Test on signet

Signet is a bitcoin test network where coins are free and plentiful. It provides a good opportunity to test Ark without risking real money. In this tutorial you will use bark to send and receive signet coins using the Ark protocol.

Create your wallet

Verify Bark is installed

To ensure that bark is installed, run bark --version. Follow the installation instructions if you need to.

Create a new signet wallet

The first step is to create a new signet wallet. You need to tell the wallet the URL of your Ark server and where it can find chain data.

Use bark --help to see what the command-line program can do. For example, when you want to create a wallet, running bark create --help will give you more info.

Esplora is the easiest chain source to configure. But you can also use your own signet node if you prefer.

Esplora
bitcoind (cookie)
bitcoind (user/pass)

Don’t switch the Esplora instance. We are running a version that includes package relay which will be merged in soon.

bark create --signet --ark https://ark.signet.2nd.dev --esplora https://esplora.signet.2nd.dev

This requires bitcoind v29.0 or greater. Your node must use the -txindex option.

bark create --signet --ark https://ark.signet.2nd.dev --bitcoind <url-to-your-bitcoin-node> --bitcoind-cookie <path-to-your-cookie>

This requires bitcoind v29.0 or greater. Your node must use the -txindex option.

bark create --signet --ark https://ark.signet.2nd.dev --bitcoind <url-to-your-bitcoin-node> --bitcoind-user <username> --bitcoind-pass <password>

Getting an error about unexpected data directory contents?If you see an error like Datadir has unexpected contents: ~/.bark/db.sqlite, you likely have a wallet built from an earlier version of Bark. Wallets aren’t always backward compatible between versions, so you’ll need to remove the old data and create a fresh wallet:

rm -rf ~/.bark

Then run the bark create command above again.

Board the Ark and see your balance increase

Check your balance

Let’s check your balance.

bark balance

Oh, you are broke! Let’s fix that!

Get your Ark address

To receive money on Ark you need to share your Ark address which you can find using the following command.

bark address

Get sats from the faucet

You can get sats using our signet faucet. You will need to authenticate using your GitHub account and provide the address you obtained above.

Screenshot of the Ark signet faucet interface — signet.2nd.dev

Confirm your bitcoin

Check your balance again to confirm you have received the bitcoin.

bark balance

Congratulations! You have boarded the Ark. Notice that you received the balance instantly and you didn’t need to pay any transaction fees.

Inspect your VTXOs

Your Ark wallet manages VTXOs (virtual transaction outputs) instead of regular UTXOs. You can inspect your newly received VTXO.

bark vtxos

You should see something like:

[
  {
    "id": "7d53e2c1e57c4c40dbe942c9a040c95e92db7c4486b2faf9163804097fa165bc:0",
    "amount_sat": 59888,
    "policy_type": "pubkey",
    "user_pubkey": "025577f6f44237f4c334b50c257c8feab6ff89d5591db2aff0ffee5c7bef7c03db",
    "server_pubkey": "02f0f358c1b6173ddecec1ad06b42d3762f193e6ff98a3e112292aec21129f9f6b",
    "expiry_height": 271138,
    "exit_delta": 12,
    "chain_anchor": "498b069e3259c85cf99c236ff62f69ce645c3ebaa05ba0b9610f0f0a4895546c:0",
    "exit_depth": 3,
    "state": {
      "type": "spendable"
    }
  }
]

Refresh in a round

VTXOs have a limited lifetime and must be periodically refreshed in a round. Our signet Ark server runs a round every 5 minutes for testing, but be aware that production servers will run rounds much less frequently. When you run the refresh command, you have to wait until the next round starts.

bark refresh --all

Run bark vtxos again to confirm your old VTXO has been replaced by a new one with a different id and a later expiry_height. The bark CLI requires you to refresh manually. Wallet apps built on the Bark SDK typically automate refreshes for users.

Spend your money and buy a treat for Byte

Create an order

We’d like you to buy our mascot, Byte, a treat. You can order one in our signet test store.

Screenshot of the Ark signet store — signet.2nd.dev/store

Pay the invoice

After you create an order, the shop gives you a BOLT11 invoice. Pay it using the following command.

bark send <bolt11-invoice>

You can use bark to pay:

a BOLT11 invoice using Lightning
an LNURL using Lightning
an on-chain address for an on-chain payment
an Ark address for a user in the same Ark

Getting your money out, aka offboarding

You can offboard your bitcoin back to a regular on-chain UTXO. This is the cheapest and fastest way to leave Ark.

bark offboard --all

If the Ark server is uncooperative, you can always perform an emergency exit instead. For more on how offboarding works, see Offboarding in the Learn section. You’ve now completed testing the full lifecycle of transactions on Ark. We’re excited to see what applications you come up with! Let us know if there are any more guides you’d like to see, and please share any feedback on the developer experience.

Documentation

Bark SDK

Barkd

Run an Ark server

Create your wallet

Board the Ark and see your balance increase

Inspect your VTXOs

Refresh in a round

Spend your money and buy a treat for Byte

Getting your money out, aka offboarding

​Create your wallet

​Board the Ark and see your balance increase

​Inspect your VTXOs

​Refresh in a round

​Spend your money and buy a treat for Byte

​Getting your money out, aka offboarding

​Share your feedback

Create your wallet

Board the Ark and see your balance increase

Inspect your VTXOs

Refresh in a round

Spend your money and buy a treat for Byte

Getting your money out, aka offboarding

Share your feedback