What is Catalyst?

Catalyst is a blockchain stack (node + RPC + SDK + apps) focused on running a practical network and building an ecosystem around it.

You will need

• A Catalyst RPC endpoint (public testnet or a local node)
• A wallet (for end users) or a signing key (for builders/operators)

Key components (where to look for canonical truth)

• Node (Rust): consensus, state, networking, JSON-RPC server
  Repo: catalyst-network/catalyst-node-rust
• SDK + deploy tooling (TypeScript): CTX2 tx builder/signing, deploy CLI
  Repo: catalyst-network/catalyst-sdk
• Explorer + indexer (Node.js): reads RPC, indexes blocks/txs
  Repo: catalyst-network/BlockExplorer
• Faucet (Node.js + infra): testnet KAT distribution service
  Repo(s): catalyst-network/Faucet
• Wallet (WebWallet): testnet wallet implementation
  Repo: catalyst-network/WebWallet

Terminology used in these docs

• Cycle vs block: In Catalyst, a “block” corresponds to a consensus cycle. Some cycles may produce no block/LSU; RPC calls can legitimately return null for those cycles (explorer displays “No block produced”).
  Canonical note: BlockExplorer/README.md and catalyst-node-rust/docs/explorer-handoff.md.
• pubkey32 vs address20:
  • pubkey32: 32-byte hex public key used as the account identifier in protocol transactions (example: 0x<64 hex>).
  • address20: 20-byte hex EVM address used for contracts and EVM account derivations (example: 0x<40 hex>).

Verify (quick sanity checks)

If you have an RPC URL, you can confirm basic chain identity:

RPC_URL="https://testnet-eu-rpc.catalystnet.org"

curl -sS "$RPC_URL" \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"catalyst_getTxDomain","params":[]}' | jq

Expected shape (fields may grow over time, but these are stable for tooling):

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "result": {
    "chain_id": "0x...",
    "network_id": "catalyst-testnet",
    "genesis_hash": "0x...",
    "protocol_version": 0,
    "tx_wire_version": 2
  }
}

Troubleshooting

• catalyst_getTxDomain fails: you’re likely hitting the wrong URL (not an HTTP JSON-RPC endpoint) or a node without RPC enabled.