Creating a Node Walkthrough

This document will walk you through everything you need to know to create a node on Voltage via the API. First we'll describe the process then show a complete code example.

Process
Here's the general process of creating a node via our API:
1.Call the /node/create endpoint to create a node with your settings
2.Call the /node endpoint every 5 or 10 seconds to check on the status of the node. It's first status is provisioning.
3.After it's provisioned it will switch to status waiting_init. This means the node is waiting to be initialized. Now you should call /v1/genseed on the node to generate a seed for yourself.
4.Once you have a seed, you can initialize the wallet. Call the /v1/initwallet endpoint on the node. Pass in it the seed created in step #3 and a password. YOU MUST ALSO SET stateless_init: true! If you don't then you won't be able to access the node. This will return a macaroon in the API response.
5.After your node is initialized, you can encrypt the seed and macaroon to your password used for the node.
6.Use the /node/upload_seed and /node/macaroon endpoints to backup your encrypted seed and macaroon. (Give the macaroon a name of admin)
7.That's it! Your node's status should now be running and you can use your macaroon to connect. We use TLS Certificates that are signed by a trusted Certificate Authority so it's not required to supply it when connecting. However, there are some applications that require it nonetheless. If you encounter one, you can get your node's certificate with the /node/cert endpoint.
Example
Here is an example script written in Node.js. This script would create a node, initialize it, and upload the encrypted backups.
1
const axios = require('axios')
2
const crypto = require('crypto-js')
3
​
4
// Define your variables
5
let apiKey = "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
6
let nodeName = "voltage-example"
7
let nodePassword = "YOUR_SECURE_PASSWORD"
8
​
9
async function main() {
10
    console.log("Creating your node...")
11
​
12
    voltageHeaders = {
13
        'X-VOLTAGE-AUTH': apiKey,
14
    }
15
​
16
    // Create the Node
17
    creationBody = {
18
        network: "testnet",
19
        purchased_type: "ondemand",
20
        type: "standard",
21
        name: nodeName,
22
        settings: {
23
            alias: nodeName,
24
            autocompaction: false,
25
            autopilot: false,
26
            color: "#EF820D",
27
            grpc: true,
28
            keysend: true,
29
            rest: true,
30
            whitelist: [
31
              "1.2.3.4"
32
            ],
33
            wumbo: true
34
        }
35
    }
36
    response = await makeRequest('POST', 'https://api.voltage.cloud/node/create', creationBody, voltageHeaders)
37
    nodeId = response.node_id
38
    console.log("Created the node: "+nodeId)
39
​
40
    // Wait until the node is waiting_init
41
    do {
42
        statusBody = {
43
            node_id: nodeId
44
        }
45
        response = await makeRequest('POST', 'https://api.voltage.cloud/node', statusBody, voltageHeaders)
46
        nodeStatus = response.status
47
        nodeApi = response.api_endpoint
48
        console.log("Found node's status of "+nodeStatus)
49
​
50
        // Wait 5 seconds before checking again
51
        await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 5000))
52
    }
53
    while (nodeStatus !== "waiting_init")
54
​
55
    // Get a seed for the node
56
    response = await makeRequest('GET', 'https://' + nodeApi + ':8080/v1/genseed', {}, {})
57
    seedPhrase = response.cipher_seed_mnemonic
58
    console.log("Got seed phrase: "+seedPhrase)
59
​
60
    // Initialize the node
61
    console.log("Initializing wallet with password: "+nodePassword)
62
    initBody = {
63
        wallet_password: Buffer.from(nodePassword).toString('base64'),
64
        cipher_seed_mnemonic: seedPhrase,
65
        stateless_init: true
66
    }
67
    response = await makeRequest('POST', 'https://'+nodeApi+':8080/v1/initwallet', initBody, {})
68
    nodeMacaroon = response.admin_macaroon
69
    console.log("Got Node's Macaroon: "+nodeMacaroon)
70
​
71
    // Encrypt the Macaroon and Seed
72
    encryptedSeed = crypto.AES.encrypt(
73
        Buffer.from(seedPhrase.join(",")).toString('base64'),
74
        nodePassword
75
    ).toString();
76
​
77
    encryptedMacaroon = crypto.AES.encrypt(
78
        nodeMacaroon,
79
        nodePassword
80
    ).toString();
81
​
82
    // Backup Seed and Macaroon
83
    let macBody = {
84
        node_id: nodeId,
85
        macaroon: encryptedMacaroon,
86
        name: "admin"
87
    }
88
    response = await makeRequest('POST', 'https://api.voltage.cloud/node/macaroon', macBody, voltageHeaders)
89
    console.log("Uploaded macaroon")
90
​
91
    let seedBackBody = {
92
        node_id: nodeId,
93
        seed: encryptedSeed
94
    }
95
    response = await makeRequest('POST', 'https://api.voltage.cloud/node/upload_seed', seedBackBody, voltageHeaders)
96
    console.log("Uploaded seed")
97
​
98
    console.log("Successfully created your node!")
99
}
100
​
101
function makeRequest(method, url, data, headers) {
102
    return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
103
        axios({
104
            method: method,
105
            url: url,
106
            headers: headers,
107
            data: data
108
​
109
        }).then(
110
            (response) => {
111
                var result = response.data
112
                resolve(result)
113
            },
114
            (error) => {
115
                console.log(error)
116
                reject(error)
117
            }
118
        );
119
    });
120
}
121
​
122
main()
Copied!
​
​

API - Previous

Encrypted Data Backups

Next - BTCPay Server

BTCPay Server FAQ

Last modified 2mo ago

Copy link

Contents

Process

Example