Cosmos_full_node

Chapter 15: Cosmos Full Node Setup

Overview

A full node in Cosmos stores the complete blockchain history and validates all transactions but doesn’t participate in block production like validators.

15.1 Full Node vs Validator

Aspect	Full Node	Validator
Block Production	No	Yes
Staking Required	No	Yes (ATOM)
Can Be Jailed	No	Yes
Hardware	Less resources	High resources
Use Case	RPC, indexing	Consensus

15.2 Setup Full Node

Install Gaiad

# Install Go first, then:
git clone https://github.com/cosmos/gaia.git
cd gaia
make install

Initialize Node

# Initialize
gaiad init my-full-node --chain-id cosmoshub-4

# Download genesis
wget -O ~/.gaia/config/genesis.json \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cosmos/mainnet/master/genesis.json

Start Node

# Basic start
gaiad start

# Seeds + persistent peers are config.toml settings, NOT gaiad CLI flags.
# Edit ~/.gaia/config/config.toml:
#   [p2p]
#   seeds = "seed@node:26656"
#   persistent_peers = "id@peer1:26656,id@peer2:26656"
# then simply: gaiad start

15.3 RPC Configuration

Enable RPC

[rpc]
laddr = "tcp://0.0.0.0:26657"   # note: must be indented under [rpc]

Common RPC Commands

# Get status
curl http://localhost:26657/status

# Get block
curl http://localhost:26657/block?height=10000

# Get validators
curl http://localhost:26657/validators

15.4 Pruning

Configure Pruning

[pruning]
pruning = "default"
pruning-keep-recent = "100"
pruning-keep-every = "500"

15.5 State Sync

Quick Sync

State sync is configured in config.toml — there are no --statesync.* CLI flags:

[statesync]
enable = true
rpc_servers = "https://rpc1.example.com:26657,https://rpc2.example.com:26657"
trust_height = 12345      # obtain from your RPC provider (must be recent within trust period)
trust_hash = "ABC123..."  # block hash at that height
trust_period = "168h"

# Then start normally
gaiad start

State sync verifies the snapshot using light-client logic on the trusted height/hash. Get trust_height/trust_hash from a trusted chain explorer or RPC, and keep trust_period well under the chain’s unbonding period.

Summary

Full nodes don’t stake but validate transactions
RPC on port 26657
Can enable state sync for faster setup
Prune old data to save storage

Next Chapter

In Chapter 16: Cosmos RPC & API Configuration, we’ll explore Cosmos APIs.

Last Updated: 2026-02-20