Block Specimen Producer
Essential to the Covalent Network is the Block Specimen and the Block Specimen Producer (BSP), a bulk export method that ultimately leads to generating a canonical representation of a blockchain’s historical state. Currently implemented on existing blockchain clients running Geth.
It currently functions as a:
- Blockchain data extractor
- Blockchain data normalizer
What is ultimately created is a Block Specimen, a universal canonical representation of a blockchain’s historical state.
There are two further considerations regarding the Block Specimen.
- The BSP is completely standalone on the forks of Geth.
- The separation of data storage layer from the block execution and distributed consensus functionality leads to better segregation and upgrades of functionality in the blockchain data processing pipeline.
As a result, anyone can run full tracing on the block specimen and accurately recreate the blockchain without access to blockchain client software.
Hardware Requirements
The recommended configurations will make sure the sync is not lag-prone and the node is able to keep up with the Ethereum network.
Minimum Requirements:
- CPU with 4+ cores
- 16GB RAM
- 1.5TB free storage space to sync the Ethereum Mainnet
- 8 MBit/sec download Internet service
Recommended:
- Fast CPU with 8+ cores
- 32 GB+ RAM
- Fast SSD with >= 1.5TB storage space
- 25+ MBit/sec download Internet service
Software Requirements
Install the given versions of the following software:
- 64-bit Linux, Mac OS
- SSL certificates
- Git
- BSP-geth v1.8.0-bsp ships with - Geth v1.13.14-stable
- Go v1.20
- Redis v7, Redis-cli 7.*
- Listener TCP and UDP discovery port 30303
- ICMP IPv4 should not be closed by an external firewall