Install dependencies.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3-pip git -y

Download source code and install.

cd $HOME
git clone https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-deposit-cli.git eth2deposit-cli
cd eth2deposit-cli
sudo ./deposit.sh install

Make a new mnemonic.

./deposit.sh new-mnemonic --chain mainnet

# Add the following
--eth1_withdrawal_address <eth1 address hex string>
# Example
./deposit.sh new-mnemonic --chain mainnet --eth1_withdrawal_address 0x1...x

Download eth2deposit-cli.

cd $HOME
wget https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-deposit-cli/releases/download/v1.2.0/eth2deposit-cli-256ea21-linux-amd64.tar.gz

Verify the SHA256 Checksum matches the checksum on the releases page.

echo "825035b6d6c06c0c85a38f78e8bf3e9df93dfd16bf7b72753b6888ae8c4cb30a *eth2deposit-cli-ed5a6d3-linux-amd64.tar.gz" | shasum -a 256 --check

Example valid output:

eth2deposit-cli-256ea21-linux-amd64.tar.gz: OK

Extract the archive.

tar -xvf eth2deposit-cli-256ea21-linux-amd64.tar.gz
mv eth2deposit-cli-256ea21-linux-amd64 eth2deposit-cli
rm eth2deposit-cli-256ea21-linux-amd64.tar.gz
cd eth2deposit-cli

Make a new mnemonic.

./deposit new-mnemonic --chain mainnet

# Add the following
--eth1_withdrawal_address <eth1 address hex string>
# Example
./deposit.sh new-mnemonic --chain mainnet --eth1_withdrawal_address 0x1...x

You will learn how to boot up a windows PC into an airgapped Tails operating system.

The Tails OS is an amnesic operating system, meaning it will save nothing and leave no tracks behind each time you boot it.

Part 0 - Prerequisites

You need:

• 2 storage mediums (can be USB stick, SD cards or external hard drives)

• One of them must be > 8GB

• Windows or Mac computer

• 30 minutes or longer depending on your download speed

Part 1 - Download Tails OS

Download the official image from the Tails website. Might take a while, go grab a coffee.

Make sure you follow the guide on the Tails website to verify your download of Tails.

Part 2 - Download and install the software to transfer your Tails image on your USB stick

For Windows, use one of

• ​Etcher​

• ​Win32 Disk Imager​

• ​Rufus​

For Mac, download Etcher​

Part 3 - Making your bootable USB stick

Run the above software. This is an example how it looks like on Mac OS with etcher, but other software should be similar.

Select the Tails OS image that you downloaded as the image. Then select the USB stick (the larger one).

Then flash the image to the larger USB stick.

Part 4 - Download and verify the eth2-deposit-cli

You can refer to the other tab on this guide on how to download and verify the eth2-deposit-cli.

Copy the file to the other USB stick.

Part 5 - Reboot your computer and into Tails OS

After you have done all the above, you can reboot. If you are connected by a LAN cable to the internet, you can disconnect it manually.

Plug in the USB stick that has your Tails OS.

On Mac, press and hold the Option key immediately upon hearing the startup chime. Release the key after Startup Manager appears.

On Windows, it depends on your computer manufacturer. Usually it is by pressing F1 or F12. If it doesn't work, try googling "Enter boot options menu on [Insert your PC brand]"

Choose the USB stick that you loaded up with Tails OS to boot into Tails.

Part 6 - Welcome to Tails OS

You can boot with all the default settings.

Part 7 - Run the eth2-deposit-cli

Plug in your other USB stick with the eth2-deposit-cli file.

You can then open your command line and navigate into the directory containing the file. Then you can continue the guide from the other tab.

Make a new mnemonic.

./deposit.sh new-mnemonic --chain mainnet

If you ran this command directly from your non-Tails USB stick, the validator keys should stay on it. If it hasn't, copy the directory over to your non-Tails USB stick.

Alternatively, follow this ethstaker.cc exclusive for the low down on making a bootable usb.

Part 1 - Create a Ubuntu 20.04 USB Bootable Drive

Part 2 - Install Ubuntu 20.04 from the USB Drive

You can copy via USB key the pre-built eth2deposit-cli binaries from an online machine to an air-gapped offline machine booted from usb. Make sure to disconnect the ethernet cable and/or WIFI.

