diff --git a/.editorconfig b/.editorconfig
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d587999e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.editorconfig
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+# top-most EditorConfig file
+root = true
+
+# Unix-style newlines with a newline ending every file
+[*]
+charset = utf-8
+end_of_line = lf
+insert_final_newline = true
+trim_trailing_whitespace = true
+
+[Makefile]
+indent_style = tab
+
+[*.sh]
+indent_style = tab
diff --git a/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE b/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6b0b11f0d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+<!-- Thanks for filing an issue! Before hitting the button, please answer these questions.-->
+
+**Is this a BUG REPORT or FEATURE REQUEST?** (choose one):
+
+<!--
+If this is a BUG REPORT, please:
+  - Fill in as much of the template below as you can.
+
+If this is a FEATURE REQUEST, please:
+  - Describe *in detail* the feature/behavior/change you'd like to see.
+
+In both cases, be ready for followup questions, and please respond in a timely
+manner. We might ask you to provide additional logs and data (tendermint & app)
+in a case of bug.
+-->
+
+**Tendermint version** (use `tendermint version` or `git rev-parse --verify HEAD` if installed from source):
+
+
+**ABCI app** (name for built-in, URL for self-written if it's publicly available):
+
+
+**Merkleeyes version** (use `git rev-parse --verify HEAD`, skip if you don't use it):
+
+
+**Environment**:
+- **OS** (e.g. from /etc/os-release):
+- **Install tools**:
+- **Others**:
+
+
+**What happened**:
+
+
+**What you expected to happen**:
+
+
+**How to reproduce it** (as minimally and precisely as possible):
+
+
+**Anything else do we need to know**:
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index acc957a9e..c4694b3e1 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -12,3 +12,5 @@ remote_dump
 vendor
 .vagrant
 test/p2p/data/
+test/logs
+.glide
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..26c83b375
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -0,0 +1,220 @@
+# Changelog
+
+## 0.9.0 (March 6, 2017)
+
+BREAKING CHANGES:
+
+- Update ABCI to v0.4.0, where Query is now `Query(RequestQuery) ResponseQuery`, enabling precise proofs at particular heights:
+
+```
+message RequestQuery{
+	bytes data = 1;
+	string path = 2;
+	uint64 height = 3;
+	bool prove = 4; 
+}
+
+message ResponseQuery{
+	CodeType          code        = 1;
+	int64             index       = 2;
+	bytes             key         = 3;
+	bytes             value       = 4;
+	bytes             proof       = 5;
+	uint64            height      = 6;
+	string            log         = 7;
+}
+```
+
+
+- `BlockMeta` data type unifies its Hash and PartSetHash under a `BlockID`:
+
+```
+type BlockMeta struct {
+	BlockID BlockID `json:"block_id"` // the block hash and partsethash
+	Header  *Header `json:"header"`   // The block's Header
+}
+```
+
+- `tendermint gen_validator` command output is now pure JSON
+- `ValidatorSet` data type:
+	- expose a `Proposer` field. Note this means the `Proposer` is persisted with the `State`.
+	- change `.Proposer()` to `.GetProposer()`
+
+FEATURES:
+
+- New RPC endpoint `/commit?height=X` returns header and commit for block at height `X`
+- Client API for each endpoint, including mocks for testing
+
+IMPROVEMENTS:
+
+- `Node` is now a `BaseService`
+- Simplified starting Tendermint in-process from another application
+- Better organized Makefile
+- Scripts for auto-building binaries across platforms
+- Docker image improved, slimmed down (using Alpine), and changed from tendermint/tmbase to tendermint/tendermint
+- New repo files: `CONTRIBUTING.md`, Github `ISSUE_TEMPLATE`, `CHANGELOG.md`
+- Improvements on CircleCI for managing build/test artifacts
+- Handshake replay is doen through the consensus package, possibly using a mockApp
+- Graceful shutdown of RPC listeners
+- Tests for the PEX reactor and DialSeeds
+
+BUG FIXES:
+
+- Check peer.Send for failure before updating PeerState in consensus
+- Fix panic in `/dial_seeds` with invalid addresses
+- Fix proposer selection logic in ValidatorSet by taking the address into account in the `accumComparable`
+- Fix inconcistencies with `ValidatorSet.Proposer` across restarts by persisting it in the `State`
+
+
+## 0.8.0 (January 13, 2017)
+
+BREAKING CHANGES:
+
+- New data type `BlockID` to represent blocks:
+
+```
+type BlockID struct {
+	Hash        []byte        `json:"hash"`
+	PartsHeader PartSetHeader `json:"parts"`
+}
+```
+
+- `Vote` data type now includes validator address and index: 
+
+```
+type Vote struct {
+	ValidatorAddress []byte           `json:"validator_address"`
+	ValidatorIndex   int              `json:"validator_index"`
+	Height           int              `json:"height"`
+	Round            int              `json:"round"`
+	Type             byte             `json:"type"`
+	BlockID          BlockID          `json:"block_id"` // zero if vote is nil.
+	Signature        crypto.Signature `json:"signature"`
+}
+```
+
+- Update TMSP to v0.3.0, where it is now called ABCI and AppendTx is DeliverTx
+- Hex strings in the RPC are now "0x" prefixed
+
+
+FEATURES:
+
+- New message type on the ConsensusReactor, `Maj23Msg`, for peers to alert others they've seen a Maj23, 
+in order to track and handle conflicting votes intelligently to prevent Byzantine faults from causing halts:
+
+```
+type VoteSetMaj23Message struct {
+	Height  int
+	Round   int
+	Type    byte
+	BlockID types.BlockID
+}
+```
+
+- Configurable block part set size
+- Validator set changes
+- Optionally skip TimeoutCommit if we have all the votes
+- Handshake between Tendermint and App on startup to sync latest state and ensure consistent recovery from crashes
+- GRPC server for BroadcastTx endpoint
+
+IMPROVEMENTS:
+
+- Less verbose logging
+- Better test coverage (37% -> 49%)
+- Canonical SignBytes for signable types
+- Write-Ahead Log for Mempool and Consensus via go-autofile 
+- Better in-process testing for the consensus reactor and byzantine faults
+- Better crash/restart testing for individual nodes at preset failure points, and of networks at arbitrary points
+- Better abstraction over timeout mechanics
+
+BUG FIXES:
+
+- Fix memory leak in mempool peer
+- Fix panic on POLRound=-1
+- Actually set the CommitTime
+- Actually send BeginBlock message
+- Fix a liveness issues caused by Byzantine proposals/votes. Uses the new `Maj23Msg`.
+
+
+## 0.7.4 (December 14, 2016)
+
+FEATURES:
+
+- Enable the Peer Exchange reactor with the `--pex` flag for more resilient gossip network (feature still in development, beware dragons)
+
+IMPROVEMENTS:
+
+- Remove restrictions on RPC endpoint `/dial_seeds` to enable manual network configuration
+
+## 0.7.3 (October 20, 2016)
+
+IMPROVEMENTS:
+
+- Type safe FireEvent
+- More WAL/replay tests
+- Cleanup some docs
+
+BUG FIXES:
+
+- Fix deadlock in mempool for synchronous apps
+- Replay handles non-empty blocks
+- Fix race condition in HeightVoteSet
+
+## 0.7.2 (September 11, 2016)
+
+BUG FIXES:
+
+- Set mustConnect=false so tendermint will retry connecting to the app
+
+## 0.7.1 (September 10, 2016)
+
+FEATURES:
+
+- New TMSP connection for Query/Info
+- New RPC endpoints:
+	- `tmsp_query`
+	- `tmsp_info`
+- Allow application to filter peers through Query (off by default)
+
+IMPROVEMENTS:
+
+- TMSP connection type enforced at compile time
+- All listen/client urls use a "tcp://" or "unix://" prefix
+
+BUG FIXES:
+
+- Save LastSignature/LastSignBytes to `priv_validator.json` for recovery
+- Fix event unsubscribe
+- Fix fastsync/blockchain reactor
+
+## 0.7.0 (August 7, 2016)
+
+BREAKING CHANGES:
+
+- Strict SemVer starting now!
+- Update to ABCI v0.2.0
+- Validation types now called Commit
+- NewBlock event only returns the block header
+
+
+FEATURES:
+
+- TMSP and RPC support TCP and UNIX sockets
+- Addition config options including block size and consensus parameters
+- New WAL mode `cswal_light`; logs only the validator's own votes
+- New RPC endpoints: 
+	- for starting/stopping profilers, and for updating config
+	- `/broadcast_tx_commit`, returns when tx is included in a block, else an error
+	- `/unsafe_flush_mempool`, empties the mempool
+
+
+IMPROVEMENTS:
+
+- Various optimizations
+- Remove bad or invalidated transactions from the mempool cache (allows later duplicates)
+- More elaborate testing using CircleCI including benchmarking throughput on 4 digitalocean droplets
+
+BUG FIXES:
+
+- Various fixes to WAL and replay logic
+- Various race conditions
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a55d7a150
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+# Contributing guidelines
+
+**Thanks for considering making contributions to Tendermint!**
+
+Please follow standard github best practices: fork the repo, **branch from the
+tip of develop**, make some commits, test your code changes with `make test`,
+and submit a pull request to develop.
+
+See the [open issues](https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/issues) for
+things we need help with!
+
+Please make sure to use `gofmt` before every commit - the easiest way to do
+this is have your editor run it for you upon saving a file.
+
+You can read the full guide [on our
+site](https://tendermint.com/docs/guides/contributing).
diff --git a/DOCKER/Dockerfile b/DOCKER/Dockerfile
index 356fa8bf9..947301e75 100644
--- a/DOCKER/Dockerfile
+++ b/DOCKER/Dockerfile
@@ -1,54 +1,45 @@
-# Pull base image.
-FROM golang:1.6
+FROM alpine:3.5
 
-ENV USER tmuser
-ENV DATA_ROOT /data/tendermint
+# This is the release of tendermint to pull in.
+ENV TM_VERSION 0.8.0
 
-# Set user right away for determinism
-RUN groupadd -r $USER \
-  && useradd -r -s /bin/false -g $USER $USER
+# Tendermint will be looking for genesis file in /tendermint (unless you change
+# `genesis_file` in config.toml). You can put your config.toml and private
+# validator file into /tendermint.
+#
+# The /tendermint/data dir is used by tendermint to store state.
+ENV DATA_ROOT /tendermint
+ENV TMROOT $DATA_ROOT
 
-# Create home directory for USER
-# Needed for nodejs/nom
-RUN mkdir -p /home/$USER \
-  && chown -R $USER:$USER /home/$USER
+# Set user right away for determinism
+RUN addgroup tmuser && \
+    adduser -S -G tmuser tmuser
 
 # Create directory for persistence and give our user ownership
-RUN mkdir -p $DATA_ROOT \
-  && chown -R $USER:$USER $DATA_ROOT
-
-# Set the env variables to non-interactive
-ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noninteractive
-ENV DEBIAN_PRIORITY critical
-ENV DEBCONF_NOWARNINGS yes
-ENV TERM linux
-RUN echo 'debconf debconf/frontend select Noninteractive' | debconf-set-selections
-
-# Grab deps (git)
-RUN apt-get update && \
-  apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-    git && \
-  rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
-
-# Grab deps (node)
-RUN curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_5.x | bash -
-RUN apt-get update && \
-  apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-    nodejs && \
-  rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
-
-# Copy run.sh
-COPY ./run.sh $DATA_ROOT/run.sh
-RUN chmod +x $DATA_ROOT/run.sh
-
-# Persist data, set user
-WORKDIR $DATA_ROOT
+RUN mkdir -p $DATA_ROOT && \
+    chown -R tmuser:tmuser $DATA_ROOT
+
+# jq and curl used for extracting `pub_key` from private validator while
+# deploying tendermint with Kubernetes. It is nice to have bash so the users
+# could execute bash commands.
+RUN apk add --no-cache bash curl jq
+
+RUN apk add --no-cache openssl && \
+    wget https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/tendermint/${TM_VERSION}/tendermint_linux_amd64.zip && \
+    echo "83f6bd52055ebc93434a68263c6666a4de41e0e543d0b5a06ad461262c460f4c  tendermint_linux_amd64.zip" | sha256sum -c && \
+    unzip -d /bin tendermint_linux_amd64.zip && \
+    apk del openssl && \
+    rm -f tendermint_linux_amd64.zip
+
+# Expose the data directory as a volume since there's mutable state in there
 VOLUME $DATA_ROOT
-USER $USER
-ENV TMROOT $DATA_ROOT
 
+# p2p port
 EXPOSE 46656
+# rpc port
 EXPOSE 46657
 
-# Run tendermint
-CMD ["./run.sh"]
+ENTRYPOINT ["tendermint"]
+
+# By default you'll get the dummy app
+CMD ["node", "--moniker=`hostname`", "--proxy_app=dummy"]
diff --git a/DOCKER/Dockerfile.develop b/DOCKER/Dockerfile.develop
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..19e101adb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/DOCKER/Dockerfile.develop
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+FROM alpine:3.5
+
+ENV DATA_ROOT /tendermint
+ENV TMROOT $DATA_ROOT
+
+RUN addgroup tmuser && \
+    adduser -S -G tmuser tmuser
+
+RUN mkdir -p $DATA_ROOT && \
+    chown -R tmuser:tmuser $DATA_ROOT
+
+RUN apk add --no-cache bash curl jq
+
+ENV GOPATH /go
+ENV PATH "$PATH:/go/bin"
+RUN mkdir -p /go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint && \
+    apk add --no-cache go build-base git && \
+    cd /go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint && \
+    git clone https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint . && \
+    git checkout develop && \
+    make get_vendor_deps && \
+    make install && \
+    glide cc && \
+    cd - && \
+    rm -rf /go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint && \
+    apk del go build-base git
+
+VOLUME $DATA_ROOT
+
+EXPOSE 46656
+EXPOSE 46657
+
+ENTRYPOINT ["tendermint"]
+
+CMD ["node", "--moniker=`hostname`", "--proxy_app=dummy"]
diff --git a/DOCKER/Makefile b/DOCKER/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..092233017
--- /dev/null
+++ b/DOCKER/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+build:
+	# TAG=0.8.0 TAG_NO_PATCH=0.8
+	docker build -t "tendermint/tendermint" -t "tendermint/tendermint:$TAG" -t "tendermint/tendermint:$TAG_NO_PATCH" .
+
+push:
+	# TAG=0.8.0 TAG_NO_PATCH=0.8
+	docker push "tendermint/tendermint" "tendermint/tendermint:$TAG" "tendermint/tendermint:$TAG_NO_PATCH"
+
+build_develop:
+	docker build -t "tendermint/tendermint:develop" -f Dockerfile.develop .
+
+push_develop:
+	docker push "tendermint/tendermint:develop"
+
+.PHONY: build build_develop push push_develop
diff --git a/DOCKER/README.md b/DOCKER/README.md
index e765fc525..bbb662637 100644
--- a/DOCKER/README.md
+++ b/DOCKER/README.md
@@ -1,24 +1,55 @@
-# Docker
+# Supported tags and respective `Dockerfile` links
 
-Tendermint uses docker for deployment of testnets via the [mintnet](github.com/tendermint/mintnet) tool. 
+- `0.8.0`, `0.8`, `latest` [(Dockerfile)](https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/blob/bf64dd21fdb193e54d8addaaaa2ecf7ac371de8c/DOCKER/Dockerfile)
+- `develop` [(Dockerfile)]()
 
-For faster development iterations (ie. to avoid docker builds), 
-the dockerfile just sets up the OS, and tendermint is fetched/installed at runtime.
+`develop` tag points to the [develop](https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/tree/develop) branch.
 
-For the deterministic docker builds used in testing, see the [tests directory](https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/tree/master/test)
+# Tendermint
 
-# Build and run a docker image and container
+Tendermint Core is Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) middleware that takes a state transition machine, written in any programming language, and securely replicates it on many machines.
 
-These are notes for the dev team. 
+For more background, see the [introduction](https://tendermint.com/intro).
 
-```
-# Build base Docker image
-# Make sure ./run.sh exists.
-docker build -t tendermint/tmbase -f Dockerfile .
+To get started developing applications, see the [application developers guide](https://tendermint.com/docs/guides/app-development).
+
+# How to use this image
+
+## Start one instance of the Tendermint core with the `dummy` app
 
-# Log into dockerhub
-docker login
+A very simple example of a built-in app and Tendermint core in one container.
 
-# Push latest build to dockerhub
-docker push tendermint/tmbase
 ```
+docker run -it --rm -v "/tmp:/tendermint" tendermint/tendermint init
+docker run -it --rm -v "/tmp:/tendermint" tendermint/tendermint
+```
+
+## mintnet-kubernetes
+
+If you want to see many containers talking to each other, consider using [mintnet-kubernetes](https://github.com/tendermint/mintnet-kubernetes), which is a tool for running Tendermint-based applications on a Kubernetes cluster.
+
+# Supported Docker versions
+
+This image is officially supported on Docker version 1.13.1.
+
+Support for older versions (down to 1.6) is provided on a best-effort basis.
+
+Please see [the Docker installation documentation](https://docs.docker.com/installation/) for details on how to upgrade your Docker daemon.
+
+# License
+
+View [license information](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tendermint/tendermint/master/LICENSE) for the software contained in this image.
+
+# User Feedback
+
+## Issues
+
+If you have any problems with or questions about this image, please contact us through a [GitHub](https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/issues) issue. If the issue is related to a CVE, please check for [a `cve-tracker` issue on the `official-images` repository](https://github.com/docker-library/official-images/issues?q=label%3Acve-tracker) first.
+
+You can also reach the image maintainers via [Slack](http://forum.tendermint.com:3000/).
+
+## Contributing
+
+You are invited to contribute new features, fixes, or updates, large or small; we are always thrilled to receive pull requests, and do our best to process them as fast as we can.
+
+Before you start to code, we recommend discussing your plans through a [GitHub](https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/issues) issue, especially for more ambitious contributions. This gives other contributors a chance to point you in the right direction, give you feedback on your design, and help you find out if someone else is working on the same thing.
diff --git a/DOCKER/run.sh b/DOCKER/run.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 903cf667c..000000000
--- a/DOCKER/run.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,10 +0,0 @@
-#! /bin/bash
-
-mkdir -p $GOPATH/src/$TMREPO
-cd $GOPATH/src/$TMREPO
-git clone https://$TMREPO.git .
-git fetch
-git reset --hard $TMHEAD
-go get -d $TMREPO/cmd/tendermint
-make
-tendermint node --seeds="$TMSEEDS" --moniker="$TMNAME"
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 8835722b8..bfdaf0077 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,59 +1,74 @@
-.PHONY: get_deps build all list_deps install
-
-all: get_deps install test
-
+GOTOOLS = \
+					github.com/mitchellh/gox \
+					github.com/Masterminds/glide
+PACKAGES=$(shell go list ./... | grep -v '/vendor/')
+BUILD_TAGS?=tendermint
 TMROOT = $${TMROOT:-$$HOME/.tendermint}
-define NEWLINE
 
+all: install test
 
-endef
-NOVENDOR = go list github.com/tendermint/tendermint/... | grep -v /vendor/
-
-install: get_deps
-	go install github.com/tendermint/tendermint/cmd/tendermint
+install: get_vendor_deps
+	@go install ./cmd/tendermint
 
 build:
-	go build -o build/tendermint github.com/tendermint/tendermint/cmd/tendermint
+	go build -o build/tendermint ./cmd/tendermint
 
 build_race:
-	go build -race -o build/tendermint github.com/tendermint/tendermint/cmd/tendermint
+	go build -race -o build/tendermint ./cmd/tendermint
+
+# dist builds binaries for all platforms and packages them for distribution
+dist:
+	@BUILD_TAGS='$(BUILD_TAGS)' sh -c "'$(CURDIR)/scripts/dist.sh'"
 
-test: build
-	go test `${NOVENDOR}`
+test:
+	@echo "--> Running go test"
+	@go test $(PACKAGES)
 
-test_race: build
-	go test -race `${NOVENDOR}`
+test_race:
+	@echo "--> Running go test --race"
+	@go test -v -race $(PACKAGES)
 
 test_integrations:
-	bash ./test/test.sh
+	@bash ./test/test.sh
 
-test100: build
-	for i in {1..100}; do make test; done
+test100:
+	@for i in {1..100}; do make test; done
 
 draw_deps:
 	# requires brew install graphviz
 	go get github.com/hirokidaichi/goviz
-	goviz -i github.com/tendermint/tendermint/cmd/tendermint | dot -Tpng -o huge.png
+	goviz -i ./cmd/tendermint | dot -Tpng -o huge.png
 
 list_deps:
-	go list -f '{{join .Deps "\n"}}' github.com/tendermint/tendermint/... | \
+	@go list -f '{{join .Deps "\n"}}' ./... | \
 		grep -v /vendor/ | sort | uniq | \
-	  xargs go list -f '{{if not .Standard}}{{.ImportPath}}{{end}}'
+		xargs go list -f '{{if not .Standard}}{{.ImportPath}}{{end}}'
 
 get_deps:
-	go get -d `${NOVENDOR}`
-	go list -f '{{join .TestImports "\n"}}' github.com/tendermint/tendermint/... | \
+	@echo "--> Running go get"
+	@go get -v -d $(PACKAGES)
+	@go list -f '{{join .TestImports "\n"}}' ./... | \
 		grep -v /vendor/ | sort | uniq | \
-		xargs go get
+		xargs go get -v -d
 
-get_vendor_deps:
-	go get github.com/Masterminds/glide
-	rm -rf vendor/
-	glide install
+get_vendor_deps: ensure_tools
+	@rm -rf vendor/
+	@echo "--> Running glide install"
+	@glide install
 
-update_deps:
-	go get -d -u github.com/tendermint/tendermint/...
+update_deps: tools
+	@echo "--> Updating dependencies"
+	@go get -d -u ./...
 
 revision:
 	-echo `git rev-parse --verify HEAD` > $(TMROOT)/revision
 	-echo `git rev-parse --verify HEAD` >> $(TMROOT)/revision_history
+
+tools:
+	go get -u -v $(GOTOOLS)
+
+ensure_tools:
+	go get $(GOTOOLS)
+
+
+.PHONY: install build build_race dist test test_race test_integrations test100 draw_deps list_deps get_deps get_vendor_deps update_deps revision tools
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 424269c3e..a1ba8fb34 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -27,13 +27,17 @@ To get started developing applications, see the [application developers guide](h
 
 ## Install
 
+To download pre-built binaries, see our [downloads page](https://tendermint.com/intro/getting-started/download).
+
+To install from source, you should be able to:
+
 `go get -u github.com/tendermint/tendermint/cmd/tendermint`
 
-For more details (or if it fails), see the [install guide](https://tendermint.com/intro/getting-started/install).
+For more details (or if it fails), see the [install guide](https://tendermint.com/docs/guides/install).
 
 ## Contributing
 
-Yay open source! Please see our [contributing guidelines](https://tendermint.com/guides/contributing).
+Yay open source! Please see our [contributing guidelines](https://tendermint.com/docs/guides/contributing).
 
 ## Resources
 
diff --git a/Vagrantfile b/Vagrantfile
index 8b65ff793..a3b329748 100644
--- a/Vagrantfile
+++ b/Vagrantfile
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
   config.vm.box = "ubuntu/trusty64"
 
   config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |v|
-    v.memory = 2048
+    v.memory = 3072
     v.cpus = 2
   end
 
@@ -15,19 +15,24 @@ Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
 
     wget -qO- https://get.docker.com/ | sh
     usermod -a -G docker vagrant
+    apt-get autoremove -y
 
-    curl -O https://storage.googleapis.com/golang/go1.6.linux-amd64.tar.gz
-    tar -xvf go1.7.linux-amd64.tar.gz
+    curl -O https://storage.googleapis.com/golang/go1.8.linux-amd64.tar.gz
+    tar -xvf go1.8.linux-amd64.tar.gz
+    rm -rf /usr/local/go
     mv go /usr/local
-    echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin' >> /home/vagrant/.profile
+    rm -f go1.8.linux-amd64.tar.gz
     mkdir -p /home/vagrant/go/bin
-    chown -R vagrant:vagrant /home/vagrant/go
-    echo 'export GOPATH=/home/vagrant/go' >> /home/vagrant/.profile
+    echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin:/home/vagrant/go/bin' >> /home/vagrant/.bash_profile
+    echo 'export GOPATH=/home/vagrant/go' >> /home/vagrant/.bash_profile
+
+    echo 'export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8' >> /home/vagrant/.bash_profile
 
     mkdir -p /home/vagrant/go/src/github.com/tendermint
     ln -s /vagrant /home/vagrant/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
 
-    su - vagrant -c 'curl https://glide.sh/get | sh'
-    su - vagrant -c 'cd /vagrant/ && glide install && make test'
+    chown -R vagrant:vagrant /home/vagrant/go
+
+    su - vagrant -c 'cd /home/vagrant/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint && make get_vendor_deps'
   SHELL
 end
diff --git a/blockchain/pool.go b/blockchain/pool.go
index 0886035b5..ef673b342 100644
--- a/blockchain/pool.go
+++ b/blockchain/pool.go
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ var peerTimeoutSeconds = time.Duration(15) // not const so we can override with
 	in sequence from peers that reported higher heights than ours.
 	Every so often we ask peers what height they're on so we can keep going.
 
-	Requests are continuously made for blocks of heigher heights until
+	Requests are continuously made for blocks of higher heights until
 	the limits. If most of the requests have no available peers, and we
 	are not at peer limits, we can probably switch to consensus reactor
 */
diff --git a/blockchain/reactor.go b/blockchain/reactor.go
index bfa671d02..90258825e 100644
--- a/blockchain/reactor.go
+++ b/blockchain/reactor.go
@@ -3,11 +3,10 @@ package blockchain
 import (
 	"bytes"
 	"errors"
-	"fmt"
 	"reflect"
 	"time"
 
-	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
+	cmn "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
 	cfg "github.com/tendermint/go-config"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-p2p"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-wire"
@@ -17,7 +16,9 @@ import (
 )
 
 const (
-	BlockchainChannel      = byte(0x40)
+	// BlockchainChannel is a channel for blocks and status updates (`BlockStore` height)
+	BlockchainChannel = byte(0x40)
+
 	defaultChannelCapacity = 100
 	defaultSleepIntervalMS = 500
 	trySyncIntervalMS      = 100
@@ -55,12 +56,13 @@ type BlockchainReactor struct {
 	evsw types.EventSwitch
 }
 
+// NewBlockchainReactor returns new reactor instance.
 func NewBlockchainReactor(config cfg.Config, state *sm.State, proxyAppConn proxy.AppConnConsensus, store *BlockStore, fastSync bool) *BlockchainReactor {
 	if state.LastBlockHeight == store.Height()-1 {
-		store.height -= 1 // XXX HACK, make this better
+		store.height-- // XXX HACK, make this better
 	}
 	if state.LastBlockHeight != store.Height() {
-		PanicSanity(Fmt("state (%v) and store (%v) height mismatch", state.LastBlockHeight, store.Height()))
+		cmn.PanicSanity(cmn.Fmt("state (%v) and store (%v) height mismatch", state.LastBlockHeight, store.Height()))
 	}
 	requestsCh := make(chan BlockRequest, defaultChannelCapacity)
 	timeoutsCh := make(chan string, defaultChannelCapacity)
@@ -83,6 +85,7 @@ func NewBlockchainReactor(config cfg.Config, state *sm.State, proxyAppConn proxy
 	return bcR
 }
 
+// OnStart implements BaseService
 func (bcR *BlockchainReactor) OnStart() error {
 	bcR.BaseReactor.OnStart()
 	if bcR.fastSync {
@@ -95,12 +98,13 @@ func (bcR *BlockchainReactor) OnStart() error {
 	return nil
 }
 
+// OnStop implements BaseService
 func (bcR *BlockchainReactor) OnStop() {
 	bcR.BaseReactor.OnStop()
 	bcR.pool.Stop()
 }
 
-// Implements Reactor
+// GetChannels implements Reactor
 func (bcR *BlockchainReactor) GetChannels() []*p2p.ChannelDescriptor {
 	return []*p2p.ChannelDescriptor{
 		&p2p.ChannelDescriptor{
@@ -111,19 +115,19 @@ func (bcR *BlockchainReactor) GetChannels() []*p2p.ChannelDescriptor {
 	}
 }
 
-// Implements Reactor
+// AddPeer implements Reactor by sending our state to peer.
 func (bcR *BlockchainReactor) AddPeer(peer *p2p.Peer) {
-	// Send peer our state.
-	peer.Send(BlockchainChannel, struct{ BlockchainMessage }{&bcStatusResponseMessage{bcR.store.Height()}})
+	if !peer.Send(BlockchainChannel, struct{ BlockchainMessage }{&bcStatusResponseMessage{bcR.store.Height()}}) {
+		// doing nothing, will try later in `poolRoutine`
+	}
 }
 
-// Implements Reactor
+// RemovePeer implements Reactor by removing peer from the pool.
 func (bcR *BlockchainReactor) RemovePeer(peer *p2p.Peer, reason interface{}) {
-	// Remove peer from the pool.
 	bcR.pool.RemovePeer(peer.Key)
 }
 
-// Implements Reactor
+// Receive implements Reactor by handling 4 types of messages (look below).
 func (bcR *BlockchainReactor) Receive(chID byte, src *p2p.Peer, msgBytes []byte) {
 	_, msg, err := DecodeMessage(msgBytes)
 	if err != nil {
@@ -159,7 +163,7 @@ func (bcR *BlockchainReactor) Receive(chID byte, src *p2p.Peer, msgBytes []byte)
 		// Got a peer status. Unverified.
 		bcR.pool.SetPeerHeight(src.Key, msg.Height)
 	default:
-		log.Warn(Fmt("Unknown message type %v", reflect.TypeOf(msg)))
+		log.Warn(cmn.Fmt("Unknown message type %v", reflect.TypeOf(msg)))
 	}
 }
 
@@ -242,10 +246,10 @@ FOR_LOOP:
 					// NOTE: we could improve performance if we
 					// didn't make the app commit to disk every block
 					// ... but we would need a way to get the hash without it persisting
-					err := bcR.state.ApplyBlock(bcR.evsw, bcR.proxyAppConn, first, firstPartsHeader, sm.MockMempool{})
+					err := bcR.state.ApplyBlock(bcR.evsw, bcR.proxyAppConn, first, firstPartsHeader, types.MockMempool{})
 					if err != nil {
 						// TODO This is bad, are we zombie?
