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44 votes
Accepted

How can I find out what the highest block is?

For Geth, in another terminal, attach to the Geth console, such as geth attach. This will allow you to keep your syncing node running, without restarting, and you will not see the noisy logs as you ...
eth's user avatar
  • 85k
41 votes

How long is the first sync supposed to last?

Do following steps to check the sync state: 1.) open a new geth instance and type in geth attach 2.) now type in eth.syncing This shows you the "currentBlock" and the "highestBlock".
Kevin R.'s user avatar
  • 511
39 votes
Accepted

What are the valuable benefits of having a node?

[EDIT] this answer was edited to add more information about non monetary valuable benefits provided by a full node. This edit was triggered by one of @fraxture comment on this answer. TL;DR No, you ...
Nicolas Massart's user avatar
38 votes
Accepted

What exactly is an Ethereum client and what clients are there?

An 'Ethereum client' is just a term. It refers to any node able to parse and verify the blockchain, its smart contracts and everything related. It also allows you/provides interfaces to create ...
30 votes
Accepted

How many nodes are there on the Ethereum network?

Disclaimer: I run ethernodes.org There is a node explorer available at ethernodes.org which tries to estimate the number of nodes on the Ethereum network. The estimation is based on an active ...
P.P.'s user avatar
  • 565
27 votes
Accepted

How do Ethereum mining nodes maintain a time consistent with the network?

Ethereum nodes (regardless of mining) need to have an accurate time, otherwise they will not be able to connect to peers and to the network (https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/wiki/Connecting-to-...
eth's user avatar
  • 85k
27 votes

What are the types of nodes in Ethereum?

A node is a device/program that communicates with the Ethereum network. Nodes are also known as clients. Software that can act as an Ethereum node include Parity and Go-ethereum (geth). This software ...
lungj's user avatar
  • 6,660
26 votes
Accepted

Get a peer list for my geth node

Use admin.peers to get a list of the currently connected peers: > admin.peers [{ caps: ["eth/61", "eth/62", "eth/63"], id: "...
J-B's user avatar
  • 8,911
24 votes
Accepted

Why is geth always returning a 0 balance?

It sounds like geth is not yet synced up. Please type this into your geth console: eth.getBlock("latest").number As of this post, you should get 894332 or higher. I get the correct output on my ...
linagee's user avatar
  • 6,118
23 votes
Accepted

What is http://localhost:8545?

http://localhost:8545 is the RPC port of your locally running Ethereum node software. When running geth, the Go implementation of the Ethereum node software, the command line parameters to create and ...
BokkyPooBah's user avatar
  • 40.1k
22 votes

What's the difference between node and peer?

It's a language thing about the relationship. It's like "people" and "friends". It's not that friends aren't also people. We might say that people are friends because they have a certain relationship ...
Rob Hitchens's user avatar
  • 54.7k
20 votes

How can I find out what the highest block is?

If you are using Geth: geth attach http://host then enter: web3.eth.blockNumber It will give you the block number as integer, here's the function documentation. If you are looking for the block ...
makevoid's user avatar
  • 2,461
20 votes

Get a peer list for my geth node

Paste this line of code into the geth console to get a more concise version: admin.peers.forEach(function(value){console.log(value.network.remoteAddress+"\t"+value.name)}) This will display ...
Jordan Mack's user avatar
19 votes
Accepted

are there "public" ethereum nodes? or any recommendations on hosting solutions?

Infura is the most prominent public Ethereum nodes. They run mainnet and many of the testnets. They also run IPFS servers. http://infura.io.
Thomas Jay Rush's user avatar
18 votes

CryptoCurrency NODE.js Web3 Ethereum - Can't connect to TESTRPC

If you are using the new web3.js 1.0.0-beta, then try this (all the syntax has changed, sigh). Tested with testrpc -d. > var Web3 = require('web3'); > var web3 = new Web3('http://localhost:8545'...
benjaminion's user avatar
  • 9,112
15 votes

What exactly is an Ethereum client and what clients are there?

