Getting started with testnet (v2 OUTDATED)

This post refers to Grid version 2 and the information here is outdated for version 3. For the latest information about how to use the Grid, please see the manual.


The ThreeFold Grid is actually threefold in itself, composed of the networks: main, test, and dev. New versions of 0-OS and their associated new features are deployed for testing to dev and test first, before going live on the main grid. Any farmer can choose to run their node on any of the three networks, by configuring their 0-OS boot process accordingly.

With the beta launch of the new marketplace, certain exciting features, like capacity pools and easy website deployment, are only available on the testnet marketplace. So, there’s now a great reason for a wider audience to want to play on testnet, and this post is intended to provide instructions to get started.

Please note: the following instructions aren’t based on the latest version of 3Bot and therefore make things much harder than they need to be. Proceed with caution.

Testnet Tokens

Probably the most confusing aspect of testnet is that it uses versions of the ThreeFold tokens (TFT, TFTA, FreeTFT) which live on Stellar’s own testnet. Like the TF Grid, Stellar operates a separate testing network, where assets are assumed to not have any value and anyone can experiment with Stellar’s features. To make capacity reservations on the TF testnet, we’ll need a Stellar testnet wallet with trustlines for these tokens and some tokens to use. The good news is that there are easy tools to get this setup in just a few minutes.

Stellar Testnet Wallet

To generate a wallet on Stellar testnet, we’ll use the Stellar Laboratory. You’ll also need a running 3Bot admin interface, either deployed locally with the SDK or deployed on the Grid using the marketplace, to add the new wallet to your 3Bot.

Go to the test network account creation tool, generate a new keypair, and fund the wallet with the friendbot. This just requires hitting the “Generate keypair” button, clicking the “Fund…” link, and then pressing the “Get test network lumens” button below. We’ll need the test network lumens in order to get our wallet included in the test network ledger, as every wallet on Stellar requires a small amount of lumens to be activated.

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Now, copy the Secret Key from this page, and choose the Wallet’s Manager in 3Bot’s admin interface from the navigation bar on the left. You’ll now see the Import Wallet button in the upper right hand corner of the page, below your 3Bot name. Click that, then choose “TEST” from the Network Type drop down menu, enter a name, and paste the secret key from Stellar Laboratory into the Secret field.

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3Bot will automatically set up trustlines for TFT, TFTA, and FreeTFT on Stellar’s test network. Now we’ll be able to fund this wallet with some testnet FreeTFT.

Getting Testnet FreeTFT

Like on mainnet, you can get some FreeTFT for testing on testnet. Unlike mainnet, this happens automatically without needing human approval. Just go to the FreeTFT Testnet Faucet, login with your 3Bot app, and enter the public key from your new testnet wallet, also shown as the Address when you double click the wallet in 3Bot’s wallet manager.

The faucet will automatically fund your testnet wallet with FreeTFT, which you can verify in 3Bot admin:

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Testnet Marketplace

Now we’re ready to go deploy a solution on the testnet marketplace. While this won’t be a full tutorial on the marketplace, there are a couple things to note.

First, very limited free capacity is currently available on testnet, as you can see in the testnet explorer. If you are able to reserve some of this capacity please be mindful to use only what you need and only for the duration needed to test it. As of the time of writing, I understand there is an effort to bring more free capacity online for testnet.

Second, testnet deployments require a capacity pool as a first step. This is a cool new feature that will allow deployments to maintain life beyond the usual expiration date system, by “topping up” the capacity pool with more tokens. Start there, then deploy a network, and finally solutions within it as usual.

Paying for Testnet Capacity

Unfortunately, it’s a bit of a manual process to pay for capacity reservations on testnet. The reasons for this are that the testnet marketplace doesn’t support making payments directly from wallets added to the 3Bot wallet manager and the 3Bot app doesn’t support Stellar test network wallets. This means that we’ll have to create the transaction using Stellar Laboratory (or using another wallet app that supports test network). Not to fear though, this isn’t too hard and could be seen as a fun opportunity to get behind the scenes a bit with Stellar transactions :slight_smile:

When you reach the payment step in a marketplace reservation, you’ll see a screen like this:

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Open Stellar Laboratory’s Transaction Builder, and fill in the fields as follows:

  • Source Account will be your wallet public key/address, the same one we used in the FreeTFT faucet form earlier.
  • Transaction Sequence Number - use the “Fetch next sequence number” button to fill this automatically
  • Base Fee can be left as 100
  • Memo - choose “Text” and enter the Reservation id from the payment page
  • Time Bounds is optional and we don’t need to specify

Next, set up the payment operation as follows:

