Lisk node

Lisk provides a cost-efficient, fast, and scalable Layer 2 (L2) network based on Optimism (OP) that is secured by Ethereum.

This repository contains information on how to run your own node on the Lisk network.

System requirements

We recommend you the following hardware configuration to run a Lisk L2 node:

• a modern multi-core CPU with good single-core performance
• a minimum of 16 GB RAM (32 GB recommended)
• a locally attached NVMe SSD drive
• adequate storage capacity to accommodate both the snapshot restoration process (if restoring from snapshot) and chain data, ensuring a minimum of (2 * current_chain_size) + snapshot_size + 20%_buffer
• if running with docker, please install Docker Engine version 27.0.1 or higher

Note: If utilizing Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), ensure timing buffered disk reads are fast enough to avoid latency issues alongside the rate of new blocks added to Lisk during the initial synchronization process; io2 Block Express is recommended.

Supported networks

Lisk Network	Status
Sepolia (Testnet)	✅
Mainnet	✅

Usage

Note: Starting with Lisk Node v0.3.0, users running op-reth should set their --chain flag to the network name instead of a genesis block filepath. We've removed the genesis block and will not be maintaining it in the repository going forward.

Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/LiskHQ/lisk-node.git
cd lisk-node

Docker

1. Ensure you have an Ethereum L1 full node RPC available (not Lisk), and set the OP_NODE_L1_ETH_RPC and the OP_NODE_L1_BEACON variables (within the .env.* files, if using docker-compose). If running your own L1 node, it needs to be synced before the Lisk node will be able to fully sync.

2. Please ensure that the environment file relevant to your network (.env.sepolia, or .env.mainnet) is set for the env_file properties at two places within docker-compose.yml. By default, it is set to .env.mainnet.

3. The op-reth client can be built in either the maxperf (default) or release profile. To learn more about them, please check reth's documentation on Optimizations. Set the RETH_BUILD_PROFILE environment variable accordingly.

   Note:

   • Unless you are building op-reth in release profile, please ensure that you have a machine with 32 GB RAM.
   • Additionally, if you have Docker Desktop installed on your system, please make sure to set Memory limit to a minimum of 16 GB.
     It can be set under Settings -> Resources -> Resource Allocation -> Memory limit.

4. Run:
   IMPORTANT: To run the node on Lisk Sepolia, first patch the Dockerfile with:

   git apply dockerfile-lisk-sepolia.patch

   docker compose up --build --detach

5. You should now be able to curl your Lisk node:

   curl -s -d '{"id":0,"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_getBlockByNumber","params":["latest",false]}' \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" http://localhost:8545

Source

Please use the following client versions:

• op-node: v1.19.0
• op-reth: v2.3.1

Build

• Before proceeding, please make sure to install the following dependency (this information is missing in the OP documentations linked below):

  • jq

• To build op-node from source, follow OP documentation on Building a Node from Source.

  • Before building the op-node, please patch the code with op-node-lisk-sepolia.patch for an unhandled SystemConfig event emitted on Lisk Sepolia, resulting in errors on the Lisk nodes.

    git apply <path-to-op-node-lisk-sepolia.patch>

• To build op-reth from source, refer to the op-reth source tree in the ethereum-optimism/optimism repository (pinned to the version above).

Set environment variables

Set the following environment variable:

export DATADIR_PATH=... # Path to the folder where the op-reth data will be stored

Create a JWT Secret

op-reth and op-node communicate over the engine API authrpc. This communication can be secured with a shared secret which can be provided to both when starting the applications. In this case, the secret takes the form of a random 32-byte hex string and can be generated with:

openssl rand -hex 32 > jwt.txt

For more information refer to the OP documentation.

Run op-reth

• Set RETH_CHAIN to lisk to run the node against Lisk Mainnet or lisk-sepolia to run it against Lisk Sepolia.
• Navigate to your reth directory and start service by running the command:

./target/maxperf/op-reth node \
  -vvv \
  --chain=$RETH_CHAIN \
  --datadir="$DATADIR_PATH" \
  --log.stdout.format log-fmt \
  --authrpc.addr=0.0.0.0 \
  --authrpc.port=8551 \
  --authrpc.jwtsecret=PATH_TO_JWT_TEXT_FILE \
  --ws \
  --ws.origins="*" \
  --ws.addr=0.0.0.0 \
  --ws.port=8546 \
  --ws.api=web3,debug,eth,net,txpool \
  --http \
  --http.corsdomain="*" \
  --http.addr=0.0.0.0 \
  --http.port=8545 \
  --http.api=web3,debug,eth,net,txpool \
  --metrics=0.0.0.0:6060 \
  --disable-discovery \
  --port=30303 \
  --rollup.sequencer-http=SEQUENCER_HTTP \
  --rollup.disable-tx-pool-gossip

Refer to the reth configuration documentation for detailed information about available options.

Note: --disable-discovery and --bootnodes are mutually exclusive in practice — reth's bootnodes only take effect via the discovery protocol (discv4/discv5/DNS). If you want to seed peer discovery (e.g. for snap sync), drop --disable-discovery and pass --bootnodes=<comma-separated enode URLs> instead. See Snap sync below.