-						PanicQ(Fmt("Failed to process committed block (%d:%X): %v", first.Height, first.Hash(), err))
+						cmn.PanicQ(cmn.Fmt("Failed to process committed block (%d:%X): %v", first.Height, first.Hash(), err))
 					}
 					bcR.state.Save()
 				}
@@ -257,17 +261,13 @@ FOR_LOOP:
 	}
 }
 
-func (bcR *BlockchainReactor) BroadcastStatusResponse() error {
-	bcR.Switch.Broadcast(BlockchainChannel, struct{ BlockchainMessage }{&bcStatusResponseMessage{bcR.store.Height()}})
-	return nil
-}
-
+// BroadcastStatusRequest broadcasts `BlockStore` height.
 func (bcR *BlockchainReactor) BroadcastStatusRequest() error {
 	bcR.Switch.Broadcast(BlockchainChannel, struct{ BlockchainMessage }{&bcStatusRequestMessage{bcR.store.Height()}})
 	return nil
 }
 
-// implements events.Eventable
+// SetEventSwitch implements events.Eventable
 func (bcR *BlockchainReactor) SetEventSwitch(evsw types.EventSwitch) {
 	bcR.evsw = evsw
 }
@@ -282,6 +282,7 @@ const (
 	msgTypeStatusRequest  = byte(0x21)
 )
 
+// BlockchainMessage is a generic message for this reactor.
 type BlockchainMessage interface{}
 
 var _ = wire.RegisterInterface(
@@ -292,6 +293,7 @@ var _ = wire.RegisterInterface(
 	wire.ConcreteType{&bcStatusRequestMessage{}, msgTypeStatusRequest},
 )
 
+// DecodeMessage decodes BlockchainMessage.
 // TODO: ensure that bz is completely read.
 func DecodeMessage(bz []byte) (msgType byte, msg BlockchainMessage, err error) {
 	msgType = bz[0]
@@ -299,7 +301,7 @@ func DecodeMessage(bz []byte) (msgType byte, msg BlockchainMessage, err error) {
 	r := bytes.NewReader(bz)
 	msg = wire.ReadBinary(struct{ BlockchainMessage }{}, r, maxBlockchainResponseSize, &n, &err).(struct{ BlockchainMessage }).BlockchainMessage
 	if err != nil && n != len(bz) {
-		err = errors.New("DecodeMessage() had bytes left over.")
+		err = errors.New("DecodeMessage() had bytes left over")
 	}
 	return
 }
@@ -311,7 +313,7 @@ type bcBlockRequestMessage struct {
 }
 
 func (m *bcBlockRequestMessage) String() string {
-	return fmt.Sprintf("[bcBlockRequestMessage %v]", m.Height)
+	return cmn.Fmt("[bcBlockRequestMessage %v]", m.Height)
 }
 
 //-------------------------------------
@@ -322,7 +324,7 @@ type bcBlockResponseMessage struct {
 }
 
 func (m *bcBlockResponseMessage) String() string {
-	return fmt.Sprintf("[bcBlockResponseMessage %v]", m.Block.Height)
+	return cmn.Fmt("[bcBlockResponseMessage %v]", m.Block.Height)
 }
 
 //-------------------------------------
@@ -332,7 +334,7 @@ type bcStatusRequestMessage struct {
 }
 
 func (m *bcStatusRequestMessage) String() string {
-	return fmt.Sprintf("[bcStatusRequestMessage %v]", m.Height)
+	return cmn.Fmt("[bcStatusRequestMessage %v]", m.Height)
 }
 
 //-------------------------------------
@@ -342,5 +344,5 @@ type bcStatusResponseMessage struct {
 }
 
 func (m *bcStatusResponseMessage) String() string {
-	return fmt.Sprintf("[bcStatusResponseMessage %v]", m.Height)
+	return cmn.Fmt("[bcStatusResponseMessage %v]", m.Height)
 }
diff --git a/blockchain/store.go b/blockchain/store.go
index db8974651..ac7cfdafc 100644
--- a/blockchain/store.go
+++ b/blockchain/store.go
@@ -64,12 +64,12 @@ func (bs *BlockStore) LoadBlock(height int) *types.Block {
 	if r == nil {
 		return nil
 	}
-	meta := wire.ReadBinary(&types.BlockMeta{}, r, 0, &n, &err).(*types.BlockMeta)
+	blockMeta := wire.ReadBinary(&types.BlockMeta{}, r, 0, &n, &err).(*types.BlockMeta)
 	if err != nil {
 		PanicCrisis(Fmt("Error reading block meta: %v", err))
 	}
 	bytez := []byte{}
-	for i := 0; i < meta.PartsHeader.Total; i++ {
+	for i := 0; i < blockMeta.BlockID.PartsHeader.Total; i++ {
 		part := bs.LoadBlockPart(height, i)
 		bytez = append(bytez, part.Bytes...)
 	}
@@ -101,11 +101,11 @@ func (bs *BlockStore) LoadBlockMeta(height int) *types.BlockMeta {
 	if r == nil {
 		return nil
 	}
-	meta := wire.ReadBinary(&types.BlockMeta{}, r, 0, &n, &err).(*types.BlockMeta)
+	blockMeta := wire.ReadBinary(&types.BlockMeta{}, r, 0, &n, &err).(*types.BlockMeta)
 	if err != nil {
 		PanicCrisis(Fmt("Error reading block meta: %v", err))
 	}
-	return meta
+	return blockMeta
 }
 
 // The +2/3 and other Precommit-votes for block at `height`.
@@ -154,8 +154,8 @@ func (bs *BlockStore) SaveBlock(block *types.Block, blockParts *types.PartSet, s
 	}
 
 	// Save block meta
-	meta := types.NewBlockMeta(block, blockParts)
-	metaBytes := wire.BinaryBytes(meta)
+	blockMeta := types.NewBlockMeta(block, blockParts)
+	metaBytes := wire.BinaryBytes(blockMeta)
 	bs.db.Set(calcBlockMetaKey(height), metaBytes)
 
 	// Save block parts
diff --git a/circle.yml b/circle.yml
index d6f7abeb6..50ffbd01b 100644
--- a/circle.yml
+++ b/circle.yml
@@ -1,38 +1,33 @@
+---
 machine:
   environment:
     MACH_PREFIX: tendermint-test-mach
-    GOPATH: /home/ubuntu/.go_workspace
-    REPO: $GOPATH/src/github.com/$CIRCLE_PROJECT_USERNAME/$CIRCLE_PROJECT_REPONAME
     DOCKER_VERSION: 1.10.0
-    DOCKER_MACHINE_VERSION: 0.6.0
+    DOCKER_MACHINE_VERSION: 0.9.0
+    GOPATH: "$HOME/.go_project"
+    PROJECT_PARENT_PATH: "$GOPATH/src/github.com/$CIRCLE_PROJECT_USERNAME"
+    PROJECT_PATH: "$PROJECT_PARENT_PATH/$CIRCLE_PROJECT_REPONAME"
   hosts:
-    circlehost: 127.0.0.1
     localhost: 127.0.0.1
 
-checkout:
-  post:
-    - rm -rf $REPO
-    - mkdir -p $HOME/.go_workspace/src/github.com/$CIRCLE_PROJECT_USERNAME
-    - mv $HOME/$CIRCLE_PROJECT_REPONAME $REPO
-    # - git submodule sync
-    # - git submodule update --init # use submodules
-
 dependencies:
   override:
-    - echo $MACH_PREFIX $GOPATH $REPO $DOCKER_VERSION $DOCKER_MACHINE_VERSION
     - curl -sSL https://s3.amazonaws.com/circle-downloads/install-circleci-docker.sh | sudo bash -s -- $DOCKER_VERSION
-    - sudo curl -sSL -o /usr/bin/docker-machine https://github.com/docker/machine/releases/download/v$DOCKER_MACHINE_VERSION/docker-machine-linux-x86_64; sudo chmod 0755 /usr/bin/docker-machine
     - sudo start docker
+    - sudo curl -sSL -o /usr/bin/docker-machine "https://github.com/docker/machine/releases/download/v$DOCKER_MACHINE_VERSION/docker-machine-`uname -s`-`uname -m`"; sudo chmod 0755 /usr/bin/docker-machine
+    - mkdir -p "$PROJECT_PARENT_PATH"
+    - ln -sf "$HOME/$CIRCLE_PROJECT_REPONAME/" "$PROJECT_PATH"
+  post:
     - go version
     - docker version
     - docker-machine version
 
 test:
   override:
-    - "cd $REPO && set -o pipefail && make test_integrations | tee ~/test_integrations.log":
+    - cd "$PROJECT_PATH" && set -o pipefail && make test_integrations 2>&1 | tee test_integrations.log:
         timeout: 1800
-    - "cp ~/test_integrations.log $CIRCLE_ARTIFACTS"
   post:
-    - "cd $REPO && bash <(curl -s https://codecov.io/bash)"
-
-
+    - cd "$PROJECT_PATH" && mv test_integrations.log "${CIRCLE_ARTIFACTS}"
+    - cd "$PROJECT_PATH" && bash <(curl -s https://codecov.io/bash) -f coverage.txt
+    - cd "$PROJECT_PATH" && mv coverage.txt "${CIRCLE_ARTIFACTS}"
+    - cd "$PROJECT_PATH" && cp test/logs/messages "${CIRCLE_ARTIFACTS}/docker_logs.txt"
diff --git a/cmd/tendermint/gen_validator.go b/cmd/tendermint/gen_validator.go
index 37f0e2997..0fc0e1661 100644
--- a/cmd/tendermint/gen_validator.go
+++ b/cmd/tendermint/gen_validator.go
@@ -8,16 +8,8 @@ import (
 )
 
 func gen_validator() {
-
 	privValidator := types.GenPrivValidator()
 	privValidatorJSONBytes := wire.JSONBytesPretty(privValidator)
-	fmt.Printf(`Generated a new validator!
-Paste the following JSON into your %v file
-
-%v
-
-`,
-		config.GetString("priv_validator_file"),
-		string(privValidatorJSONBytes),
-	)
+	fmt.Printf(`%v
+`, string(privValidatorJSONBytes))
 }
diff --git a/cmd/tendermint/init.go b/cmd/tendermint/init.go
index 8a7a7b096..5ec1efefb 100644
--- a/cmd/tendermint/init.go
+++ b/cmd/tendermint/init.go
@@ -1,24 +1,35 @@
 package main
 
 import (
-	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
+	"os"
+
+	cmn "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
 )
 
 func init_files() {
-	privValidator := types.GenPrivValidator()
-	privValidator.SetFile(config.GetString("priv_validator_file"))
-	privValidator.Save()
+	privValFile := config.GetString("priv_validator_file")
+	if _, err := os.Stat(privValFile); os.IsNotExist(err) {
+		privValidator := types.GenPrivValidator()
+		privValidator.SetFile(privValFile)
+		privValidator.Save()
 
-	genDoc := types.GenesisDoc{
-		ChainID: Fmt("test-chain-%v", RandStr(6)),
-	}
-	genDoc.Validators = []types.GenesisValidator{types.GenesisValidator{
-		PubKey: privValidator.PubKey,
-		Amount: 10,
-	}}
+		genFile := config.GetString("genesis_file")
 
-	genDoc.SaveAs(config.GetString("genesis_file"))
+		if _, err := os.Stat(genFile); os.IsNotExist(err) {
+			genDoc := types.GenesisDoc{
+				ChainID: cmn.Fmt("test-chain-%v", cmn.RandStr(6)),
+			}
+			genDoc.Validators = []types.GenesisValidator{types.GenesisValidator{
+				PubKey: privValidator.PubKey,
+				Amount: 10,
+			}}
 
-	log.Notice("Initialized tendermint", "genesis", config.GetString("genesis_file"), "priv_validator", config.GetString("priv_validator_file"))
+			genDoc.SaveAs(genFile)
+		}
+
+		log.Notice("Initialized tendermint", "genesis", config.GetString("genesis_file"), "priv_validator", config.GetString("priv_validator_file"))
+	} else {
+		log.Notice("Already initialized", "priv_validator", config.GetString("priv_validator_file"))
+	}
 }
diff --git a/cmd/tendermint/main.go b/cmd/tendermint/main.go
index 9f3410517..640f2c275 100644
--- a/cmd/tendermint/main.go
+++ b/cmd/tendermint/main.go
@@ -4,11 +4,10 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"os"
 
-	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
 	cfg "github.com/tendermint/go-config"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-logger"
 	tmcfg "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/config/tendermint"
-	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/node"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/consensus"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/version"
 )
 
@@ -21,11 +20,16 @@ func main() {
 		fmt.Println(`Tendermint
 
 Commands:
-    node            Run the tendermint node
-    show_validator  Show this node's validator info
-    gen_validator   Generate new validator keypair
-    probe_upnp      Test UPnP functionality
-    version         Show version info
+    init                        Initialize tendermint
+    node                        Run the tendermint node
+    show_validator              Show this node's validator info
+    gen_validator               Generate new validator keypair
+    probe_upnp                  Test UPnP functionality
+    replay <walfile>            Replay messages from WAL
+    replay_console <walfile>    Replay messages from WAL in a console
+    unsafe_reset_all            (unsafe) Remove all the data and WAL, reset this node's validator
+    unsafe_reset_priv_validator (unsafe) Reset this node's validator
+    version                     Show version info
 `)
 		return
 	}
@@ -39,12 +43,20 @@ Commands:
 
 	switch args[0] {
 	case "node":
-		node.RunNode(config)
+		run_node(config)
 	case "replay":
-		if len(args) > 2 && args[1] == "console" {
-			node.RunReplayConsole(config, args[2])
+		if len(args) > 1 {
+			consensus.RunReplayFile(config, args[1], false)
 		} else {
-			node.RunReplay(config, args[1])
+			fmt.Println("replay requires an argument (walfile)")
+			os.Exit(1)
+		}
+	case "replay_console":
+		if len(args) > 1 {
+			consensus.RunReplayFile(config, args[1], true)
+		} else {
+			fmt.Println("replay_console requires an argument (walfile)")
+			os.Exit(1)
 		}
 	case "init":
 		init_files()
@@ -61,6 +73,7 @@ Commands:
 	case "version":
 		fmt.Println(version.Version)
 	default:
-		Exit(Fmt("Unknown command %v\n", args[0]))
+		fmt.Printf("Unknown command %v\n", args[0])
+		os.Exit(1)
 	}
 }
diff --git a/cmd/tendermint/reset_priv_validator.go b/cmd/tendermint/reset_priv_validator.go
index 9ecbaa90b..5bf3ba69b 100644
--- a/cmd/tendermint/reset_priv_validator.go
+++ b/cmd/tendermint/reset_priv_validator.go
@@ -6,15 +6,15 @@ import (
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
 )
 
-// NOTE: this is totally unsafe.
+// XXX: this is totally unsafe.
 // it's only suitable for testnets.
 func reset_all() {
 	reset_priv_validator()
 	os.RemoveAll(config.GetString("db_dir"))
-	os.RemoveAll(config.GetString("cs_wal_dir"))
+	os.Remove(config.GetString("cs_wal_file"))
 }
 
-// NOTE: this is totally unsafe.
+// XXX: this is totally unsafe.
 // it's only suitable for testnets.
 func reset_priv_validator() {
 	// Get PrivValidator
diff --git a/cmd/tendermint/run_node.go b/cmd/tendermint/run_node.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..1940a6056
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/tendermint/run_node.go
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"io/ioutil"
+	"time"
+
+	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
+	cfg "github.com/tendermint/go-config"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/node"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
+)
+
+// Users wishing to:
+//	* Use an external signer for their validators
+//	* Supply an in-proc abci app
+// should import github.com/tendermint/tendermint/node and implement
+// their own run_node to call node.NewNode (instead of node.NewNodeDefault)
+// with their custom priv validator and/or custom proxy.ClientCreator
+func run_node(config cfg.Config) {
+
+	// Wait until the genesis doc becomes available
+	// This is for Mintnet compatibility.
+	// TODO: If Mintnet gets deprecated or genesis_file is
+	// always available, remove.
+	genDocFile := config.GetString("genesis_file")
+	if !FileExists(genDocFile) {
+		log.Notice(Fmt("Waiting for genesis file %v...", genDocFile))
+		for {
+			time.Sleep(time.Second)
+			if !FileExists(genDocFile) {
+				continue
+			}
+			jsonBlob, err := ioutil.ReadFile(genDocFile)
+			if err != nil {
+				Exit(Fmt("Couldn't read GenesisDoc file: %v", err))
+			}
+			genDoc, err := types.GenesisDocFromJSON(jsonBlob)
+			if err != nil {
+				Exit(Fmt("Error reading GenesisDoc: %v", err))
+			}
+			if genDoc.ChainID == "" {
+				Exit(Fmt("Genesis doc %v must include non-empty chain_id", genDocFile))
+			}
+			config.Set("chain_id", genDoc.ChainID)
+		}
+	}
+
+	// Create & start node
+	n := node.NewNodeDefault(config)
+	if _, err := n.Start(); err != nil {
+		Exit(Fmt("Failed to start node: %v", err))
+	} else {
+		log.Notice("Started node", "nodeInfo", n.Switch().NodeInfo())
+	}
+
+	// Trap signal, run forever.
+	n.RunForever()
+
+}
diff --git a/config/tendermint/config.go b/config/tendermint/config.go
index ab4bf00b1..c210d6e01 100644
--- a/config/tendermint/config.go
+++ b/config/tendermint/config.go
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ func GetConfig(rootDir string) cfg.Config {
 	mapConfig.SetDefault("grpc_laddr", "")
 	mapConfig.SetDefault("prof_laddr", "")
 	mapConfig.SetDefault("revision_file", rootDir+"/revision")
-	mapConfig.SetDefault("cs_wal_dir", rootDir+"/data/cs.wal")
+	mapConfig.SetDefault("cs_wal_file", rootDir+"/data/cs.wal/wal")
 	mapConfig.SetDefault("cs_wal_light", false)
 	mapConfig.SetDefault("filter_peers", false)
 
diff --git a/config/tendermint_test/config.go b/config/tendermint_test/config.go
index 930cf27e5..55e3adb4e 100644
--- a/config/tendermint_test/config.go
+++ b/config/tendermint_test/config.go
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ func ResetConfig(localPath string) cfg.Config {
 	mapConfig.SetDefault("grpc_laddr", "tcp://0.0.0.0:36658")
 	mapConfig.SetDefault("prof_laddr", "")
 	mapConfig.SetDefault("revision_file", rootDir+"/revision")
-	mapConfig.SetDefault("cs_wal_dir", rootDir+"/data/cs.wal")
+	mapConfig.SetDefault("cs_wal_file", rootDir+"/data/cs.wal/wal")
 	mapConfig.SetDefault("cs_wal_light", false)
 	mapConfig.SetDefault("filter_peers", false)
 
diff --git a/consensus/byzantine_test.go b/consensus/byzantine_test.go
index 396c8c074..cd62f3f08 100644
--- a/consensus/byzantine_test.go
+++ b/consensus/byzantine_test.go
@@ -242,7 +242,7 @@ func (br *ByzantineReactor) AddPeer(peer *p2p.Peer) {
 	// Send our state to peer.
 	// If we're fast_syncing, broadcast a RoundStepMessage later upon SwitchToConsensus().
 	if !br.reactor.fastSync {
-		br.reactor.sendNewRoundStepMessage(peer)
+		br.reactor.sendNewRoundStepMessages(peer)
 	}
 }
 func (br *ByzantineReactor) RemovePeer(peer *p2p.Peer, reason interface{}) {
diff --git a/consensus/common_test.go b/consensus/common_test.go
index c345fe663..334c66dc6 100644
--- a/consensus/common_test.go
+++ b/consensus/common_test.go
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ import (
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
+	abcicli "github.com/tendermint/abci/client"
+	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
 	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
 	cfg "github.com/tendermint/go-config"
 	dbm "github.com/tendermint/go-db"
@@ -20,8 +22,6 @@ import (
 	mempl "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/mempool"
 	sm "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/state"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
-	abcicli "github.com/tendermint/abci/client"
-	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
 
 	"github.com/tendermint/abci/example/counter"
 	"github.com/tendermint/abci/example/dummy"
@@ -320,7 +320,7 @@ func randConsensusNet(nValidators int, testName string, tickerFunc func() Timeou
 		state := sm.MakeGenesisState(db, genDoc)
 		state.Save()
 		thisConfig := tendermint_test.ResetConfig(Fmt("%s_%d", testName, i))
-		ensureDir(thisConfig.GetString("cs_wal_dir"), 0700) // dir for wal
+		ensureDir(path.Dir(thisConfig.GetString("cs_wal_file")), 0700) // dir for wal
 		css[i] = newConsensusStateWithConfig(thisConfig, state, privVals[i], appFunc())
 		css[i].SetTimeoutTicker(tickerFunc())
 	}
@@ -336,7 +336,7 @@ func randConsensusNetWithPeers(nValidators, nPeers int, testName string, tickerF
 		state := sm.MakeGenesisState(db, genDoc)
 		state.Save()
 		thisConfig := tendermint_test.ResetConfig(Fmt("%s_%d", testName, i))
-		ensureDir(thisConfig.GetString("cs_wal_dir"), 0700) // dir for wal
+		ensureDir(path.Dir(thisConfig.GetString("cs_wal_file")), 0700) // dir for wal
 		var privVal *types.PrivValidator
 		if i < nValidators {
 			privVal = privVals[i]
diff --git a/consensus/mempool_test.go b/consensus/mempool_test.go
index d298b5cb4..6bfdfda9f 100644
--- a/consensus/mempool_test.go
+++ b/consensus/mempool_test.go
@@ -5,9 +5,9 @@ import (
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
+	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/config/tendermint_test"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
-	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
 
 	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
 )
@@ -81,15 +81,12 @@ func TestRmBadTx(t *testing.T) {
 		// check for the tx
 		for {
 			time.Sleep(time.Second)
-			select {
-			case <-ch:
-			default:
-				txs := cs.mempool.Reap(1)
-				if len(txs) == 0 {
-					ch <- struct{}{}
-				}
-
+			txs := cs.mempool.Reap(1)
+			if len(txs) == 0 {
+				ch <- struct{}{}
+				return
 			}
+
 		}
 	}()
 
@@ -114,6 +111,8 @@ func TestRmBadTx(t *testing.T) {
 
 // CounterApplication that maintains a mempool state and resets it upon commit
 type CounterApplication struct {
+	abci.BaseApplication
+
 	txCount        int
 	mempoolTxCount int
 }
@@ -126,10 +125,6 @@ func (app *CounterApplication) Info() abci.ResponseInfo {
 	return abci.ResponseInfo{Data: Fmt("txs:%v", app.txCount)}
 }
 
-func (app *CounterApplication) SetOption(key string, value string) (log string) {
-	return ""
-}
-
 func (app *CounterApplication) DeliverTx(tx []byte) abci.Result {
 	return runTx(tx, &app.txCount)
 }
@@ -160,7 +155,3 @@ func (app *CounterApplication) Commit() abci.Result {
 		return abci.NewResultOK(hash, "")
 	}
 }
-
-func (app *CounterApplication) Query(query []byte) abci.Result {
-	return abci.NewResultOK(nil, Fmt("Query is not supported"))
-}
diff --git a/consensus/reactor.go b/consensus/reactor.go
index 80e87efd8..c3b1c590f 100644
--- a/consensus/reactor.go
+++ b/consensus/reactor.go
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ func (conR *ConsensusReactor) AddPeer(peer *p2p.Peer) {
 	// Send our state to peer.
 	// If we're fast_syncing, broadcast a RoundStepMessage later upon SwitchToConsensus().
 	if !conR.fastSync {
-		conR.sendNewRoundStepMessage(peer)
+		conR.sendNewRoundStepMessages(peer)
 	}
 }
 
@@ -201,7 +201,6 @@ func (conR *ConsensusReactor) Receive(chID byte, src *p2p.Peer, msgBytes []byte)
 				BlockID: msg.BlockID,
 				Votes:   ourVotes,
 			}})
-
 		default:
 			log.Warn(Fmt("Unknown message type %v", reflect.TypeOf(msg)))
 		}
@@ -365,7 +364,7 @@ func makeRoundStepMessages(rs *RoundState) (nrsMsg *NewRoundStepMessage, csMsg *
 	return
 }
 
-func (conR *ConsensusReactor) sendNewRoundStepMessage(peer *p2p.Peer) {
+func (conR *ConsensusReactor) sendNewRoundStepMessages(peer *p2p.Peer) {
 	rs := conR.conS.GetRoundState()
 	nrsMsg, csMsg := makeRoundStepMessages(rs)
 	if nrsMsg != nil {
@@ -399,8 +398,9 @@ OUTER_LOOP:
 					Round:  rs.Round,  // This tells peer that this part applies to us.
 					Part:   part,
 				}
-				peer.Send(DataChannel, struct{ ConsensusMessage }{msg})
-				ps.SetHasProposalBlockPart(prs.Height, prs.Round, index)
+				if peer.Send(DataChannel, struct{ ConsensusMessage }{msg}) {
+					ps.SetHasProposalBlockPart(prs.Height, prs.Round, index)
+				}
 				continue OUTER_LOOP
 			}
 		}
@@ -415,9 +415,9 @@ OUTER_LOOP:
 					log.Warn("Failed to load block meta", "peer height", prs.Height, "our height", rs.Height, "blockstore height", conR.conS.blockStore.Height(), "pv", conR.conS.privValidator)
 					time.Sleep(peerGossipSleepDuration)
 					continue OUTER_LOOP
-				} else if !blockMeta.PartsHeader.Equals(prs.ProposalBlockPartsHeader) {
+				} else if !blockMeta.BlockID.PartsHeader.Equals(prs.ProposalBlockPartsHeader) {
 					log.Info("Peer ProposalBlockPartsHeader mismatch, sleeping",
-						"peerHeight", prs.Height, "blockPartsHeader", blockMeta.PartsHeader, "peerBlockPartsHeader", prs.ProposalBlockPartsHeader)
+						"peerHeight", prs.Height, "blockPartsHeader", blockMeta.BlockID.PartsHeader, "peerBlockPartsHeader", prs.ProposalBlockPartsHeader)
 					time.Sleep(peerGossipSleepDuration)
 					continue OUTER_LOOP
 				}
@@ -425,7 +425,7 @@ OUTER_LOOP:
 				part := conR.conS.blockStore.LoadBlockPart(prs.Height, index)
 				if part == nil {
 					log.Warn("Could not load part", "index", index,
-						"peerHeight", prs.Height, "blockPartsHeader", blockMeta.PartsHeader, "peerBlockPartsHeader", prs.ProposalBlockPartsHeader)
+						"peerHeight", prs.Height, "blockPartsHeader", blockMeta.BlockID.PartsHeader, "peerBlockPartsHeader", prs.ProposalBlockPartsHeader)
 					time.Sleep(peerGossipSleepDuration)
 					continue OUTER_LOOP
 				}
@@ -435,8 +435,9 @@ OUTER_LOOP:
 					Round:  prs.Round,  // Not our height, so it doesn't matter.
 					Part:   part,
 				}
-				peer.Send(DataChannel, struct{ ConsensusMessage }{msg})
-				ps.SetHasProposalBlockPart(prs.Height, prs.Round, index)
+				if peer.Send(DataChannel, struct{ ConsensusMessage }{msg}) {
+					ps.SetHasProposalBlockPart(prs.Height, prs.Round, index)
+				}
 				continue OUTER_LOOP
 			} else {
 				//log.Info("No parts to send in catch-up, sleeping")
@@ -462,8 +463,9 @@ OUTER_LOOP:
 			// Proposal: share the proposal metadata with peer.
 			{
 				msg := &ProposalMessage{Proposal: rs.Proposal}
-				peer.Send(DataChannel, struct{ ConsensusMessage }{msg})
-				ps.SetHasProposal(rs.Proposal)
+				if peer.Send(DataChannel, struct{ ConsensusMessage }{msg}) {
+					ps.SetHasProposal(rs.Proposal)
+				}
 			}
 			// ProposalPOL: lets peer know which POL votes we have so far.
 			// Peer must receive ProposalMessage first.
@@ -806,13 +808,12 @@ func (ps *PeerState) SetHasProposalBlockPart(height int, round int, index int) {
 	ps.ProposalBlockParts.SetIndex(index, true)
 }
 
-// Convenience function to send vote to peer.
+// PickVoteToSend sends vote to peer.
 // Returns true if vote was sent.
 func (ps *PeerState) PickSendVote(votes types.VoteSetReader) (ok bool) {
 	if vote, ok := ps.PickVoteToSend(votes); ok {
 		msg := &VoteMessage{vote}
-		ps.Peer.Send(VoteChannel, struct{ ConsensusMessage }{msg})
-		return true
+		return ps.Peer.Send(VoteChannel, struct{ ConsensusMessage }{msg})
 	}
 	return false
 }
diff --git a/consensus/replay.go b/consensus/replay.go
index 8793c42fa..6c4e65a03 100644
--- a/consensus/replay.go
+++ b/consensus/replay.go
@@ -1,24 +1,35 @@
 package consensus
 
 import (
-	"bufio"
+	"bytes"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
-	"os"
 	"reflect"
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
+	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
 	auto "github.com/tendermint/go-autofile"
 	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
+	cfg "github.com/tendermint/go-config"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-wire"
 
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/proxy"
 	sm "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/state"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
 )
 
+// Functionality to replay blocks and messages on recovery from a crash.
+// There are two general failure scenarios: failure during consensus, and failure while applying the block.
+// The former is handled by the WAL, the latter by the proxyApp Handshake on restart,
+// which ultimately hands off the work to the WAL.
