Catnet 🐺-😺

Catnet is a custom Bitcoin signet with OP_CAT enabled, used to test implementation of Bitcoin Circle STARK Verifier.

Catnet signet magic is: af34136e.

Resources

• Catnet block explorer
• Catnet faucet

Joining the Catnet Custom Signet

Catnet is a custom Signet network that provides an environment for testing Bitcoin applications with the OP_CAT functionality enabled. This guide will walk you through setting up a local node to connect to the Catnet.

Notably, we will use Catnet to test the implementation of a Bitcoin Circle STARK Verifier.

Catnet is built based on Bitcoin Inquisition fork, v27.0. Bitcoin Inquisistion includes activation of BIP 118 (ANYPREVOUT), BIP 119 (CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY), and BIN-24-1 (BIP 347, OP_CAT). It also includes a new 'evalscript' subcommand for bitcoin-util that can be used to test script opcode behaviour.

Prerequisites

• Basic command-line interface skills
• Administrative permissions on your machine
• An internet connection

Step 1: Download and Install Bitcoin Core

You have two options to download and install Bitcoin Core:

• Download the pre-built binaries: You can download the pre-built binaries from the Bitcoin Inquisition release and use them directly.
• Build from source: You can build Bitcoin Inquisition from source code (this release).

First, you need to download the appropriate Bitcoin Core binaries for your system. Below are links for commonly used systems:

• Linux (aarch64): Download v27.0 for aarch64
• macOS (arm64): Download v27.0 for arm64

You can find links for other systems here.

After downloading the tar.gz file for your system, extract it using the following command:

tar -xzf bitcoin-27.0-inq-<platform>.tar.gz

Navigate to the extracted directory:

cd bitcoin-27.0-inq/bin

Step 2: Configuration

Before starting your node, you need to create a configuration file to properly join the Catnet Signet.

1. Create a new directory for your Bitcoin data:

   mkdir -p ~/.bitcoin/catnet

2. Create the bitcoin.conf file:

   nano ~/.bitcoin/catnet/bitcoin.conf

3. Add the following configuration to the file:

   # General settings
   signet=1
   txindex=1
   server=1
   daemon=1
   deprecatedrpc=create_bdb
   
   # Signet settings
   [signet]
   # Custom signet challenge
   signetchallenge=5121027be9dab7dfc2d1b9aac03f883b9a229fc9c298770dec626b2acbf39e9b6e0e0c51ae
   # Add the seed node
   addnode=catnet.btcwild.life
   
   # RPC settings
   rpcbind=127.0.0.1
   rpcallowip=127.0.0.0/8
   rpcport=38332
   rpcuser=XXX
   rpcpassword=XXX

   Save and close the file. Replace rpcuser and rpcpassword with your desired credentials.

Step 3: Start Your Node

Using bitcoind: Run the following command in the terminal from the bin directory of your Bitcoin Core installation:

./bitcoind -datadir=~/.bitcoin/catnet

This command will start your Bitcoin node and connect it to the Catnet Signet.

OR

Using bitcoin-qt: Run the following command in the terminal from the bin directory of your Bitcoin Core installation:

./bitcoin-qt -datadir=~/.bitcoin/catnet

Screenshot example:

Step 4: Verifying the Connection

After your node starts, you can verify it's properly connecting to the network by checking the peer information:

./bitcoin-cli -rpcport=38332 -rpcuser=XXX -rpcpassword=XXX getpeerinfo

You should see the Catnet node 35.192.139.170 listed among the peers.

Step 5: Create a Wallet

You can create a new wallet to interact with the Catnet Signet using the following command:

./bitcoin-cli -rpcport=38332 -rpcuser=XXX -rpcpassword=XXX -named createwallet wallet_name="test" descriptors=false

Step 6: Generate a New Address

You can generate a new address to receive funds on the Catnet Signet:

./bitcoin-cli -rpcport=38332 -rpcuser=XXX -rpcpassword=XXX getnewaddress

Step 7: Claim some coins from the faucet

You can claim some coins from the faucet by visiting the Catnet faucet and submitting your address and the captcha.

Screenshot example:

Conclusion

You are now connected to the Catnet custom Signet! This environment allows you to test applications with Bitcoin’s OP_CAT enabled without risking real assets or impacting the main Bitcoin network.

Please ensure that your firewall settings allow connections on port 38333 to enable peer-to-peer network interactions.