Installing Prysm with prysm.sh

Prysm can be installed on Windows, GNU/Linux, MacOS, or ARM64 systems using the Prysm installation script which downloads signed binaries from our latest release. This page includes instructions for performing this process.

Have questions? Stop by the #documentation channel on Discord and let us know.

System requirements

Minimum specifications

These specifications must be met in order to successfully run the Prysm client.

  • Operating System: 64-bit Linux, Mac OS X 10.14+, Windows 64-bit
  • Processor: Intel Core i5–760 or AMD FX-8100 or better
  • Memory: 4GB RAM
  • Storage: 20GB available space SSD
  • Internet: Broadband connection

Recommended specifications

These hardware specifications are recommended, but not required to run the Prysm client.

  • Processor: Intel Core i7–4770 or AMD FX-8310 or better
  • Memory: 8GB RAM
  • Storage: 100GB available space SSD
  • Internet: Broadband connection

Installing the beacon chain and validator

The easiest way to install the beacon chain and validator is by running the prysm.sh script found in the main directory of the Prysm repository. This script will download and start up the latest release of Prysm binaries compatible with the host system.

Prysm Basic Setup

Running the Prysm startup script

  1. Create a working directory and enter it:
mkdir prysm && cd prysm
  1. Fetch the prysm.sh script from Github and make it executable:
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/prysmaticlabs/prysm/master/prysm.sh --output prysm.sh && chmod +x prysm.sh
  1. Run the prysm.sh script alongside any startup parameters:
./prysm.sh beacon-chain
Pro-Tip

Not getting enough peers? Refer to the improve P2P connectivity section of this documentation for tips on network configuration.

The prysm.sh script will now download and initialize the beacon chain with the specified parameters. The terminal will produce output like so:

./prysm.sh beacon-chain
Latest Prysm version is v0.3.3.
Downloading beacon chain@v0.3.3 to /home/{USER}/prysm/dist/beacon-chain-v0.3.3-linux-amd64 (automatically selected latest available version)
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 622 100 622 0 0 2320 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 2312
100 39.6M 100 39.6M 0 0 13.6M 0 0:00:02 0:00:02 --:--:-- 20.4M
Downloading validator@v0.3.3 to /home/{USER}/prysm/dist/validator-v0.3.3-linux-amd64 (automatically selected latest available version)
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 619 100 619 0 0 1484 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 1484
100 32.5M 100 32.5M 0 0 12.6M 0 0:00:02 0:00:02 --:--:-- 21.7M
Starting Prysm beacon-chain
...

At this point, the beacon chain data will begin synchronising up to the latest head block. If the network hasn't started yet, it will process eth1 deposits from the deposit contract so far and await the genesis time. Please note that, depending on your network capacity and CPU, this process may take several hours. Once it is complete, you will be ready to make a deposit and begin setting up a validator client.

Syncing the Blockchain

The beacon node you are using should be completely synced before submitting your deposit for the validator client, otherwise the validator will not be able to validate and will inflict minor inactivity balance penalties. No need to worry about this if the chain has not yet started.

Now that your beacon chain is setup, you can then run a validator on the Medalla testnet by following our detailed guidelines here

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