​🧬 Install java dependency

sudo apt update
sudo apt install openjdk-11-jdk -y

​🌜 Download and unzip Besu

Review the latest release at https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/releases​

File can be downloaded from https://dl.bintray.com/hyperledger-org/besu-repo​

cd
wget -O besu.tar.gz https://dl.bintray.com/hyperledger-org/besu-repo/besu-20.10.1.tar.gz
tar -xvf besu.tar.gz
rm besu.tar.gz
mv besu* besu

​⚙ Setup and configure systemd

Run the following to create a unit file to define your eth1.service configuration.

Simply copy/paste the following.

cat > $HOME/eth1.service << EOF 
[Unit]
Description     = besu eth1 service
Wants           = network-online.target
After           = network-online.target 
​
[Service]
User            = $(whoami)
ExecStart       = $(echo $HOME)/besu/bin/besu --metrics-enabled --rpc-http-enabled --data-path="$HOME/.besu"
Restart         = on-failure
RestartSec      = 3
​
[Install]
WantedBy    = multi-user.target
EOF

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system and give it permissions.

sudo mv $HOME/eth1.service /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service

Run the following to enable auto-start at boot time.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable eth1

​⛓ Start besu

sudo systemctl start eth1

​⚙ Install dependencies

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install curl libsnappy-dev libc6-dev jq libc6 unzip -y

​🌜 Download and unzip Nethermind

Review the latest release at https://github.com/NethermindEth/nethermind/releases​

Automatically download the latest linux release, un-zip and cleanup.

mkdir $HOME/nethermind
chmod 775 $HOME/nethermind
cd $HOME/nethermind
curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/NethermindEth/nethermind/releases/latest | jq -r ".assets[] | select(.name) | .browser_download_url" | grep linux  | xargs wget -q --show-progress
unzip -o nethermind*.zip
rm nethermind*linux*.zip

​⚙ Setup and configure systemd

Run the following to create a unit file to define your eth1.service configuration.

Simply copy/paste the following.

cat > $HOME/eth1.service << EOF 
[Unit]
Description     = nethermind eth1 service
Wants           = network-online.target
After           = network-online.target 
​
[Service]
User            = $(whoami)
ExecStart       = $(echo $HOME)/nethermind/Nethermind.Runner --baseDbPath $HOME/.nethermind --Metrics.Enabled true --JsonRpc.Enabled true --Sync.DownloadBodiesInFastSync true --Sync.DownloadReceiptsInFastSync true --Sync.AncientBodiesBarrier 11052984 --Sync.AncientReceiptsBarrier 11052984
Restart         = on-failure
RestartSec      = 3
​
[Install]
WantedBy    = multi-user.target
EOF

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system and give it permissions.

sudo mv $HOME/eth1.service /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service

Run the following to enable auto-start at boot time.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable eth1

​⛓ Start Nethermind

sudo systemctl start eth1

​⚙ Install Go dependencies

wget -O go.tar.gz https://golang.org/dl/go1.16.5.linux-amd64.tar.gz

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go && sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go.tar.gz

echo export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin>> $HOME/.bashrc
source $HOME/.bashrc

Verify Go is properly installed and cleanup files.

go version
rm go.tar.gz

​🤖 Build and install Erigon

Review the latest release at https://github.com/ledgerwatch/erigon/releases​

cd $HOME
git clone --recurse-submodules -j8 https://github.com/ledgerwatch/erigon.git
cd erigon
make erigon

​ ⚙ Setup and configure systemd

Run the following to create a unit file to define your eth1.service configuration.

Simply copy/paste the following.

cat > $HOME/eth1.service << EOF 
[Unit]
Description     = erigon eth1 service
Wants           = network-online.target
After           = network-online.target 
Requires        = eth1-erigon.service
​
[Service]
User            = $USER
ExecStart       = $HOME/erigon/build/bin/erigon --metrics
Restart         = on-failure
RestartSec      = 3
​
[Install]
WantedBy    = multi-user.target
​
EOF

cat > $HOME/eth1-erigon.service << EOF 
[Unit]
Description     = erigon eth1 rpcdaemon service
Wants           = network-online.target
After           = eth1.service
Requires        = eth1.service
​
[Service]
User            = $USER
ExecStart       = $HOME/erigon/build/bin/rpcdaemon --private.api.addr=localhost:9090 --datadir $HOME/.local/share/erigon --http.api=eth,web3,net
Restart         = on-failure
RestartSec      = 3
​
[Install]
WantedBy    = multi-user.target
EOF

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system and give it permissions.

sudo mv $HOME/eth1.service /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service
sudo mv $HOME/eth1-erigon.service /etc/systemd/system/eth1-erigon.service

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service
sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/eth1-erigon.service