+
+//-----------------------------------------
+// recover from failure during consensus
+// by replaying messages from the WAL
+
 // Unmarshal and apply a single message to the consensus state
 // as if it were received in receiveRoutine
 // Lines that start with "#" are ignored.
@@ -133,245 +144,221 @@ func (cs *ConsensusState) catchupReplay(csHeight int) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
-//--------------------------------------------------------
-// replay messages interactively or all at once
+//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-// Interactive playback
-func (cs ConsensusState) ReplayConsole(file string) error {
-	return cs.replay(file, true)
+// Parses marker lines of the form:
+// #HEIGHT: 12345
+func makeHeightSearchFunc(height int) auto.SearchFunc {
+	return func(line string) (int, error) {
+		line = strings.TrimRight(line, "\n")
+		parts := strings.Split(line, " ")
+		if len(parts) != 2 {
+			return -1, errors.New("Line did not have 2 parts")
+		}
+		i, err := strconv.Atoi(parts[1])
+		if err != nil {
+			return -1, errors.New("Failed to parse INFO: " + err.Error())
+		}
+		if height < i {
+			return 1, nil
+		} else if height == i {
+			return 0, nil
+		} else {
+			return -1, nil
+		}
+	}
 }
 
-// Full playback, with tests
-func (cs ConsensusState) ReplayMessages(file string) error {
-	return cs.replay(file, false)
-}
+//----------------------------------------------
+// Recover from failure during block processing
+// by handshaking with the app to figure out where
+// we were last and using the WAL to recover there
 
-// replay all msgs or start the console
-func (cs *ConsensusState) replay(file string, console bool) error {
-	if cs.IsRunning() {
-		return errors.New("cs is already running, cannot replay")
-	}
-	if cs.wal != nil {
-		return errors.New("cs wal is open, cannot replay")
-	}
+type Handshaker struct {
+	config cfg.Config
+	state  *sm.State
+	store  types.BlockStore
 
-	cs.startForReplay()
+	nBlocks int // number of blocks applied to the state
+}
 
-	// ensure all new step events are regenerated as expected
-	newStepCh := subscribeToEvent(cs.evsw, "replay-test", types.EventStringNewRoundStep(), 1)
+func NewHandshaker(config cfg.Config, state *sm.State, store types.BlockStore) *Handshaker {
+	return &Handshaker{config, state, store, 0}
+}
 
-	// just open the file for reading, no need to use wal
-	fp, err := os.OpenFile(file, os.O_RDONLY, 0666)
+func (h *Handshaker) NBlocks() int {
+	return h.nBlocks
+}
+
+// TODO: retry the handshake/replay if it fails ?
+func (h *Handshaker) Handshake(proxyApp proxy.AppConns) error {
+	// handshake is done via info request on the query conn
+	res, err := proxyApp.Query().InfoSync()
 	if err != nil {
-		return err
+		return errors.New(Fmt("Error calling Info: %v", err))
 	}
 
-	pb := newPlayback(file, fp, cs, cs.state.Copy())
-	defer pb.fp.Close()
+	blockHeight := int(res.LastBlockHeight) // XXX: beware overflow
+	appHash := res.LastBlockAppHash
 
-	var nextN int // apply N msgs in a row
-	for pb.scanner.Scan() {
-		if nextN == 0 && console {
-			nextN = pb.replayConsoleLoop()
-		}
+	log.Notice("ABCI Handshake", "appHeight", blockHeight, "appHash", appHash)
 
-		if err := pb.cs.readReplayMessage(pb.scanner.Bytes(), newStepCh); err != nil {
-			return err
-		}
+	// TODO: check version
 
-		if nextN > 0 {
-			nextN -= 1
-		}
-		pb.count += 1
+	// replay blocks up to the latest in the blockstore
+	_, err = h.ReplayBlocks(appHash, blockHeight, proxyApp)
+	if err != nil {
+		return errors.New(Fmt("Error on replay: %v", err))
 	}
-	return nil
-}
 
-//------------------------------------------------
-// playback manager
+	log.Notice("Completed ABCI Handshake - Tendermint and App are synced", "appHeight", blockHeight, "appHash", appHash)
 
-type playback struct {
-	cs *ConsensusState
+	// TODO: (on restart) replay mempool
 
-	fp      *os.File
-	scanner *bufio.Scanner
-	count   int // how many lines/msgs into the file are we
-
-	// replays can be reset to beginning
-	fileName     string    // so we can close/reopen the file
-	genesisState *sm.State // so the replay session knows where to restart from
+	return nil
 }
 
-func newPlayback(fileName string, fp *os.File, cs *ConsensusState, genState *sm.State) *playback {
-	return &playback{
-		cs:           cs,
-		fp:           fp,
-		fileName:     fileName,
-		genesisState: genState,
-		scanner:      bufio.NewScanner(fp),
-	}
-}
+// Replay all blocks since appBlockHeight and ensure the result matches the current state.
+// Returns the final AppHash or an error
+func (h *Handshaker) ReplayBlocks(appHash []byte, appBlockHeight int, proxyApp proxy.AppConns) ([]byte, error) {
 
-// go back count steps by resetting the state and running (pb.count - count) steps
-func (pb *playback) replayReset(count int, newStepCh chan interface{}) error {
+	storeBlockHeight := h.store.Height()
+	stateBlockHeight := h.state.LastBlockHeight
+	log.Notice("ABCI Replay Blocks", "appHeight", appBlockHeight, "storeHeight", storeBlockHeight, "stateHeight", stateBlockHeight)
 
-	pb.cs.Stop()
-	pb.cs.Wait()
+	// First handle edge cases and constraints on the storeBlockHeight
+	if storeBlockHeight == 0 {
+		return appHash, h.checkAppHash(appHash)
 
-	newCS := NewConsensusState(pb.cs.config, pb.genesisState.Copy(), pb.cs.proxyAppConn, pb.cs.blockStore, pb.cs.mempool)
-	newCS.SetEventSwitch(pb.cs.evsw)
-	newCS.startForReplay()
+	} else if storeBlockHeight < appBlockHeight {
+		// the app should never be ahead of the store (but this is under app's control)
+		return appHash, sm.ErrAppBlockHeightTooHigh{storeBlockHeight, appBlockHeight}
 
-	pb.fp.Close()
-	fp, err := os.OpenFile(pb.fileName, os.O_RDONLY, 0666)
-	if err != nil {
-		return err
+	} else if storeBlockHeight < stateBlockHeight {
+		// the state should never be ahead of the store (this is under tendermint's control)
+		PanicSanity(Fmt("StateBlockHeight (%d) > StoreBlockHeight (%d)", stateBlockHeight, storeBlockHeight))
+
+	} else if storeBlockHeight > stateBlockHeight+1 {
+		// store should be at most one ahead of the state (this is under tendermint's control)
+		PanicSanity(Fmt("StoreBlockHeight (%d) > StateBlockHeight + 1 (%d)", storeBlockHeight, stateBlockHeight+1))
 	}
-	pb.fp = fp
-	pb.scanner = bufio.NewScanner(fp)
-	count = pb.count - count
-	log.Notice(Fmt("Reseting from %d to %d", pb.count, count))
-	pb.count = 0
-	pb.cs = newCS
-	for i := 0; pb.scanner.Scan() && i < count; i++ {
-		if err := pb.cs.readReplayMessage(pb.scanner.Bytes(), newStepCh); err != nil {
-			return err
+
+	// Now either store is equal to state, or one ahead.
+	// For each, consider all cases of where the app could be, given app <= store
+	if storeBlockHeight == stateBlockHeight {
+		// Tendermint ran Commit and saved the state.
+		// Either the app is asking for replay, or we're all synced up.
+		if appBlockHeight < storeBlockHeight {
+			// the app is behind, so replay blocks, but no need to go through WAL (state is already synced to store)
+			return h.replayBlocks(proxyApp, appBlockHeight, storeBlockHeight, false)
+
+		} else if appBlockHeight == storeBlockHeight {
+			// We're good!
+			return appHash, h.checkAppHash(appHash)
+		}
+
+	} else if storeBlockHeight == stateBlockHeight+1 {
+		// We saved the block in the store but haven't updated the state,
+		// so we'll need to replay a block using the WAL.
+		if appBlockHeight < stateBlockHeight {
+			// the app is further behind than it should be, so replay blocks
+			// but leave the last block to go through the WAL
+			return h.replayBlocks(proxyApp, appBlockHeight, storeBlockHeight, true)
+
+		} else if appBlockHeight == stateBlockHeight {
+			// We haven't run Commit (both the state and app are one block behind),
+			// so run through consensus with the real app
+			log.Info("Replay last block using real app")
+			return h.replayLastBlock(proxyApp.Consensus())
+
+		} else if appBlockHeight == storeBlockHeight {
+			// We ran Commit, but didn't save the state, so run through consensus with mock app
+			mockApp := newMockProxyApp(appHash)
+			log.Info("Replay last block using mock app")
+			return h.replayLastBlock(mockApp)
 		}
-		pb.count += 1
+
 	}
-	return nil
-}
 
-func (cs *ConsensusState) startForReplay() {
-	// don't want to start full cs
-	cs.BaseService.OnStart()
-
-	log.Warn("Replay commands are disabled until someone updates them and writes tests")
-	/* TODO:!
-	// since we replay tocks we just ignore ticks
-		go func() {
-			for {
-				select {
-				case <-cs.tickChan:
-				case <-cs.Quit:
-					return
-				}
-			}
-		}()*/
+	PanicSanity("Should never happen")
+	return nil, nil
 }
 
-// console function for parsing input and running commands
-func (pb *playback) replayConsoleLoop() int {
-	for {
-		fmt.Printf("> ")
-		bufReader := bufio.NewReader(os.Stdin)
-		line, more, err := bufReader.ReadLine()
-		if more {
-			Exit("input is too long")
-		} else if err != nil {
-			Exit(err.Error())
-		}
+func (h *Handshaker) replayBlocks(proxyApp proxy.AppConns, appBlockHeight, storeBlockHeight int, useReplayFunc bool) ([]byte, error) {
+	// App is further behind than it should be, so we need to replay blocks.
+	// We replay all blocks from appBlockHeight+1 to storeBlockHeight-1,
+	// and let the final block be replayed through ReplayBlocks.
+	// Note that we don't have an old version of the state,
+	// so we by-pass state validation using applyBlock here.
 
-		tokens := strings.Split(string(line), " ")
-		if len(tokens) == 0 {
-			continue
+	var appHash []byte
+	var err error
+	finalBlock := storeBlockHeight
+	if useReplayFunc {
+		finalBlock -= 1
+	}
+	for i := appBlockHeight + 1; i <= finalBlock; i++ {
+		log.Info("Applying block", "height", i)
+		block := h.store.LoadBlock(i)
+		appHash, err = sm.ApplyBlock(proxyApp.Consensus(), block)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
 		}
 
-		switch tokens[0] {
-		case "next":
-			// "next" -> replay next message
-			// "next N" -> replay next N messages
+		h.nBlocks += 1
+	}
 
-			if len(tokens) == 1 {
-				return 0
-			} else {
-				i, err := strconv.Atoi(tokens[1])
-				if err != nil {
-					fmt.Println("next takes an integer argument")
-				} else {
-					return i
-				}
-			}
+	if useReplayFunc {
+		// sync the final block
+		return h.ReplayBlocks(appHash, finalBlock, proxyApp)
+	}
 
-		case "back":
-			// "back" -> go back one message
-			// "back N" -> go back N messages
+	return appHash, h.checkAppHash(appHash)
+}
 
-			// NOTE: "back" is not supported in the state machine design,
-			// so we restart and replay up to
+// Replay the last block through the consensus and return the AppHash from after Commit.
+func (h *Handshaker) replayLastBlock(proxyApp proxy.AppConnConsensus) ([]byte, error) {
+	mempool := types.MockMempool{}
+	cs := NewConsensusState(h.config, h.state, proxyApp, h.store, mempool)
 
-			// ensure all new step events are regenerated as expected
-			newStepCh := subscribeToEvent(pb.cs.evsw, "replay-test", types.EventStringNewRoundStep(), 1)
-			if len(tokens) == 1 {
-				pb.replayReset(1, newStepCh)
-			} else {
-				i, err := strconv.Atoi(tokens[1])
-				if err != nil {
-					fmt.Println("back takes an integer argument")
-				} else if i > pb.count {
-					fmt.Printf("argument to back must not be larger than the current count (%d)\n", pb.count)
-				} else {
-					pb.replayReset(i, newStepCh)
-				}
-			}
+	evsw := types.NewEventSwitch()
+	evsw.Start()
+	defer evsw.Stop()
+	cs.SetEventSwitch(evsw)
+	newBlockCh := subscribeToEvent(evsw, "consensus-replay", types.EventStringNewBlock(), 1)
 
-		case "rs":
-			// "rs" -> print entire round state
-			// "rs short" -> print height/round/step
-			// "rs <field>" -> print another field of the round state
+	// run through the WAL, commit new block, stop
+	cs.Start()
+	<-newBlockCh // TODO: use a timeout and return err?
+	cs.Stop()
 
-			rs := pb.cs.RoundState
-			if len(tokens) == 1 {
-				fmt.Println(rs)
-			} else {
-				switch tokens[1] {
-				case "short":
-					fmt.Printf("%v/%v/%v\n", rs.Height, rs.Round, rs.Step)
-				case "validators":
-					fmt.Println(rs.Validators)
-				case "proposal":
-					fmt.Println(rs.Proposal)
-				case "proposal_block":
-					fmt.Printf("%v %v\n", rs.ProposalBlockParts.StringShort(), rs.ProposalBlock.StringShort())
-				case "locked_round":
-					fmt.Println(rs.LockedRound)
-				case "locked_block":
-					fmt.Printf("%v %v\n", rs.LockedBlockParts.StringShort(), rs.LockedBlock.StringShort())
-				case "votes":
-					fmt.Println(rs.Votes.StringIndented("    "))
-
-				default:
-					fmt.Println("Unknown option", tokens[1])
-				}
-			}
-		case "n":
-			fmt.Println(pb.count)
-		}
+	h.nBlocks += 1
+
+	return cs.state.AppHash, nil
+}
+
+func (h *Handshaker) checkAppHash(appHash []byte) error {
+	if !bytes.Equal(h.state.AppHash, appHash) {
+		panic(errors.New(Fmt("Tendermint state.AppHash does not match AppHash after replay. Got %X, expected %X", appHash, h.state.AppHash)).Error())
+		return nil
 	}
-	return 0
+	return nil
 }
 
 //--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-// Parses marker lines of the form:
-// #HEIGHT: 12345
-func makeHeightSearchFunc(height int) auto.SearchFunc {
-	return func(line string) (int, error) {
-		line = strings.TrimRight(line, "\n")
-		parts := strings.Split(line, " ")
-		if len(parts) != 2 {
-			return -1, errors.New("Line did not have 2 parts")
-		}
-		i, err := strconv.Atoi(parts[1])
-		if err != nil {
-			return -1, errors.New("Failed to parse INFO: " + err.Error())
-		}
-		if height < i {
-			return 1, nil
-		} else if height == i {
-			return 0, nil
-		} else {
-			return -1, nil
-		}
-	}
+func newMockProxyApp(appHash []byte) proxy.AppConnConsensus {
+	clientCreator := proxy.NewLocalClientCreator(&mockProxyApp{appHash: appHash})
+	cli, _ := clientCreator.NewABCIClient()
+	return proxy.NewAppConnConsensus(cli)
+}
+
+type mockProxyApp struct {
+	abci.BaseApplication
+
+	appHash []byte
+}
+
+func (mock *mockProxyApp) Commit() abci.Result {
+	return abci.NewResultOK(mock.appHash, "")
 }
diff --git a/consensus/replay_file.go b/consensus/replay_file.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6ff380880
--- /dev/null
+++ b/consensus/replay_file.go
@@ -0,0 +1,271 @@
+package consensus
+
+import (
+	"bufio"
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"strconv"
+	"strings"
+
+	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
+	cfg "github.com/tendermint/go-config"
+	dbm "github.com/tendermint/go-db"
+	bc "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/blockchain"
+	mempl "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/mempool"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/proxy"
+	sm "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/state"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
+)
+
+//--------------------------------------------------------
+// replay messages interactively or all at once
+
+func RunReplayFile(config cfg.Config, walFile string, console bool) {
+	consensusState := newConsensusStateForReplay(config)
+
+	if err := consensusState.ReplayFile(walFile, console); err != nil {
+		Exit(Fmt("Error during consensus replay: %v", err))
+	}
+}
+
+// Replay msgs in file or start the console
+func (cs *ConsensusState) ReplayFile(file string, console bool) error {
+
+	if cs.IsRunning() {
+		return errors.New("cs is already running, cannot replay")
+	}
+	if cs.wal != nil {
+		return errors.New("cs wal is open, cannot replay")
+	}
+
+	cs.startForReplay()
+
+	// ensure all new step events are regenerated as expected
+	newStepCh := subscribeToEvent(cs.evsw, "replay-test", types.EventStringNewRoundStep(), 1)
+
+	// just open the file for reading, no need to use wal
+	fp, err := os.OpenFile(file, os.O_RDONLY, 0666)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	pb := newPlayback(file, fp, cs, cs.state.Copy())
+	defer pb.fp.Close()
+
+	var nextN int // apply N msgs in a row
+	for pb.scanner.Scan() {
+		if nextN == 0 && console {
+			nextN = pb.replayConsoleLoop()
+		}
+
+		if err := pb.cs.readReplayMessage(pb.scanner.Bytes(), newStepCh); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+
+		if nextN > 0 {
+			nextN -= 1
+		}
+		pb.count += 1
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+//------------------------------------------------
+// playback manager
+
+type playback struct {
+	cs *ConsensusState
+
+	fp      *os.File
+	scanner *bufio.Scanner
+	count   int // how many lines/msgs into the file are we
+
+	// replays can be reset to beginning
+	fileName     string    // so we can close/reopen the file
+	genesisState *sm.State // so the replay session knows where to restart from
+}
+
+func newPlayback(fileName string, fp *os.File, cs *ConsensusState, genState *sm.State) *playback {
+	return &playback{
+		cs:           cs,
+		fp:           fp,
+		fileName:     fileName,
+		genesisState: genState,
+		scanner:      bufio.NewScanner(fp),
+	}
+}
+
+// go back count steps by resetting the state and running (pb.count - count) steps
+func (pb *playback) replayReset(count int, newStepCh chan interface{}) error {
+
+	pb.cs.Stop()
+	pb.cs.Wait()
+
+	newCS := NewConsensusState(pb.cs.config, pb.genesisState.Copy(), pb.cs.proxyAppConn, pb.cs.blockStore, pb.cs.mempool)
+	newCS.SetEventSwitch(pb.cs.evsw)
+	newCS.startForReplay()
+
+	pb.fp.Close()
+	fp, err := os.OpenFile(pb.fileName, os.O_RDONLY, 0666)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	pb.fp = fp
+	pb.scanner = bufio.NewScanner(fp)
+	count = pb.count - count
+	log.Notice(Fmt("Reseting from %d to %d", pb.count, count))
+	pb.count = 0
+	pb.cs = newCS
+	for i := 0; pb.scanner.Scan() && i < count; i++ {
+		if err := pb.cs.readReplayMessage(pb.scanner.Bytes(), newStepCh); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		pb.count += 1
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+func (cs *ConsensusState) startForReplay() {
+	// don't want to start full cs
+	cs.BaseService.OnStart()
+
+	log.Warn("Replay commands are disabled until someone updates them and writes tests")
+	/* TODO:!
+	// since we replay tocks we just ignore ticks
+		go func() {
+			for {
+				select {
+				case <-cs.tickChan:
+				case <-cs.Quit:
+					return
+				}
+			}
+		}()*/
+}
+
+// console function for parsing input and running commands
+func (pb *playback) replayConsoleLoop() int {
+	for {
+		fmt.Printf("> ")
+		bufReader := bufio.NewReader(os.Stdin)
+		line, more, err := bufReader.ReadLine()
+		if more {
+			Exit("input is too long")
+		} else if err != nil {
+			Exit(err.Error())
+		}
+
+		tokens := strings.Split(string(line), " ")
+		if len(tokens) == 0 {
+			continue
+		}
+
+		switch tokens[0] {
+		case "next":
+			// "next" -> replay next message
+			// "next N" -> replay next N messages
+
+			if len(tokens) == 1 {
+				return 0
+			} else {
+				i, err := strconv.Atoi(tokens[1])
+				if err != nil {
+					fmt.Println("next takes an integer argument")
+				} else {
+					return i
+				}
+			}
+
+		case "back":
+			// "back" -> go back one message
+			// "back N" -> go back N messages
+
+			// NOTE: "back" is not supported in the state machine design,
+			// so we restart and replay up to
+
+			// ensure all new step events are regenerated as expected
+			newStepCh := subscribeToEvent(pb.cs.evsw, "replay-test", types.EventStringNewRoundStep(), 1)
+			if len(tokens) == 1 {
+				pb.replayReset(1, newStepCh)
+			} else {
+				i, err := strconv.Atoi(tokens[1])
+				if err != nil {
+					fmt.Println("back takes an integer argument")
+				} else if i > pb.count {
+					fmt.Printf("argument to back must not be larger than the current count (%d)\n", pb.count)
+				} else {
+					pb.replayReset(i, newStepCh)
+				}
+			}
+
+		case "rs":
+			// "rs" -> print entire round state
+			// "rs short" -> print height/round/step
+			// "rs <field>" -> print another field of the round state
+
+			rs := pb.cs.RoundState
+			if len(tokens) == 1 {
+				fmt.Println(rs)
+			} else {
+				switch tokens[1] {
+				case "short":
+					fmt.Printf("%v/%v/%v\n", rs.Height, rs.Round, rs.Step)
+				case "validators":
+					fmt.Println(rs.Validators)
+				case "proposal":
+					fmt.Println(rs.Proposal)
+				case "proposal_block":
+					fmt.Printf("%v %v\n", rs.ProposalBlockParts.StringShort(), rs.ProposalBlock.StringShort())
+				case "locked_round":
+					fmt.Println(rs.LockedRound)
+				case "locked_block":
+					fmt.Printf("%v %v\n", rs.LockedBlockParts.StringShort(), rs.LockedBlock.StringShort())
+				case "votes":
+					fmt.Println(rs.Votes.StringIndented("    "))
+
+				default:
+					fmt.Println("Unknown option", tokens[1])
+				}
+			}
+		case "n":
+			fmt.Println(pb.count)
+		}
+	}
+	return 0
+}
+
+//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+// convenience for replay mode
+func newConsensusStateForReplay(config cfg.Config) *ConsensusState {
+	// Get BlockStore
+	blockStoreDB := dbm.NewDB("blockstore", config.GetString("db_backend"), config.GetString("db_dir"))
+	blockStore := bc.NewBlockStore(blockStoreDB)
+
+	// Get State
+	stateDB := dbm.NewDB("state", config.GetString("db_backend"), config.GetString("db_dir"))
+	state := sm.MakeGenesisStateFromFile(stateDB, config.GetString("genesis_file"))
+
+	// Create proxyAppConn connection (consensus, mempool, query)
+	proxyApp := proxy.NewAppConns(config, proxy.DefaultClientCreator(config), NewHandshaker(config, state, blockStore))
+	_, err := proxyApp.Start()
+	if err != nil {
+		Exit(Fmt("Error starting proxy app conns: %v", err))
+	}
+
+	// add the chainid to the global config
+	config.Set("chain_id", state.ChainID)
+
+	// Make event switch
+	eventSwitch := types.NewEventSwitch()
+	if _, err := eventSwitch.Start(); err != nil {
+		Exit(Fmt("Failed to start event switch: %v", err))
+	}
+
+	mempool := mempl.NewMempool(config, proxyApp.Mempool())
+
+	consensusState := NewConsensusState(config, state.Copy(), proxyApp.Consensus(), blockStore, mempool)
+	consensusState.SetEventSwitch(eventSwitch)
+	return consensusState
+}
diff --git a/consensus/replay_test.go b/consensus/replay_test.go
index d60fa9f2a..c70b60fa0 100644
--- a/consensus/replay_test.go
+++ b/consensus/replay_test.go
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 package consensus
 
 import (
+	"bytes"
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
+	"io"
 	"io/ioutil"
 	"os"
 	"path"
@@ -11,8 +14,14 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/config/tendermint_test"
 
-	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
+	"github.com/tendermint/abci/example/dummy"
+	cmn "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
+	cfg "github.com/tendermint/go-config"
+	"github.com/tendermint/go-crypto"
+	dbm "github.com/tendermint/go-db"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-wire"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/proxy"
+	sm "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/state"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
 )
 
@@ -20,14 +29,23 @@ func init() {
 	config = tendermint_test.ResetConfig("consensus_replay_test")
 }
 
-// TODO: these tests ensure we can always recover from any state of the wal,
-// assuming it comes with a correct related state for the priv_validator.json.
-// It would be better to verify explicitly which states we can recover from without the wal
+// These tests ensure we can always recover from failure at any part of the consensus process.
+// There are two general failure scenarios: failure during consensus, and failure while applying the block.
+// Only the latter interacts with the app and store,
+// but the former has to deal with restrictions on re-use of priv_validator keys.
+// The `WAL Tests` are for failures during the consensus;
+// the `Handshake Tests` are for failures in applying the block.
+// With the help of the WAL, we can recover from it all!
+
+var data_dir = path.Join(cmn.GoPath, "src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint/consensus", "test_data")
+
+//------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// WAL Tests
+
+// TODO: It would be better to verify explicitly which states we can recover from without the wal
 // and which ones we need the wal for - then we'd also be able to only flush the
 // wal writer when we need to, instead of with every message.
 
-var data_dir = path.Join(GoPath, "src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint/consensus", "test_data")
-
 // the priv validator changes step at these lines for a block with 1 val and 1 part
 var baseStepChanges = []int{3, 6, 8}
 
@@ -50,7 +68,7 @@ type testCase struct {
 
 func newTestCase(name string, stepChanges []int) *testCase {
 	if len(stepChanges) != 3 {
-		panic(Fmt("a full wal has 3 step changes! Got array %v", stepChanges))
+		panic(cmn.Fmt("a full wal has 3 step changes! Got array %v", stepChanges))
 	}
 	return &testCase{
 		name:    name,
@@ -85,18 +103,19 @@ func readWAL(p string) string {
 
 func writeWAL(walMsgs string) string {
 	tempDir := os.TempDir()
-	walDir := tempDir + "/wal" + RandStr(12)
+	walDir := path.Join(tempDir, "/wal"+cmn.RandStr(12))
+	walFile := path.Join(walDir, "wal")
 	// Create WAL directory
-	err := EnsureDir(walDir, 0700)
+	err := cmn.EnsureDir(walDir, 0700)
 	if err != nil {
 		panic(err)
 	}
 	// Write the needed WAL to file
-	err = WriteFile(walDir+"/wal", []byte(walMsgs), 0600)
+	err = cmn.WriteFile(walFile, []byte(walMsgs), 0600)
 	if err != nil {
 		panic(err)
 	}
-	return walDir
+	return walFile
 }
 
 func waitForBlock(newBlockCh chan interface{}, thisCase *testCase, i int) {
@@ -104,14 +123,14 @@ func waitForBlock(newBlockCh chan interface{}, thisCase *testCase, i int) {
 	select {
 	case <-newBlockCh:
 	case <-after:
-		panic(Fmt("Timed out waiting for new block for case '%s' line %d", thisCase.name, i))
+		panic(cmn.Fmt("Timed out waiting for new block for case '%s' line %d", thisCase.name, i))
 	}
 }
 
-func runReplayTest(t *testing.T, cs *ConsensusState, walDir string, newBlockCh chan interface{},
+func runReplayTest(t *testing.T, cs *ConsensusState, walFile string, newBlockCh chan interface{},
 	thisCase *testCase, i int) {
 
-	cs.config.Set("cs_wal_dir", walDir)
+	cs.config.Set("cs_wal_file", walFile)
 	cs.Start()
 	// Wait to make a new block.
 	// This is just a signal that we haven't halted; its not something contained in the WAL itself.
@@ -137,7 +156,7 @@ func toPV(pv PrivValidator) *types.PrivValidator {
 
 func setupReplayTest(thisCase *testCase, nLines int, crashAfter bool) (*ConsensusState, chan interface{}, string, string) {
 	fmt.Println("-------------------------------------")
-	log.Notice(Fmt("Starting replay test %v (of %d lines of WAL). Crash after = %v", thisCase.name, nLines, crashAfter))
+	log.Notice(cmn.Fmt("Starting replay test %v (of %d lines of WAL). Crash after = %v", thisCase.name, nLines, crashAfter))
 
 	lineStep := nLines
 	if crashAfter {
@@ -148,7 +167,7 @@ func setupReplayTest(thisCase *testCase, nLines int, crashAfter bool) (*Consensu
 	lastMsg := split[nLines]
 
 	// we write those lines up to (not including) one with the signature
-	walDir := writeWAL(strings.Join(split[:nLines], "\n") + "\n")
+	walFile := writeWAL(strings.Join(split[:nLines], "\n") + "\n")
 
 	cs := fixedConsensusStateDummy()
 
@@ -160,7 +179,7 @@ func setupReplayTest(thisCase *testCase, nLines int, crashAfter bool) (*Consensu
 
 	newBlockCh := subscribeToEvent(cs.evsw, "tester", types.EventStringNewBlock(), 1)
 
-	return cs, newBlockCh, lastMsg, walDir
+	return cs, newBlockCh, lastMsg, walFile
 }
 
 func readTimedWALMessage(t *testing.T, walMsg string) TimedWALMessage {
@@ -177,12 +196,12 @@ func readTimedWALMessage(t *testing.T, walMsg string) TimedWALMessage {
 // Test the log at every iteration, and set the privVal last step
 // as if the log was written after signing, before the crash
 
-func TestReplayCrashAfterWrite(t *testing.T) {
+func TestWALCrashAfterWrite(t *testing.T) {
 	for _, thisCase := range testCases {
 		split := strings.Split(thisCase.log, "\n")
 		for i := 0; i < len(split)-1; i++ {
-			cs, newBlockCh, _, walDir := setupReplayTest(thisCase, i+1, true)
-			runReplayTest(t, cs, walDir, newBlockCh, thisCase, i+1)
+			cs, newBlockCh, _, walFile := setupReplayTest(thisCase, i+1, true)
+			runReplayTest(t, cs, walFile, newBlockCh, thisCase, i+1)
 		}
 	}
 }
@@ -191,27 +210,27 @@ func TestReplayCrashAfterWrite(t *testing.T) {
 // Test the log as if we crashed after signing but before writing.
