Connect to the Network

General information to connect with the network and get started.

Chain Info

Info	Value	Purpose
Cosmos Chain ID	4321	Network Identifier for Cosmos tooling
EVM Chain ID	4231	Network identifier for EVM tooling
EVM Version	Prague	EVM hard fork compatibility version
Native Token	ATOM	Staking / gas token
Denom Exponent	6	Native token has 6 decimal places (test)

Public Endpoints

Endpoint	Value	Purpose
EVM JSON-RPC	<evm_rpc_url>	Ethereum-compatible tools (MetaMask, Hardhat, ethers.js)
EVM RPC WS	wss://devnet-1-evmws.ib.skip.build	Streaming real-time, selective data for applications
Cosmos RPC	https://devnet-1-rpc.ib.skip.build	’CometBFT’-level interactions (blocks, consensus state)
Cosmos REST API	https://devnet-1-lcd.ib.skip.build	Query Cosmos SDK modules (bank, staking, etc.)
gRPC	devnet-1-grpc.ib.skip.build:443	High-performance Protobuf endpoint for back-ends

How to Interact with the Chain

You can interact with the Gaia EVM Devnet in several different ways. This section provides a brief overview of how to setup the various environments for testing.

Extension-Based Wallets

To test out your dApp via a web UI using an extension-based wallet, you’ll need to first add the Gaia EVM Devnet to the wallet:

Example Setup (Recommended)

For dApp developers: Use an EIP-6963 compatible wallet connector*, and wallet_addEthereumChain to prompt adding the network. If it already exists, the “switch network” prompt will handle it.

Add Chain Example

const chainConfig = {
  chainId: '0x1087', // 4231 in hex
  chainName: 'Cosmos-EVM-Devnet',
  nativeCurrency: {
    name: 'ATOM',
    symbol: 'ATOM',
    decimals: 6
  },
  rpcUrls: ['<evm_rpc_url>'],
  blockExplorerUrls: ['https://evm-devnet-1.cloud.blockscout.com/']
};

await window.ethereum.request({
  method: 'wallet_addEthereumChain',
  params: [chainConfig]
});

Manual Setup

1. Install Keplr, Metamask or Rabby (Chrome/Mobile).
2. Add a custom network:
   • [Cosmos] Chain ID: 4321
   • [EVM] Chain ID: 4231
   • [Cosmos] RPC URL: https://devnet-1-rpc.ib.skip.build
   • [EVM] RPC URL: <evm_rpc_url>
   • Chain Name: Skip Devnet
   • Currency Symbol: ATOM
   • Currency Decimals: 6
3. Use the UI to send tokens, view balances, and interact with dApps.

Users can quickly add the network by using the Devnet Faucet.

See the wallet integration page for more wallet-related resources.

CLI

Using the CLI may be a great choice for one-off tasks and queries that do not require a full node. For the EVM Devnet you need the evmd binary built from the cosmos/evm repository.

# Option A — download a pre-built artifact once they are published
# (replace VERSION with the latest tag that contains evmd)
VERSION=v1.0.0-rc1
curl -LO "https://github.com/cosmos/evm/releases/download/${VERSION}/evmd_${VERSION}_linux_amd64.tar.gz"

tar -xzf evmd_${VERSION}_linux_amd64.tar.gz
chmod +x evmd && sudo mv evmd /usr/local/bin/

# Option B — build from source (requires Go ≥ 1.22)
git clone https://github.com/cosmos/evm.git
cd evm && make install   # installs evmd into $(go env GOPATH)/bin

Key Management & Wallet Derivation

Gaia (feature/evm) supports two different key derivation methods, each producing different address formats from the same underlying private key:

Algorithm	HD Path	Address Format	Characteristics
eth_secp256k1 (default)	m/44'/60'/0'/0/0	0x… / cosmos1…	Uses Ethereum’s derivation standard (cointype 60), full compatibility with MetaMask and EVM tooling while retaining complete Cosmos compatibility
secp256k1	m/44'/118'/0'/0/0	cosmos1…	Uses Cosmos’s derivation standard (cointype 118), compatible with traditional Cosmos wallets

The eth_secp256k1 algorithm with cointype 60 is the default, providing full EVM compatibility.

