⚙️ Aztec Public Testnet — Governance Voting Setup Guide

Welcome! If you're operating a sequencer node on Aztec's Public Testnet, you're part of an essential decentralized infrastructure. Your node must participate in governance voting to help shape the future of the protocol.

Proposals are only accepted if the majority of active sequencers vote in favor. This guide walks you through how to enable governance payloads and troubleshoot common issues.

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🧾 Enable Governance Voting

✅ Option A: Using a CLI Flag

Add the governance payload directly to your aztec CLI command:

--sequencer.governanceProposerPayload 0x54F7fe24E349993b363A5Fa1bccdAe2589D5E5Ef

📦 Example full command:

aztec start --node --archiver --sequencer \
  --network alpha-testnet \
  --l1-rpc-urls "" \
  --l1-consensus-host-urls "" \
  --sequencer.validatorPrivateKey "" \
  --p2p.p2pIp "" \
  --p2p.maxTxPoolSize 1000000000 \
  --sequencer.governanceProposerPayload 0x54F7fe24E349993b363A5Fa1bccdAe2589D5E5Ef

🧬 Option B: Using an Environment Variable

Use an environment variable to persist the payload configuration.

🧪 Temporary Session:

export GOVERNANCE_PROPOSER_PAYLOAD_ADDRESS=0x54F7fe24E349993b363A5Fa1bccdAe2589D5E5Ef

💾 Persistent Configuration:

Edit your .bashrc file:

nano ~/.bashrc

Add this line at the bottom:

export GOVERNANCE_PROPOSER_PAYLOAD_ADDRESS=0x54F7fe24E349993b363A5Fa1bccdAe2589D5E5Ef

Reload the configuration:

source ~/.bashrc

🧯 Troubleshooting Common Issues

❌ Error: TypeError: fetch failed → ConnectTimeoutError

This usually indicates that the Aztec node is unable to reach external L1 RPC or bootnode URLs.

🔐 Solution: Configure UFW Firewall

Enable UFW and allow essential ports for node communication:

sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw default allow outgoing
sudo ufw default allow incoming

Then add the necessary ports:

sudo ufw allow 22/tcp        # SSH
sudo ufw allow 8080/tcp      # Public API
sudo ufw allow 40400/tcp     # P2P TCP
sudo ufw allow 40400/udp     # P2P UDP
sudo ufw allow 40500/tcp     # Optional port

Reload and verify:

sudo ufw reload
sudo ufw status verbose

Restart your node afterward.

🐳 Docker Installation Guide

If Docker is not yet installed on your system:

📦 Step 1: Install Required Packages

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y \
  ca-certificates \
  curl \
  gnupg \
  lsb-release

🔑 Step 2: Add Docker’s GPG Key

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | \
  sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

📥 Step 3: Add Docker Repository

echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] \
  https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

🛠️ Step 4: Install Docker Engine & Plugins

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

✅ Step 5: Verify Installation

docker --version

You should now be ready to run Aztec services using Docker.