 // This relies on privValidator.LastSignature being set
 
-func TestReplayCrashBeforeWritePropose(t *testing.T) {
+func TestWALCrashBeforeWritePropose(t *testing.T) {
 	for _, thisCase := range testCases {
 		lineNum := thisCase.proposeLine
 		// setup replay test where last message is a proposal
-		cs, newBlockCh, proposalMsg, walDir := setupReplayTest(thisCase, lineNum, false)
+		cs, newBlockCh, proposalMsg, walFile := setupReplayTest(thisCase, lineNum, false)
 		msg := readTimedWALMessage(t, proposalMsg)
 		proposal := msg.Msg.(msgInfo).Msg.(*ProposalMessage)
 		// Set LastSig
 		toPV(cs.privValidator).LastSignBytes = types.SignBytes(cs.state.ChainID, proposal.Proposal)
 		toPV(cs.privValidator).LastSignature = proposal.Proposal.Signature
-		runReplayTest(t, cs, walDir, newBlockCh, thisCase, lineNum)
+		runReplayTest(t, cs, walFile, newBlockCh, thisCase, lineNum)
 	}
 }
 
-func TestReplayCrashBeforeWritePrevote(t *testing.T) {
+func TestWALCrashBeforeWritePrevote(t *testing.T) {
 	for _, thisCase := range testCases {
 		testReplayCrashBeforeWriteVote(t, thisCase, thisCase.prevoteLine, types.EventStringCompleteProposal())
 	}
 }
 
-func TestReplayCrashBeforeWritePrecommit(t *testing.T) {
+func TestWALCrashBeforeWritePrecommit(t *testing.T) {
 	for _, thisCase := range testCases {
 		testReplayCrashBeforeWriteVote(t, thisCase, thisCase.precommitLine, types.EventStringPolka())
 	}
@@ -219,7 +238,7 @@ func TestReplayCrashBeforeWritePrecommit(t *testing.T) {
 
 func testReplayCrashBeforeWriteVote(t *testing.T, thisCase *testCase, lineNum int, eventString string) {
 	// setup replay test where last message is a vote
-	cs, newBlockCh, voteMsg, walDir := setupReplayTest(thisCase, lineNum, false)
+	cs, newBlockCh, voteMsg, walFile := setupReplayTest(thisCase, lineNum, false)
 	types.AddListenerForEvent(cs.evsw, "tester", eventString, func(data types.TMEventData) {
 		msg := readTimedWALMessage(t, voteMsg)
 		vote := msg.Msg.(msgInfo).Msg.(*VoteMessage)
@@ -227,5 +246,396 @@ func testReplayCrashBeforeWriteVote(t *testing.T, thisCase *testCase, lineNum in
 		toPV(cs.privValidator).LastSignBytes = types.SignBytes(cs.state.ChainID, vote.Vote)
 		toPV(cs.privValidator).LastSignature = vote.Vote.Signature
 	})
-	runReplayTest(t, cs, walDir, newBlockCh, thisCase, lineNum)
+	runReplayTest(t, cs, walFile, newBlockCh, thisCase, lineNum)
+}
+
+//------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// Handshake Tests
+
+var (
+	NUM_BLOCKS = 6 // number of blocks in the test_data/many_blocks.cswal
+	mempool    = types.MockMempool{}
+
+	testPartSize int
+)
+
+//---------------------------------------
+// Test handshake/replay
+
+// 0 - all synced up
+// 1 - saved block but app and state are behind
+// 2 - save block and committed but state is behind
+var modes = []uint{0, 1, 2}
+
+// Sync from scratch
+func TestHandshakeReplayAll(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, m := range modes {
+		testHandshakeReplay(t, 0, m)
+	}
+}
+
+// Sync many, not from scratch
+func TestHandshakeReplaySome(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, m := range modes {
+		testHandshakeReplay(t, 1, m)
+	}
+}
+
+// Sync from lagging by one
+func TestHandshakeReplayOne(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, m := range modes {
+		testHandshakeReplay(t, NUM_BLOCKS-1, m)
+	}
+}
+
+// Sync from caught up
+func TestHandshakeReplayNone(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, m := range modes {
+		testHandshakeReplay(t, NUM_BLOCKS, m)
+	}
+}
+
+// Make some blocks. Start a fresh app and apply nBlocks blocks. Then restart the app and sync it up with the remaining blocks
+func testHandshakeReplay(t *testing.T, nBlocks int, mode uint) {
+	config := tendermint_test.ResetConfig("proxy_test_")
+
+	// copy the many_blocks file
+	walBody, err := cmn.ReadFile(path.Join(data_dir, "many_blocks.cswal"))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	walFile := writeWAL(string(walBody))
+	config.Set("cs_wal_file", walFile)
+
+	privVal := types.LoadPrivValidator(config.GetString("priv_validator_file"))
+	testPartSize = config.GetInt("block_part_size")
+
+	wal, err := NewWAL(walFile, false)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	chain, commits, err := makeBlockchainFromWAL(wal)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf(err.Error())
+	}
+
+	state, store := stateAndStore(config, privVal.PubKey)
+	store.chain = chain
+	store.commits = commits
+
+	// run the chain through state.ApplyBlock to build up the tendermint state
+	latestAppHash := buildTMStateFromChain(config, state, chain, mode)
+
+	// make a new client creator
+	dummyApp := dummy.NewPersistentDummyApplication(path.Join(config.GetString("db_dir"), "2"))
+	clientCreator2 := proxy.NewLocalClientCreator(dummyApp)
+	if nBlocks > 0 {
+		// run nBlocks against a new client to build up the app state.
+		// use a throwaway tendermint state
+		proxyApp := proxy.NewAppConns(config, clientCreator2, nil)
+		state, _ := stateAndStore(config, privVal.PubKey)
+		buildAppStateFromChain(proxyApp, state, chain, nBlocks, mode)
+	}
+
+	// now start the app using the handshake - it should sync
+	handshaker := NewHandshaker(config, state, store)
+	proxyApp := proxy.NewAppConns(config, clientCreator2, handshaker)
+	if _, err := proxyApp.Start(); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Error starting proxy app connections: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	// get the latest app hash from the app
+	res, err := proxyApp.Query().InfoSync()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	// the app hash should be synced up
+	if !bytes.Equal(latestAppHash, res.LastBlockAppHash) {
+		t.Fatalf("Expected app hashes to match after handshake/replay. got %X, expected %X", res.LastBlockAppHash, latestAppHash)
+	}
+
+	expectedBlocksToSync := NUM_BLOCKS - nBlocks
+	if nBlocks == NUM_BLOCKS && mode > 0 {
+		expectedBlocksToSync += 1
+	} else if nBlocks > 0 && mode == 1 {
+		expectedBlocksToSync += 1
+	}
+
+	if handshaker.NBlocks() != expectedBlocksToSync {
+		t.Fatalf("Expected handshake to sync %d blocks, got %d", expectedBlocksToSync, handshaker.NBlocks())
+	}
+}
+
+func applyBlock(st *sm.State, blk *types.Block, proxyApp proxy.AppConns) {
+	err := st.ApplyBlock(nil, proxyApp.Consensus(), blk, blk.MakePartSet(testPartSize).Header(), mempool)
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+}
+
+func buildAppStateFromChain(proxyApp proxy.AppConns,
+	state *sm.State, chain []*types.Block, nBlocks int, mode uint) {
+	// start a new app without handshake, play nBlocks blocks
+	if _, err := proxyApp.Start(); err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+	defer proxyApp.Stop()
+	switch mode {
+	case 0:
+		for i := 0; i < nBlocks; i++ {
+			block := chain[i]
+			applyBlock(state, block, proxyApp)
+		}
+	case 1, 2:
+		for i := 0; i < nBlocks-1; i++ {
+			block := chain[i]
+			applyBlock(state, block, proxyApp)
+		}
+
+		if mode == 2 {
+			// update the dummy height and apphash
+			// as if we ran commit but not
+			applyBlock(state, chain[nBlocks-1], proxyApp)
+		}
+	}
+
+}
+
+func buildTMStateFromChain(config cfg.Config, state *sm.State, chain []*types.Block, mode uint) []byte {
+	// run the whole chain against this client to build up the tendermint state
+	clientCreator := proxy.NewLocalClientCreator(dummy.NewPersistentDummyApplication(path.Join(config.GetString("db_dir"), "1")))
+	proxyApp := proxy.NewAppConns(config, clientCreator, nil) // sm.NewHandshaker(config, state, store, ReplayLastBlock))
+	if _, err := proxyApp.Start(); err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+	defer proxyApp.Stop()
+
+	var latestAppHash []byte
+
+	switch mode {
+	case 0:
+		// sync right up
+		for _, block := range chain {
+			applyBlock(state, block, proxyApp)
+		}
+
+		latestAppHash = state.AppHash
+	case 1, 2:
+		// sync up to the penultimate as if we stored the block.
+		// whether we commit or not depends on the appHash
+		for _, block := range chain[:len(chain)-1] {
+			applyBlock(state, block, proxyApp)
+		}
+
+		// apply the final block to a state copy so we can
+		// get the right next appHash but keep the state back
+		stateCopy := state.Copy()
+		applyBlock(stateCopy, chain[len(chain)-1], proxyApp)
+		latestAppHash = stateCopy.AppHash
+	}
+
+	return latestAppHash
+}
+
+//--------------------------
+// utils for making blocks
+
+func makeBlockchainFromWAL(wal *WAL) ([]*types.Block, []*types.Commit, error) {
+	// Search for height marker
+	gr, found, err := wal.group.Search("#HEIGHT: ", makeHeightSearchFunc(1))
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, nil, err
+	}
+	if !found {
+		return nil, nil, errors.New(cmn.Fmt("WAL does not contain height %d.", 1))
+	}
+	defer gr.Close()
+
+	log.Notice("Build a blockchain by reading from the WAL")
+
+	var blockParts *types.PartSet
+	var blocks []*types.Block
+	var commits []*types.Commit
+	for {
+		line, err := gr.ReadLine()
+		if err != nil {
+			if err == io.EOF {
+				break
+			} else {
+				return nil, nil, err
+			}
+		}
+
+		piece, err := readPieceFromWAL([]byte(line))
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, nil, err
+		}
+		if piece == nil {
+			continue
+		}
+
+		switch p := piece.(type) {
+		case *types.PartSetHeader:
+			// if its not the first one, we have a full block
+			if blockParts != nil {
+				var n int
+				block := wire.ReadBinary(&types.Block{}, blockParts.GetReader(), types.MaxBlockSize, &n, &err).(*types.Block)
+				blocks = append(blocks, block)
+			}
+			blockParts = types.NewPartSetFromHeader(*p)
+		case *types.Part:
+			_, err := blockParts.AddPart(p, false)
+			if err != nil {
+				return nil, nil, err
+			}
+		case *types.Vote:
+			if p.Type == types.VoteTypePrecommit {
+				commit := &types.Commit{
+					BlockID:    p.BlockID,
+					Precommits: []*types.Vote{p},
+				}
+				commits = append(commits, commit)
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	// grab the last block too
+	var n int
+	block := wire.ReadBinary(&types.Block{}, blockParts.GetReader(), types.MaxBlockSize, &n, &err).(*types.Block)
+	blocks = append(blocks, block)
+	return blocks, commits, nil
+}
+
+func readPieceFromWAL(msgBytes []byte) (interface{}, error) {
+	// Skip over empty and meta lines
+	if len(msgBytes) == 0 || msgBytes[0] == '#' {
+		return nil, nil
+	}
+	var err error
+	var msg TimedWALMessage
+	wire.ReadJSON(&msg, msgBytes, &err)
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Println("MsgBytes:", msgBytes, string(msgBytes))
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("Error reading json data: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	// for logging
+	switch m := msg.Msg.(type) {
+	case msgInfo:
+		switch msg := m.Msg.(type) {
+		case *ProposalMessage:
+			return &msg.Proposal.BlockPartsHeader, nil
+		case *BlockPartMessage:
+			return msg.Part, nil
+		case *VoteMessage:
+			return msg.Vote, nil
+		}
+	}
+	return nil, nil
+}
+
+// make some bogus txs
+func txsFunc(blockNum int) (txs []types.Tx) {
+	for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {
+		txs = append(txs, types.Tx([]byte{byte(blockNum), byte(i)}))
+	}
+	return txs
+}
+
+// sign a commit vote
+func signCommit(chainID string, privVal *types.PrivValidator, height, round int, hash []byte, header types.PartSetHeader) *types.Vote {
+	vote := &types.Vote{
+		ValidatorIndex:   0,
+		ValidatorAddress: privVal.Address,
+		Height:           height,
+		Round:            round,
+		Type:             types.VoteTypePrecommit,
+		BlockID:          types.BlockID{hash, header},
+	}
+
+	sig := privVal.Sign(types.SignBytes(chainID, vote))
+	vote.Signature = sig
+	return vote
+}
+
+// make a blockchain with one validator
+func makeBlockchain(t *testing.T, chainID string, nBlocks int, privVal *types.PrivValidator, proxyApp proxy.AppConns, state *sm.State) (blockchain []*types.Block, commits []*types.Commit) {
+
+	prevHash := state.LastBlockID.Hash
+	lastCommit := new(types.Commit)
+	prevParts := types.PartSetHeader{}
+	valHash := state.Validators.Hash()
+	prevBlockID := types.BlockID{prevHash, prevParts}
+
+	for i := 1; i < nBlocks+1; i++ {
+		block, parts := types.MakeBlock(i, chainID, txsFunc(i), lastCommit,
+			prevBlockID, valHash, state.AppHash, testPartSize)
+		fmt.Println(i)
+		fmt.Println(block.LastBlockID)
+		err := state.ApplyBlock(nil, proxyApp.Consensus(), block, block.MakePartSet(testPartSize).Header(), mempool)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(i, err)
+		}
+
+		voteSet := types.NewVoteSet(chainID, i, 0, types.VoteTypePrecommit, state.Validators)
+		vote := signCommit(chainID, privVal, i, 0, block.Hash(), parts.Header())
+		_, err = voteSet.AddVote(vote)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+
+		prevHash = block.Hash()
+		prevParts = parts.Header()
+		lastCommit = voteSet.MakeCommit()
+		prevBlockID = types.BlockID{prevHash, prevParts}
+
+		blockchain = append(blockchain, block)
+		commits = append(commits, lastCommit)
+	}
+	return blockchain, commits
+}
+
+// fresh state and mock store
+func stateAndStore(config cfg.Config, pubKey crypto.PubKey) (*sm.State, *mockBlockStore) {
+	stateDB := dbm.NewMemDB()
+	return sm.MakeGenesisState(stateDB, &types.GenesisDoc{
+		ChainID: config.GetString("chain_id"),
+		Validators: []types.GenesisValidator{
+			types.GenesisValidator{pubKey, 10000, "test"},
+		},
+		AppHash: nil,
+	}), NewMockBlockStore(config)
+}
+
+//----------------------------------
+// mock block store
+
+type mockBlockStore struct {
+	config  cfg.Config
+	chain   []*types.Block
+	commits []*types.Commit
+}
+
+// TODO: NewBlockStore(db.NewMemDB) ...
+func NewMockBlockStore(config cfg.Config) *mockBlockStore {
+	return &mockBlockStore{config, nil, nil}
+}
+
+func (bs *mockBlockStore) Height() int                       { return len(bs.chain) }
+func (bs *mockBlockStore) LoadBlock(height int) *types.Block { return bs.chain[height-1] }
+func (bs *mockBlockStore) LoadBlockMeta(height int) *types.BlockMeta {
+	block := bs.chain[height-1]
+	return &types.BlockMeta{
+		BlockID: types.BlockID{block.Hash(), block.MakePartSet(bs.config.GetInt("block_part_size")).Header()},
+		Header:  block.Header,
+	}
+}
+func (bs *mockBlockStore) LoadBlockPart(height int, index int) *types.Part { return nil }
+func (bs *mockBlockStore) SaveBlock(block *types.Block, blockParts *types.PartSet, seenCommit *types.Commit) {
+}
+func (bs *mockBlockStore) LoadBlockCommit(height int) *types.Commit {
+	return bs.commits[height-1]
+}
+func (bs *mockBlockStore) LoadSeenCommit(height int) *types.Commit {
+	return bs.commits[height-1]
 }
diff --git a/consensus/state.go b/consensus/state.go
index 78e6c0eaa..23eaff748 100644
--- a/consensus/state.go
+++ b/consensus/state.go
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"bytes"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
-	"io"
+	"path"
 	"reflect"
 	"sync"
 	"time"
@@ -14,8 +14,6 @@ import (
 	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
 	cfg "github.com/tendermint/go-config"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-wire"
-	bc "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/blockchain"
-	mempl "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/mempool"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/proxy"
 	sm "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/state"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
@@ -124,6 +122,8 @@ func (rs RoundStepType) String() string {
 //-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 // Immutable when returned from ConsensusState.GetRoundState()
+// TODO: Actually, only the top pointer is copied,
+// so access to field pointers is still racey
 type RoundState struct {
 	Height             int // Height we are working on
 	Round              int
@@ -226,8 +226,8 @@ type ConsensusState struct {
 
 	config       cfg.Config
 	proxyAppConn proxy.AppConnConsensus
-	blockStore   *bc.BlockStore
-	mempool      *mempl.Mempool
+	blockStore   types.BlockStore
+	mempool      types.Mempool
 
 	privValidator PrivValidator // for signing votes
 
@@ -255,7 +255,7 @@ type ConsensusState struct {
 	done chan struct{}
 }
 
-func NewConsensusState(config cfg.Config, state *sm.State, proxyAppConn proxy.AppConnConsensus, blockStore *bc.BlockStore, mempool *mempl.Mempool) *ConsensusState {
+func NewConsensusState(config cfg.Config, state *sm.State, proxyAppConn proxy.AppConnConsensus, blockStore types.BlockStore, mempool types.Mempool) *ConsensusState {
 	cs := &ConsensusState{
 		config:           config,
 		proxyAppConn:     proxyAppConn,
@@ -342,35 +342,18 @@ func (cs *ConsensusState) LoadCommit(height int) *types.Commit {
 func (cs *ConsensusState) OnStart() error {
 	cs.BaseService.OnStart()
 
-	walDir := cs.config.GetString("cs_wal_dir")
-	err := EnsureDir(walDir, 0700)
+	walFile := cs.config.GetString("cs_wal_file")
+	err := EnsureDir(path.Dir(walFile), 0700)
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Error("Error ensuring ConsensusState wal dir", "error", err.Error())
 		return err
 	}
-	err = cs.OpenWAL(walDir)
+	err = cs.OpenWAL(walFile)
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Error("Error loading ConsensusState wal", "error", err.Error())
 		return err
 	}
 
-	// If the latest block was applied in the abci handshake,
-	// we may not have written the current height to the wal,
-	// so check here and write it if not found.
-	// TODO: remove this and run the handhsake/replay
-	// through the consensus state with a mock app
-	gr, found, err := cs.wal.group.Search("#HEIGHT: ", makeHeightSearchFunc(cs.Height))
-	if (err == io.EOF || !found) && cs.Step == RoundStepNewHeight {
-		log.Warn("Height not found in wal. Writing new height", "height", cs.Height)
-		rs := cs.RoundStateEvent()
-		cs.wal.Save(rs)
-	} else if err != nil {
-		return err
-	}
-	if gr != nil {
-		gr.Close()
-	}
-
 	// we need the timeoutRoutine for replay so
 	//  we don't block on the tick chan.
 	// NOTE: we will get a build up of garbage go routines
@@ -420,10 +403,10 @@ func (cs *ConsensusState) Wait() {
 }
 
 // Open file to log all consensus messages and timeouts for deterministic accountability
-func (cs *ConsensusState) OpenWAL(walDir string) (err error) {
+func (cs *ConsensusState) OpenWAL(walFile string) (err error) {
 	cs.mtx.Lock()
 	defer cs.mtx.Unlock()
-	wal, err := NewWAL(walDir, cs.config.GetBool("cs_wal_light"))
+	wal, err := NewWAL(walFile, cs.config.GetBool("cs_wal_light"))
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
@@ -569,7 +552,6 @@ func (cs *ConsensusState) updateToState(state *sm.State) {
 
 	// Reset fields based on state.
 	validators := state.Validators
-	height := state.LastBlockHeight + 1 // Next desired block height
 	lastPrecommits := (*types.VoteSet)(nil)
 	if cs.CommitRound > -1 && cs.Votes != nil {
 		if !cs.Votes.Precommits(cs.CommitRound).HasTwoThirdsMajority() {
@@ -578,6 +560,9 @@ func (cs *ConsensusState) updateToState(state *sm.State) {
 		lastPrecommits = cs.Votes.Precommits(cs.CommitRound)
 	}
 
+	// Next desired block height
+	height := state.LastBlockHeight + 1
+
 	// RoundState fields
 	cs.updateHeight(height)
 	cs.updateRoundStep(0, RoundStepNewHeight)
@@ -622,11 +607,6 @@ func (cs *ConsensusState) newStep() {
 //-----------------------------------------
 // the main go routines
 
-// a nice idea but probably more trouble than its worth
-func (cs *ConsensusState) stopTimer() {
-	cs.timeoutTicker.Stop()
-}
-
 // receiveRoutine handles messages which may cause state transitions.
 // it's argument (n) is the number of messages to process before exiting - use 0 to run forever
 // It keeps the RoundState and is the only thing that updates it.
@@ -765,7 +745,6 @@ func (cs *ConsensusState) enterNewRound(height int, round int) {
 	if now := time.Now(); cs.StartTime.After(now) {
 		log.Warn("Need to set a buffer and log.Warn() here for sanity.", "startTime", cs.StartTime, "now", now)
 	}
-	// cs.stopTimer()
 
 	log.Notice(Fmt("enterNewRound(%v/%v). Current: %v/%v/%v", height, round, cs.Height, cs.Round, cs.Step))
 
@@ -827,10 +806,10 @@ func (cs *ConsensusState) enterPropose(height int, round int) {
 		return
 	}
 
-	if !bytes.Equal(cs.Validators.Proposer().Address, cs.privValidator.GetAddress()) {
-		log.Info("enterPropose: Not our turn to propose", "proposer", cs.Validators.Proposer().Address, "privValidator", cs.privValidator)
+	if !bytes.Equal(cs.Validators.GetProposer().Address, cs.privValidator.GetAddress()) {
+		log.Info("enterPropose: Not our turn to propose", "proposer", cs.Validators.GetProposer().Address, "privValidator", cs.privValidator)
 	} else {
-		log.Info("enterPropose: Our turn to propose", "proposer", cs.Validators.Proposer().Address, "privValidator", cs.privValidator)
+		log.Info("enterPropose: Our turn to propose", "proposer", cs.Validators.GetProposer().Address, "privValidator", cs.privValidator)
 		cs.decideProposal(height, round)
 
 	}
@@ -945,8 +924,6 @@ func (cs *ConsensusState) enterPrevote(height int, round int) {
 		// TODO: catchup event?
 	}
 
-	// cs.stopTimer()
-
 	log.Info(Fmt("enterPrevote(%v/%v). Current: %v/%v/%v", height, round, cs.Height, cs.Round, cs.Step))
 
 	// Sign and broadcast vote as necessary
@@ -1020,8 +997,6 @@ func (cs *ConsensusState) enterPrecommit(height int, round int) {
 		return
 	}
 
-	// cs.stopTimer()
-
 	log.Info(Fmt("enterPrecommit(%v/%v). Current: %v/%v/%v", height, round, cs.Height, cs.Round, cs.Step))
 
 	defer func() {
@@ -1185,13 +1160,13 @@ func (cs *ConsensusState) tryFinalizeCommit(height int) {
 
 	blockID, ok := cs.Votes.Precommits(cs.CommitRound).TwoThirdsMajority()
 	if !ok || len(blockID.Hash) == 0 {
-		log.Warn("Attempt to finalize failed. There was no +2/3 majority, or +2/3 was for <nil>.")
+		log.Warn("Attempt to finalize failed. There was no +2/3 majority, or +2/3 was for <nil>.", "height", height)
 		return
 	}
 	if !cs.ProposalBlock.HashesTo(blockID.Hash) {
 		// TODO: this happens every time if we're not a validator (ugly logs)
 		// TODO: ^^ wait, why does it matter that we're a validator?
-		log.Warn("Attempt to finalize failed. We don't have the commit block.")
+		log.Warn("Attempt to finalize failed. We don't have the commit block.", "height", height, "proposal-block", cs.ProposalBlock.Hash(), "commit-block", blockID.Hash)
 		return
 	}
 	//	go
@@ -1235,7 +1210,8 @@ func (cs *ConsensusState) finalizeCommit(height int) {
 		seenCommit := precommits.MakeCommit()
 		cs.blockStore.SaveBlock(block, blockParts, seenCommit)
 	} else {
-		log.Warn("Why are we finalizeCommitting a block height we already have?", "height", block.Height)
+		// Happens during replay if we already saved the block but didn't commit
+		log.Info("Calling finalizeCommit on already stored block", "height", block.Height)
 	}
 
 	fail.Fail() // XXX
@@ -1250,7 +1226,8 @@ func (cs *ConsensusState) finalizeCommit(height int) {
 	// NOTE: the block.AppHash wont reflect these txs until the next block
 	err := stateCopy.ApplyBlock(eventCache, cs.proxyAppConn, block, blockParts.Header(), cs.mempool)
 	if err != nil {
-		// TODO!
+		log.Error("Error on ApplyBlock. Did the application crash? Please restart tendermint", "error", err)
+		return
 	}
 
 	fail.Fail() // XXX
@@ -1306,7 +1283,7 @@ func (cs *ConsensusState) defaultSetProposal(proposal *types.Proposal) error {
 	}
 
 	// Verify signature
-	if !cs.Validators.Proposer().PubKey.VerifyBytes(types.SignBytes(cs.state.ChainID, proposal), proposal.Signature) {
+	if !cs.Validators.GetProposer().PubKey.VerifyBytes(types.SignBytes(cs.state.ChainID, proposal), proposal.Signature) {
 		return ErrInvalidProposalSignature
 	}
 
diff --git a/consensus/state_test.go b/consensus/state_test.go
index d3eef59f0..b7d9a42d1 100644
--- a/consensus/state_test.go
+++ b/consensus/state_test.go
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ func TestProposerSelection0(t *testing.T) {
 	<-newRoundCh
 
 	// lets commit a block and ensure proposer for the next height is correct
-	prop := cs1.GetRoundState().Validators.Proposer()
+	prop := cs1.GetRoundState().Validators.GetProposer()
 	if !bytes.Equal(prop.Address, cs1.privValidator.GetAddress()) {
 		t.Fatalf("expected proposer to be validator %d. Got %X", 0, prop.Address)
 	}
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ func TestProposerSelection0(t *testing.T) {
 	// wait for new round so next validator is set
 	<-newRoundCh
 
-	prop = cs1.GetRoundState().Validators.Proposer()
+	prop = cs1.GetRoundState().Validators.GetProposer()
 	if !bytes.Equal(prop.Address, vss[1].Address) {
 		panic(Fmt("expected proposer to be validator %d. Got %X", 1, prop.Address))
 	}
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ func TestProposerSelection2(t *testing.T) {
 
 	// everyone just votes nil. we get a new proposer each round
 	for i := 0; i < len(vss); i++ {
-		prop := cs1.GetRoundState().Validators.Proposer()
+		prop := cs1.GetRoundState().Validators.GetProposer()
 		if !bytes.Equal(prop.Address, vss[(i+2)%len(vss)].Address) {
 			panic(Fmt("expected proposer to be validator %d. Got %X", (i+2)%len(vss), prop.Address))
 		}
diff --git a/consensus/test_data/build.sh b/consensus/test_data/build.sh
index 970eb7835..ea0c9604a 100644
--- a/consensus/test_data/build.sh
+++ b/consensus/test_data/build.sh
@@ -1,12 +1,13 @@
 #! /bin/bash
 
+# XXX: removes tendermint dir
+
 cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
 
 # specify a dir to copy
-# NOTE: eventually we should replace with `tendermint init --test`
+# TODO: eventually we should replace with `tendermint init --test`
 DIR=$HOME/.tendermint_test/consensus_state_test
 
-# XXX: remove tendermint dir
 rm -rf $HOME/.tendermint
 cp -r $DIR $HOME/.tendermint
 
@@ -18,6 +19,7 @@ function reset(){
 reset
 
 # empty block
+function empty_block(){
 tendermint node --proxy_app=dummy &> /dev/null &
 sleep 5
 killall tendermint
@@ -28,21 +30,40 @@ killall tendermint
 sed '/HEIGHT: 2/Q' ~/.tendermint/data/cs.wal/wal  > consensus/test_data/empty_block.cswal
 
 reset
+}
+
+# many blocks
+function many_blocks(){
+bash scripts/txs/random.sh 1000 36657 &> /dev/null &
+PID=$!
