Introduction

Torsten is a Cardano node implementation written in Rust, aiming for 100% compatibility with cardano-node (Haskell).

Built by Sandstone Pool.

CI

Why Torsten?

The Cardano ecosystem benefits from client diversity. Running multiple independent node implementations strengthens the network by:

  • Resilience -- A bug in one implementation does not bring down the entire network.
  • Performance -- Rust's zero-cost abstractions and memory safety without garbage collection enable high-throughput block processing.
  • Verification -- An independent implementation validates the Cardano specification against the reference Haskell node, catching ambiguities and edge cases.
  • Accessibility -- A Rust codebase broadens the pool of developers who can contribute to Cardano infrastructure.

Key Features

  • Full Ouroboros Praos consensus -- Slot leader checks, VRF validation, KES period tracking, epoch nonce computation.
  • Multi-era support -- Byron, Shelley, Allegra, Mary, Alonzo, Babbage, and Conway eras.
  • Conway governance (CIP-1694) -- DRep registration, voting, proposals, constitutional committee, treasury withdrawals.
  • Pipelined multi-peer sync -- Header collection from a primary peer with parallel block fetching from multiple peers.
  • Plutus script execution -- Plutus V1/V2/V3 evaluation via the uplc CEK machine.
  • Node-to-Node (N2N) protocol -- Full Ouroboros mini-protocol suite: ChainSync, BlockFetch, TxSubmission2, KeepAlive, PeerSharing.
  • Node-to-Client (N2C) protocol -- Unix domain socket server with LocalStateQuery, LocalTxSubmission, and LocalTxMonitor.
  • cardano-cli compatible CLI -- Key generation, transaction building, signing, submission, queries, and governance commands.
  • Prometheus metrics -- Real-time node metrics on port 12798.
  • P2P networking -- Peer manager with cold/warm/hot lifecycle, DNS multi-resolution, ledger-based peer discovery, and inbound rate limiting.
  • Mithril snapshot import -- Fast initial sync by importing a Mithril-certified snapshot.
  • SIGHUP topology reload -- Update peer configuration without restarting the node.

Project Status

Torsten is under active development. It can sync against both the Cardano mainnet and preview/preprod testnets. The node implements the full N2N and N2C protocol stacks, ledger validation, epoch transitions with stake snapshots and reward distribution, and Conway-era governance.

See the Feature Status section in the repository README for a detailed checklist of implemented and pending features.

License

Torsten is released under the MIT License.