How to check if you are on the wrong fork

Because Subspace Network, including the testnet phase, is fully permissionless and distributed, each node has its version of the “truth” based on the peers it connects to. Because of this, it is not uncommon to join a wrong fork or even start producing their block before fully syncing with the main canonical chain.

How to quickly check if you are on the canonical chain or fork?
When your node starts the syncing process, it will regularly display the block hash for the best block on your terminal/log file. All you have to do is search on the block explorer for that block number (use the search box) and compare is the initial segment of the hash matches.

Example for block #572

If not, you are very likely on the wrong fork. If you can across multiple blocks and they all don’t match, then you are certainly on the wrong fork.

What to do

  1. Download the release tagged latest.
  1. Reset your existing node
  • Wipe farmer and purge node data (CLI)
  • Use the reset button (Desktop)
  1. Restart your farmer

anyone have the quick tips for checking this on the Windows Subspace Desktop app?

2 Likes

If you hit the settings button in the top right, then click logs it will be a .txt file with the same output that is shown in the above tutorial.

Definitely something we hope to improve in future versions for Subspace Desktop