How to Run a StarkNet Node (Very Easy)

StarkNet is a general-purpose ZK rollup on Ethereum by StarkWare. Here’s why it’s worth paying attention to—and how to run your own node.

Why StarkNet?

Performance — ZK rollups compress transactions by creating small proofs that bundle many transactions and posting them to Ethereum. It’s like uploading a .zip instead of a folder of files. That enables VISA-like throughput at very low cost.

Security — ZK rollups don’t rely on extra trust assumptions. The worst case is a transaction getting stuck.

Decentralization — ZK rollups are still early, but StarkNet already has working node clients, so you can run a full node and participate in the network.

Accessibility — Thanks to ongoing ZK research, transaction costs are already low and are expected to keep falling.

How to Run a StarkNet Node

I wrote a small shell script to simplify setup.

Requirements: An instance with at least 2 cores, 2 GiB RAM, 50 GiB disk, and your preferred Linux distro (e.g. Ubuntu 20.04).

Update: With Pathfinder 0.2.6-alpha you no longer need extra plugins to build the Docker image, and JSON-RPC forwarding works. I recommend using Docker instead of building from source. See this tutorial for setting up Pathfinder with Docker.

If you prefer the script-based approach on your host:

1. Clone the repository with the installation script:

   git clone https://github.com/nmuegge/starknet-pathfinder-install-script.git

2. Enter the repository:

   cd starknet-pathfinder-install-script

3. Copy the script to your instance and make it executable:

   scp install_starknet_pathfinder_node.sh root@IP_ADDRESS:/root/

4. SSH into your instance:

   ssh root@IP_ADDRESS

5. Make the script executable (use +x, not -x):

   chmod +x install_starknet_pathfinder_node.sh

6. Run the script:

   ./install_starknet_pathfinder_node.sh

That’s it. You’re now running a StarkNet node.

Share your success in the StarkNet Discord channel #full-node-success: discord.gg.

For more guides and alpha, check out my Crypto Coda page.