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State Sync Configuration

State sync is the recommended method for bringing a fresh node to near-current height without downloading every historical block. Instead of replaying the consensus log from genesis, your node trusts a recent state proof from a well-known RPC node and downloads the state directly.

State sync is built into the Cosmos SDK and allows validators or sentry nodes to join the network rapidly by trusting a snapshot-enabled RPC endpoint from a recent block height. This dramatically reduces the time it takes to reach the tip of the chain, but it also means the node only stores the most recent state that the RPC service exposes.

Before running state sync, finish the steps in Set Up a Node

info

For nodes that serve explorers, dApps, or other RPC clients that require the full historical transaction log, state sync is not appropriate—these workloads still need a fully synced node with the entire block history.

RPC and Seed References​

Define the variables that match your target network before continuing:

SNAP_RPC="https://public-zigchain-rpc.numia.xyz:443"
SEED_NODES="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZIGChain/networks/main/zigchain-1/seed-nodes.txt"

Enable State Sync​

  1. Calculate trust parameters.

    The node must trust a block that is slightly behind the head so that the block is available from the RPC endpoint.

    LATEST_HEIGHT=$(curl -s $SNAP_RPC/block | jq -r .result.block.header.height)
    BLOCK_HEIGHT=$((LATEST_HEIGHT - 5000))
    TRUST_HASH=$(curl -s "$SNAP_RPC/block?height=$BLOCK_HEIGHT" | jq -r .result.block_id.hash)

  2. Update config.toml.

    Enable the service and inject the RPC servers, trust height, and trust hash. The commands differ slightly per platform:

sed -i.bak -E \
    "s|^(enable[[:space:]]*=[[:space:]]*).*$|\1true| ; \
     s|^(rpc_servers[[:space:]]*=[[:space:]]*).*$|\1\"$SNAP_RPC,$SNAP_RPC\"| ; \
     s|^(trust_height[[:space:]]*=[[:space:]]*).*$|\1$BLOCK_HEIGHT| ; \
     s|^(trust_hash[[:space:]]*=[[:space:]]*).*$|\1\"$TRUST_HASH\"|" \
    "$HOME/.zigchain/config/config.toml"

  1. Refresh the seed list.

    Download the current seed nodes and write them into config.toml.

    SEED_FILE="$HOME/.zigchain/config/seeds.txt"
    wget "$SEED_NODES" -O "$SEED_FILE"
    SEEDS=$(paste -sd, "$SEED_FILE")
    sed -i.bak -E "s|^(persistent_peers[[:space:]]*=[[:space:]]*).*|\1\"$SEEDS\"|" "$HOME/.zigchain/config/config.toml"

  2. Restart the node.

    Once the configuration is updated, restart zigchaind. Use your service manager (systemctl, launchctl, etc.) or run zigchaind start in the foreground. The log should show state sync progress (e.g., service state-sync logs).

Verify Synchronization​

Confirm that the node is no longer catching up and that state sync completed:

curl -s localhost:26657/status | jq '.result.sync_info'

Look for catching_up: false and ensure the latest_block_height increases over time without the node replaying every block.

References​