HyperLiquid: The Future Node for Decentralizing the Project? Installation Guide (FR/EN)

5 min readJul 21, 2024

Hyperliquid users can run non-validating nodes on the Testnet, a first step towards full decentralization. The team is working hard to develop the necessary features for running validating nodes, including seamless network upgrades.

This article can be read in French or English.
To access the French version, follow this link.

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Introduction

Hyperliquid is a decentralized perpetual exchange offering top-tier speed, liquidity, and prices.

Hyperliquid is a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain optimized from the ground up.

The vision is to create a fully decentralized and open financial system, with user-built applications interacting with high-performance native components, all without compromising the end-user experience.

You must keep in mind that there is currently no way to link a wallet to the node. This is a non-validating node. There is no public key generation. The only way to establish a connection between you and your node is through the IP address of your VPS.

Summary

· 1- VPS Configuration
· 2- Creating a User
· 3- Installation of Essential Components
· 4- Node Configuration
· 5- Node Launch
∘ Thank you for taking the time to read my article.

1- VPS Configuration

To deploy your node, you have two options: hosting it on your own computer or setting it up on a Virtual Private Server (VPS), the latter being perfect for hosting websites, applications, or nodes.

Personally, I chose Contabo, a renowned VPS provider, for its reliability and performance.

The required configuration to run a HyperLiquid node demands an intermediary setup.

Therefore, I recommend the Cloud VPS 2.
If you wish to run additional nodes on your VPS, consider moving to the next tier up.

Now it’s your turn…

To order your Contabo VPS, you can click on this link.

It’s an affiliate link, at no extra cost to you, which you can use to support my work and help me continue providing these guides

Opt for a 400 GB storage capacity and select the Ubuntu 22.04 image for your configuration.

Once you have completed the payment process, you will receive an order confirmation email. Please wait to receive a second email containing information about your VPS, including your login credentials.

To connect to your VPS, I recommend following this detailed tutorial. You will need to download the Putty software, which will allow you to establish a secure connection with your VPS and access its features.

2- Creating a User

The node cannot be launched from the root user. You need to create a user on your VPS to run your node:

adduser hl
usermod -aG sudo hl

Set a password for your session, then press ENTER to accept the default values.

Then, enter your session:

su - hl

3- Installation of Essential Components

Before diving into setting up your node, it’s crucial to update your VPS.
To do this, simply execute the following command in your VPS terminal:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y

Copy the command and right-click in your terminal to paste it.

Download Screen

apt-get install screen -y

4- Node Configuration

Download an initial set of peers to establish the first connection between your node and the rest of the network:

curl https://binaries.hyperliquid.xyz/Testnet/initial_peers.json > ~/initial_peers.json

Configure the node to operate on the testnet:

echo '{"chain": "Testnet"}' > ~/visor.json

Download the configuration file:

curl https://binaries.hyperliquid.xyz/Testnet/non_validator_config.json > ~/non_validator_config.json

Download the visor binary:

curl https://binaries.hyperliquid.xyz/Testnet/hl-visor > ~/hl-visor && chmod a+x ~/hl-visor

5- Node Launch

You can launch your node in a Screen session:

screen -S hl

This will open a new session where you can run your node in the background.

To detach from your session, press CTRL+A+D

To reattach to the session, use the following command:

screen -r hl

Launch your HyperLiquid node:

~/hl-visor

The node will not display any message. You can now exit your Screen session by pressing CTRL+A+D

You can check if your node is running by verifying if the hl directory exists:

ls

Thank you for taking the time to read my article.

If you have any additional questions or would like to discuss further, feel free to find me on Discord. You can also follow me on Twitter and check out my videos on YouTube!

Don’t forget to subscribe to my Medium to stay informed about my new publications.

If you wish to support my work, I’ve created a dedicated wallet for this purpose:
=> 0x8AF4A2ec91469aBda8Fc36571D4f50A581215D29

You can also join the social media channels of the projects :

HyperLiquid Twitter : https://x.com/HyperliquidX
HyperLiquid Discord : https://discord.gg/hyperliquid