Arc Network mainnet — node installation

Arc Network is an open, EVM-compatible Layer-1 built by Circle for stablecoin settlement. USDC is the native gas token, finality is sub-second and deterministic, and anyone may run a node — no permission and no stake required.

An Arc node is a follower, not a validator. It verifies every block against the validator set's signatures and re-executes every transaction locally, but it proposes nothing, holds no consensus stake and cannot be slashed. Nothing on these pages carries double-sign risk.

Fact	Arc mainnet	Verified
Chain ID	5042 / 0x13b2	eth_chainId against rpc.mainnet.arc.io
Node release	v0.8.0	arc_getVersion on the official mainnet RPC returns v0.8.0, commit 5abb64c1
Public RPC	https://rpc.mainnet.arc.io	live
Explorer	https://explorer.arc.io	live
Gas token	USDC — 18 decimals natively, 6 as ERC-20	Arc docs
Block gas limit	10,000,000–200,000,000, default 30,000,000	chainspec.rs at tag v0.8.0
Base-fee cap	20,000 gwei	chainspec.rs at tag v0.8.0

All values verified 2026-09-18.

Read this before installing: what Circle has and has not published

Arc mainnet went live on 2026-09-16. Circle's node documentation has not fully caught up with it, and pretending otherwise would be the wrong kind of helpful.

What is confirmed:

• arc-mainnet is a first-class bundled chain spec in arc-node at tag v0.8.0 — ARC_SUPPORTED lists it, and MAINNET_CHAIN_ID = 5042 in crates/shared/src/chain_ids.rs.
• arc-snapshots at the same tag accepts --chain arc-mainnet.
• Circle's own run-a-node page states that mainnet operators must upgrade to v0.8.0 before timestamp 1789052400 (2026-09-10 15:00 UTC), when Zero7 and Zero8 activate. That deadline has passed; v0.8.0 is mandatory, not recommended.
• The live mainnet fleet is on it: arc_getVersion against rpc.mainnet.arc.io returns v0.8.0.

What Circle has not published yet:

• the Versions table in node-requirements still lists only Arc Testnet;
• the relay endpoints table for the consensus layer likewise lists only Arc Testnet.

The mainnet endpoints below come from Circle's Connect to Arc developer reference, mirror the testnet pattern exactly, and all three answer 0x13b2. That makes them verified-reachable, not Circle-designated operator relays. Re-check node-requirements before a production deployment, and treat the relay list as the one thing here that may change.

System requirements

Resource	Recommendation
CPU	higher clock speed over core count
Storage	1 TB+ NVMe SSD, TLC
OS	Linux with glibc 2.39 or newer — Ubuntu 24.04 is known to work

Debian 12 and other older distributions fail with GLIBC_2.38 not found or GLIBC_2.39 not found against the pre-built binaries. Use a newer distribution, the Docker images, or build from source.

Syncing from genesis is not supported. A snapshot is the only bootstrap.

1. Paths

cat << "EOF" > ~/.arc_env
ARC_HOME="${ARC_HOME:-$HOME/.arc}"
ARC_BIN_DIR="${ARC_BIN_DIR:-$ARC_HOME/bin}"
ARC_RUN="/run/arc"
ARC_EXECUTION=$ARC_HOME/execution
ARC_CONSENSUS=$ARC_HOME/consensus
export ARC_HOME ARC_BIN_DIR ARC_RUN ARC_EXECUTION ARC_CONSENSUS
export PATH="$ARC_BIN_DIR:$PATH"
EOF

. ~/.arc_env
mkdir -p "$ARC_EXECUTION" "$ARC_CONSENSUS" "$ARC_BIN_DIR"
sudo install -d -o "$USER" "$ARC_RUN"

$ARC_RUN must resolve to the same directory in both the EL and the CL shell. A mismatch here is one of the most common reasons a new node never leaves 0x0. Under systemd, RuntimeDirectory=arc creates /run/arc and the install -d line is unnecessary.

2. Install the binaries

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/circlefin/arc-node/main/arcup/install | bash
export ARC_HOME="${ARC_HOME:-$HOME/.arc}"
. "$ARC_HOME/env"

arcup --install v0.8.0

arc-snapshots --version
arc-node-execution --version
arc-node-consensus --version

Read the installer before piping it into a shell. It is a Circle-published script, and it is also a script that configures a node you will be responsible for later.

arcup verifies each archive against its .sha256. GPG signature verification is disabled until Circle publishes the release signing key — that is stated in Circle's own documentation, and it means the checksum is the only integrity control in this path.