+tendermint node --proxy_app=dummy &> /dev/null &
+sleep 7
+killall tendermint
+kill -9 $PID
+
+sed '/HEIGHT: 7/Q' ~/.tendermint/data/cs.wal/wal  > consensus/test_data/many_blocks.cswal
+
+reset
+}
+
 
 # small block 1
+function small_block1(){
 bash scripts/txs/random.sh 1000 36657 &> /dev/null &
 PID=$!
 tendermint node --proxy_app=dummy &> /dev/null &
-sleep 5
+sleep 10
 killall tendermint
 kill -9 $PID
 
 sed '/HEIGHT: 2/Q' ~/.tendermint/data/cs.wal/wal  > consensus/test_data/small_block1.cswal
 
 reset
+}
 
 
 # small block 2 (part size = 512)
+function small_block2(){
 echo "" >> ~/.tendermint/config.toml
 echo "block_part_size = 512" >> ~/.tendermint/config.toml
 bash scripts/txs/random.sh 1000 36657 &> /dev/null &
@@ -55,4 +76,28 @@ kill -9 $PID
 sed '/HEIGHT: 2/Q' ~/.tendermint/data/cs.wal/wal  > consensus/test_data/small_block2.cswal
 
 reset
+}
+
+
+
+case "$1" in 
+	"small_block1")
+		small_block1
+		;;
+	"small_block2")
+		small_block2
+		;;
+	"empty_block")
+		empty_block
+		;;
+	"many_blocks")
+		many_blocks
+		;;
+	*)
+		small_block1
+		small_block2
+		empty_block
+		many_blocks
+esac
+
 
diff --git a/consensus/test_data/many_blocks.cswal b/consensus/test_data/many_blocks.cswal
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9ef06c32c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/consensus/test_data/many_blocks.cswal
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+#HEIGHT: 1
+{"time":"2017-02-17T23:54:19.013Z","msg":[3,{"duration":969121813,"height":1,"round":0,"step":1}]}
+{"time":"2017-02-17T23:54:19.014Z","msg":[1,{"height":1,"round":0,"step":"RoundStepPropose"}]}
+{"time":"2017-02-17T23:54:19.014Z","msg":[2,{"msg":[17,{"Proposal":{"height":1,"round":0,"block_parts_header":{"total":1,"hash":"2E32C8D500E936D27A47FCE3FF4BE7C1AFB3FAE1"},"pol_round":-1,"pol_block_id":{"hash":"","parts":{"total":0,"hash":""}},"signature":[1,"105A5A834E9AE2FA2191CAB5CB20D63594BA7859BD3EB92F055C8A35476D71F0D89F9FD5B0FF030D021533C71A81BF6E8F026BF4A37FC637CF38CA35291A9D00"]}}],"peer_key":""}]}
+{"time":"2017-02-17T23:54:19.015Z","msg":[2,{"msg":[19,{"Height":1,"Round":0,"Part":{"index":0,"bytes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+{"time":"2017-02-17T23:54:19.016Z","msg":[1,{"height":1,"round":0,"step":"RoundStepPrevote"}]}
+{"time":"2017-02-17T23:54:19.016Z","msg":[2,{"msg":[20,{"Vote":{"validator_address":"D028C9981F7A87F3093672BF0D5B0E2A1B3ED456","validator_index":0,"height":1,"round":0,"type":1,"block_id":{"hash":"3F32EE37F9EA674A2173CAD651836A8EE628B5C7","parts":{"total":1,"hash":"2E32C8D500E936D27A47FCE3FF4BE7C1AFB3FAE1"}},"signature":[1,"31851DA0008AFF4223245EDFCCF1AD7BE96F8D66F8BD02D87F06B2F800A9405413861877D08798F0F6297D29936F5380B352C82212D2EC6F0E194A8C22A1EB0E"]}}],"peer_key":""}]}
+{"time":"2017-02-17T23:54:19.016Z","msg":[1,{"height":1,"round":0,"step":"RoundStepPrecommit"}]}
+{"time":"2017-02-17T23:54:19.016Z","msg":[2,{"msg":[20,{"Vote":{"validator_address":"D028C9981F7A87F3093672BF0D5B0E2A1B3ED456","validator_index":0,"height":1,"round":0,"type":2,"block_id":{"hash":"3F32EE37F9EA674A2173CAD651836A8EE628B5C7","parts":{"total":1,"hash":"2E32C8D500E936D27A47FCE3FF4BE7C1AFB3FAE1"}},"signature":[1,"2B1070A5AB9305612A3AE74A8036D82B5E49E0DBBFBC7D723DB985CC8A8E72A52FF8E34D85273FEB8B901945CA541FA5142C3C4D43A04E9205ACECF53FD19B01"]}}],"peer_key":""}]}
+{"time":"2017-02-17T23:54:19.017Z","msg":[1,{"height":1,"round":0,"step":"RoundStepCommit"}]}
+#HEIGHT: 2
+{"time":"2017-02-17T23:54:19.019Z","msg":[1,{"height":2,"round":0,"step":"RoundStepNewHeight"}]}
+{"time":"2017-02-17T23:54:20.017Z","msg":[3,{"duration":998073370,"height":2,"round":0,"step":1}]}
+{"time":"2017-02-17T23:54:20.018Z","msg":[1,{"height":2,"round":0,"step":"RoundStepPropose"}]}
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+{"time":"2017-02-17T23:54:24.041Z","msg":[1,{"height":6,"round":0,"step":"RoundStepPrevote"}]}
+{"time":"2017-02-17T23:54:24.041Z","msg":[2,{"msg":[20,{"Vote":{"validator_address":"D028C9981F7A87F3093672BF0D5B0E2A1B3ED456","validator_index":0,"height":6,"round":0,"type":1,"block_id":{"hash":"1F7C249FF99B67AC57C4EEC94C42E0B95C9AFB6B","parts":{"total":1,"hash":"EA1E4111198195006BF7C23322B1051BE6C11582"}},"signature":[1,"1F79910354E1F4ACA11FC16DBA1ED6F75063A15BF8093C4AAEF87F69B3990F65E51FFC8B35A409838ECD0FF3C26E87637B068D0DC7E5863D5F1CF97826222300"]}}],"peer_key":""}]}
+{"time":"2017-02-17T23:54:24.042Z","msg":[1,{"height":6,"round":0,"step":"RoundStepPrecommit"}]}
+{"time":"2017-02-17T23:54:24.042Z","msg":[2,{"msg":[20,{"Vote":{"validator_address":"D028C9981F7A87F3093672BF0D5B0E2A1B3ED456","validator_index":0,"height":6,"round":0,"type":2,"block_id":{"hash":"1F7C249FF99B67AC57C4EEC94C42E0B95C9AFB6B","parts":{"total":1,"hash":"EA1E4111198195006BF7C23322B1051BE6C11582"}},"signature":[1,"E7838F403E4D5E651317D8563355CB2E140409B1B471B4AC12EBF7085989228CFA062029DF78A405CF977925777177D876804D78D80DF2312977E6D804394A0E"]}}],"peer_key":""}]}
+{"time":"2017-02-17T23:54:24.042Z","msg":[1,{"height":6,"round":0,"step":"RoundStepCommit"}]}
diff --git a/consensus/wal.go b/consensus/wal.go
index 099e3c1aa..99035ee2e 100644
--- a/consensus/wal.go
+++ b/consensus/wal.go
@@ -40,8 +40,8 @@ type WAL struct {
 	light bool // ignore block parts
 }
 
-func NewWAL(walDir string, light bool) (*WAL, error) {
-	group, err := auto.OpenGroup(walDir + "/wal")
+func NewWAL(walFile string, light bool) (*WAL, error) {
+	group, err := auto.OpenGroup(walFile)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
diff --git a/docs/architecture/ABCI.md b/docs/architecture/ABCI.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..04d62c1ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/architecture/ABCI.md
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+# ABCI
+
+ABCI is an interface between the consensus/blockchain engine known as tendermint, and the application-specific business logic, known as an ABCi app.
+
+The tendermint core should run unchanged for all apps.  Each app can customize it, the supported transactions, queries, even the validator sets and how to handle staking / slashing stake. This customization is achieved by implementing the ABCi app to send the proper information to the tendermint engine to perform as directed.
+
+To understand this decision better, think of the design of the tendermint engine.
+
+* A blockchain is simply consensus on a unique global ordering of events.
+* This consensus can efficiently be implemented using BFT and PoS
+* This code can be generalized to easily support a large number of blockchains
+* The block-chain specific code, the interpretation of the individual events, can be implemented by a 3rd party app without touching the consensus engine core
+* Use an efficient, language-agnostic layer to implement this (ABCi)
+
+
+Bucky, please make this doc real.
diff --git a/docs/architecture/README.md b/docs/architecture/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..dd97a5b75
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/architecture/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+# Architecture Decision Records
+
+This is a location to record all high-level architecture decisions in the tendermin project.  Not the implementation details, but the reasoning that happened.  This should be refered to for guidance of the "right way" to extend the application.  And if we notice that the original decisions were lacking, we should have another open discussion, record the new decisions here, and then modify the code to match.
+
+This is like our guide and mentor when Jae and Bucky are offline.... The concept comes from a [blog post](https://product.reverb.com/documenting-architecture-decisions-the-reverb-way-a3563bb24bd0#.78xhdix6t) that resonated among the team when Anton shared it.
+
+Each section of the code can have it's own markdown file in this directory, and please add a link to the readme.
+
+## Sections
+
+* [ABCI](./ABCI.md)
+* [go-merkle / merkleeyes](./merkle.md)
+* [Frey's thoughts on the data store](./merkle-frey.md)
+* basecoin
+* tendermint core (multiple sections)
+* ???
diff --git a/docs/architecture/merkle-frey.md b/docs/architecture/merkle-frey.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..aca4ce32e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/architecture/merkle-frey.md
@@ -0,0 +1,240 @@
+# Merkle data stores - Frey's proposal
+
+## TL;DR
+
+To allow the efficient creation of an ABCi app, tendermint wishes to provide a reference implementation of a key-value store that provides merkle proofs of the data.  These proofs then quickly allow the ABCi app to provide an app hash to the consensus engine, as well as a full proof to any client.
+
+This is equivalent to building a database, and I would propose designing it from the API first, then looking how to implement this (or make an adapter from the API to existing implementations). Once we agree on the functionality and the interface, we can implement the API bindings, and then work on building adapters to existence merkle-ized data stores, or modifying the stores to support this interface.
+
+We need to consider the API (both in-process and over the network), language bindings, maintaining handles to old state (and garbage collecting), persistence, security, providing merkle proofs, and general key-value store operations. To stay consistent with the blockchains "single global order of operations", this data store should only allow one connection at a time to have write access.
+
+## Overview
+
+* **State**
+  * There are two concepts of state, "committed state" and "working state"
+  * The working state is only accessible from the ABCi app, allows writing, but does not need to support proofs.
+  * When we commit the "working state", it becomes a new "committed state" and has an immutable root hash, provides proofs, and can be exposed to external clients.
+* **Transactions**
+  * The database always allows creating a read-only transaction at the last "committed state", this transaction can serve read queries and proofs.
+  * The database maintains all data to serve these read transactions until they are closed by the client (or time out).  This allows the client(s) to determine how much old info is needed
+  * The database can only support *maximal* one writable transaction at a time.  This makes it easy to enforce serializability, and attempting to start a second writable transaction may trigger a panic.
+* **Functionality**
+  * It must support efficient key-value operations (get/set/delete)
+  * It must support returning merkle proofs for any "committed state"
+  * It should support range queries on subsets of the key space if possible (ie. if the db doesn't hash keys)
+  * It should also support listening to changes to a desired key via pub-sub or similar method, so I can quickly notify you on a change to your balance without constant polling.
+  * It may support other db-specific query types as an extension to this interface, as long as all specified actions maintain their meaning.
+* **Interface**
+  * This interface should be domain-specific - ie. designed just for this use case
+  * It should present a simple go interface for embedding the data store in-process
+  * It should create a gRPC/protobuf API for calling from any client
+  * It should provide and maintain client adapters from our in-process interface to gRPC client calls for at least golang and Java (maybe more languages?)
+  * It should provide and maintain server adapters from our gRPC calls to the in-process interface for golang at least (unless there is another server we wish to support)
+* **Persistence**
+  * It must support atomic persistence upon committing a new block.  That is, upon crash recovery, the state is guaranteed to represent the state at the end of a complete block (along with a note of which height it was).
+  * It must delay deletion of old data as long as there are open read-only transactions referring to it, thus we must maintain some sort of WAL to keep track of pending cleanup.
+  * When a transaction is closed, or when we recover from a crash, it should clean up all no longer needed data to avoid memory/storage leaks.
+* **Security and Auth**
+  * If we allow connections over gRPC, we must consider this issues and allow both encryption (SSL), and some basic auth rules to prevent undesired access to the DB
+  * This is client-specific and does not need to be supported in the in-process, embedded version.
+
+## Details
+
+Here we go more in-depth in each of the sections, explaining the reasoning and more details on the desired behavior. This document is only the high-level architecture and should support multiple implementations.  When building out a specific implementation, a similar document should be provided for that repo, showing how it implements these concepts, and details about memory usage, storage, efficiency, etc.
+
+
+### State
+
+The current ABCi interface avoids this question a bit and that has brought confusion.  If I use `merkleeyes` to store data, which state is returned from `Query`?  The current "working" state, which I would like to refer to in my ABCi application?  Or the last committed state, which I would like to return to a client's query?  Or an old state, which I may select based on height?
+
+Right now, `merkleeyes` implements `Query` like a normal ABCi app and only returns committed state, which has lead to problems and confusion.  Thus, we need to be explicit about which state we want to view.  Each viewer can then specify which state it wants to view.  This allows the app to query the working state in DeliverTx, but the committed state in Query.
+
+We can easily provide two global references for "last committed" and "current working" states.  However, if we want to also allow querying of older commits... then we need some way to keep track of which ones are still in use, so we can garbage collect the unneeded ones. There is a non-trivial overhead in holding references to all past states, but also a hard-coded solution (hold onto the last 5 commits) may not support all clients.  We should let the client define this somehow.
+
+### Transactions
+
+Transactions (in the typical database sense) are a clean and established solution to this issue.  We can look at the [isolations levels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolation_(database_systems)#Serializable) which attempt to provide us things like "repeatable reads".  That means if we open a transaction, and query some data 100 times while other processes are writing to the db, we get the same result each time.  This transaction has a reference to its own local state from the time the transaction started. (We are referring to the highest isolation levels here, which correlate well this the blockchain use case).
+
+If we implement a read-only transaction as a reference to state at the time of creation of that transaction, we can then hold these references to various snapshots, one per block that we are interested, and allow the client to multiplex queries and proofs from these various blocks.
+
+If we continue using these concepts (which have informed 30+ years of server side design), we can add a few nice features to our write transactions. The first of which is `Rollback` and `Commit`.  That means all the changes we make in this transaction have no effect on the database until they are committed.  And until they are committed, we can always abort if we detect an anomaly, returning to the last committed state with a rollback.
+
+There is also a nice extension to this available on some database servers, basically, "nested" transactions or "savepoints".  This means that within one transaction, you can open a subtransaction/savepoint and continue work.  Later you have the option to commit or rollback all work since the savepoint/subtransaction.  And then continue with the main transaction.
+
+If you don't understand why this is useful, look at how basecoin needs to [hold cached state for AppTx](https://github.com/tendermint/basecoin/blob/master/state/execution.go#L126-L149), meaning that it rolls back all modifications if the AppTx returns an error. This was implemented as a wrapper in basecoin, but it is a reasonable thing to support in the DB interface itself (especially since the implementation becomes quite non-trivial as soon as you support range queries).
+
+To give a bit more reference to this concept in practice, read about [Savepoints in Postgresql](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/tutorial-transactions.html) ([reference](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/sql-savepoint.html)) or [Nesting transactions in SQL Server](http://dba-presents.com/index.php/databases/sql-server/43-nesting-transactions-and-save-transaction-command) (TL;DR: scroll to the bottom, section "Real nesting transactions with SAVE TRANSACTION")
+
+### Functionality
+
+Merkle trees work with key-value pairs, so we should most importantly focus on the basic Key-Value operations.  That is `Get`, `Set`, and `Remove`. We also need to return a merkle proof for any key, along with a root hash of the tree for committing state to the blockchain. This is just the basic merkle-tree stuff.
+
+If it is possible with the implementation, it is nice to provide access to Range Queries.  That is, return all values where the key is between X and Y.  If you construct your keys wisely, it is possible to store lists (1:N) relations this way.  Eg, storing blog posts and the key is blog:`poster_id`:`sequence`, then I could search for all blog posts by a given `poster_id`, or even return just posts 10-19 from the given poster.
+
+The construction of a tree that supports range queries was one of the [design decisions of go-merkle](https://github.com/tendermint/go-merkle/blob/master/README.md).  It is also kind of possible with [ethereum's patricia trie](https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Patricia-Tree) as long as the key is less than 32 bytes.
+
+In addition to range queries, there is one more nice feature that we could add to our data store - listening to events. Depending on your context, this is "reactive programming", "event emitters", "notifications", etc... But the basic concept is that a client can listen for all changes to a given key (or set of keys), and receive a notification when this happens. This is very important to avoid [repeated polling and wasted queries](http://resthooks.org/) when a client simply wants to [detect changes](https://www.rethinkdb.com/blog/realtime-web/).
+
+If the database provides access to some "listener" functionality, the app can choose to expose this to the external client via websockets, web hooks, http2 push events, android push notifications, etc, etc etc.... But if we want to support modern client functionality, let's add support for this reactive paradigm in our DB interface.
+
+**TODO** support for more advanced backends, eg. Bolt....
+
+### Go Interface
+
+I will start with a simple go interface to illustrate the in-process interface.  Once there is agreement on how this looks, we can work out the gRPC bindings to support calling out of process. These interfaces are not finalized code, but I think the demonstrate the concepts better than text and provide a strawman to get feedback.
+
+```
+// DB represents the committed state of a merkle-ized key-value store
+type DB interface {
+  // Snapshot returns a reference to last committed state to use for
+  // providing proofs, you must close it at the end to garbage collect
+  // the historical state we hold on to to make these proofs
+  Snapshot() Prover
+
+  // Start a transaction - only way to change state
+  // This will return an error if there is an open Transaction
+  Begin() (Transaction, error)
+
+  // These callbacks are triggered when the Transaction is Committed
+  // to the DB.  They can be used to eg. notify clients via websockets when
+  // their account balance changes.
+  AddListener(key []byte, listener Listener)
+  RemoveListener(listener Listener)
+}
+
+// DBReader represents a read-only connection to a snapshot of the db
+type DBReader interface {
+  // Queries on my local view
+  Has(key []byte) (bool, error)
+  Get(key []byte) (Model, error)
+  GetRange(start, end []byte, ascending bool, limit int) ([]Model, error)
+  Closer
+}
+
+// Prover is an interface that lets one query for Proofs, holding the
+// data at a specific location in memory
+type Prover interface {
+  DBReader
+
+  // Hash is the AppHash (RootHash) for this block
+  Hash() (hash []byte)
+
+  // Prove returns the data along with a merkle Proof
+  // Model and Proof are nil if not found
+  Prove(key []byte) (Model, Proof, error)
+}
+
+// Transaction is a set of state changes to the DB to be applied atomically.
+// There can only be one open transaction at a time, which may only have
+// maximum one subtransaction at a time.
+// In short, at any time, there is exactly one object that can write to the
+// DB, and we can use Subtransactions to group operations and roll them back
+// together (kind of like `types.KVCache` from basecoin)
+type Transaction interface {
+  DBReader
+
+  // Change the state - will raise error immediately if this Transaction
+  // is not holding the exclusive write lock
+  Set(model Model) (err error)
+  Remove(key []byte) (removed bool, err error)
+
+  // Subtransaction starts a new subtransaction, rollback will not affect the
+  // parent.  Only on Commit are the changes applied to this transaction.
+  // While the subtransaction exists, no write allowed on the parent.
+  // (You must Commit or Rollback the child to continue)
+  Subtransaction() Transaction
+
+  // Commit this transaction (or subtransaction), the parent reference is
+  // now updated.
+  // This only updates persistant store if the top level transaction commits
+  // (You may have any number of nested sub transactions)
+  Commit() error
+
+  // Rollback ends the transaction and throw away all transaction-local state,
+  // allowing the tree to prune those elements.
+  // The parent transaction now recovers the write lock.
+  Rollback()
+}
+
+// Listener registers callbacks on changes to the data store
+type Listener interface {
+  OnSet(key, value, oldValue []byte)
+  OnRemove(key, oldValue []byte)
+}
+
+// Proof represents a merkle proof for a key
+type Proof interface {
+  RootHash() []byte
+  Verify(key, value, root []byte) bool
+}
+
+type Model interface {
+  Key() []byte
+  Value() []byte
+}
+
+// Closer releases the reference to this state, allowing us to garbage collect
+// Make sure to call it before discarding.
+type Closer interface {
+  Close()
+}
+```
+
+### Remote Interface
+
+The use-case of allowing out-of-process calls is very powerful.  Not just to provide a powerful merkle-ready data store to non-go applications.
+
+It we allow the ABCi app to maintain the only writable connections, we can guarantee that all transactions are only processed through the tendermint consensus engine.  We could then allow multiple "web server" machines "read-only" access and scale out the database reads, assuming the consensus engine, ABCi logic, and public key cryptography is more the bottleneck than the database. We could even place the consensus engine, ABCi app, and data store on one machine, connected with unix sockets for security, and expose a tcp/ssl interface for reading the data, to scale out query processing over multiple machines.
+
+But returning our focus directly to the ABCi app (which is the most important use case).  An app may well want to maintain 100 or 1000 snapshots of different heights to allow people to easily query many proofs at a given height without race conditions (very important for IBC, ask Jae).  Thus, we should not require a separate TCP connection for each height, as this gets quite awkward with so many connections. Also, if we want to use gRPC, we should consider the connections potentially transient (although they are more efficient with keep-alive).
+
+Thus, the wire encoding of a transaction or a snapshot should simply return a unique id.  All methods on a `Prover` or `Transaction` over the wire can send this id along with the arguments for the method call.  And we just need a hash map on the server to map this id to a state.
+
+The only negative of not requiring a persistent tcp connection for each snapshot is there is no auto-detection if the client crashes without explicitly closing the connections.  Thus, I would suggest adding a `Ping` thread in the gRPC interface which keeps the Snapshot alive.  If no ping is received within a server-defined time, it may automatically close those transactions.  And if we consider a client with 500 snapshots that needs to ping each every 10 seconds, that is a lot of overhead, so we should design the ping to accept a list of IDs for the client and update them all.  Or associate all snapshots with a clientID and then just send the clientID in the ping.  (Please add other ideas on how to detect client crashes without persistent connections).
+
+To encourage adoption, we should provide a nice client that uses this gRPC interface (like we do with ABCi).  For go, the client may have the exact same interface as the in-process version, just that the error call may return network errors, not just illegal operations.  We should also add a client with a clean API for Java, since that seems to be popular among app developers in the current tendermint community.  Other bindings as we see the need in the server space.
+
+### Persistence
+
+Any data store worth it's name should not lose all data on a crash.  Even [redis provides some persistence](https://redis.io/topics/persistence) these days. Ideally, if the system crashes and restarts, it should have the data at the last block N that was committed.  If the system crash during the commit of block N+1, then the recovered state should either be block N or completely committed block N+1, but no partial state between the two.  Basically, the commit must be an atomic operation (even if updating 100's of records).
+
+To avoid a lot of headaches ourselves, we can use an existing data store, such as leveldb, which provides `WriteBatch` to group all operations.
+
+The other issue is cleaning up old state.  We cannot delete any information from our persistent store, as long as any snapshot holds a reference to it (or else we get some panics when the data we query is not there).  So, we need to store the outstanding deletions that we can perform when the snapshot is `Close`d.  In addition, we must consider the case that the data store crashes with open snapshots.  Thus, the info on outstanding deletions must also be persisted somewhere.  Something like a "delete-behind log" (the opposite of a "write ahead log").
+
+This is not a concern of the generic interface, but each implementation should take care to handle this well to avoid accumulation of unused references in the data store and eventual data bloat.
+
+#### Backing stores
+
+It is way outside the scope of this project to build our own database that is capable of efficiently storing the data, provide multiple read-only snapshots at once, and save it atomically. The best approach seems to select an existing database (best a simple one) that provides this functionality and build upon it, much like the current `go-merkle` implementation builds upon `leveldb`.  After some research here are winners and losers:
+
+**Winners**
+
+* Leveldb - [provides consistent snapshots](https://ayende.com/blog/161705/reviewing-leveldb-part-xiii-smile-and-here-is-your-snapshot), and [provides tooling for building ACID compliance](http://codeofrob.com/entries/writing-a-transaction-manager-on-top-of-leveldb.html)
+  * Note there are at least two solid implementations available in go - [goleveldb](https://github.com/syndtr/goleveldb) - a pure go implementation, and [levigo](https://github.com/jmhodges/levigo) - a go wrapper around leveldb.
+  * Goleveldb is much easier to compile and cross-compile (not requiring cgo), while levigo (or cleveldb) seems to provide a significant performance boosts (but I had trouble even running benchmarks)
+* PostgreSQL - fully supports these ACID semantics if you call `SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE` at the beginning of a transaction (tested)
+  * This may be total overkill unless we also want to make use of other features, like storing data in multiple columns with secondary indexes.
+  * Trillian can show an example of [how to store a merkle tree in sql](https://github.com/google/trillian/blob/master/storage/mysql/tree_storage.go)
+
+**Losers**
+
+* Bolt - open [read-only snapshots can block writing](https://github.com/boltdb/bolt/issues/378)
+* Mongo - [barely even supports atomic operations](https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/core/write-operations-atomicity/), much less multiple snapshots
+
+**To investigate**
+
+* [Trillian](https://github.com/google/trillian) - has a [persistent merkle tree interface](https://github.com/google/trillian/blob/master/storage/tree_storage.go) along with [backend storage with mysql](https://github.com/google/trillian/blob/master/storage/mysql/tree_storage.go), good inspiration for our design if not directly using it
+* [Moss](https://github.com/couchbase/moss) - another key-value store in go, seems similar to leveldb, maybe compare with performance tests?
+
+### Security
+
+When allowing access out-of-process, we should provide different mechanisms to secure it.  The first is the choice of binding to a local unix socket or a tcp port.  The second is the optional use of ssl to encrypt the connection (very important over tcp).  The third is authentication to control access to the database.
+
+We may also want to consider the case of two server connections with different permissions, eg. a local unix socket that allows write access with no more credentials, and a public TCP connection with ssl and authentication that only provides read-only access.
+
+The use of ssl is quite easy in go, we just need to generate and sign a certificate, so it is nice to be able to disable it for dev machines, but it is very important for production.
+
+For authentication, let me sketch out a minimal solution. The server could just have a simple config file with key/bcrypt(password) pairs along with read/write permission level, and read that upon startup.  The client must provide a username and password in the HTTP headers when making the original HTTPS gRPC connection.
+
+This is super minimal to provide some protection. Things like LDAP, OAuth and single-sign on seem overkill and even potential security holes.  Maybe there is another solution somewhere in the middle.
diff --git a/docs/architecture/merkle.md b/docs/architecture/merkle.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..72998db88
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/architecture/merkle.md
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+# Merkle data stores
+
+To allow the efficient creation of an ABCi app, tendermint wishes to provide a reference implemention of a key-value store that provides merkle proofs of the data.  These proofs then quickly allow the ABCi app to provide an apphash to the consensus engine, as well as a full proof to any client.
+
+This engine is currently implemented in `go-merkle` with `merkleeyes` providing a language-agnostic binding via ABCi.  It uses `go-db` bindings internally to persist data to leveldb.
+
+What are some of the requirements of this store:
+
+* It must support efficient key-value operations (get/set/delete)
+* It must support persistance.
+* We must only persist complete blocks, so when we come up after a crash we are at the state of block N or N+1, but not in-between these two states.
+* It must allow us to read/write from one uncommited state (working state), while serving other queries from the last commited state. And a way to determine which one to serve for each client.
+* It must allow us to hold references to old state, to allow providing proofs from 20 blocks ago.  We can define some limits as to the maximum time to hold this data.
+* We provide in process binding in Go
+* We provide language-agnostic bindings when running the data store as it's own process.