Run the following to enable auto-start at boot time.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable eth1 eth1-erigon

​⛓ Start Erigon

sudo systemctl start eth1

​⚙ Install dependencies

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install curl jq unzip -y

​🤖 Install OpenEthereum

Review the latest release at https://github.com/openethereum/openethereum/releases​

Automatically download the latest linux release, un-zip, add execute permissions and cleanup.

mkdir $HOME/openethereum
cd $HOME/openethereum
curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/openethereum/openethereum/releases/latest | jq -r ".assets[] | select(.name) | .browser_download_url" | grep linux | xargs wget -q --show-progress
unzip -o openethereum*.zip
chmod +x openethereum
rm openethereum*.zip

​ ⚙ Setup and configure systemd

Run the following to create a unit file to define your eth1.service configuration.

Simply copy/paste the following.

cat > $HOME/eth1.service << EOF 
[Unit]
Description     = openethereum eth1 service
Wants           = network-online.target
After           = network-online.target 
​
[Service]
User            = $(whoami)
ExecStart       = $(echo $HOME)/openethereum/openethereum --metrics --metrics-port=6060
Restart         = on-failure
RestartSec      = 3
​
[Install]
WantedBy    = multi-user.target
EOF

--ws-origins=all

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system and give it permissions.

sudo mv $HOME/eth1.service /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service

Run the following to enable auto-start at boot time.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable eth1

​⛓ Start OpenEthereum

sudo systemctl start eth1

Sign up for an API access key at https://infura.io/​

1. Sign up for a free account.

2. Confirm your email address.

3. Visit your dashboard https://infura.io/dashboard​

4. Create a project, give it a name.

5. Select Mainnet as the ENDPOINT

6. Follow the specific configuration for your eth2 client found below.

Nimbus Specific Configuration

1. When creating your systemd's unit file, update the --web-url parameter with this endpoint.

2. Copy the websocket endpoint. Starts with wss://

3. Save this for step 4, configuring your eth2 node.

#example
--web3-url=<your wss:// infura endpoint>

Teku Specific Configuration

1. After creating the teku.yaml located in /etc/teku/teku.yaml, update the --eth1-endpoint parameter with this endpoint.

2. Copy the http endpoint. Starts with http://

3. Save this for step 4, configuring your eth2 node.

#example
eth1-endpoint: <your https:// infura endpoint>

Lighthouse Specific Configuration

1. When creating your beacon chain systemd unit file, add the --eth1-endpoint parameter with this endpoint.

2. Copy the https endpoint. Starts with https://

3. Save this for step 4, configuring your eth2 node.

#example
--eth1-endpoint=<your https:// infura endpoint>

Prysm Specific Configuration

1. When creating your beacon chain systemd unit file, update the --http-web3provider parameter with this endpoint.

2. Copy the https endpoint. Starts with https://

3. Save this for step 4, configuring your eth2 node.

#example
--http-web3provider=<your https:// infura endpoint>

​⚙ 4.1. Build Nimbus from source

Install dependencies.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install curl build-essential git -y

Install and build Nimbus.

mkdir ~/git 
cd ~/git
git clone https://github.com/status-im/nimbus-eth2
cd nimbus-eth2
make nimbus_beacon_node

Verify Nimbus was installed properly by displaying the help.

cd $HOME/git/nimbus-eth2/build
./nimbus_beacon_node --help

Copy the binary file to /usr/bin

sudo cp $HOME/git/nimbus-eth2/build/nimbus_beacon_node /usr/bin

​🎩 4.2. Import validator key

Create a directory structure to store nimbus data.

sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/nimbus

Take ownership of this directory and set the correct permission level.

sudo chown $(whoami):$(whoami) /var/lib/nimbus
sudo chmod 700 /var/lib/nimbus

The following command will import your validator keys.

Enter your keystore password to import accounts.

cd $HOME/git/nimbus-eth2
build/nimbus_beacon_node deposits import --data-dir=/var/lib/nimbus $HOME/eth2deposit-cli/validator_keys

Now you can verify the accounts were imported successfully by doing a directory listing.

ll /var/lib/nimbus/validators

You should see a folder named for each of your validator's pubkey.

​🔥 4.3. Configure port forwarding and/or firewall

Specific to your networking setup or cloud provider settings, ensure your validator's firewall ports are open and reachable.​

• Nimbus beacon chain node will use port 9000 for tcp and udp

• eth1 node requires port 30303 for tcp and udp

🏂 4.4. Start the beacon chain and validator