Note:
Official Lisk Sequencer HTTP RPC endpoints:

• Lisk Sepolia: https://rpc.sepolia-api.lisk.com
• Lisk Mainnet: https://rpc.api.lisk.com

⚠️ Please consider using a private endpoint to connect to the sequencer when running your own node if you encounter rate limit issues. More information is available here: Private RPCs.

Run op-node

• Set OP_NODE_NETWORK to lisk-mainnet to run the node against Lisk Mainnet or lisk-sepolia to run it against Lisk Sepolia.
• Navigate to your op-node directory and start service by running the command:

./bin/op-node \
  --network=$OP_NODE_NETWORK \
  --l1=$OP_NODE_L1_ETH_RPC \
  --l1.rpckind=$OP_NODE_L1_RPC_KIND \
  --l1.beacon=$OP_NODE_L1_BEACON \
  --l2=ws://localhost:8551 \
  --l2.jwt-secret=PATH_TO_JWT_TEXT_FILE

The above command starts op-node in full sync mode. Depending on the chain length, the initial sync process could take significant time; varying from days to weeks.

INFO [06-26|13:31:20.389] Advancing bq origin                      origin=17171d..1bc69b:8300332 originBehind=false

For more information refer to the OP documentation.

Refer to the op-node configuration documentation for detailed information about available options.

Note:
Some L1 nodes (e.g. Erigon) do not support fetching storage proofs. You can work around this by specifying --l1.trustrpc when starting op-node (add it in op-node-entrypoint and rebuild the docker image with docker compose build.) Do not do this unless you fully trust the L1 node provider.

Snapshots

Note:

• op-reth only supports datadir snapshots: large download, fast restore, no data verification.
• All snapshots are from archival nodes.

Docker

To enable auto-snapshot download and application, set the APPLY_SNAPSHOT environment variable to true when starting the node:

APPLY_SNAPSHOT=true docker compose up --build --detach

You can also download and apply a snapshot from a custom URL by setting the SNAPSHOT_URL environment variable. Supported formats are *.tar.gz, *.tar, and *.tar.lz4.

APPLY_SNAPSHOT=true SNAPSHOT_URL=<custom-snapshot-url> docker compose up --build --detach

Note: Alternative snapshot sources hosted by Gelato:

• Lisk Mainnet: https://lisk.snapshots.gelato.cloud/index.html
• Lisk Sepolia: https://lisk.t.snapshots.gelato.cloud/index.html

Source

Please follow the steps below:

• Download the snapshot and the corresponding checksum. The latest snapshot name is listed at latest-reth-datadir, available at:

  • Sepolia: https://snapshots.lisk.com/sepolia
  • Mainnet: https://snapshots.lisk.com/mainnet

  Alternative snapshot sources hosted by Gelato:

  • Sepolia: https://lisk.t.snapshots.gelato.cloud/index.html
  • Mainnet: https://lisk.snapshots.gelato.cloud/index.html

• Verify the integrity of the downloaded snapshot with:

  sha256sum -c <checksum-file-name>

• Import the snapshot:

  • .tar or .tar.gz:

    tar --directory $RETH_DATA_DIR -xf <path-to-datadir-snapshot>

  • .tar.lz4:

    # requires `lz4` to be installed
    tar --directory $RETH_DATA_DIR -I lz4 -xf <path-to-datadir-snapshot>

Snap sync

By default, the Lisk node runs in full sync mode. To enable snap sync (faster initial sync by fetching state from peers), uncomment the snap-sync block in your .env.* file:

• OP_NODE_SYNCMODE=execution-layer — instructs op-node to defer block sync to the execution client.
• OP_RETH_BOOTNODES — comma-separated enode URLs used to bootstrap peer discovery. Snap sync needs P2P connectivity beyond the sequencer, so at least one working bootnode is required.

Note: For op-reth, the docker entrypoint normally runs with --disable-discovery, which disables the discovery protocols (discv4/discv5/DNS) so the node won't automatically find peers. When OP_RETH_BOOTNODES is set, the entrypoint automatically drops --disable-discovery because reth's bootnodes only take effect via the discovery protocol — they are no-ops when discovery is turned off. If you build and run op-reth from source instead of via docker, remove --disable-discovery from your command line when passing --bootnodes.

Syncing

Sync speed depends on your L1 node, as the majority of the chain is derived from data submitted to the L1. You can check your syncing status using the optimism_syncStatus RPC on the op-node container. Example:

command -v jq  &> /dev/null || { echo "jq is not installed" 1>&2 ; }
echo Latest synced block behind by: \
$((($( date +%s )-\
$( curl -s -d '{"id":0,"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"optimism_syncStatus"}' -H "Content-Type: application/json" http://localhost:9545 |
   jq -r .result.unsafe_l2.timestamp))/60)) minutes

API Documentation

For developers and node operators who need to interact with the node programmatically, here are the relevant API documentation links:

• op-node: Comprehensive JSON-RPC API documentation for the Optimism node

  • Official Documentation

• op-reth: Detailed JSON-RPC documentation for the Reth client

  • JSON-RPC Documentation