+
+
diff --git a/glide.lock b/glide.lock
index 179dc19a9..c39121639 100644
--- a/glide.lock
+++ b/glide.lock
@@ -1,18 +1,22 @@
-hash: dcaf3fb1290b0d7942c86f0644a7431ac313247936eab9515b1ade9ffe579848
-updated: 2017-01-13T00:30:55.237750829-05:00
+hash: 41f8fec708e98b7f8c4804be46008493199fa45e89b2d5dc237fd65fe431c62f
+updated: 2017-03-06T04:01:33.319604992-05:00
 imports:
 - name: github.com/btcsuite/btcd
-  version: 153dca5c1e4b5d1ea1523592495e5bedfa503391
+  version: d06c0bb181529331be8f8d9350288c420d9e60e4
   subpackages:
   - btcec
 - name: github.com/BurntSushi/toml
   version: 99064174e013895bbd9b025c31100bd1d9b590ca
+- name: github.com/davecgh/go-spew
+  version: 6d212800a42e8ab5c146b8ace3490ee17e5225f9
+  subpackages:
+  - spew
 - name: github.com/ebuchman/fail-test
-  version: c1eddaa09da2b4017351245b0d43234955276798
+  version: 13f91f14c826314205cdbed1ec8ac8bf08e03381
 - name: github.com/go-stack/stack
   version: 100eb0c0a9c5b306ca2fb4f165df21d80ada4b82
 - name: github.com/gogo/protobuf
-  version: f9114dace7bd920b32f943b3c73fafbcbab2bf31
+  version: 909568be09de550ed094403c2bf8a261b5bb730a
   subpackages:
   - proto
 - name: github.com/golang/protobuf
@@ -22,15 +26,26 @@ imports:
 - name: github.com/golang/snappy
   version: d9eb7a3d35ec988b8585d4a0068e462c27d28380
 - name: github.com/gorilla/websocket
-  version: 17634340a83afe0cab595e40fbc63f6ffa1d8915
+  version: 3ab3a8b8831546bd18fd182c20687ca853b2bb13
 - name: github.com/jmhodges/levigo
   version: c42d9e0ca023e2198120196f842701bb4c55d7b9
 - name: github.com/mattn/go-colorable
   version: d228849504861217f796da67fae4f6e347643f15
 - name: github.com/mattn/go-isatty
   version: 30a891c33c7cde7b02a981314b4228ec99380cca
+- name: github.com/pkg/errors
+  version: 645ef00459ed84a119197bfb8d8205042c6df63d
+- name: github.com/pmezard/go-difflib
+  version: d8ed2627bdf02c080bf22230dbb337003b7aba2d
+  subpackages:
+  - difflib
 - name: github.com/spf13/pflag
-  version: 25f8b5b07aece3207895bf19f7ab517eb3b22a40
+  version: 9ff6c6923cfffbcd502984b8e0c80539a94968b7
+- name: github.com/stretchr/testify
+  version: 69483b4bd14f5845b5a1e55bca19e954e827f1d0
+  subpackages:
+  - assert
+  - require
 - name: github.com/syndtr/goleveldb
   version: 23851d93a2292dcc56e71a18ec9e0624d84a0f65
   subpackages:
@@ -47,12 +62,11 @@ imports:
   - leveldb/table
   - leveldb/util
 - name: github.com/tendermint/abci
-  version: 699d45bc678865b004b90213bf88a950f420973b
+  version: 1236e8fb6eee3a63909f4014a8e84385ead7933d
   subpackages:
   - client
   - example/counter
   - example/dummy
-  - example/nil
   - server
   - types
 - name: github.com/tendermint/ed25519
@@ -61,21 +75,23 @@ imports:
   - edwards25519
   - extra25519
 - name: github.com/tendermint/go-autofile
-  version: 0416e0aa9c68205aa44844096f9f151ada9d0405
+  version: 48b17de82914e1ec2f134ce823ba426337d2c518
 - name: github.com/tendermint/go-clist
   version: 3baa390bbaf7634251c42ad69a8682e7e3990552
 - name: github.com/tendermint/go-common
-  version: e289af53b6bf6af28da129d9ef64389a4cf7987f
+  version: dcb015dff6c7af21e65c8e2f3b450df19d38c777
   subpackages:
   - test
 - name: github.com/tendermint/go-config
-  version: e64b424499acd0eb9856b88e10c0dff41628c0d6
+  version: 620dcbbd7d587cf3599dedbf329b64311b0c307a
 - name: github.com/tendermint/go-crypto
-  version: 4b11d62bdb324027ea01554e5767b71174680ba0
+  version: 3f47cfac5fcd9e0f1727c7db980b3559913b3e3a
+- name: github.com/tendermint/go-data
+  version: 32271140e8fd5abdbb22e268d7a02421fa382f0b
 - name: github.com/tendermint/go-db
-  version: 72f6dacd22a686cdf7fcd60286503e3aceda77ba
+  version: eac3f2bc147023957c8bf69432a4e6c4dc5c3f72
 - name: github.com/tendermint/go-events
-  version: fddee66d90305fccb6f6d84d16c34fa65ea5b7f6
+  version: f8ffbfb2be3483e9e7927495590a727f51c0c11f
 - name: github.com/tendermint/go-flowrate
   version: a20c98e61957faa93b4014fbd902f20ab9317a6a
   subpackages:
@@ -83,9 +99,9 @@ imports:
 - name: github.com/tendermint/go-logger
   version: cefb3a45c0bf3c493a04e9bcd9b1540528be59f2
 - name: github.com/tendermint/go-merkle
-  version: 7a86b4486f2cd84ac885c5bbc609fdee2905f5d1
+  version: 714d4d04557fd068a7c2a1748241ce8428015a96
 - name: github.com/tendermint/go-p2p
-  version: 3d98f675f30dc4796546b8b890f895926152fa8d
+  version: 97a5ed2d1a17eaee8717b8a32cfaf7a9a82a273d
   subpackages:
   - upnp
 - name: github.com/tendermint/go-rpc
@@ -95,11 +111,17 @@ imports:
   - server
   - types
 - name: github.com/tendermint/go-wire
-  version: 2f3b7aafe21c80b19b6ee3210ecb3e3d07c7a471
+  version: f530b7af7a8b06e612c2063bff6ace49060a085e
 - name: github.com/tendermint/log15
   version: ae0f3d6450da9eac7074b439c8e1c3cabf0d5ce6
   subpackages:
   - term
+- name: github.com/tendermint/merkleeyes
+  version: 9fb76efa5aebe773a598f97e68e75fe53d520e70
+  subpackages:
+  - app
+  - client
+  - testutil
 - name: golang.org/x/crypto
   version: 7c6cc321c680f03b9ef0764448e780704f486b51
   subpackages:
@@ -112,7 +134,7 @@ imports:
   - ripemd160
   - salsa20/salsa
 - name: golang.org/x/net
-  version: 60c41d1de8da134c05b7b40154a9a82bf5b7edb9
+  version: 61557ac0112b576429a0df080e1c2cef5dfbb642
   subpackages:
   - context
   - http2
@@ -125,15 +147,8 @@ imports:
   version: d75a52659825e75fff6158388dddc6a5b04f9ba5
   subpackages:
   - unix
-- name: golang.org/x/text
-  version: 44f4f658a783b0cee41fe0a23b8fc91d9c120558
-  subpackages:
-  - secure/bidirule
-  - transform
-  - unicode/bidi
-  - unicode/norm
 - name: google.golang.org/grpc
-  version: 50955793b0183f9de69bd78e2ec251cf20aab121
+  version: cbcceb2942a489498cf22b2f918536e819d33f0a
   subpackages:
   - codes
   - credentials
diff --git a/glide.yaml b/glide.yaml
index bc8c5764d..e40293802 100644
--- a/glide.yaml
+++ b/glide.yaml
@@ -1,29 +1,53 @@
 package: github.com/tendermint/tendermint
 import:
-- package: github.com/gogo/protobuf
-  subpackages:
-  - proto
-- package: github.com/gorilla/websocket
-- package: github.com/spf13/pflag
-- package: github.com/tendermint/ed25519
-- package: github.com/tendermint/go-flowrate
 - package: github.com/tendermint/go-autofile
+  version: develop
 - package: github.com/tendermint/go-clist
+  version: develop
 - package: github.com/tendermint/go-common
+  version: develop
 - package: github.com/tendermint/go-config
+  version: develop
 - package: github.com/tendermint/go-crypto
+  version: develop
 - package: github.com/tendermint/go-db
+  version: develop
 - package: github.com/tendermint/go-events
+  version: develop
 - package: github.com/tendermint/go-logger
+  version: develop
 - package: github.com/tendermint/go-merkle
+  version: develop
 - package: github.com/tendermint/go-p2p
+  version: develop
 - package: github.com/tendermint/go-rpc
+  version: develop
 - package: github.com/tendermint/go-wire
-- package: github.com/tendermint/log15
+  version: develop
 - package: github.com/tendermint/abci
+  version: develop
+- package: github.com/tendermint/go-flowrate
+- package: github.com/tendermint/log15
+- package: github.com/tendermint/ed25519
+- package: github.com/tendermint/merkleeyes
+  version: develop
+  subpackages:
+  - app
+- package: github.com/gogo/protobuf
+  version: ^0.3
+  subpackages:
+  - proto
+- package: github.com/gorilla/websocket
+  version: ^1.1.0
+- package: github.com/spf13/pflag
+- package: github.com/pkg/errors
+  version: ^0.8.0
 - package: golang.org/x/crypto
   subpackages:
   - ripemd160
-- package: github.com/tendermint/go-flowrate
+testImport:
+- package: github.com/stretchr/testify
+  version: ^1.1.4
   subpackages:
-  - flowrate 
+  - assert
+  - require
diff --git a/mempool/mempool.go b/mempool/mempool.go
index 6fe4d7049..e960f520f 100644
--- a/mempool/mempool.go
+++ b/mempool/mempool.go
@@ -7,13 +7,13 @@ import (
 	"sync/atomic"
 	"time"
 
+	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
 	auto "github.com/tendermint/go-autofile"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-clist"
 	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
 	cfg "github.com/tendermint/go-config"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/proxy"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
-	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
 )
 
 /*
@@ -249,7 +249,7 @@ func (mem *Mempool) resCbRecheck(req *abci.Request, res *abci.Response) {
 
 // Get the valid transactions remaining
 // If maxTxs is -1, there is no cap on returned transactions.
-func (mem *Mempool) Reap(maxTxs int) []types.Tx {
+func (mem *Mempool) Reap(maxTxs int) types.Txs {
 	mem.proxyMtx.Lock()
 	defer mem.proxyMtx.Unlock()
 
@@ -263,7 +263,7 @@ func (mem *Mempool) Reap(maxTxs int) []types.Tx {
 }
 
 // maxTxs: -1 means uncapped, 0 means none
-func (mem *Mempool) collectTxs(maxTxs int) []types.Tx {
+func (mem *Mempool) collectTxs(maxTxs int) types.Txs {
 	if maxTxs == 0 {
 		return []types.Tx{}
 	} else if maxTxs < 0 {
@@ -281,7 +281,7 @@ func (mem *Mempool) collectTxs(maxTxs int) []types.Tx {
 // Mempool will discard these txs.
 // NOTE: this should be called *after* block is committed by consensus.
 // NOTE: unsafe; Lock/Unlock must be managed by caller
-func (mem *Mempool) Update(height int, txs []types.Tx) {
+func (mem *Mempool) Update(height int, txs types.Txs) {
 	// TODO: check err ?
 	mem.proxyAppConn.FlushSync() // To flush async resCb calls e.g. from CheckTx
 
diff --git a/mempool/reactor.go b/mempool/reactor.go
index 0c5cc9f85..4531edee0 100644
--- a/mempool/reactor.go
+++ b/mempool/reactor.go
@@ -6,13 +6,12 @@ import (
 	"reflect"
 	"time"
 
+	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-clist"
-	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
 	cfg "github.com/tendermint/go-config"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-p2p"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-wire"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
-	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -80,7 +79,7 @@ func (memR *MempoolReactor) Receive(chID byte, src *p2p.Peer, msgBytes []byte) {
 		}
 		// broadcasting happens from go routines per peer
 	default:
-		log.Warn(Fmt("Unknown message type %v", reflect.TypeOf(msg)))
+		log.Warn(fmt.Sprintf("Unknown message type %v", reflect.TypeOf(msg)))
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/node/node.go b/node/node.go
index b6720a0e6..f9c69c289 100644
--- a/node/node.go
+++ b/node/node.go
@@ -2,13 +2,13 @@ package node
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
-	"io/ioutil"
+	"errors"
 	"net"
 	"net/http"
 	"strings"
-	"time"
 
-	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
+	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
+	cmn "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
 	cfg "github.com/tendermint/go-config"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-crypto"
 	dbm "github.com/tendermint/go-db"
@@ -25,23 +25,32 @@ import (
 	sm "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/state"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/version"
-)
 
-import _ "net/http/pprof"
+	_ "net/http/pprof"
+)
 
 type Node struct {
-	config           cfg.Config
-	sw               *p2p.Switch
-	evsw             types.EventSwitch
-	blockStore       *bc.BlockStore
-	bcReactor        *bc.BlockchainReactor
-	mempoolReactor   *mempl.MempoolReactor
-	consensusState   *consensus.ConsensusState
-	consensusReactor *consensus.ConsensusReactor
-	privValidator    *types.PrivValidator
-	genesisDoc       *types.GenesisDoc
-	privKey          crypto.PrivKeyEd25519
-	proxyApp         proxy.AppConns
+	cmn.BaseService
+
+	// config
+	config        cfg.Config           // user config
+	genesisDoc    *types.GenesisDoc    // initial validator set
+	privValidator *types.PrivValidator // local node's validator key
+
+	// network
+	privKey  crypto.PrivKeyEd25519 // local node's p2p key
+	sw       *p2p.Switch           // p2p connections
+	addrBook *p2p.AddrBook         // known peers
+
+	// services
+	evsw             types.EventSwitch           // pub/sub for services
+	blockStore       *bc.BlockStore              // store the blockchain to disk
+	bcReactor        *bc.BlockchainReactor       // for fast-syncing
+	mempoolReactor   *mempl.MempoolReactor       // for gossipping transactions
+	consensusState   *consensus.ConsensusState   // latest consensus state
+	consensusReactor *consensus.ConsensusReactor // for participating in the consensus
+	proxyApp         proxy.AppConns              // connection to the application
+	rpcListeners     []net.Listener              // rpc servers
 }
 
 func NewNodeDefault(config cfg.Config) *Node {
@@ -57,21 +66,23 @@ func NewNode(config cfg.Config, privValidator *types.PrivValidator, clientCreato
 	blockStoreDB := dbm.NewDB("blockstore", config.GetString("db_backend"), config.GetString("db_dir"))
 	blockStore := bc.NewBlockStore(blockStoreDB)
 
-	// Get State db
-	stateDB := dbm.NewDB("state", config.GetString("db_backend"), config.GetString("db_dir"))
-
 	// Get State
+	stateDB := dbm.NewDB("state", config.GetString("db_backend"), config.GetString("db_dir"))
 	state := sm.GetState(config, stateDB)
 
+	// add the chainid and number of validators to the global config
+	config.Set("chain_id", state.ChainID)
+	config.Set("num_vals", state.Validators.Size())
+
 	// Create the proxyApp, which manages connections (consensus, mempool, query)
-	proxyApp := proxy.NewAppConns(config, clientCreator, sm.NewHandshaker(config, state, blockStore))
+	// and sync tendermint and the app by replaying any necessary blocks
+	proxyApp := proxy.NewAppConns(config, clientCreator, consensus.NewHandshaker(config, state, blockStore))
 	if _, err := proxyApp.Start(); err != nil {
-		Exit(Fmt("Error starting proxy app connections: %v", err))
+		cmn.Exit(cmn.Fmt("Error starting proxy app connections: %v", err))
 	}
 
-	// add the chainid and number of validators to the global config
-	config.Set("chain_id", state.ChainID)
-	config.Set("num_vals", state.Validators.Size())
+	// reload the state (it may have been updated by the handshake)
+	state = sm.LoadState(stateDB)
 
 	// Generate node PrivKey
 	privKey := crypto.GenPrivKeyEd25519()
@@ -80,7 +91,7 @@ func NewNode(config cfg.Config, privValidator *types.PrivValidator, clientCreato
 	eventSwitch := types.NewEventSwitch()
 	_, err := eventSwitch.Start()
 	if err != nil {
-		Exit(Fmt("Failed to start switch: %v", err))
+		cmn.Exit(cmn.Fmt("Failed to start switch: %v", err))
 	}
 
 	// Decide whether to fast-sync or not
@@ -114,32 +125,37 @@ func NewNode(config cfg.Config, privValidator *types.PrivValidator, clientCreato
 	sw.AddReactor("CONSENSUS", consensusReactor)
 
 	// Optionally, start the pex reactor
-	// TODO: this is a dev feature, it needs some love
+	var addrBook *p2p.AddrBook
 	if config.GetBool("pex_reactor") {
-		addrBook := p2p.NewAddrBook(config.GetString("addrbook_file"), config.GetBool("addrbook_strict"))
-		addrBook.Start()
+		addrBook = p2p.NewAddrBook(config.GetString("addrbook_file"), config.GetBool("addrbook_strict"))
 		pexReactor := p2p.NewPEXReactor(addrBook)
 		sw.AddReactor("PEX", pexReactor)
 	}
 
-	// filter peers by addr or pubkey with a abci query.
-	// if the query return code is OK, add peer
-	// XXX: query format subject to change
+	// Filter peers by addr or pubkey with an ABCI query.
+	// If the query return code is OK, add peer.
+	// XXX: Query format subject to change
 	if config.GetBool("filter_peers") {
 		// NOTE: addr is ip:port
 		sw.SetAddrFilter(func(addr net.Addr) error {
-			res := proxyApp.Query().QuerySync([]byte(Fmt("p2p/filter/addr/%s", addr.String())))
-			if res.IsOK() {
+			resQuery, err := proxyApp.Query().QuerySync(abci.RequestQuery{Path: cmn.Fmt("/p2p/filter/addr/%s", addr.String())})
+			if err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+			if resQuery.Code.IsOK() {
 				return nil
 			}
-			return res
+			return errors.New(resQuery.Code.String())
 		})
 		sw.SetPubKeyFilter(func(pubkey crypto.PubKeyEd25519) error {
-			res := proxyApp.Query().QuerySync([]byte(Fmt("p2p/filter/pubkey/%X", pubkey.Bytes())))
-			if res.IsOK() {
+			resQuery, err := proxyApp.Query().QuerySync(abci.RequestQuery{Path: cmn.Fmt("/p2p/filter/pubkey/%X", pubkey.Bytes())})
+			if err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+			if resQuery.Code.IsOK() {
 				return nil
 			}
-			return res
+			return errors.New(resQuery.Code.String())
 		})
 	}
 
@@ -156,34 +172,84 @@ func NewNode(config cfg.Config, privValidator *types.PrivValidator, clientCreato
 		}()
 	}
 
-	return &Node{
-		config:           config,
-		sw:               sw,
+	node := &Node{
+		config:        config,
+		genesisDoc:    state.GenesisDoc,
+		privValidator: privValidator,
+
+		privKey:  privKey,
+		sw:       sw,
+		addrBook: addrBook,
+
 		evsw:             eventSwitch,
 		blockStore:       blockStore,
 		bcReactor:        bcReactor,
 		mempoolReactor:   mempoolReactor,
 		consensusState:   consensusState,
 		consensusReactor: consensusReactor,
-		privValidator:    privValidator,
-		genesisDoc:       state.GenesisDoc,
-		privKey:          privKey,
 		proxyApp:         proxyApp,
 	}
+	node.BaseService = *cmn.NewBaseService(log, "Node", node)
+	return node
 }
 
-// Call Start() after adding the listeners.
-func (n *Node) Start() error {
+func (n *Node) OnStart() error {
+	n.BaseService.OnStart()
+
+	// Create & add listener
+	protocol, address := ProtocolAndAddress(n.config.GetString("node_laddr"))
+	l := p2p.NewDefaultListener(protocol, address, n.config.GetBool("skip_upnp"))
+	n.sw.AddListener(l)
+
+	// Start the switch
 	n.sw.SetNodeInfo(makeNodeInfo(n.config, n.sw, n.privKey))
 	n.sw.SetNodePrivKey(n.privKey)
 	_, err := n.sw.Start()
-	return err
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	// If seeds exist, add them to the address book and dial out
+	if n.config.GetString("seeds") != "" {
+		// dial out
+		seeds := strings.Split(n.config.GetString("seeds"), ",")
+		if err := n.DialSeeds(seeds); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+	}
+
+	// Run the RPC server
+	if n.config.GetString("rpc_laddr") != "" {
+		listeners, err := n.startRPC()
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		n.rpcListeners = listeners
+	}
+
+	return nil
 }
 
-func (n *Node) Stop() {
+func (n *Node) OnStop() {
+	n.BaseService.OnStop()
+
 	log.Notice("Stopping Node")
 	// TODO: gracefully disconnect from peers.
 	n.sw.Stop()
+
+	for _, l := range n.rpcListeners {
+		log.Info("Closing rpc listener", "listener", l)
+		if err := l.Close(); err != nil {
+			log.Error("Error closing listener", "listener", l, "error", err)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func (n *Node) RunForever() {
+	// Sleep forever and then...
+	cmn.TrapSignal(func() {
+		n.Stop()
+	})
 }
 
 // Add the event switch to reactors, mempool, etc.
@@ -197,13 +263,13 @@ func SetEventSwitch(evsw types.EventSwitch, eventables ...types.Eventable) {
 // Add listeners before starting the Node.
 // The first listener is the primary listener (in NodeInfo)
 func (n *Node) AddListener(l p2p.Listener) {
-	log.Notice(Fmt("Added %v", l))
 	n.sw.AddListener(l)
 }
 
-func (n *Node) StartRPC() ([]net.Listener, error) {
+// ConfigureRPC sets all variables in rpccore so they will serve
+// rpc calls from this node
+func (n *Node) ConfigureRPC() {
 	rpccore.SetConfig(n.config)
-
 	rpccore.SetEventSwitch(n.evsw)
 	rpccore.SetBlockStore(n.blockStore)
 	rpccore.SetConsensusState(n.consensusState)
@@ -211,8 +277,12 @@ func (n *Node) StartRPC() ([]net.Listener, error) {
 	rpccore.SetSwitch(n.sw)
 	rpccore.SetPubKey(n.privValidator.PubKey)
 	rpccore.SetGenesisDoc(n.genesisDoc)
+	rpccore.SetAddrBook(n.addrBook)
 	rpccore.SetProxyAppQuery(n.proxyApp.Query())
+}
 
+func (n *Node) startRPC() ([]net.Listener, error) {
+	n.ConfigureRPC()
 	listenAddrs := strings.Split(n.config.GetString("rpc_laddr"), ",")
 
 	// we may expose the rpc over both a unix and tcp socket
@@ -287,16 +357,16 @@ func makeNodeInfo(config cfg.Config, sw *p2p.Switch, privKey crypto.PrivKeyEd255
 		Network: config.GetString("chain_id"),
 		Version: version.Version,
 		Other: []string{
-			Fmt("wire_version=%v", wire.Version),
-			Fmt("p2p_version=%v", p2p.Version),
-			Fmt("consensus_version=%v", consensus.Version),
-			Fmt("rpc_version=%v/%v", rpc.Version, rpccore.Version),
+			cmn.Fmt("wire_version=%v", wire.Version),
+			cmn.Fmt("p2p_version=%v", p2p.Version),
+			cmn.Fmt("consensus_version=%v", consensus.Version),
+			cmn.Fmt("rpc_version=%v/%v", rpc.Version, rpccore.Version),
 		},
 	}
 
 	// include git hash in the nodeInfo if available
-	if rev, err := ReadFile(config.GetString("revision_file")); err == nil {
-		nodeInfo.Other = append(nodeInfo.Other, Fmt("revision=%v", string(rev)))
+	if rev, err := cmn.ReadFile(config.GetString("revision_file")); err == nil {
+		nodeInfo.Other = append(nodeInfo.Other, cmn.Fmt("revision=%v", string(rev)))
 	}
 
 	if !sw.IsListening() {
@@ -311,133 +381,19 @@ func makeNodeInfo(config cfg.Config, sw *p2p.Switch, privKey crypto.PrivKeyEd255
 	// We assume that the rpcListener has the same ExternalAddress.
 	// This is probably true because both P2P and RPC listeners use UPnP,
 	// except of course if the rpc is only bound to localhost
-	nodeInfo.ListenAddr = Fmt("%v:%v", p2pHost, p2pPort)
-	nodeInfo.Other = append(nodeInfo.Other, Fmt("rpc_addr=%v", rpcListenAddr))
+	nodeInfo.ListenAddr = cmn.Fmt("%v:%v", p2pHost, p2pPort)
+	nodeInfo.Other = append(nodeInfo.Other, cmn.Fmt("rpc_addr=%v", rpcListenAddr))
 	return nodeInfo
 }
 
 //------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-// Users wishing to:
-//	* use an external signer for their validators
-//	* supply an in-proc abci app
-// should fork tendermint/tendermint and implement RunNode to
-// call NewNode with their custom priv validator and/or custom
-// proxy.ClientCreator interface
-func RunNode(config cfg.Config) {
-	// Wait until the genesis doc becomes available
-	genDocFile := config.GetString("genesis_file")
-	if !FileExists(genDocFile) {
-		log.Notice(Fmt("Waiting for genesis file %v...", genDocFile))
-		for {
-			time.Sleep(time.Second)
-			if !FileExists(genDocFile) {
-				continue
-			}
-			jsonBlob, err := ioutil.ReadFile(genDocFile)
-			if err != nil {
-				Exit(Fmt("Couldn't read GenesisDoc file: %v", err))
-			}
-			genDoc := types.GenesisDocFromJSON(jsonBlob)
-			if genDoc.ChainID == "" {
-				PanicSanity(Fmt("Genesis doc %v must include non-empty chain_id", genDocFile))
-			}
-			config.Set("chain_id", genDoc.ChainID)
-		}
-	}
-
-	// Create & start node
-	n := NewNodeDefault(config)
-
-	protocol, address := ProtocolAndAddress(config.GetString("node_laddr"))
-	l := p2p.NewDefaultListener(protocol, address, config.GetBool("skip_upnp"))
-	n.AddListener(l)
-	err := n.Start()
-	if err != nil {
-		Exit(Fmt("Failed to start node: %v", err))
-	}
-
-	log.Notice("Started node", "nodeInfo", n.sw.NodeInfo())
-
-	// If seedNode is provided by config, dial out.
-	if config.GetString("seeds") != "" {
-		seeds := strings.Split(config.GetString("seeds"), ",")
-		n.sw.DialSeeds(seeds)
-	}
-
-	// Run the RPC server.
-	if config.GetString("rpc_laddr") != "" {
-		_, err := n.StartRPC()
-		if err != nil {
-			PanicCrisis(err)
-		}
-	}
-
-	// Sleep forever and then...
-	TrapSignal(func() {
-		n.Stop()
-	})
-}
-
 func (n *Node) NodeInfo() *p2p.NodeInfo {
 	return n.sw.NodeInfo()
 }
 
-func (n *Node) DialSeeds(seeds []string) {
-	n.sw.DialSeeds(seeds)
-}
-
-//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-// replay
-
-// convenience for replay mode
-func newConsensusState(config cfg.Config) *consensus.ConsensusState {
-	// Get BlockStore
-	blockStoreDB := dbm.NewDB("blockstore", config.GetString("db_backend"), config.GetString("db_dir"))
-	blockStore := bc.NewBlockStore(blockStoreDB)
-
-	// Get State
-	stateDB := dbm.NewDB("state", config.GetString("db_backend"), config.GetString("db_dir"))
-	state := sm.MakeGenesisStateFromFile(stateDB, config.GetString("genesis_file"))
-
-	// Create proxyAppConn connection (consensus, mempool, query)
-	proxyApp := proxy.NewAppConns(config, proxy.DefaultClientCreator(config), sm.NewHandshaker(config, state, blockStore))
-	_, err := proxyApp.Start()
-	if err != nil {
-		Exit(Fmt("Error starting proxy app conns: %v", err))
-	}
-
-	// add the chainid to the global config
-	config.Set("chain_id", state.ChainID)
-
-	// Make event switch
-	eventSwitch := types.NewEventSwitch()
-	if _, err := eventSwitch.Start(); err != nil {
-		Exit(Fmt("Failed to start event switch: %v", err))
-	}
-
-	mempool := mempl.NewMempool(config, proxyApp.Mempool())
-
-	consensusState := consensus.NewConsensusState(config, state.Copy(), proxyApp.Consensus(), blockStore, mempool)
-	consensusState.SetEventSwitch(eventSwitch)
-	return consensusState
-}
-
-func RunReplayConsole(config cfg.Config, walFile string) {
-	consensusState := newConsensusState(config)
-
-	if err := consensusState.ReplayConsole(walFile); err != nil {
-		Exit(Fmt("Error during consensus replay: %v", err))
-	}
-}
-
-func RunReplay(config cfg.Config, walFile string) {
-	consensusState := newConsensusState(config)
-
-	if err := consensusState.ReplayMessages(walFile); err != nil {
-		Exit(Fmt("Error during consensus replay: %v", err))
-	}
-	log.Notice("Replay run successfully")
+func (n *Node) DialSeeds(seeds []string) error {
+	return n.sw.DialSeeds(n.addrBook, seeds)
 }
 
 // Defaults to tcp
diff --git a/node/node_test.go b/node/node_test.go
index 880a2dab7..2ab8e8dc6 100644
--- a/node/node_test.go
+++ b/node/node_test.go
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ import (
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
-	"github.com/tendermint/go-p2p"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/config/tendermint_test"
 )
 
@@ -13,12 +12,13 @@ func TestNodeStartStop(t *testing.T) {
 
 	// Create & start node
 	n := NewNodeDefault(config)
-	protocol, address := ProtocolAndAddress(config.GetString("node_laddr"))
-	l := p2p.NewDefaultListener(protocol, address, config.GetBool("skip_upnp"))
-	n.AddListener(l)
 	n.Start()
 	log.Notice("Started node", "nodeInfo", n.sw.NodeInfo())
+
+	// Wait a bit to initialize
+	// TODO remove time.Sleep(), make asynchronous.
 	time.Sleep(time.Second * 2)
+
 	ch := make(chan struct{}, 1)
 	go func() {
 		n.Stop()
diff --git a/proxy/app_conn.go b/proxy/app_conn.go
index 6abb8c7eb..8b007737c 100644
--- a/proxy/app_conn.go
+++ b/proxy/app_conn.go
@@ -34,8 +34,8 @@ type AppConnQuery interface {
 	Error() error
 
 	EchoSync(string) (res types.Result)
-	InfoSync() (types.ResponseInfo, error)
-	QuerySync(tx []byte) (res types.Result)
+	InfoSync() (resInfo types.ResponseInfo, err error)
+	QuerySync(reqQuery types.RequestQuery) (resQuery types.ResponseQuery, err error)
 
 	//	SetOptionSync(key string, value string) (res types.Result)
 }
@@ -139,6 +139,6 @@ func (app *appConnQuery) InfoSync() (types.ResponseInfo, error) {
 	return app.appConn.InfoSync()
 }
 
-func (app *appConnQuery) QuerySync(tx []byte) (res types.Result) {
-	return app.appConn.QuerySync(tx)
+func (app *appConnQuery) QuerySync(reqQuery types.RequestQuery) (types.ResponseQuery, error) {
+	return app.appConn.QuerySync(reqQuery)
 }
diff --git a/proxy/client.go b/proxy/client.go
index d5c9ff7b1..ea9051989 100644
--- a/proxy/client.go
+++ b/proxy/client.go
@@ -4,11 +4,10 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"sync"
 
-	cfg "github.com/tendermint/go-config"
 	abcicli "github.com/tendermint/abci/client"
 	"github.com/tendermint/abci/example/dummy"
-	nilapp "github.com/tendermint/abci/example/nil"
 	"github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
+	cfg "github.com/tendermint/go-config"
 )
 
 // NewABCIClient returns newly connected client
@@ -74,7 +73,7 @@ func DefaultClientCreator(config cfg.Config) ClientCreator {
 	case "persistent_dummy":
 		return NewLocalClientCreator(dummy.NewPersistentDummyApplication(config.GetString("db_dir")))
 	case "nilapp":
-		return NewLocalClientCreator(nilapp.NewNilApplication())
+		return NewLocalClientCreator(types.NewBaseApplication())
 	default:
 		mustConnect := false // loop retrying
 		return NewRemoteClientCreator(addr, transport, mustConnect)
diff --git a/proxy/multi_app_conn.go b/proxy/multi_app_conn.go
index 2c93152b1..353ade35c 100644
--- a/proxy/multi_app_conn.go
+++ b/proxy/multi_app_conn.go
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 package proxy
 
 import (
-	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
+	cmn "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
 	cfg "github.com/tendermint/go-config"
 )
 
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ import (
 
 // Tendermint's interface to the application consists of multiple connections
 type AppConns interface {
-	Service
+	cmn.Service
 
 	Mempool() AppConnMempool
 	Consensus() AppConnConsensus
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ type Handshaker interface {
 // which ensures the app and tendermint are synced.
