φNet

Network

Phase 0 Testnet

The φNet Phase 0 testnet is a live, permissioned test network running on Azure (uksouth). It is intended for validator candidates, integration partners, and developers building on the φNet protocol.

connecting…Block—Safety—Peers—Full status →

Endpoints

Public Endpoints

ServiceURLAuth
Node RPChttps://rpc.testnet.phinet.aria-research.orgAPI key
Faucethttps://faucet.testnet.phinet.aria-research.orgPublic
Explorerhttps://explorer.testnet.phinet.aria-research.orgPublic
Governance Portalhttps://portal.testnet.phinet.aria-research.orgPublic
Wallethttps://wallet.testnet.phinet.aria-research.orgPublic
ARIA Attestationhttps://aria.testnet.phinet.aria-research.orgIP-restricted

API keys for the Node RPC are issued to validator candidates and approved integration partners. Request one at info@aria-research.org.

Verification

Verifying the Testnet

The three commands below let you verify that the testnet is live, the chain is advancing, and the faucet is accepting requests — without any local tooling beyond curl.

The /chain/head response includes the current block height, block hash, and the timestamp of the last committed block. A healthy testnet should show a block height increasing every few seconds.

The /transparency/summary endpoint returns the current fee split accumulators, Economic Governor state, and the last governance activation record — useful for verifying that the constitutional parameters are being applied correctly.

bashtestnet verification
# Check chain head
curl -H "X-Api-Key: <key>" \
  https://rpc.testnet.phinet.aria-research.org/chain/head

# Check transparency summary
curl -H "X-Api-Key: <key>" \
  https://rpc.testnet.phinet.aria-research.org/transparency/summary

# Check faucet
curl https://faucet.testnet.phinet.aria-research.org/health

Faucet

Getting Test φ

The faucet distributes test φ to any address that completes a proof-of-work challenge. PoW is lightweight (difficulty 18, approximately 260,000 SHA-256 iterations) and is designed to prevent automated drain, not to impose real cost.

Faucet flow
  1. 1

    Request a challenge

    GET /challenge?addr=<your-phi-address> — returns a challenge nonce.

  2. 2

    Solve the PoW

    Find a nonce such that SHA256(challenge + nonce) has 18 leading zero bits. The wallet UI does this automatically in the browser.

  3. 3

    Submit request

    POST /request with your address, the challenge, and the solved nonce. Idempotent: resubmitting the same request_id is safe.

  4. 4

    Wait for cooldown

    Each address is subject to a 24-hour cooldown. Each IP is subject to a 1-hour cooldown.

The wallet UI at wallet.testnet.phinet.aria-research.org handles the faucet flow automatically from the onboarding wizard.

Running a Node Locally

The φNet node is a Node.js 22 application. The quickstart guide walks through cloning the repository, generating a validator bundle, and connecting to the Phase 0 testnet as a read-only observer node. Validator slots require a separate application.

Validator quickstart guideProtocol documentation

Demo Walkthrough

The governance portal demo walks through a complete end-to-end scenario: creating a test wallet, funding it via the faucet, submitting a governance proposal, voting, and verifying the on-chain activation record. No API key required for the demo.

Open portal demo