Skip to content

Simnet Testing

Brian Stafford edited this page Jul 27, 2024 · 5 revisions

Simnet Testing

Simnet Harnesses

Start the DCR and BTC simnet harnesses

The harnesses are used by both server (dcrdex) and wallet (bisonw).

From the source repository root, run each command in a separate terminal:

DCR harness terminal

./dex/testing/dcr/harness.sh

BTC harness terminal

./dex/testing/btc/harness.sh

When a harness is ready, it will be at a command prompt in a tmux session (green bar at the bottom).

tmux harness

When done with a harness, use ./quit to shutdown all the processes and tmux sessions started by the harness.

Automatic mining

For convenience, the harnesses may continually mine blocks with the watch command. To generate a new Bitcoin block every 5 seconds:

~/dextest/btc/harness-ctl $ watch -n 25 ./mine-alpha 1

Decred is similar, but under the dcr folder:

~/dextest/dcr/harness-ctl $ watch -n 30 ./mine-alpha 1

WARNING: Decred's harness can't mine indefinitely so stop the watch when you have completed your current test. The harness config has a ticket buyer, but not enough tickets are purchased on a long enough timeline because automatic buying is not allowed before a price change. This needs tweaking.

Server (dcrdex) Setup

Harness option

There is a dcrdex harness that will set up everything for you, although with a very short contract lock time set of 1 min maker and 30 sec taker.

/[repo root]/dex/testing/dcrdex $ ./harness.sh

To setup the dcrdex server manually, and with the regular contract lock times, follow the steps in the following subsections.

Configure dcrdex markets for simnet

NOTE: If using the harness option described in the previous section, this and other server setup is not required.

dcrdex will start running the markets configured in ~/.dcrdex/markets.json:

{
    "markets": [
        {
            "base": "DCR_simnet",
            "quote": "BTC_simnet",
            "epochDuration": 6000,
            "marketBuyBuffer": 1.2,
            "lotSize": 100000000,
            "rateStep": 100
        }
    ],
    "assets": {
        "DCR_simnet": {
            "bip44symbol": "dcr",
            "network": "simnet",
            "maxFeeRate": 26,
            "swapConf": 1,
            "configPath": "/home/dcrd/.dcrd/simnet.conf",
            "regConfs": 1,
            "regFee": 100000000,
            "regXPub": "spubVWKGn9TGzyo7M4b5xubB5UV4joZ5HBMNBmMyGvYEaoZMkSxVG4opckpmQ26E85iHg8KQxrSVTdex56biddqtXBerG9xMN8Dvb3eNQVFFwpE"
        },
        "BTC_simnet": {
            "bip44symbol": "btc",
            "network": "simnet",
            "maxFeeRate": 122,
            "swapConf": 1,
            "configPath": "/home/bitcoin/.bitcoin/simnet.conf",
            "regConfs": 2,
            "regFee": 20000000,
            "regXPub": "vpub5SLqN2bLY4WeZJ9SmNJHsyzqVKreTXD4ZnPC22MugDNcjhKX5xNX9QiQWcE4SSRzVWyHWUihpKRT7hckDGNzVc69wSX2JPcfGeNiT5c2XZy"
        }
    }
}

For the DCR config file, this could be ~/dextest/btc/alpha/alpha.conf to use the Decred simnet harness' setup.

For the BTC config file, this could be ~/dextest/btc/alpha/alpha.conf to use the Bitcoin simnet harness' setup.

Prepare the PostgreSQL DB

If necessary, first create the dcrdex PostgreSQL user with CREATE USER dcrdex;.

Wipe any old PostgreSQL DB, and create a new simnet database:

DROP DATABASE dcrdex_simnet;
CREATE DATABASE dcrdex_simnet OWNER dcrdex;

Start dcrdex

Start dcrdex for simnet, with trace-level logging, and the dcrdex_simnet PostgreSQL database created above:

./dcrdex -d trace --simnet --pgdbname=dcrdex_simnet

Note that the registration fee xpub, amount, and required confirmations are set in markets.json now.

Wallet (bisonw) Setup

The wallet config files for bisonw

Bitcoin:

  • Config file: ~/dextest/btc/alpha/alpha.conf or ~/dextest/btc/beta/beta.conf (also applies the gamma wallet process), but you could want to create for example ~/.dexc/btc-simnet-w.conf file and select that during wallet setup below.
  • Account/wallet: For the alpha node's wallet, "" (empty string) or "gamma". For the beta node's wallet, "" (empty string) or "delta".
  • Wallet password: "abc"

Decred:

  • Config file: ~/dextest/dcr/alpha/alpha.conf or ~/dextest/dcr/beta/beta.conf, but you might want to create ~/.dexc/dcr-simnet-w.conf.
  • Account: default
  • Wallet password: "abc"

Start bisonw

Clear any existing wallet simnet files from previous setups:

rm -fr ~/.dexc/simnet/

Start bisonw with the web UI and RPC server in simnet mode and trace level logging. IMPORTANT: On the release-0.1 branch you should also specify different HTTP and RPC listen addresses (e.g. To change the RPC port to 6757, and the HTTP IP address to 127.0.0.3: --rpcaddr=localhost:6757 --webaddr=127.0.0.3:5758). The following command does not change these, so modify it as necessary:

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

The wallet can be configured via the browser interface or with bwctl on the command line.

Setup the wallet via the browser interface

In a browser, navigate to http://127.0.0.3:5758/ (or whatever bisonw was configured to use with --webaddr), and be sure JavaScript is enabled. This should redirect to http://127.0.0.3:5758/register.