 // TODO: on app restart, clients must reboot together
 type multiAppConn struct {
-	BaseService
+	cmn.BaseService
 
 	config cfg.Config
 
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ func NewMultiAppConn(config cfg.Config, clientCreator ClientCreator, handshaker
 		handshaker:    handshaker,
 		clientCreator: clientCreator,
 	}
-	multiAppConn.BaseService = *NewBaseService(log, "multiAppConn", multiAppConn)
+	multiAppConn.BaseService = *cmn.NewBaseService(log, "multiAppConn", multiAppConn)
 	return multiAppConn
 }
 
diff --git a/rpc/client/event_test.go b/rpc/client/event_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..cc421ad90
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rpc/client/event_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+package client_test
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+	merktest "github.com/tendermint/merkleeyes/testutil"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/client"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
+)
+
+func TestHeaderEvents(t *testing.T) {
+	require := require.New(t)
+	for i, c := range GetClients() {
+		// start for this test it if it wasn't already running
+		if !c.IsRunning() {
+			// if so, then we start it, listen, and stop it.
+			st, err := c.Start()
+			require.Nil(err, "%d: %+v", i, err)
+			require.True(st, "%d", i)
+			defer c.Stop()
+		}
+
+		evtTyp := types.EventStringNewBlockHeader()
+		evt, err := client.WaitForOneEvent(c, evtTyp, 1*time.Second)
+		require.Nil(err, "%d: %+v", i, err)
+		_, ok := evt.(types.EventDataNewBlockHeader)
+		require.True(ok, "%d: %#v", i, evt)
+		// TODO: more checks...
+	}
+}
+
+func TestTxEvents(t *testing.T) {
+	require := require.New(t)
+	for i, c := range GetClients() {
+		// start for this test it if it wasn't already running
+		if !c.IsRunning() {
+			// if so, then we start it, listen, and stop it.
+			st, err := c.Start()
+			require.Nil(err, "%d: %+v", i, err)
+			require.True(st, "%d", i)
+			defer c.Stop()
+		}
+
+		// make the tx
+		_, _, tx := merktest.MakeTxKV()
+		evtTyp := types.EventStringTx(types.Tx(tx))
+
+		// send async
+		txres, err := c.BroadcastTxAsync(tx)
+		require.Nil(err, "%+v", err)
+		require.True(txres.Code.IsOK())
+
+		// and wait for confirmation
+		evt, err := client.WaitForOneEvent(c, evtTyp, 1*time.Second)
+		require.Nil(err, "%d: %+v", i, err)
+		// and make sure it has the proper info
+		txe, ok := evt.(types.EventDataTx)
+		require.True(ok, "%d: %#v", i, evt)
+		// make sure this is the proper tx
+		require.EqualValues(tx, txe.Tx)
+		require.True(txe.Code.IsOK())
+	}
+}
diff --git a/rpc/client/helpers.go b/rpc/client/helpers.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bd00c1438
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rpc/client/helpers.go
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+package client
+
+import (
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/pkg/errors"
+	cmn "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
+	events "github.com/tendermint/go-events"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
+)
+
+// Waiter is informed of current height, decided whether to quit early
+type Waiter func(delta int) (abort error)
+
+// DefaultWaitStrategy is the standard backoff algorithm,
+// but you can plug in another one
+func DefaultWaitStrategy(delta int) (abort error) {
+	if delta > 10 {
+		return errors.Errorf("Waiting for %d blocks... aborting", delta)
+	} else if delta > 0 {
+		// estimate of wait time....
+		// wait half a second for the next block (in progress)
+		// plus one second for every full block
+		delay := time.Duration(delta-1)*time.Second + 500*time.Millisecond
+		time.Sleep(delay)
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+// Wait for height will poll status at reasonable intervals until
+// the block at the given height is available.
+//
+// If waiter is nil, we use DefaultWaitStrategy, but you can also
+// provide your own implementation
+func WaitForHeight(c StatusClient, h int, waiter Waiter) error {
+	if waiter == nil {
+		waiter = DefaultWaitStrategy
+	}
+	delta := 1
+	for delta > 0 {
+		s, err := c.Status()
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		delta = h - s.LatestBlockHeight
+		// wait for the time, or abort early
+		if err := waiter(delta); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+// WaitForOneEvent subscribes to a websocket event for the given
+// event time and returns upon receiving it one time, or
+// when the timeout duration has expired.
+//
+// This handles subscribing and unsubscribing under the hood
+func WaitForOneEvent(evsw types.EventSwitch,
+	evtTyp string, timeout time.Duration) (types.TMEventData, error) {
+	listener := cmn.RandStr(12)
+
+	evts, quit := make(chan events.EventData, 10), make(chan bool, 1)
+	// start timeout count-down
+	go func() {
+		time.Sleep(timeout)
+		quit <- true
+	}()
+
+	// register for the next event of this type
+	evsw.AddListenerForEvent(listener, evtTyp, func(data events.EventData) {
+		evts <- data
+	})
+	// make sure to unregister after the test is over
+	defer evsw.RemoveListenerForEvent(evtTyp, listener)
+	// defer evsw.RemoveListener(listener)  // this also works
+
+	select {
+	case <-quit:
+		return nil, errors.New("timed out waiting for event")
+	case evt := <-evts:
+		tmevt, ok := evt.(types.TMEventData)
+		if ok {
+			return tmevt, nil
+		}
+		return nil, errors.Errorf("Got unexpected event type: %#v", evt)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/rpc/client/helpers_test.go b/rpc/client/helpers_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fe1861224
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rpc/client/helpers_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+package client_test
+
+import (
+	"errors"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/client"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/client/mock"
+	ctypes "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/core/types"
+)
+
+func TestWaitForHeight(t *testing.T) {
+	assert, require := assert.New(t), require.New(t)
+
+	// test with error result - immediate failure
+	m := &mock.StatusMock{
+		Call: mock.Call{
+			Error: errors.New("bye"),
+		},
+	}
+	r := mock.NewStatusRecorder(m)
+
+	// connection failure always leads to error
+	err := client.WaitForHeight(r, 8, nil)
+	require.NotNil(err)
+	require.Equal("bye", err.Error())
+	// we called status once to check
+	require.Equal(1, len(r.Calls))
+
+	// now set current block height to 10
+	m.Call = mock.Call{
+		Response: &ctypes.ResultStatus{LatestBlockHeight: 10},
+	}
+
+	// we will not wait for more than 10 blocks
+	err = client.WaitForHeight(r, 40, nil)
+	require.NotNil(err)
+	require.True(strings.Contains(err.Error(), "aborting"))
+	// we called status once more to check
+	require.Equal(2, len(r.Calls))
+
+	// waiting for the past returns immediately
+	err = client.WaitForHeight(r, 5, nil)
+	require.Nil(err)
+	// we called status once more to check
+	require.Equal(3, len(r.Calls))
+
+	// since we can't update in a background goroutine (test --race)
+	// we use the callback to update the status height
+	myWaiter := func(delta int) error {
+		// update the height for the next call
+		m.Call.Response = &ctypes.ResultStatus{LatestBlockHeight: 15}
+		return client.DefaultWaitStrategy(delta)
+	}
+
+	// we wait for a few blocks
+	err = client.WaitForHeight(r, 12, myWaiter)
+	require.Nil(err)
+	// we called status once to check
+	require.Equal(5, len(r.Calls))
+
+	pre := r.Calls[3]
+	require.Nil(pre.Error)
+	prer, ok := pre.Response.(*ctypes.ResultStatus)
+	require.True(ok)
+	assert.Equal(10, prer.LatestBlockHeight)
+
+	post := r.Calls[4]
+	require.Nil(post.Error)
+	postr, ok := post.Response.(*ctypes.ResultStatus)
+	require.True(ok)
+	assert.Equal(15, postr.LatestBlockHeight)
+}
diff --git a/rpc/client/httpclient.go b/rpc/client/httpclient.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bb4e6d3a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rpc/client/httpclient.go
@@ -0,0 +1,349 @@
+package client
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+
+	"github.com/pkg/errors"
+	events "github.com/tendermint/go-events"
+	"github.com/tendermint/go-rpc/client"
+	wire "github.com/tendermint/go-wire"
+	ctypes "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/core/types"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
+)
+
+/*
+HTTP is a Client implementation that communicates
+with a tendermint node over json rpc and websockets.
+
+This is the main implementation you probably want to use in
+production code.  There are other implementations when calling
+the tendermint node in-process (local), or when you want to mock
+out the server for test code (mock).
+*/
+type HTTP struct {
+	remote string
+	rpc    *rpcclient.ClientJSONRPC
+	*WSEvents
+}
+
+// New takes a remote endpoint in the form tcp://<host>:<port>
+// and the websocket path (which always seems to be "/websocket")
+func NewHTTP(remote, wsEndpoint string) *HTTP {
+	return &HTTP{
+		rpc:      rpcclient.NewClientJSONRPC(remote),
+		remote:   remote,
+		WSEvents: newWSEvents(remote, wsEndpoint),
+	}
+}
+
+func (c *HTTP) _assertIsClient() Client {
+	return c
+}
+
+func (c *HTTP) _assertIsNetworkClient() NetworkClient {
+	return c
+}
+
+func (c *HTTP) _assertIsEventSwitch() types.EventSwitch {
+	return c
+}
+
+func (c *HTTP) Status() (*ctypes.ResultStatus, error) {
+	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
+	_, err := c.rpc.Call("status", []interface{}{}, tmResult)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "Status")
+	}
+	// note: panics if rpc doesn't match.  okay???
+	return (*tmResult).(*ctypes.ResultStatus), nil
+}
+
+func (c *HTTP) ABCIInfo() (*ctypes.ResultABCIInfo, error) {
+	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
+	_, err := c.rpc.Call("abci_info", []interface{}{}, tmResult)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "ABCIInfo")
+	}
+	return (*tmResult).(*ctypes.ResultABCIInfo), nil
+}
+
+func (c *HTTP) ABCIQuery(path string, data []byte, prove bool) (*ctypes.ResultABCIQuery, error) {
+	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
+	_, err := c.rpc.Call("abci_query", []interface{}{path, data, prove}, tmResult)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "ABCIQuery")
+	}
+	return (*tmResult).(*ctypes.ResultABCIQuery), nil
+}
+
+func (c *HTTP) BroadcastTxCommit(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTxCommit, error) {
+	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
+	_, err := c.rpc.Call("broadcast_tx_commit", []interface{}{tx}, tmResult)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "broadcast_tx_commit")
+	}
+	return (*tmResult).(*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTxCommit), nil
+}
+
+func (c *HTTP) BroadcastTxAsync(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx, error) {
+	return c.broadcastTX("broadcast_tx_async", tx)
+}
+
+func (c *HTTP) BroadcastTxSync(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx, error) {
+	return c.broadcastTX("broadcast_tx_sync", tx)
+}
+
+func (c *HTTP) broadcastTX(route string, tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx, error) {
+	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
+	_, err := c.rpc.Call(route, []interface{}{tx}, tmResult)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, route)
+	}
+	return (*tmResult).(*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx), nil
+}
+
+func (c *HTTP) NetInfo() (*ctypes.ResultNetInfo, error) {
+	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
+	_, err := c.rpc.Call("net_info", nil, tmResult)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "NetInfo")
+	}
+	return (*tmResult).(*ctypes.ResultNetInfo), nil
+}
+
+func (c *HTTP) DumpConsensusState() (*ctypes.ResultDumpConsensusState, error) {
+	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
+	_, err := c.rpc.Call("dump_consensus_state", nil, tmResult)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "DumpConsensusState")
+	}
+	return (*tmResult).(*ctypes.ResultDumpConsensusState), nil
+}
+
+func (c *HTTP) BlockchainInfo(minHeight, maxHeight int) (*ctypes.ResultBlockchainInfo, error) {
+	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
+	_, err := c.rpc.Call("blockchain", []interface{}{minHeight, maxHeight}, tmResult)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "BlockchainInfo")
+	}
+	return (*tmResult).(*ctypes.ResultBlockchainInfo), nil
+}
+
+func (c *HTTP) Genesis() (*ctypes.ResultGenesis, error) {
+	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
+	_, err := c.rpc.Call("genesis", nil, tmResult)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "Genesis")
+	}
+	return (*tmResult).(*ctypes.ResultGenesis), nil
+}
+
+func (c *HTTP) Block(height int) (*ctypes.ResultBlock, error) {
+	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
+	_, err := c.rpc.Call("block", []interface{}{height}, tmResult)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "Block")
+	}
+	return (*tmResult).(*ctypes.ResultBlock), nil
+}
+
+func (c *HTTP) Commit(height int) (*ctypes.ResultCommit, error) {
+	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
+	_, err := c.rpc.Call("commit", []interface{}{height}, tmResult)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "Commit")
+	}
+	return (*tmResult).(*ctypes.ResultCommit), nil
+}
+
+func (c *HTTP) Validators() (*ctypes.ResultValidators, error) {
+	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
+	_, err := c.rpc.Call("validators", nil, tmResult)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "Validators")
+	}
+	return (*tmResult).(*ctypes.ResultValidators), nil
+}
+
+/** websocket event stuff here... **/
+
+type WSEvents struct {
+	types.EventSwitch
+	remote   string
+	endpoint string
+	ws       *rpcclient.WSClient
+
+	// used for signaling the goroutine that feeds ws -> EventSwitch
+	quit chan bool
+	done chan bool
+
+	// used to maintain counts of actively listened events
+	// so we can properly subscribe/unsubscribe
+	// FIXME: thread-safety???
+	// FIXME: reuse code from go-events???
+	evtCount  map[string]int      // count how many time each event is subscribed
+	listeners map[string][]string // keep track of which events each listener is listening to
+}
+
+func newWSEvents(remote, endpoint string) *WSEvents {
+	return &WSEvents{
+		EventSwitch: types.NewEventSwitch(),
+		endpoint:    endpoint,
+		remote:      remote,
+		quit:        make(chan bool, 1),
+		done:        make(chan bool, 1),
+		evtCount:    map[string]int{},
+		listeners:   map[string][]string{},
+	}
+}
+
+func (w *WSEvents) _assertIsEventSwitch() types.EventSwitch {
+	return w
+}
+
+// Start is the only way I could think the extend OnStart from
+// events.eventSwitch.  If only it wasn't private...
+// BaseService.Start -> eventSwitch.OnStart -> WSEvents.Start
+func (w *WSEvents) Start() (bool, error) {
+	st, err := w.EventSwitch.Start()
+	// if we did start, then OnStart here...
+	if st && err == nil {
+		ws := rpcclient.NewWSClient(w.remote, w.endpoint)
+		_, err = ws.Start()
+		if err == nil {
+			w.ws = ws
+			go w.eventListener()
+		}
+	}
+	return st, errors.Wrap(err, "StartWSEvent")
+}
+
+// Stop wraps the BaseService/eventSwitch actions as Start does
+func (w *WSEvents) Stop() bool {
+	stop := w.EventSwitch.Stop()
+	if stop {
+		// send a message to quit to stop the eventListener
+		w.quit <- true
+		<-w.done
+		w.ws.Stop()
+		w.ws = nil
+	}
+	return stop
+}
+
+/** TODO: more intelligent subscriptions! **/
+func (w *WSEvents) AddListenerForEvent(listenerID, event string, cb events.EventCallback) {
+	// no one listening -> subscribe
+	if w.evtCount[event] == 0 {
+		w.subscribe(event)
+	}
+	// if this listener was already listening to this event, return early
+	for _, s := range w.listeners[listenerID] {
+		if event == s {
+			return
+		}
+	}
+	// otherwise, add this event to this listener
+	w.evtCount[event] += 1
+	w.listeners[listenerID] = append(w.listeners[listenerID], event)
+	w.EventSwitch.AddListenerForEvent(listenerID, event, cb)
+}
+
+func (w *WSEvents) RemoveListenerForEvent(event string, listenerID string) {
+	// if this listener is listening already, splice it out
+	found := false
+	l := w.listeners[listenerID]
+	for i, s := range l {
+		if event == s {
+			found = true
+			w.listeners[listenerID] = append(l[:i], l[i+1:]...)
+			break
+		}
+	}
+	// if the listener wasn't already listening to the event, exit early
+	if !found {
+		return
+	}
+
+	// now we can update the subscriptions
+	w.evtCount[event] -= 1
+	if w.evtCount[event] == 0 {
+		w.unsubscribe(event)
+	}
+	w.EventSwitch.RemoveListenerForEvent(event, listenerID)
+}
+
+func (w *WSEvents) RemoveListener(listenerID string) {
+	// remove all counts for this listener
+	for _, s := range w.listeners[listenerID] {
+		w.evtCount[s] -= 1
+		if w.evtCount[s] == 0 {
+			w.unsubscribe(s)
+		}
+	}
+	w.listeners[listenerID] = nil
+
+	// then let the switch do it's magic
+	w.EventSwitch.RemoveListener(listenerID)
+}
+
+// eventListener is an infinite loop pulling all websocket events
+// and pushing them to the EventSwitch.
+//
+// the goroutine only stops by closing quit
+func (w *WSEvents) eventListener() {
+	for {
+		select {
+		case res := <-w.ws.ResultsCh:
+			// res is json.RawMessage
+			err := w.parseEvent(res)
+			if err != nil {
+				// FIXME: better logging/handling of errors??
+				fmt.Printf("ws result: %+v\n", err)
+			}
+		case err := <-w.ws.ErrorsCh:
+			// FIXME: better logging/handling of errors??
+			fmt.Printf("ws err: %+v\n", err)
+		case <-w.quit:
+			// send a message so we can wait for the routine to exit
+			// before cleaning up the w.ws stuff
+			w.done <- true
+			return
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// parseEvent unmarshals the json message and converts it into
+// some implementation of types.TMEventData, and sends it off
+// on the merry way to the EventSwitch
+func (w *WSEvents) parseEvent(data []byte) (err error) {
+	result := new(ctypes.TMResult)
+	wire.ReadJSONPtr(result, data, &err)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	event, ok := (*result).(*ctypes.ResultEvent)
+	if !ok {
+		// ignore silently (eg. subscribe, unsubscribe and maybe other events)
+		return nil
+	}
+	// looks good!  let's fire this baby!
+	w.EventSwitch.FireEvent(event.Name, event.Data)
+	return nil
+}
+
+// no way of exposing these failures, so we panic.
+// is this right?  or silently ignore???
+func (w *WSEvents) subscribe(event string) {
+	err := w.ws.Subscribe(event)
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+}
+
+func (w *WSEvents) unsubscribe(event string) {
+	err := w.ws.Unsubscribe(event)
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/rpc/client/interface.go b/rpc/client/interface.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9a5ba668b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rpc/client/interface.go
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+/*
+package client provides a general purpose interface (Client) for connecting
+to a tendermint node, as well as higher-level functionality.
+
+The main implementation for production code is client.HTTP, which
+connects via http to the jsonrpc interface of the tendermint node.
+
+For connecting to a node running in the same process (eg. when
+compiling the abci app in the same process), you can use the client.Local
+implementation.
+
+For mocking out server responses during testing to see behavior for
+arbitrary return values, use the mock package.
+
+In addition to the Client interface, which should be used externally
+for maximum flexibility and testability, and two implementations,
+this package also provides helper functions that work on any Client
+implementation.
+*/
+package client
+
+import (
+	ctypes "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/core/types"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
+)
+
+// ABCIClient groups together the functionality that principally
+// affects the ABCI app. In many cases this will be all we want,
+// so we can accept an interface which is easier to mock
+type ABCIClient interface {
+	// reading from abci app
+	ABCIInfo() (*ctypes.ResultABCIInfo, error)
+	ABCIQuery(path string, data []byte, prove bool) (*ctypes.ResultABCIQuery, error)
+
+	// writing to abci app
+	BroadcastTxCommit(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTxCommit, error)
+	BroadcastTxAsync(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx, error)
+	BroadcastTxSync(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx, error)
+}
+
+// SignClient groups together the interfaces need to get valid
+// signatures and prove anything about the chain
+type SignClient interface {
+	Block(height int) (*ctypes.ResultBlock, error)
+	Commit(height int) (*ctypes.ResultCommit, error)
+	Validators() (*ctypes.ResultValidators, error)
+}
+
+// HistoryClient shows us data from genesis to now in large chunks.
+type HistoryClient interface {
+	Genesis() (*ctypes.ResultGenesis, error)
+	BlockchainInfo(minHeight, maxHeight int) (*ctypes.ResultBlockchainInfo, error)
+}
+
+type StatusClient interface {
+	// general chain info
+	Status() (*ctypes.ResultStatus, error)
+}
+
+// Client wraps most important rpc calls a client would make
+// if you want to listen for events, test if it also
+// implements events.EventSwitch
+type Client interface {
+	ABCIClient
+	SignClient
+	HistoryClient
+	StatusClient
+
+	// this Client is reactive, you can subscribe to any TMEventData
+	// type, given the proper string. see tendermint/types/events.go
+	types.EventSwitch
+}
+
+// NetworkClient is general info about the network state.  May not
+// be needed usually.
+//
+// Not included in the Client interface, but generally implemented
+// by concrete implementations.
+type NetworkClient interface {
+	NetInfo() (*ctypes.ResultNetInfo, error)
+	DumpConsensusState() (*ctypes.ResultDumpConsensusState, error)
+}
diff --git a/rpc/client/localclient.go b/rpc/client/localclient.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0a83db05d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rpc/client/localclient.go
@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
+package client
+
+import (
+	nm "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/node"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/core"
+	ctypes "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/core/types"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
+)
+
+/*
+Local is a Client implementation that directly executes the rpc
+functions on a given node, without going through HTTP or GRPC
+
+This implementation is useful for:
+
+* Running tests against a node in-process without the overhead
+of going through an http server
+* Communication between an ABCI app and tendermin core when they
+are compiled in process.
+
+For real clients, you probably want to use client.HTTP.  For more
+powerful control during testing, you probably want the "client/mock" package.
+*/
+type Local struct {
+	node *nm.Node
+	types.EventSwitch
+}
+
+// NewLocal configures a client that calls the Node directly.
+//
+// Note that given how rpc/core works with package singletons, that
+// you can only have one node per process.  So make sure test cases
+// don't run in parallel, or try to simulate an entire network in
+// one process...
+func NewLocal(node *nm.Node) Local {
+	node.ConfigureRPC()
+	return Local{
+		node:        node,
+		EventSwitch: node.EventSwitch(),
+	}
+}
+
+func (c Local) _assertIsClient() Client {
+	return c
+}
+
+func (c Local) _assertIsNetworkClient() NetworkClient {
+	return c
+}
+
+func (c Local) Status() (*ctypes.ResultStatus, error) {
+	return core.Status()
+}
+
+func (c Local) ABCIInfo() (*ctypes.ResultABCIInfo, error) {
+	return core.ABCIInfo()
+}
+
+func (c Local) ABCIQuery(path string, data []byte, prove bool) (*ctypes.ResultABCIQuery, error) {
+	return core.ABCIQuery(path, data, prove)
+}
+
+func (c Local) BroadcastTxCommit(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTxCommit, error) {
+	return core.BroadcastTxCommit(tx)
+}
+
+func (c Local) BroadcastTxAsync(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx, error) {
+	return core.BroadcastTxAsync(tx)
+}
+
+func (c Local) BroadcastTxSync(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx, error) {
+	return core.BroadcastTxSync(tx)
+}
+
+func (c Local) NetInfo() (*ctypes.ResultNetInfo, error) {
+	return core.NetInfo()
+}
+
+func (c Local) DumpConsensusState() (*ctypes.ResultDumpConsensusState, error) {
+	return core.DumpConsensusState()
+}
+
+func (c Local) DialSeeds(seeds []string) (*ctypes.ResultDialSeeds, error) {
+	return core.UnsafeDialSeeds(seeds)
+}
+
+func (c Local) BlockchainInfo(minHeight, maxHeight int) (*ctypes.ResultBlockchainInfo, error) {
+	return core.BlockchainInfo(minHeight, maxHeight)
+}
+
+func (c Local) Genesis() (*ctypes.ResultGenesis, error) {
+	return core.Genesis()
+}
+
+func (c Local) Block(height int) (*ctypes.ResultBlock, error) {
+	return core.Block(height)
+}
+
+func (c Local) Commit(height int) (*ctypes.ResultCommit, error) {
+	return core.Commit(height)
+}
+
+func (c Local) Validators() (*ctypes.ResultValidators, error) {
+	return core.Validators()
+}
diff --git a/rpc/client/main_test.go b/rpc/client/main_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5ec911e5d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rpc/client/main_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+package client_test
+
+import (
+	"os"
+	"testing"
+
+	meapp "github.com/tendermint/merkleeyes/app"
+	nm "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/node"
+	rpctest "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/test"
+)
+
+var node *nm.Node
+
+func TestMain(m *testing.M) {
+	// start a tendermint node (and merkleeyes) in the background to test against
+	app := meapp.NewMerkleEyesApp("", 100)
+	node = rpctest.StartTendermint(app)
+	code := m.Run()
+
+	// and shut down proper at the end
+	node.Stop()
+	node.Wait()
+	os.Exit(code)
+}
diff --git a/rpc/client/mock/abci.go b/rpc/client/mock/abci.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..13e187412
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rpc/client/mock/abci.go
@@ -0,0 +1,194 @@
+package mock
+
+import (
+	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/client"
+	ctypes "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/core/types"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
+)
+
+// ABCIApp will send all abci related request to the named app,
+// so you can test app behavior from a client without needing
+// an entire tendermint node
+type ABCIApp struct {
+	App abci.Application
+}
+
+func (a ABCIApp) _assertABCIClient() client.ABCIClient {
+	return a
+}
+
+func (a ABCIApp) ABCIInfo() (*ctypes.ResultABCIInfo, error) {
+	return &ctypes.ResultABCIInfo{a.App.Info()}, nil
+}
+
+func (a ABCIApp) ABCIQuery(path string, data []byte, prove bool) (*ctypes.ResultABCIQuery, error) {
+	q := a.App.Query(abci.RequestQuery{data, path, 0, prove})
+	return &ctypes.ResultABCIQuery{q}, nil
+}
+
+func (a ABCIApp) BroadcastTxCommit(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTxCommit, error) {
+	res := ctypes.ResultBroadcastTxCommit{}
+	c := a.App.CheckTx(tx)
+	res.CheckTx = &abci.ResponseCheckTx{c.Code, c.Data, c.Log}
+	if !c.IsOK() {
+		return &res, nil
+	}
+	d := a.App.DeliverTx(tx)
+	res.DeliverTx = &abci.ResponseDeliverTx{d.Code, d.Data, d.Log}
+	return &res, nil
+}
+
+func (a ABCIApp) BroadcastTxAsync(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx, error) {
+	c := a.App.CheckTx(tx)
+	// and this gets writen in a background thread...
+	if c.IsOK() {
+		go func() { a.App.DeliverTx(tx) }()
+	}
+	return &ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx{c.Code, c.Data, c.Log}, nil
+}
+
+func (a ABCIApp) BroadcastTxSync(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx, error) {
+	c := a.App.CheckTx(tx)
+	// and this gets writen in a background thread...
+	if c.IsOK() {
+		go func() { a.App.DeliverTx(tx) }()
+	}
+	return &ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx{c.Code, c.Data, c.Log}, nil
+}
+
+// ABCIMock will send all abci related request to the named app,
+// so you can test app behavior from a client without needing
+// an entire tendermint node
+type ABCIMock struct {
+	Info            Call
+	Query           Call
+	BroadcastCommit Call
+	Broadcast       Call
+}
+
+func (m ABCIMock) _assertABCIClient() client.ABCIClient {
+	return m
+}
+
+func (m ABCIMock) ABCIInfo() (*ctypes.ResultABCIInfo, error) {
+	res, err := m.Info.GetResponse(nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	return &ctypes.ResultABCIInfo{res.(abci.ResponseInfo)}, nil
+}
+
+func (m ABCIMock) ABCIQuery(path string, data []byte, prove bool) (*ctypes.ResultABCIQuery, error) {
+	res, err := m.Query.GetResponse(QueryArgs{path, data, prove})
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	return &ctypes.ResultABCIQuery{res.(abci.ResponseQuery)}, nil
+}
+
+func (m ABCIMock) BroadcastTxCommit(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTxCommit, error) {
+	res, err := m.BroadcastCommit.GetResponse(tx)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	return res.(*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTxCommit), nil
+}
+
+func (m ABCIMock) BroadcastTxAsync(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx, error) {
+	res, err := m.Broadcast.GetResponse(tx)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	return res.(*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx), nil
+}
+
+func (m ABCIMock) BroadcastTxSync(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx, error) {
+	res, err := m.Broadcast.GetResponse(tx)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	return res.(*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx), nil
+}
+
+// ABCIRecorder can wrap another type (ABCIApp, ABCIMock, or Client)
+// and record all ABCI related calls.
