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Lesson 4 - Part 1

Thor networks - 'mainnet', 'testnet' and 'solo'

VeChain develops and provides the Thor blockchain networks.

The mainnet refers to the live, operational version of a blockchain network. It is the real, functioning blockchain network that is open to the public and used by participants to conduct actual transactions, store data, and execute smart contracts.

The testnet is a testing environment where developers and users can experiment prior to deploying code to the blockchain production network, referred to as mainnet. The testnet is essentially a separate blockchain networks that mirrors the functionality of the mainnet but is isolated from it.

The Thor solo is a local instance of Thor operating a single node that independently maintains and validates the entire blockchain network. In other words, a solo node does not rely on other nodes for validation and verification of transactions and blocks. Instead, it performs all the necessary tasks on its own. Therefore, running a Thor solo node is essentially running the VeChainThor node software but not connecting it to other network participants in mainnet or testnet.

The solo node network instance is very convenient to develop and test software for the VeChain Thor network without the need to be connected to testnet for the development, everything can be done in local.

The following of this tutorial uses Thor solo to show how to develop software for the VeChain networks.

Start and stop Thor 'solo'

The link at How to run a Thor 'solo' node network explains how to install and configure a Thor solo network.

The most convenient way to run a solo node network is to run it in a docker container.

The following guides shows how to install

Once docker and docker compose or docker desktop - that includes docker compose - are installed,

  1. move to the directory of the SDK, conventionally referred as <vechain-sdk-js> in this document;
  2. to start solo open the CLI shell and type 
    docker compose -f docker-compose.thor.yml up -d --wait
  3. and to stop solo, type in shell 
    docker compose -f docker-compose.thor.yml down

.

Start and stop Thor 'solo' with yarn

Since you are reading this tutorial, there are excellent chances you read it to develop software with the help of the SDK, hence you should have already installed both

you can start solo typing in the shell

yarn start-thor-solo

and stop it later typing in the shell

yarn stop-thor-solo

.

Supposing the SDK is installed in the <vechain-sdk-js> directory, the file at <vechain-sdk-js/package.json shows in the scripts tag the docker compose files the two commands start-thor-solo and stop-thor-solo invoke.

This is the way to start and stop solo suggested to follow the next lessons.

What an 'account' is

In Thor terminology, an external owned account is a relation between an address - created because a pair of keys owned by a user - and funds. An account is created first when a transaction is written in the blockchain.

But what happens when a Thor network bootstraps for the first time, when nothing exists yet in the blockchain? When nothing exists yet, everything is still possible.

Bootstrapping Thor 'solo'

The first block of the blockchain is called genesis block and has address 0. When Thor bootstraps and the genesis block doesn't exist in the blockchain nor instructions are received by peers node to synchronize the blockchain, the node checks if launched with the --genesis option as explained in How to run a Thor solo nodehttps://docs.vechain.org/how-to-run-a-node/how-to-run-a-thor-solo-node. This --genesis options points to a JSON structured file where the - so called - primordial accounts are defined associating addresses and their attributes, like balance in VET and energy in VTHO.

How to configure your genesis file describes the structure of the genesis file.

Supposing the SDK is installed in the <vechain-sdk-js> directory, the file at <vechain-sdk-js>/docker-compose.rpc-proxy.yml shows how docker compose bootstraps solo with the --gensis option reading how to build the genesis block from the file at <vechain-sdk-js>/docker/rpc-proxy/config/genesis.json.

The file at <vechain-sdk-js>/docker-compose.thor.yml is what yarn start-thor-solo invokes, the launched solo instance has ten full funded accounts.

NOTE: it's worth to mention, if not evident, the code building the genesis block is part of Thor, not of the SDK.

In the following lessons of this tutorial you will play with these primordial accounts and you will transfer balance and energy funds from them to the accounts you will create.

---
title: Thor bootstrap
---
flowchart TD
   start((Start))
   is_to_synch{{Sync with peer nodes?}}
   synchronize[[Synchronize with peers node.]]
   has_genesis_block{{Has genesis block?}}
   has_genesis_option{{Has --genesis option?}}
   read_genesis[[Read the genesis.json file.]]
   build_genesis[[Build the genesis block.]]
   run(((Run)))
   start --> is_to_synch
   is_to_synch -->|yes|synchronize
   is_to_synch -->|no| has_genesis_block
   synchronize --> has_genesis_block
   has_genesis_block -->|no|has_genesis_option
   has_genesis_block -->|yes|run
   has_genesis_option -->|yes|read_genesis
   read_genesis --> build_genesis
   has_genesis_option -->|no|run
   build_genesis --> run
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