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In the parity chain spec file, there is a value for NetworkID. Is this in hex or decimal?

On the geth command line, you can specify the network with "--networkid X". Is that hex or decimal?

I am starting to wonder if the reason my geth and parity nodes cannot talk to each other is because I'm encoding the numbers differently.

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Parity accepts both, hex and decimal. Just make sure hex numbers are prefixed with 0x (e.g., 0x539) and decimals are written normally (e.g., 1337).

The incompatibilities between Geth and Parity are painful if you try to setup cross-client networks. The reason is that Geth is not designed to run different network configurations other than a modified genesis block, while Parity allows you to fine-tune all variables of a full chain specification.

There are tools to easy you translating a Geth genesis.json to a Parity chainspec.json like keorn/parity-spec or the preconfigured network 5chdn/crossclient-chainspec.

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  • Can you explain these "incompatibilities?" I absolutely must get geth to connect to this network of nodes using Parity. If I need to remove some variables from the chain spec, I will. But I must know whcih ones are incompatible. The tools you mentioned do not apply because the first converts from geth to parity (and I want to convert from parity to geth) and the second has absolutely nothing to do with this question, as it is an entirely different network than the one I am trying to connect to.
    – stone.212
    Aug 30, 2017 at 9:06
  • There is usually no way to connect Geth to a Parity network. This only works other way around, or by creating a new compatible network from scratch, see the two links in my answer.
    – q9f
    Aug 30, 2017 at 11:02
  • Geth is not designed to work with custom networks. All you can customize in Geth is the genesis file. Parity, however, allows to adjust any parameter in the chain config. Thus, if you need Geth in your network, you need to create something compatible with Geth in first place and add Parity nodes afterwards.
    – q9f
    Aug 30, 2017 at 11:04
  • Can you be more specific about "Geth is not designed to work with custom networks?" For example, the Expanse network is a custom network but I think geth can work with that? And if it is possible to create a custom genesis file then it must be possible to create a somewhat-custom network with geth nodes. So my question becomes: exactly what customization is and is not possible? (But your suggestion to start wtih geth is a good one. I may try that.)
    – stone.212
    Sep 1, 2017 at 5:57
  • No Geth does not work with Expanse, it doesn't work with ETC either. Both projects had to fork the go-ethereum code-base and create an entirely new client with their rules. Please ask a new question or catch me on Gitter. I can't give you full details in the comments.
    – q9f
    Sep 1, 2017 at 6:23

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