From source

sudo apt-get install -y libclang-dev pkg-config build-essential
git clone https://github.com/circlefin/arc-node.git
cd arc-node && git checkout v0.8.0
cargo install --path crates/node
cargo install --path crates/malachite-app
cargo install --path crates/snapshots

3. Download a snapshot

arc-snapshots download \
  --chain=arc-mainnet \
  --el-profile=full \
  --execution-path "$ARC_EXECUTION" \
  --consensus-path "$ARC_CONSENSUS"

--el-profile defaults to minimal. Pass full to match the --full flag the execution layer uses below, or archive for an archive node — omitting it silently gives you a minimal restore.

Circle publishes testnet sizes only: roughly 68 GB compressed EL and 16 GB compressed CL, extracting to about 103 GB and 36 GB. Mainnet is a different chain and its sizes are not published; size the disk from the 1 TB baseline and measure what you actually get.

If automatic resolution fails, the API has no storage-v2 listing for that chain yet. arc-snapshots does not fall back to another listing — it fails, and that failure is the answer. See the Snapshots tab.

4. Initialize the consensus layer

arc-node-consensus init --home "$ARC_CONSENSUS"

One time only. This writes the CL private key, which is your node's network identity. Clearing $ARC_CONSENSUS destroys it and it cannot be recovered; re-run init if you ever do.

5. Start the execution layer — first

arc-node-execution node \
  --chain arc-mainnet \
  --datadir "$ARC_EXECUTION" \
  --full \
  --ipcpath "$ARC_RUN/reth.ipc" \
  --auth-ipc --auth-ipc.path "$ARC_RUN/auth.ipc" \
  --http --http.addr 127.0.0.1 --http.port 8545 \
  --http.api eth,net,web3 \
  --rpc.forwarder https://rpc.mainnet.arc.io/ \
  --metrics 127.0.0.1:9001 \
  --disable-discovery \
  --enable-arc-rpc

Notes that are not obvious:

• --full is required on the first start from a pruned snapshot. It reconciles internal database tables that would otherwise fail a consistency check. Restart without it afterwards if you do not want pruning.
• With --full, EL pruning runs on a 128-block interval as of v0.7.3, down from 5000. Pass --prune.block-interval=5000 to keep the old schedule.
• --disable-discovery is correct here. Arc follow nodes reach the network through relay endpoints, not through peer discovery.
• --http.addr 127.0.0.1. Circle's own example uses --http.api eth,net,web3,txpool,trace,debug, which is fine on loopback and is not fine on anything reachable. See the Security tab.

6. Start the consensus layer — second

arc-node-consensus start \
  --home "$ARC_CONSENSUS" \
  --full \
  --eth-socket "$ARC_RUN/reth.ipc" \
  --execution-socket "$ARC_RUN/auth.ipc" \
  --rpc.addr 127.0.0.1:31000 \
  --follow \
  --follow.endpoint https://rpc.mainnet.arc.io,wss=rpc.mainnet.arc.io \
  --follow.endpoint https://rpc.drpc.mainnet.arc.io,wss=rpc.drpc.mainnet.arc.io \
  --follow.endpoint https://rpc.blockdaemon.mainnet.arc.io,wss=rpc.blockdaemon.mainnet.arc.io/websocket \
  --execution-persistence-backpressure \
  --execution-persistence-backpressure-threshold=16 \
  --metrics 127.0.0.1:29000

Start the EL first, always. The CL connects to the EL's sockets at startup and fails if they are not there.

--rpc.addr is required when the EL runs --enable-arc-rpc: the EL proxies arc_getCertificate to the CL's REST API at http://127.0.0.1:31000.

All three relay endpoints verified reachable on 2026-09-18, each answering chain 0x13b2.

7. Verify

curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8545 \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_blockNumber","params":[],"id":1}'

Run it several times. The height should increase. Then compare it against the network rather than against itself:

cast block-number --rpc-url http://127.0.0.1:8545
cast block-number --rpc-url https://rpc.mainnet.arc.io

Compare the block hash at a common height, not only the height. Two chains can be at the same number.

If it stays at 0x0

Cause	Check
IPC sockets missing	ls -l $ARC_RUN — the EL writes both within 30 s
CL started before the EL	restart the CL
Snapshot extraction interrupted	re-run arc-snapshots download; add --force if it refuses
$ARC_RUN differs between shells	re-source ~/.arc_env

Running as a service

Circle documents a systemd path; RuntimeDirectory=arc replaces the manual /run/arc setup. Keep both units on the same host and keep IPC — the RPC transport between EL and CL is deprecated as of v0.8.0 and will be removed in v0.9.0.

Official resources

• Documentation: https://docs.arc.io
• Node repository: https://github.com/circlefin/arc-node
• Node requirements: https://docs.arc.io/arc/references/node-requirements
• Explorer: https://explorer.arc.io

Arc is a trademark of Circle Internet Group, Inc. and/or its affiliates.