go-waku/docs/operators/how-to/run-with-rln.md

How to run spam prevention on your go-waku node (RLN)

This guide explains how to run a go-waku node with RLN (Rate Limiting Nullifier) enabled.

RLN is a protocol integrated into waku v2, which prevents spam-based attacks on the network.

For further background on the research for RLN tailored to waku, refer to this RFC.

Registering to the membership group has been left out for brevity. If you would like to register to the membership group and send messages with RLN, refer to the on-chain chat2 tutorial.

This guide specifically allows a node to participate in RLN testnet You may alter the rln-specific arguments as required.

1. Update the runtime arguments

Follow the steps from the build and run guides while replacing the run command with -

export WAKU_FLEET=<enrtree of the fleet>
export SEPOLIA_WS_NODE_ADDRESS=<WS RPC URL to a Sepolia Node>
export RLN_RELAY_CONTRACT_ADDRESS="0xF471d71E9b1455bBF4b85d475afb9BB0954A29c4" # Replace this with any compatible implementation
$WAKUNODE_DIR/build/waku \
--dns-discovery \
--dns-discovery-url="$WAKU_FLEET" \
--discv5-discovery=true \
--rln-relay=true \
--rln-relay-dynamic=true \
--rln-relay-eth-contract-address="$RLN_RELAY_CONTRACT_ADDRESS" \
--rln-relay-eth-client-address="$SEPOLIA_WS_NODE_ADDRESS"

OR

If you installed go-waku using a .dpkg or .rpm package, you can use the waku command instead of building go-waku yourself

OR

If you have the go-waku node within docker, you can replace the run command with -

export WAKU_FLEET=<enrtree of the fleet>
export SEPOLIA_WS_NODE_ADDRESS=<WS RPC URL to a Sepolia Node>
export RLN_RELAY_CONTRACT_ADDRESS="0xF471d71E9b1455bBF4b85d475afb9BB0954A29c4" # Replace this with any compatible implementation
docker run -i -t -p 60000:60000 -p 9000:9000/udp \
  -v /absolute/path/to/your/rlnKeystore.json:/rlnKeystore.json:ro \
  wakuorg/go-waku:latest \
  --dns-discovery=true \
  --dns-discovery-url="$WAKU_FLEET" \
  --discv5-discovery \
  --rln-relay=true \
  --rln-relay-dynamic=true \
  --rln-relay-eth-contract-address="$RLN_RELAY_CONTRACT_ADDRESS" \
  --rln-relay-eth-client-address="$SEPOLIA_WS_NODE_ADDRESS"

Following is the list of additional fields that have been added to the runtime arguments -

1. --rln-relay: Allows waku-rln-relay to be mounted into the setup of the go-waku node. All messages sent and received in this node will require to contain a valid proof that will be verified, and nodes that relay messages with invalid proofs will have their peer scoring affected negatively and will be eventually disconnected.
2. --rln-relay-dynamic: Enables waku-rln-relay to connect to an ethereum node to fetch the membership group
3. --rln-relay-eth-contract-address: The contract address of an RLN membership group
4. --rln-relay-eth-client-address: The websocket url to a Sepolia ethereum node

The --dns-discovery-url flag should contain a valid URL with nodes encoded according to EIP-1459. You can read more about DNS Discovery here

You should now have go-waku running, with RLN enabled!

Note: This guide will be updated in the future to include features like slashing.