Silver

A high-performance Ethereum consensus client.

Silver runs Fulu and Gloas. Prebuilt binaries are linux-x86_64 only.

Quick start (mainnet)

Silver works with any execution client (EL) that supports the engine API. This example runs ethrex next to it:

curl -L https://github.com/gattaca-com/silver/releases/latest/download/silver-linux-x86_64 -o silver
curl -L https://github.com/lambdaclass/ethrex/releases/latest/download/ethrex-linux-x86_64 -o ethrex
chmod +x silver ethrex

openssl rand -hex 32 > jwt.hex

nohup ./ethrex --network mainnet --authrpc.jwtsecret jwt.hex > ethrex.log 2>&1 &
nohup ./silver --execution-endpoint http://localhost:8551 --jwt-secret jwt.hex > silver.out 2>&1 &

Open UDP ports 31133 (discovery) and 31123 (QUIC peers) to the internet. The first start takes a few minutes to download a recent state.

An EL on another machine works too: point --execution-endpoint at its engine API URL and give both the same JWT secret file.

Check it works

Silver Surfer is a live dashboard for the node, shipped in each release. Run it on the same machine:

curl -L https://github.com/gattaca-com/silver/releases/latest/download/silver_surfer-linux-x86_64 -o silver_surfer
chmod +x silver_surfer && ./silver_surfer

Or ask the beacon API on port 5051:

curl -s localhost:5051/eth/v1/node/syncing     # synced: "sync_distance":"0", "is_syncing":false
curl -s localhost:5051/eth/v1/node/peer_count  # "connected" well above zero

Logs go to /tmp/logs/silver.<date>.

Verify the download

Each release file has a .sha256 and a build attestation:

curl -sL https://github.com/gattaca-com/silver/releases/latest/download/silver-linux-x86_64.sha256 \
  | sed 's/silver-linux-x86_64/silver/' | sha256sum -c
gh attestation verify silver --repo gattaca-com/silver   # proves Silver's CI built it

Networks

hoodi or sepolia

./silver --network hoodi --execution-endpoint http://localhost:8551 --jwt-secret jwt.hex

The name brings the network's spec, bootnodes and checkpoint providers. Its data lives in ~/.local/silver/<network>.

Devnet

Point --network at the devnet's published metadata directory:

./silver --network /path/to/<devnet>/metadata --execution-endpoint http://localhost:8551 --jwt-secret jwt.hex

Silver reads only these files from it:

File	Use
config.yaml	The spec. Missing keys default to mainnet values.
genesis.ssz	The boot state, read on every start. Required.
bootstrap_nodes.yaml	The bootnodes, as a list of ENRs. Optional.

Its data lives in a ~/.local/silver/devnet-<id> subdirectory. Silver logs the path at startup.

Flags

silver --help lists every flag, and silver --version prints the version. Flags override the config file. The common ones are:

• --network <name or dir>
• --config <path>
• --execution-endpoint <url>
• --jwt-secret <path>

Config file

Pass it with --config <path>. Every key is optional. Missing keys default to mainnet values. Unknown keys are ignored, so check spelling. A malformed config stops Silver at startup.

network = "mainnet"
data_storage_dir = "/var/lib/silver"

[engine_config]
execution_endpoint = "http://127.0.0.1:8551"
jwt_secret = "/etc/silver/jwt.hex"

A supernode custodies every data column and joins every attestation subnet. On mainnet it averages about 100 Mbit/s each way, but bursts reach about 500 Mbit/s. Its data directory holds about 400 GB:

data_column_custody_group_count = 128  # default 8
attestation_subnet_count = 64          # default 2

Overriding a network's defaults

These [chain_config] keys replace the network's own values:

Key	Replaces
bootstrap_enrs	the bootnodes
checkpoint_sync_urls	the checkpoint providers, or a devnet's genesis.ssz
checkpoint_file	the boot state, read on every start

Docker and Kubernetes

Release images are available as GitHub packages:

docker pull ghcr.io/gattaca-com/silver:v0.1.0-alpha.6

Images contain the same Linux amd64 silver and silver_surfer binaries attached to the corresponding release. Each release links to its image tag and digest. Set LOG_STDOUT=1 and RUST_LOG to configure container logs.

Open Surfer inside a running Silver container:

docker exec -it <container> silver_surfer

For Kubernetes, install the Helm chart:

helm upgrade --install silver oci://ghcr.io/gattaca-com/charts/silver \
  --version 0.1.0-alpha.6 --values silver-values.yaml

The chart guide explains the required execution endpoint, JWT Secret, storage, and UDP networking. Maintainers can find package setup and release instructions in publishing.

Build from source

Requires Rust (pinned in rust-toolchain.toml) and clang.

cargo build --profile release-prod --locked --bin silver

Development commands live in the justfile.

License

Silver is licensed under the MIT licence, with one exception. crates/crypto_simd/proof/lean/ and everything under it are dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0.