Genesis
Genesis is the initial state of the IOTA blockchain. To launch a network, the initial committee of validators collaborate by providing their validator information (public keys, network addresses, and so on) to a shared workspace. After all of the initial validators have contributed their information, IOTA generates the initial, unsigned genesis checkpoint (checkpoint with sequence number 0) and each validator provides their signature. IOTA aggregates these signatures to form a certificateA certificate is the mechanism proving a transaction was approved or certified. Validators vote on transactions, and aggregators collect a Byzantine-resistant majority of these votes into a certificate and broadcasts it to all IOTA validators, thereby ensuring finality. on the genesis checkpoint. IOTA bundles this checkpoint, as well as the initial objects, together into a single genesis.blob file that is used to initialize the state when running the iota-node binary for both validators and Full nodes.
Genesis blob locations
The genesis.blob files for each network are in:
- Testnet genesis blob:
curl -fLJO https://dbfiles.testnet.iota.cafe/genesis.blob - Devnet genesis blob:
curl -fLJO https://dbfiles.devnet.iota.cafe/genesis.blob
See IOTA Full Node for how to get the genesis.blob file for each network.