If you have specified a different port in your dcrwallet configuration, you'll need to use that. Make sure to enter the correct path for your TLS certificate (rpccert). If not specified, the certificate is typically located at ~/.dcrwallet/rpc.cert.

Get the Testnet Server TLS Certificate

There is a Decred testnet server at bison.exchange:17232. You do not need to provide a certificate.

Start the Client

Clear any existing client DB files from previous setups:

rm ~/.dexc/testnet/dexc.db ~/.dexc/testnet/backup/dexc.db

Start bisonw with the web UI and RPC server in testnet mode and trace level logging:

./bisonw --testnet --rpc --log=trace

Add RPC Wallet

If you already created an SPV wallet, you can change to an RPC wallet from the wallet settings view.

If not, visit the wallets page and click on the "Create a {asset name} wallet" button. Click on the "External" tab, input the RPC wallet config info and submit the form. If everything went well your RPC wallet will be added to dcrdex.

Acquire Testnet Funds

You can generate a deposit address for any of the available wallets through the wallets view in the client app.

DCR

Take the address to the testnet faucet at https://faucet.decred.org/ and get some DCR or reach out to us on matrix.

BTC

Testnet BTC is hard to come by. If you can't get your hands on any, place an order on testnet DEX to sell some DCR for BTC.

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