There are a couple of "reference implementations" that the Ethereum foundation is supporting. Ethereum C++ (known as Eth or "TurboEthereum") Go Ethereum (known for the command line client Geth) ...
Maran's user avatar
  • 1,825
14 votes
Accepted

What are the types of nodes in Ethereum?

I think that Bitcoin wiki has a good article: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Full_node its not for ethereum but the concept is pretty much the same. Full node is somebody connected to p2p network that ...
Visgean Skeloru's user avatar
14 votes
Accepted

Difference between full node and bootstrap nodes in Ethereum?

Q: I know that when a new geth instance runs it connects to the bootstrap nodes. What I want to know that do other nodes download blockchain from the bootstrap nodes or nor? A: No. Regular nodes do ...
BokkyPooBah's user avatar
  • 40.1k
13 votes

geth import vs copying chaindata

geth saves its internal states for the main network in the chaindata directory. You can find it in the directory: ~/.ethereum on linux ~/Library/Ethereum on OS X ~/AppData/Roaming/Ethereum It uses ...
Ellis's user avatar
  • 2,344
13 votes
Accepted

Can incentive be provided for non-mining Ethereum nodes?

Currently there is indeed no monetary incentive to run a full node. It's done by enthusiasts that just do it for the fun of it, or by projects who are building on top of Ethereum and need access to ...
Péter Szilágyi's user avatar
13 votes
Accepted

At any given time, how many nodes is my node connected to? As the number of nodes in the network increases, will communication between them be faster?

You can see the connected peers by typing admin.peers in the Geth console. The maximum number of peers is set using the -maxpeers n flag in Geth. There is a discovery process based on Kademlia for ...
JackWinters's user avatar
  • 3,403
13 votes

How to Compile and Deploy a Smart Contract without running a full node?

Install https://metamask.io/ and Navigate to https://remix.ethereum.org/ Click on settings -> choose your compiler (e.g. 0.4.19+commit.c4cbbb05). Note that optimization is unchecked. Login to metmask ...
Victory's user avatar
  • 1,231
12 votes
Accepted

Can chaindata be split across two (or more) locations?

Geth has a freezer as of v1.9 https://blog.ethereum.org/2019/07/10/geth-v1-9-0/ Freezer Wouldn’t it be amazing if we didn’t have to waste so much precious space on our expensive and sensitive SSDs to ...
eth's user avatar
  • 85k
11 votes

How many concurrent requests can an Ethereum node handle?

So we actually very, very rarely completely exploded. During big ICOs for instance we were seeing 200k transactions being sent via the MEW node in a single hour, which is about 55 TX/sec. Each ...
tayvano's user avatar
  • 15.9k
10 votes

Are there any public/free nodes to connect a Dapp front end?

You may use Infura as a "read only / signed transactions only" node. The use of the API is free: https://infura.io Your may recommend your users to use Metamask Browser extension to be able to ...
digitaldonkey's user avatar
10 votes

How long is the first sync supposed to last?

I think you should edit the question to ask, "How do I know when geth is done syncing?" The question you asked was vague, but I believe this is the answer you were after: Geth will continue running ...
Evan de la Cruz's user avatar
10 votes

How long is the first sync supposed to last?

Assuming you are using a Linux flavoured OS, you can check the sync status as well (run this as the user under which geth is running): $ geth --exec eth.syncing.currentBlock attach 3991639 If it's ...
tlex's user avatar
  • 146
9 votes

Is there a Javascript client for Ethereum, like Geth?

Yes, there are 3 official clients in Golang, C++ and Python. And there are 4 unofficial clients in Java, Haskell, JavaScript and most recently Rust. To answer your question, the full node client ...
q9f's user avatar
  • 32.8k
9 votes

Are there any public/free nodes to connect a Dapp front end?

If you are deploying an app at scale, you probably don't want a mere node. You want a full and performant web API. There are several available: I've personally used etherscan.io and been reasonably ...
Jeff Coleman's user avatar
9 votes

geth import vs copying chaindata

Copying the .ethereum/chaindata folder is a good idea. I've done that on my Rpi2 and everything worked fine. Also, if it's not fully synced on the original machine, the RPi2 will just start syncing ...
Ethan Wilding's user avatar

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