  • Operation Type - select “Payment”
  • Destination - copy the Wallet Address from the payment page
  • Asset - choose “Alphanumeric 12” and enter “FreeTFT” as the asset code
  • Issuer Account ID - enter GBLDUINEFYTF7XEE7YNWA3JQS4K2VD37YU7I2YAE7R5AHZDKQXSS2J6R (this is found on the payment page under Currency, after “FreeTFT:”
  • Amount - copy the Total Amount from the payment page

Then scroll down (no need to hit Add Operation, that would be for a second operation), and click the Sign in Transaction Signer button. On the next page, do the following:

  • Copy the secret key for your Stellar test network wallet, which can be found in the 3Bot wallet manager by clicking Show Secret, and paste it into the Add Signer field on the next page of the transaction builder under Signatures.
  • Click the Sign with BIP Path button, ignoring any error about a Ledger wallet
  • Click Submit in Transaction Submitter at the bottom of the page
  • Finally, click Submit Transaction to submit it to the network

Once you’ve submitted the transaction, go back to the marketplace and click the next button. After a short wait, you should be able to see your new reservation reflected on the relevant marketplace tab. Yahoo!

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Awesome stuff once again Scott! thanks a bunch for posting.

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I would like to try the Testnet, but it looks that some links doesn’t work here.

For example:

FreeTFT Testnet Faucet - https://getfreetft.testnet.threefold.io/
Marketplace - https://marketplace.grid.tf/marketplace
Testnet marketplace - https://staging.marketplace.threefold.me/marketplace

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Hi mrak,

Thanks for your interest in testing the TF Grid.
The links you mention are indeed outdated.

The VDC testnet as well as the wiki’s giving a full explanation on how to deploy your solution on the TFGrid will be available really soon, everything is being prepared for a great experience, still on testnet, but great !

Stay tuned!

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I am new here and very interested in the project. I learned about Threefold after getting involved with Presearch. Most links to information I am looking for are dead, wiki is dead, acquiring TFT is complicated and difficult (at least for USA customers). I was able to add some resources to the grid but I want to test drive TF for myself. Unless there is some clean up with clear and concise guidance on how to utilize TF for full benefit, I do not see much momentum. I am nearing giving up.

Dear @glock19,

Thanks for the interest, and sorry to hear you encounter that many difficulties to get the info you want.
The wiki has been restructured recently, and this has indeed lead to a few dead links. There was so much information that we needed to make it more maintainable. Now everything is brought together under https://library.threefold.me/info/threefold#/ . You can either navigate through the sidebar to find what you want or type in a keyword. And there are certainly still a few links broken, don’t hesitate to give us feedback on that aspect.
You might not see a lot of momentum, but be sure that there is A LOT going on, but for now it’s somewhat under the surface:

  • I informed you here above about the setup of TFGrid 3.0, which will bring full decentralisation to the Threefold grid, and bring features so that in the future it will even be more easy to support any workload to run on the grid, like easy set up of virtual machines (Terraform) and very easy deployment of new apps, but also post-billing and support for network farmers. The exact reason why we posted a message about the new release on development is to show you about that progress, and invite you to become a first tester.
  • Agreed, we didn’t push TFGrid v2 release onto mainnet. We will first connect the tooling developed for it, like VDC (where you run your Presearch node on), blockchain jukebox and quantum-safe file system onto v3. Main reason is to ease the migration path: if there are too many applications running on TFGrid 2, a double maintenance will be needed. As this appears to be too much for a small team to manage compared to the mission that we intend to achieve, decision was made to give absolute priority to have v3 live before mass onboarding of workloads.
  • Nevertheless, a number of very big announcements are in the pipe, those will be revealed in the weeks to come, after having dealt with setting these agreements in stone from a legal and contractual perspective.
  • our grid is about to grow substantially, the shipping of Titan nodes has started. Also requiring quite some logistic effort.

So yes, there is momentum ! But it might not be obvious for the outside world to see it. If you feel you need more info to make you more comfortable about our progress and the reasoning behind, feel free to ask.

@Geert,
Thank you for the reply and clarity. Your link to the new wiki / library was very helpful, informative, and filled lot of holes. I am excited about this project and can not wait to try it out. I truly believe decentralization is the future of the Internet and I want to support and be a part of it.

My only obstacle to supporting and getting involved is acquiring TFT. I had similar issues acquiring PRE, after I spent all of the available BTC. I will have to buy more BTC, wait for 10 days (exchange rules) before I can move forward with exchanging further. This is the pain point and obstacle for acquiring TFT. Once Liquid Quick Exchange is operation in USA, that will alleviate the issues acquiring TFT. As a user, that is fine because I am only buying TFT to spend / stake. As a farmer, if TFT is not available on my exchange or I can not open an account on an exchange where TFT is available, selling farmed TFT becomes a complication. This is where I struggle.

As a customer, if it take 10 days, several hoops, and swaps to go through, just to pay the cloud bill, that is a lot of work. I hope things simplify. I want to see this fly!

Thanks

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