<p>Because in order to validate sidechain transfers, <code>alphad</code> needs to connect to a testnet <code>bitcoind</code>. The rpcconnect-like flags passed to it are information about how it can do that, so you need to use the running <code>bitcoind</code>'s port.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-28T17:11:53.373Z
2016-02-28T17:11:53.373Z
Pieter Wuille
<p>following the instructions in the <a href="https://github.com/ElementsProject/elements/blob/alpha/alpha-README.md" rel="nofollow">alpha-README.md</a> file on <a href="https://github.com/ElementsProject/elements" rel="nofollow">GitHub</a><br>
in step number 2, to start alphad it is suggested to do:</p>

<pre><code>./alphad -rpcuser=$RPC_USER -rpcpassword=$RPC_PASS -testnet -rpcconnect=127.0.0.1 -rpcconnectport=18332 -tracksidechain=all -txindex -blindtrust=true -daemon
</code></pre>

<p>my question is about the rpcconnectport=18332<br>
<strong>why 18332 instead of 4241?</strong>  like in step 5</p>

<sidechains>
starting alphad what is the correct rpcconnectport
Albert S
# starting alphad what is the correct rpcconnectport

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-02-26)

following the instructions in the [alpha-README.md](https://github.com/ElementsProject/elements/blob/alpha/alpha-README.md) file on [GitHub](https://github.com/ElementsProject/elements)  
in step number 2, to start alphad it is suggested to do:

```
./alphad -rpcuser=$RPC_USER -rpcpassword=$RPC_PASS -testnet -rpcconnect=127.0.0.1 -rpcconnectport=18332 -tracksidechain=all -txindex -blindtrust=true -daemon

```

my question is about the rpcconnectport=18332  
**why 18332 instead of 4241?** like in step 5

**Tags:** sidechains


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2016-02-28. Score: 1

Because in order to validate sidechain transfers, `alphad` needs to connect to a testnet `bitcoind`. The rpcconnect-like flags passed to it are information about how it can do that, so you need to use the running `bitcoind`'s port.


---