  1. Setup the app pass.

  2. Configure the DCR wallet (default, abc, /home/jon/dextest/dcr/alpha/w-alpha.conf, app pass from 1.).

  3. In the next step, specify the server address localhost:17273 (for the harness, or whatever you manually configured dcrdex to use). Upload the TLS certificate from ~/dextest/dcrdex/rpc.cert (for the dcrdex harness) or if running the server manually ~/.dcrdex/rpc.cert.

  4. Pay fee (type in app pass to authorize payment from DCR wallet).

  5. If auto-mining is not setup, mine a few blocks on Decred simnet. How many depends on the regfeeconfirms setting used with `dcrdex.

    ~/dextest/dcr/harness-ctl $ ./mine-alpha 1 # mine one block
    
  6. Place a couple orders that match.

  7. Mine a few blocks on each chain, alternating chains. How many depends on the "swapConf" values in markets.json.

Setup the wallet via bwctl

IMPORTANT: The example bwctl commands in this section use the --simnet flag to change the default bisonw ports to which it will attempt to connect. On the release-0.1 branch where this is not supported, you will need to specify the -a, --rpcaddr= option to match bisonw. For example, if bisonw was started with --rpcaddr=localhost:6757, then bwctl would need to use --rpcaddr=localhost:6757 as well.

If this is the first time starting bisonw, the application must be initialized with a new "app password". For example, initializing with the password "asdf":

$  ./bwctl --simnet -u u -P p init
Set new app password:  <asdf>
app initialized

Setting up a Decred wallet (DCR coin ID is 42):

$  ./bwctl --simnet -u u -P p newwallet 42 ~/dextest/dcr/alpha/alpha.conf '{"account":"default"}'
App password:       <asdf>
Wallet password:    <abc>
dcr wallet created and unlocked

The bw console should log something similar to the following:

[INF] CORE: Created dcr wallet. Account "default" balance available = 5227016557638 / locked = 0, Deposit address = SsfWraUBDUtU2dKAhBAYcb8HVTEupAnj9ta
[INF] CORE: Connected to and unlocked dcr wallet. Account "default" balance available = 5227016557638 / locked = 0, Deposit address = SsfWraUBDUtU2dKAhBAYcb8HVTEupAnj9ta

Setting up a Bitcoin wallet (BT coin ID is 0):

$  ./bwctl --simnet -u u -P p newwallet 0 ~/dextest/btc/alpha/alpha.conf '{"walletname":"gamma"}'
App password:      <asdf>
Wallet password:   <abc>
btc wallet created and unlocked

Note that Bitcoin's coin ID is always 0, even on testnet and simnet. Do not use coin ID 1 for BTC testnet.

Now both Decred and Bitcoin wallets are available. Query their status with the wallets command:

$  ./bwctl --simnet -u u -P p wallets
[
  {
    "symbol": "dcr",
    "assetID": 42,
    "open": true,
    "running": true,
    "updated": 0,
    "balance": 5227016557638,
    "address": "SsfWraUBDUtU2dKAhBAYcb8HVTEupAnj9ta",
    "feerate": 10,
    "units": "atoms"
  },
  {
    "symbol": "btc",
    "assetID": 0,
    "open": true,
    "running": true,
    "updated": 0,
    "balance": 8400000000,
    "address": "mig9X7iDprqwnDMR6FyakQpdJo18u7PCLq",
    "feerate": 2,
    "units": "Satoshis"
  }
]

Now that a Decred wallet is configured, you can register with a DEX server. First query for the registration fee with the getfee command:

$  ./bwctl --simnet -u u -P p getfee "http://127.0.0.1:7232" ~/.dcrdex/rpc.cert 
{
  "fee": 100000000
}

Note that the fee is in atoms, the smallest unit of value in Decred, where 1 DCR == 1e8 atoms.

If the fee is acceptable, use the register command to pay the fee:

$  ./bwctl --simnet -u u -P p register "http://127.0.0.1:7232" 100000000 ~/.dcrdex/rpc.cert 
App password:    <asdf>
the DEX fee of 100000000 has been paid

After the required number of confirmations, the newly created account will be able to trade on that DEX server. During this process, bisonw should log messages similar to the following:

[INF] CORE: Connected to DEX http://127.0.0.1:17273 and listening for messages.
[INF] CORE: Attempting registration fee payment for SsfWraUBDUtU2dKAhBAYcb8HVTEupAnj9ta of 100000000 units of dcr
[DBG] CORE[dcr]: 1 signature cycles to converge on fees for tx 4992afa0eaa92bfe82f977466c28fa9cc944c32f43ddad8d7e8c8329e62daa2f
[INF] CORE: notify: |SUCCESS| (fee payment) Fee paid - Waiting for 1 confirmations before trading at http://127.0.0.1:7232
...
[TRC] CORE: processing tip change for dcr
[DBG] CORE: Registration fee txn 326661613264653632393833386337653864616464643433326663333434633939636661323836633436373766393832666532626139656161306166393234393030303030303030 now has 1 confirmations.
[DBG] CORE: Notifying dex http://127.0.0.1:17273 of fee payment.
[DBG] CORE: authenticated connection to http://127.0.0.1:17273
[INF] CORE: notify: |SUCCESS| (fee payment) Account registered - You may now trade at http://127.0.0.1:17273

For rapid setup, there is a script at [repo root]/client/cmd/bwctl/simnet-setup.sh that has a reasonable default. You may also use this script as a template.

Acquire DCR and BTC Simnet Funds

You can generate a deposit address for your wallet through the wallets view in the wallet.

Take the generated address to it's respective harness terminal and send funds to it using:

./alpha sendtoaddress {address} {amount}

Note: If you're using an SPV wallet, run ./mine-alpha 1 after sending or the SPV wallets won't see it.