Network Architecture

Network Architecture

Roko is a Substrate chain with a native time-synchronization layer. The node is a single binary, the RPC surface is a single port, and the architecture stacks four layers: a libp2p network, the PTP Squared validator time mesh, BABE + GRANDPA consensus modified by Proof of Accurate Time (PoAT), and the application layer (EVM + Substrate pallets).

The stack

The chain is built on Polkadot SDK `release-polkadot-v1.13.0` with Frontier EVM from the ChainSupport fork on the matching branch.

LayerWhat runs there
ApplicationsEVM contracts, Substrate pallets, precompiles
ConsensusBABE block production + GRANDPA finality, PoAT temporal layer
Time meshPTP Squared over libp2p protocol `/roko/timesync/1`
Networklibp2p P2P transport

Consensus is BABE for block production plus GRANDPA for finality; the session key set also carries ImOnline, AuthorityDiscovery, BEEFY, and a dedicated Temporal key.

The time mesh is a native Rust P2P layer: validators probe each other over `/roko/timesync/1`, estimate clock offsets via lucky-packet selection, score peer reputation with Welch's t-test, and converge on a mesh consensus time. Mesh state reaches the runtime through a block inherent consumed by `pallet-timesync`, which stores per-validator time quality on-chain and checkpoints health every 100 blocks. Time-quality offences are defined but enforcement is currently disabled in both compiled runtimes — violations are detected, not slashed.

The node

One binary: `roko-node`. It is compiled per network — `cargo build --release --features testnet` or `--features mainnet` — selecting which runtime is baked in.

Block times as compiled: testnet 2 seconds (development setting; 6 seconds is the production-testnet target, tracked in-code as M-19), mainnet runtime 3 seconds.

Default ports:

PortPurpose
30333libp2p P2P
9944JSON-RPC (HTTP + WebSocket)
9615Prometheus metrics

One RPC port, three API surfaces

Ethereum RPCs, Substrate RPCs, and the temporal namespace are merged into a single JSON-RPC module served on port 9944 over both HTTP and WebSocket.

  • Ethereum: `eth_`, filters, `eth_subscribe`, `net_`, `web3_`, `debug_` (txpool is present in code but not enabled).
  • Temporal: 14 `temporal_*` methods — consensus time, watermark info, per-block temporal metadata, per-transaction timestamps (queryable by either Substrate or Ethereum tx hash), queue statistics, validator time quality, mesh state, checkpoints, violations, and metrics.
  • Substrate: the standard chain/state/author surface.

MetaMask connects with RPC URL `https://roko-testnetv2.ntfork.com` (the live hosted endpoint, Chain ID 442), or `http://<host>:9944` against a self-hosted node, currency ROKO (18 decimals).

EVM environment

  • Chain ID 442 on testnet; the mainnet chain ID is TBD — no production mainnet genesis exists yet.
  • Ethereum-native accounts: 20-byte addresses at the Substrate level with identity address mapping — no Substrate↔EVM address translation.
  • Block gas limit 75,000,000; EIP-1559-style fees with a 1 gwei default base fee.
  • Custom precompiles (testnet): pwROKO at `0x...0500` (ERC20-style — addable to MetaMask as a token), Temporal at `0x...0600`, Staking at `0x...0700`. The mainnet runtime currently ships only `0x500`.
  • Caveat for tooling authors: the Staking precompile uses non-standard sequential selectors today (flagged in-code for replacement before mainnet) — standard ABI encoding cannot call it yet.

Testnet topology, honestly

The deployment guide documents the live testnet endpoints as `wss://roko-testnetv2.ntfork.com` (AWS eu-north-1), running two genesis validators on one EC2 instance, with a Blockscout-based explorer (public endpoint to be announced at launch).

Two things a builder should understand about joining:

1. You can join the P2P network from repo contents — but not via the bundled chain-spec JSONs, which ship with empty `bootNodes`. The join path is `docker/docker-compose.validator.yml`, which hardcodes the live testnet-v2 bootnode (`/dns/roko-testnetv2.ntfork.com/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWLn4vDfN5agevaRd4ct5HRQUJ4R6GajYcd7abJdwq1WAA`) and fetches the running chain spec from the admin service (`https://roko-admin.ntfork.com/public/testnet-v2-chain-spec.json`). A node started this way connects to and syncs the public testnet. 2. Validator registration is what's gated, not network access — syncing as a node is open, but joining the live validator set is sudo-gated: it requires the network operators (the documented flow needs the sudo key to fund, lock pwROKO, bond, set session keys, and signal `validate`). There is no permissionless self-registration yet.

What you can do today: build `roko-node` from source, run a single dev node (`roko-node --dev --alice --database auto`), and run a full 3-validator local testnet with a working time mesh via `./run-e2e-local.sh --keep`.

See Also