Key derivation behavior:

• The same mnemonic phrase will produce different addresses when using different algorithms and HD paths
• When importing an existing wallet, you must use the same algorithm and derivation path that was originally used
• The EVM-compatible path (m/44'/60'/0'/0/0) is what most Ethereum tools expect
• You can derive both address formats from the same private key, effectively giving you two addresses for one account

Technical difference:

• secp256k1: Uses SHA-256 → RIPEMD-160 → Bech32 hashing (traditional Cosmos/Bitcoin approach)
• eth_secp256k1: Uses Keccak-256 hashing on the full uncompressed public key (64 bytes after removing the 0x04 prefix), takes the last 20 bytes of the hash, then converts those bytes to either hex (0x...) or bech32 format

This means the same private key produces two completely different addresses depending on the derivation method used. The eth_secp256k1 method follows Ethereum’s standard address derivation while maintaining compatibility with Cosmos bech32 addressing, effectively giving you both address formats for the same underlying account.

# Key creation examples showing different algorithms
evmd keys add mykey                        # uses eth_secp256k1 by default
evmd keys add mykey --key-type secp256k1       # explicitly uses traditional Cosmos

# When recovering, the algorithm must match what was originally used
evmd keys add recovered --recover --key-type eth_secp256k1

---

Query Examples

Query balances for a given address

evmd q bank balances cosmos1... --node https://devnet-1-rpc.ib.skip.build:443

Broadcast a Transaction

Bank Send

evmd tx bank send cosmos1... cosmos1... 1000test \
  --node https://devnet-1-rpc.ib.skip.build:443 \
  --chain-id 4321 \
  --gas auto --fees 500test \
  --yes

Generate Transaction Messages

You can use the --generate-only flag to create transaction messages without broadcasting them. This can be useful for finding the correct syntax and creating reusable transaction templates.

Generate Only Example

evmd tx bank send cosmos1... cosmos1... 1000test \
  --node https://devnet-1-rpc.ib.skip.build:443 \
  --chain-id 4321 \
  --gas auto --fees 500test \
  --generate-only | jq

Cosmos REST Endpoint

Use for HTTP-based integrations

Cosmos SDK chains expose a REST API at port 1317 by default. For the devnet:

https://devnet-1-lcd.ib.skip.build

Basic endpoints:

• GET /cosmos/bank/v1beta1/balances/{address}
• POST /cosmos/tx/v1beta1/txs (broadcast)

Cosmos RPC

For ‘CometBFT’-level interactions

https://devnet-1-rpc.ib.skip.build

EVM JSON-RPC

For Ethereum-compatible tooling

Connect your Ethereum tools to the EVM module:

RPC:       <evm_rpc_url>
WebSocket: wss://devnet-1-evmws.ib.skip.build
Chain ID:  4321 (0x10e1)

Use with MetaMask, Hardhat, Foundry, or any Ethereum-compatible client.

Connecting to the Network

Using Remote Endpoints

The evmd CLI tool and other clients require a connection to the network in order to interact with the chain.

Method 1 — configure evmd

Edit ~/.evmd/config/client.toml:

~/.evmd/config/client.toml

# ~/.evmd/config/client.toml
node = "https://devnet-1-rpc.ib.skip.build"
chain-id = "4321"

All subsequent evmd commands use the remote node:

evmd q bank balances $(evmd keys show <wallet_name> --address)

Method 2 — API

Applications typically interact with the network programmatically using the EVM JSON-RPC, in addition to the standard Cosmos GRPC/REST API.

See the tooling and resources section for more information.

Full API reference page coming soon