+type ABCIRecorder struct {
+	Client client.ABCIClient
+	Calls  []Call
+}
+
+func NewABCIRecorder(client client.ABCIClient) *ABCIRecorder {
+	return &ABCIRecorder{
+		Client: client,
+		Calls:  []Call{},
+	}
+}
+
+func (r *ABCIRecorder) _assertABCIClient() client.ABCIClient {
+	return r
+}
+
+type QueryArgs struct {
+	Path  string
+	Data  []byte
+	Prove bool
+}
+
+func (r *ABCIRecorder) addCall(call Call) {
+	r.Calls = append(r.Calls, call)
+}
+
+func (r *ABCIRecorder) ABCIInfo() (*ctypes.ResultABCIInfo, error) {
+	res, err := r.Client.ABCIInfo()
+	r.addCall(Call{
+		Name:     "abci_info",
+		Response: res,
+		Error:    err,
+	})
+	return res, err
+}
+
+func (r *ABCIRecorder) ABCIQuery(path string, data []byte, prove bool) (*ctypes.ResultABCIQuery, error) {
+	res, err := r.Client.ABCIQuery(path, data, prove)
+	r.addCall(Call{
+		Name:     "abci_query",
+		Args:     QueryArgs{path, data, prove},
+		Response: res,
+		Error:    err,
+	})
+	return res, err
+}
+
+func (r *ABCIRecorder) BroadcastTxCommit(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTxCommit, error) {
+	res, err := r.Client.BroadcastTxCommit(tx)
+	r.addCall(Call{
+		Name:     "broadcast_tx_commit",
+		Args:     tx,
+		Response: res,
+		Error:    err,
+	})
+	return res, err
+}
+
+func (r *ABCIRecorder) BroadcastTxAsync(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx, error) {
+	res, err := r.Client.BroadcastTxAsync(tx)
+	r.addCall(Call{
+		Name:     "broadcast_tx_async",
+		Args:     tx,
+		Response: res,
+		Error:    err,
+	})
+	return res, err
+}
+
+func (r *ABCIRecorder) BroadcastTxSync(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx, error) {
+	res, err := r.Client.BroadcastTxSync(tx)
+	r.addCall(Call{
+		Name:     "broadcast_tx_sync",
+		Args:     tx,
+		Response: res,
+		Error:    err,
+	})
+	return res, err
+}
diff --git a/rpc/client/mock/abci_test.go b/rpc/client/mock/abci_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..823752caf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rpc/client/mock/abci_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,169 @@
+package mock_test
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/pkg/errors"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+	"github.com/tendermint/abci/example/dummy"
+	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
+	ctypes "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/core/types"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
+
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/client/mock"
+)
+
+func TestABCIMock(t *testing.T) {
+	assert, require := assert.New(t), require.New(t)
+
+	key, value := []byte("foo"), []byte("bar")
+	height := uint64(10)
+	goodTx := types.Tx{0x01, 0xff}
+	badTx := types.Tx{0x12, 0x21}
+
+	m := mock.ABCIMock{
+		Info: mock.Call{Error: errors.New("foobar")},
+		Query: mock.Call{Response: abci.ResponseQuery{
+			Key:    key,
+			Value:  value,
+			Height: height,
+		}},
+		// Broadcast commit depends on call
+		BroadcastCommit: mock.Call{
+			Args: goodTx,
+			Response: &ctypes.ResultBroadcastTxCommit{
+				CheckTx:   &abci.ResponseCheckTx{Data: []byte("stand")},
+				DeliverTx: &abci.ResponseDeliverTx{Data: []byte("deliver")},
+			},
+			Error: errors.New("bad tx"),
+		},
+		Broadcast: mock.Call{Error: errors.New("must commit")},
+	}
+
+	// now, let's try to make some calls
+	_, err := m.ABCIInfo()
+	require.NotNil(err)
+	assert.Equal("foobar", err.Error())
+
+	// query always returns the response
+	query, err := m.ABCIQuery("/", nil, false)
+	require.Nil(err)
+	require.NotNil(query)
+	assert.Equal(key, query.Response.GetKey())
+	assert.Equal(value, query.Response.GetValue())
+	assert.Equal(height, query.Response.GetHeight())
+
+	// non-commit calls always return errors
+	_, err = m.BroadcastTxSync(goodTx)
+	require.NotNil(err)
+	assert.Equal("must commit", err.Error())
+	_, err = m.BroadcastTxAsync(goodTx)
+	require.NotNil(err)
+	assert.Equal("must commit", err.Error())
+
+	// commit depends on the input
+	_, err = m.BroadcastTxCommit(badTx)
+	require.NotNil(err)
+	assert.Equal("bad tx", err.Error())
+	bres, err := m.BroadcastTxCommit(goodTx)
+	require.Nil(err, "%+v", err)
+	assert.EqualValues(0, bres.CheckTx.Code)
+	assert.EqualValues("stand", bres.CheckTx.Data)
+	assert.EqualValues("deliver", bres.DeliverTx.Data)
+}
+
+func TestABCIRecorder(t *testing.T) {
+	assert, require := assert.New(t), require.New(t)
+	m := mock.ABCIMock{
+		Info: mock.Call{Response: abci.ResponseInfo{
+			Data:    "data",
+			Version: "v0.9.9",
+		}},
+		Query:           mock.Call{Error: errors.New("query")},
+		Broadcast:       mock.Call{Error: errors.New("broadcast")},
+		BroadcastCommit: mock.Call{Error: errors.New("broadcast_commit")},
+	}
+	r := mock.NewABCIRecorder(m)
+
+	require.Equal(0, len(r.Calls))
+
+	r.ABCIInfo()
+	r.ABCIQuery("path", []byte("data"), true)
+	require.Equal(2, len(r.Calls))
+
+	info := r.Calls[0]
+	assert.Equal("abci_info", info.Name)
+	assert.Nil(info.Error)
+	assert.Nil(info.Args)
+	require.NotNil(info.Response)
+	ir, ok := info.Response.(*ctypes.ResultABCIInfo)
+	require.True(ok)
+	assert.Equal("data", ir.Response.Data)
+	assert.Equal("v0.9.9", ir.Response.Version)
+
+	query := r.Calls[1]
+	assert.Equal("abci_query", query.Name)
+	assert.Nil(query.Response)
+	require.NotNil(query.Error)
+	assert.Equal("query", query.Error.Error())
+	require.NotNil(query.Args)
+	qa, ok := query.Args.(mock.QueryArgs)
+	require.True(ok)
+	assert.Equal("path", qa.Path)
+	assert.EqualValues("data", qa.Data)
+	assert.True(qa.Prove)
+
+	// now add some broadcasts
+	txs := []types.Tx{{1}, {2}, {3}}
+	r.BroadcastTxCommit(txs[0])
+	r.BroadcastTxSync(txs[1])
+	r.BroadcastTxAsync(txs[2])
+
+	require.Equal(5, len(r.Calls))
+
+	bc := r.Calls[2]
+	assert.Equal("broadcast_tx_commit", bc.Name)
+	assert.Nil(bc.Response)
+	require.NotNil(bc.Error)
+	assert.EqualValues(bc.Args, txs[0])
+
+	bs := r.Calls[3]
+	assert.Equal("broadcast_tx_sync", bs.Name)
+	assert.Nil(bs.Response)
+	require.NotNil(bs.Error)
+	assert.EqualValues(bs.Args, txs[1])
+
+	ba := r.Calls[4]
+	assert.Equal("broadcast_tx_async", ba.Name)
+	assert.Nil(ba.Response)
+	require.NotNil(ba.Error)
+	assert.EqualValues(ba.Args, txs[2])
+}
+
+func TestABCIApp(t *testing.T) {
+	assert, require := assert.New(t), require.New(t)
+	app := dummy.NewDummyApplication()
+	m := mock.ABCIApp{app}
+
+	// get some info
+	info, err := m.ABCIInfo()
+	require.Nil(err)
+	assert.Equal(`{"size":0}`, info.Response.GetData())
+
+	// add a key
+	key, value := "foo", "bar"
+	tx := fmt.Sprintf("%s=%s", key, value)
+	res, err := m.BroadcastTxCommit(types.Tx(tx))
+	require.Nil(err)
+	assert.True(res.CheckTx.Code.IsOK())
+	require.NotNil(res.DeliverTx)
+	assert.True(res.DeliverTx.Code.IsOK())
+
+	// check the key
+	qres, err := m.ABCIQuery("/key", []byte(key), false)
+	require.Nil(err)
+	assert.EqualValues(value, qres.Response.Value)
+}
diff --git a/rpc/client/mock/client.go b/rpc/client/mock/client.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a3cecfca1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rpc/client/mock/client.go
@@ -0,0 +1,128 @@
+/*
+package mock returns a Client implementation that
+accepts various (mock) implementations of the various methods.
+
+This implementation is useful for using in tests, when you don't
+need a real server, but want a high-level of control about
+the server response you want to mock (eg. error handling),
+or if you just want to record the calls to verify in your tests.
+
+For real clients, you probably want the "http" package.  If you
+want to directly call a tendermint node in process, you can use the
+"local" package.
+*/
+package mock
+
+import (
+	"reflect"
+
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/client"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/core"
+	ctypes "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/core/types"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
+)
+
+// Client wraps arbitrary implementations of the various interfaces.
+//
+// We provide a few choices to mock out each one in this package.
+// Nothing hidden here, so no New function, just construct it from
+// some parts, and swap them out them during the tests.
+type Client struct {
+	client.ABCIClient
+	client.SignClient
+	client.HistoryClient
+	client.StatusClient
+	// create a mock with types.NewEventSwitch()
+	types.EventSwitch
+}
+
+func (c Client) _assertIsClient() client.Client {
+	return c
+}
+
+// Call is used by recorders to save a call and response.
+// It can also be used to configure mock responses.
+//
+type Call struct {
+	Name     string
+	Args     interface{}
+	Response interface{}
+	Error    error
+}
+
+// GetResponse will generate the apporiate response for us, when
+// using the Call struct to configure a Mock handler.
+//
+// When configuring a response, if only one of Response or Error is
+// set then that will always be returned. If both are set, then
+// we return Response if the Args match the set args, Error otherwise.
+func (c Call) GetResponse(args interface{}) (interface{}, error) {
+	// handle the case with no response
+	if c.Response == nil {
+		if c.Error == nil {
+			panic("Misconfigured call, you must set either Response or Error")
+		}
+		return nil, c.Error
+	}
+	// response without error
+	if c.Error == nil {
+		return c.Response, nil
+	}
+	// have both, we must check args....
+	if reflect.DeepEqual(args, c.Args) {
+		return c.Response, nil
+	}
+	return nil, c.Error
+}
+
+func (c Client) Status() (*ctypes.ResultStatus, error) {
+	return core.Status()
+}
+
+func (c Client) ABCIInfo() (*ctypes.ResultABCIInfo, error) {
+	return core.ABCIInfo()
+}
+
+func (c Client) ABCIQuery(path string, data []byte, prove bool) (*ctypes.ResultABCIQuery, error) {
+	return core.ABCIQuery(path, data, prove)
+}
+
+func (c Client) BroadcastTxCommit(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTxCommit, error) {
+	return core.BroadcastTxCommit(tx)
+}
+
+func (c Client) BroadcastTxAsync(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx, error) {
+	return core.BroadcastTxAsync(tx)
+}
+
+func (c Client) BroadcastTxSync(tx types.Tx) (*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx, error) {
+	return core.BroadcastTxSync(tx)
+}
+
+func (c Client) NetInfo() (*ctypes.ResultNetInfo, error) {
+	return core.NetInfo()
+}
+
+func (c Client) DialSeeds(seeds []string) (*ctypes.ResultDialSeeds, error) {
+	return core.UnsafeDialSeeds(seeds)
+}
+
+func (c Client) BlockchainInfo(minHeight, maxHeight int) (*ctypes.ResultBlockchainInfo, error) {
+	return core.BlockchainInfo(minHeight, maxHeight)
+}
+
+func (c Client) Genesis() (*ctypes.ResultGenesis, error) {
+	return core.Genesis()
+}
+
+func (c Client) Block(height int) (*ctypes.ResultBlock, error) {
+	return core.Block(height)
+}
+
+func (c Client) Commit(height int) (*ctypes.ResultCommit, error) {
+	return core.Commit(height)
+}
+
+func (c Client) Validators() (*ctypes.ResultValidators, error) {
+	return core.Validators()
+}
diff --git a/rpc/client/mock/status.go b/rpc/client/mock/status.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..af0f5335d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rpc/client/mock/status.go
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+package mock
+
+import (
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/client"
+	ctypes "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/core/types"
+)
+
+// StatusMock returns the result specified by the Call
+type StatusMock struct {
+	Call
+}
+
+func (m *StatusMock) _assertStatusClient() client.StatusClient {
+	return m
+}
+
+func (m *StatusMock) Status() (*ctypes.ResultStatus, error) {
+	res, err := m.GetResponse(nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	return res.(*ctypes.ResultStatus), nil
+}
+
+// StatusRecorder can wrap another type (StatusMock, full client)
+// and record the status calls
+type StatusRecorder struct {
+	Client client.StatusClient
+	Calls  []Call
+}
+
+func NewStatusRecorder(client client.StatusClient) *StatusRecorder {
+	return &StatusRecorder{
+		Client: client,
+		Calls:  []Call{},
+	}
+}
+
+func (r *StatusRecorder) _assertStatusClient() client.StatusClient {
+	return r
+}
+
+func (r *StatusRecorder) addCall(call Call) {
+	r.Calls = append(r.Calls, call)
+}
+
+func (r *StatusRecorder) Status() (*ctypes.ResultStatus, error) {
+	res, err := r.Client.Status()
+	r.addCall(Call{
+		Name:     "status",
+		Response: res,
+		Error:    err,
+	})
+	return res, err
+}
diff --git a/rpc/client/mock/status_test.go b/rpc/client/mock/status_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3e695cd57
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rpc/client/mock/status_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+package mock_test
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+	ctypes "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/core/types"
+
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/client/mock"
+)
+
+func TestStatus(t *testing.T) {
+	assert, require := assert.New(t), require.New(t)
+
+	m := &mock.StatusMock{
+		Call: mock.Call{
+			Response: &ctypes.ResultStatus{
+				LatestBlockHash:   []byte("block"),
+				LatestAppHash:     []byte("app"),
+				LatestBlockHeight: 10,
+			}},
+	}
+
+	r := mock.NewStatusRecorder(m)
+	require.Equal(0, len(r.Calls))
+
+	// make sure response works proper
+	status, err := r.Status()
+	require.Nil(err, "%+v", err)
+	assert.EqualValues("block", status.LatestBlockHash)
+	assert.EqualValues(10, status.LatestBlockHeight)
+
+	// make sure recorder works properly
+	require.Equal(1, len(r.Calls))
+	rs := r.Calls[0]
+	assert.Equal("status", rs.Name)
+	assert.Nil(rs.Args)
+	assert.Nil(rs.Error)
+	require.NotNil(rs.Response)
+	st, ok := rs.Response.(*ctypes.ResultStatus)
+	require.True(ok)
+	assert.EqualValues("block", st.LatestBlockHash)
+	assert.EqualValues(10, st.LatestBlockHeight)
+}
diff --git a/rpc/client/rpc_test.go b/rpc/client/rpc_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c5f32d97f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rpc/client/rpc_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,179 @@
+package client_test
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+	merkle "github.com/tendermint/go-merkle"
+	merktest "github.com/tendermint/merkleeyes/testutil"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/client"
+	rpctest "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/test"
+)
+
+func getHTTPClient() *client.HTTP {
+	rpcAddr := rpctest.GetConfig().GetString("rpc_laddr")
+	return client.NewHTTP(rpcAddr, "/websocket")
+}
+
+func getLocalClient() client.Local {
+	return client.NewLocal(node)
+}
+
+// GetClients returns a slice of clients for table-driven tests
+func GetClients() []client.Client {
+	return []client.Client{
+		getHTTPClient(),
+		getLocalClient(),
+	}
+}
+
+// Make sure status is correct (we connect properly)
+func TestStatus(t *testing.T) {
+	for i, c := range GetClients() {
+		chainID := rpctest.GetConfig().GetString("chain_id")
+		status, err := c.Status()
+		require.Nil(t, err, "%d: %+v", i, err)
+		assert.Equal(t, chainID, status.NodeInfo.Network)
+	}
+}
+
+// Make sure info is correct (we connect properly)
+func TestInfo(t *testing.T) {
+	for i, c := range GetClients() {
+		// status, err := c.Status()
+		// require.Nil(t, err, "%+v", err)
+		info, err := c.ABCIInfo()
+		require.Nil(t, err, "%d: %+v", i, err)
+		// TODO: this is not correct - fix merkleeyes!
+		// assert.EqualValues(t, status.LatestBlockHeight, info.Response.LastBlockHeight)
+		assert.True(t, strings.HasPrefix(info.Response.Data, "size"))
+	}
+}
+
+func TestNetInfo(t *testing.T) {
+	for i, c := range GetClients() {
+		nc, ok := c.(client.NetworkClient)
+		require.True(t, ok, "%d", i)
+		netinfo, err := nc.NetInfo()
+		require.Nil(t, err, "%d: %+v", i, err)
+		assert.True(t, netinfo.Listening)
+		assert.Equal(t, 0, len(netinfo.Peers))
+	}
+}
+
+func TestDumpConsensusState(t *testing.T) {
+	for i, c := range GetClients() {
+		// FIXME: fix server so it doesn't panic on invalid input
+		nc, ok := c.(client.NetworkClient)
+		require.True(t, ok, "%d", i)
+		cons, err := nc.DumpConsensusState()
+		require.Nil(t, err, "%d: %+v", i, err)
+		assert.NotEmpty(t, cons.RoundState)
+		assert.Empty(t, cons.PeerRoundStates)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestGenesisAndValidators(t *testing.T) {
+	for i, c := range GetClients() {
+		chainID := rpctest.GetConfig().GetString("chain_id")
+
+		// make sure this is the right genesis file
+		gen, err := c.Genesis()
+		require.Nil(t, err, "%d: %+v", i, err)
+		assert.Equal(t, chainID, gen.Genesis.ChainID)
+		// get the genesis validator
+		require.Equal(t, 1, len(gen.Genesis.Validators))
+		gval := gen.Genesis.Validators[0]
+
+		// get the current validators
+		vals, err := c.Validators()
+		require.Nil(t, err, "%d: %+v", i, err)
+		require.Equal(t, 1, len(vals.Validators))
+		val := vals.Validators[0]
+
+		// make sure the current set is also the genesis set
+		assert.Equal(t, gval.Amount, val.VotingPower)
+		assert.Equal(t, gval.PubKey, val.PubKey)
+	}
+}
+
+// Make some app checks
+func TestAppCalls(t *testing.T) {
+	assert, require := assert.New(t), require.New(t)
+	for i, c := range GetClients() {
+
+		// get an offset of height to avoid racing and guessing
+		s, err := c.Status()
+		require.Nil(err, "%d: %+v", i, err)
+		// sh is start height or status height
+		sh := s.LatestBlockHeight
+
+		// look for the future
+		_, err = c.Block(sh + 2)
+		assert.NotNil(err) // no block yet
+
+		// write something
+		k, v, tx := merktest.MakeTxKV()
+		_, err = c.BroadcastTxCommit(tx)
+		require.Nil(err, "%d: %+v", i, err)
+		// wait before querying
+		time.Sleep(time.Second * 1)
+		qres, err := c.ABCIQuery("/key", k, false)
+		if assert.Nil(err) && assert.True(qres.Response.Code.IsOK()) {
+			data := qres.Response
+			// assert.Equal(k, data.GetKey())  // only returned for proofs
+			assert.Equal(v, data.GetValue())
+		}
+		// +/- 1 making my head hurt
+		h := int(qres.Response.Height) - 1
+
+		// and we can even check the block is added
+		block, err := c.Block(h)
+		require.Nil(err, "%d: %+v", i, err)
+		appHash := block.BlockMeta.Header.AppHash
+		assert.True(len(appHash) > 0)
+		assert.EqualValues(h, block.BlockMeta.Header.Height)
+
+		// check blockchain info, now that we know there is info
+		// TODO: is this commented somewhere that they are returned
+		// in order of descending height???
+		info, err := c.BlockchainInfo(h-2, h)
+		require.Nil(err, "%d: %+v", i, err)
+		assert.True(info.LastHeight > 2)
+		if assert.Equal(3, len(info.BlockMetas)) {
+			lastMeta := info.BlockMetas[0]
+			assert.EqualValues(h, lastMeta.Header.Height)
+			bMeta := block.BlockMeta
+			assert.Equal(bMeta.Header.AppHash, lastMeta.Header.AppHash)
+			assert.Equal(bMeta.BlockID, lastMeta.BlockID)
+		}
+
+		// and get the corresponding commit with the same apphash
+		commit, err := c.Commit(h)
+		require.Nil(err, "%d: %+v", i, err)
+		cappHash := commit.Header.AppHash
+		assert.Equal(appHash, cappHash)
+		assert.NotNil(commit.Commit)
+
+		// compare the commits (note Commit(2) has commit from Block(3))
+		commit2, err := c.Commit(h - 1)
+		require.Nil(err, "%d: %+v", i, err)
+		assert.Equal(block.Block.LastCommit, commit2.Commit)
+
+		// and we got a proof that works!
+		pres, err := c.ABCIQuery("/key", k, true)
+		if assert.Nil(err) && assert.True(pres.Response.Code.IsOK()) {
+			proof, err := merkle.ReadProof(pres.Response.GetProof())
+			if assert.Nil(err) {
+				key := pres.Response.GetKey()
+				value := pres.Response.GetValue()
+				assert.Equal(appHash, proof.RootHash)
+				valid := proof.Verify(key, value, appHash)
+				assert.True(valid)
+			}
+		}
+	}
+}
diff --git a/rpc/core/abci.go b/rpc/core/abci.go
index 032193431..957727267 100644
--- a/rpc/core/abci.go
+++ b/rpc/core/abci.go
@@ -1,25 +1,29 @@
 package core
 
 import (
+	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
 	ctypes "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/core/types"
 )
 
 //-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-func ABCIQuery(query []byte) (*ctypes.ResultABCIQuery, error) {
-	res := proxyAppQuery.QuerySync(query)
-	return &ctypes.ResultABCIQuery{res}, nil
+func ABCIQuery(path string, data []byte, prove bool) (*ctypes.ResultABCIQuery, error) {
+	resQuery, err := proxyAppQuery.QuerySync(abci.RequestQuery{
+		Path:  path,
+		Data:  data,
+		Prove: prove,
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	log.Info("ABCIQuery", "path", path, "data", data, "result", resQuery)
+	return &ctypes.ResultABCIQuery{resQuery}, nil
 }
 
 func ABCIInfo() (*ctypes.ResultABCIInfo, error) {
-	res, err := proxyAppQuery.InfoSync()
+	resInfo, err := proxyAppQuery.InfoSync()
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
-	return &ctypes.ResultABCIInfo{
-		Data:             res.Data,
-		Version:          res.Version,
-		LastBlockHeight:  res.LastBlockHeight,
-		LastBlockAppHash: res.LastBlockAppHash,
-	}, nil
+	return &ctypes.ResultABCIInfo{resInfo}, nil
 }
diff --git a/rpc/core/blocks.go b/rpc/core/blocks.go
index 115ca2a9c..65e47d125 100644
--- a/rpc/core/blocks.go
+++ b/rpc/core/blocks.go
@@ -44,3 +44,28 @@ func Block(height int) (*ctypes.ResultBlock, error) {
 	block := blockStore.LoadBlock(height)
 	return &ctypes.ResultBlock{blockMeta, block}, nil
 }
+
+//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+func Commit(height int) (*ctypes.ResultCommit, error) {
+	if height == 0 {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("Height must be greater than 0")
+	}
+	storeHeight := blockStore.Height()
+	if height > storeHeight {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("Height must be less than or equal to the current blockchain height")
+	}
+
+	header := blockStore.LoadBlockMeta(height).Header
+
+	// If the next block has not been committed yet,
+	// use a non-canonical commit
+	if height == storeHeight {
+		commit := blockStore.LoadSeenCommit(height)
+		return &ctypes.ResultCommit{header, commit, false}, nil
+	}
+
+	// Return the canonical commit (comes from the block at height+1)
+	commit := blockStore.LoadBlockCommit(height)
+	return &ctypes.ResultCommit{header, commit, true}, nil
+}
diff --git a/rpc/core/net.go b/rpc/core/net.go
index 9e9f027ea..df491ba80 100644
--- a/rpc/core/net.go
+++ b/rpc/core/net.go
@@ -32,8 +32,9 @@ func NetInfo() (*ctypes.ResultNetInfo, error) {
 // Dial given list of seeds
 func UnsafeDialSeeds(seeds []string) (*ctypes.ResultDialSeeds, error) {
 	// starts go routines to dial each seed after random delays
-	p2pSwitch.DialSeeds(seeds)
-	return &ctypes.ResultDialSeeds{}, nil
+	log.Info("DialSeeds", "addrBook", addrBook, "seeds", seeds)
+	err := p2pSwitch.DialSeeds(addrBook, seeds)
+	return &ctypes.ResultDialSeeds{}, err
 }
 
 //-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/rpc/core/pipe.go b/rpc/core/pipe.go
index 356a2ff0d..123b13dd8 100644
--- a/rpc/core/pipe.go
+++ b/rpc/core/pipe.go
@@ -8,55 +8,43 @@ import (
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/consensus"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/proxy"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
-	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
 )
 
-//-----------------------------------------------------
-// Interfaces for use by RPC
-// NOTE: these methods must be thread safe!
-
-type BlockStore interface {
-	Height() int
-	LoadBlockMeta(height int) *types.BlockMeta
-	LoadBlock(height int) *types.Block
-}
+//----------------------------------------------
+// These interfaces are used by RPC and must be thread safe
 
 type Consensus interface {
 	GetValidators() (int, []*types.Validator)
 	GetRoundState() *consensus.RoundState
 }
 
-type Mempool interface {
-	Size() int
-	CheckTx(types.Tx, func(*abci.Response)) error
-	Reap(int) []types.Tx
-	Flush()
-}
-
 type P2P interface {
 	Listeners() []p2p.Listener
 	Peers() p2p.IPeerSet
 	NumPeers() (outbound, inbound, dialig int)
 	NodeInfo() *p2p.NodeInfo
 	IsListening() bool
-	DialSeeds([]string)
+	DialSeeds(*p2p.AddrBook, []string) error
 }
 
+//----------------------------------------------
+
 var (
 	// external, thread safe interfaces
 	eventSwitch   types.EventSwitch
 	proxyAppQuery proxy.AppConnQuery
 	config        cfg.Config
 
-	// interfaces defined above
-	blockStore     BlockStore
+	// interfaces defined in types and above
+	blockStore     types.BlockStore
+	mempool        types.Mempool
 	consensusState Consensus
-	mempool        Mempool
 	p2pSwitch      P2P
 
 	// objects
-	pubKey crypto.PubKey
-	genDoc *types.GenesisDoc // cache the genesis structure
+	pubKey   crypto.PubKey
+	genDoc   *types.GenesisDoc // cache the genesis structure
+	addrBook *p2p.AddrBook
 )
 
 func SetConfig(c cfg.Config) {
@@ -67,16 +55,16 @@ func SetEventSwitch(evsw types.EventSwitch) {
 	eventSwitch = evsw
 }
 
-func SetBlockStore(bs BlockStore) {
+func SetBlockStore(bs types.BlockStore) {
 	blockStore = bs
 }
 
-func SetConsensusState(cs Consensus) {
-	consensusState = cs
+func SetMempool(mem types.Mempool) {
+	mempool = mem
 }
 
-func SetMempool(mem Mempool) {
-	mempool = mem
+func SetConsensusState(cs Consensus) {
+	consensusState = cs
 }
 
 func SetSwitch(sw P2P) {
@@ -91,6 +79,10 @@ func SetGenesisDoc(doc *types.GenesisDoc) {
 	genDoc = doc
 }
 
+func SetAddrBook(book *p2p.AddrBook) {
+	addrBook = book
+}
+
 func SetProxyAppQuery(appConn proxy.AppConnQuery) {
 	proxyAppQuery = appConn
 }
diff --git a/rpc/core/routes.go b/rpc/core/routes.go
index fa80bf2fd..643b2bf02 100644
--- a/rpc/core/routes.go
+++ b/rpc/core/routes.go
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ var Routes = map[string]*rpc.RPCFunc{
 	"blockchain":           rpc.NewRPCFunc(BlockchainInfoResult, "minHeight,maxHeight"),
 	"genesis":              rpc.NewRPCFunc(GenesisResult, ""),
 	"block":                rpc.NewRPCFunc(BlockResult, "height"),
+	"commit":               rpc.NewRPCFunc(CommitResult, "height"),
 	"validators":           rpc.NewRPCFunc(ValidatorsResult, ""),
 	"dump_consensus_state": rpc.NewRPCFunc(DumpConsensusStateResult, ""),
 	"unconfirmed_txs":      rpc.NewRPCFunc(UnconfirmedTxsResult, ""),
@@ -29,7 +30,7 @@ var Routes = map[string]*rpc.RPCFunc{
 	"broadcast_tx_async":  rpc.NewRPCFunc(BroadcastTxAsyncResult, "tx"),
 
 	// abci API
-	"abci_query": rpc.NewRPCFunc(ABCIQueryResult, "query"),
+	"abci_query": rpc.NewRPCFunc(ABCIQueryResult, "path,data,prove"),
 	"abci_info":  rpc.NewRPCFunc(ABCIInfoResult, ""),
 
 	// control API
@@ -107,6 +108,14 @@ func BlockResult(height int) (ctypes.TMResult, error) {
 	}
 }
 
+func CommitResult(height int) (ctypes.TMResult, error) {
+	if r, err := Commit(height); err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	} else {
+		return r, nil
+	}
+}
+
 func ValidatorsResult() (ctypes.TMResult, error) {
 	if r, err := Validators(); err != nil {
 		return nil, err
@@ -163,8 +172,8 @@ func BroadcastTxAsyncResult(tx []byte) (ctypes.TMResult, error) {
 	}
 }
 
-func ABCIQueryResult(query []byte) (ctypes.TMResult, error) {
-	if r, err := ABCIQuery(query); err != nil {
+func ABCIQueryResult(path string, data []byte, prove bool) (ctypes.TMResult, error) {
+	if r, err := ABCIQuery(path, data, prove); err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	} else {
 		return r, nil
diff --git a/rpc/core/status.go b/rpc/core/status.go
index 8edadf136..96ed46ea6 100644
--- a/rpc/core/status.go
+++ b/rpc/core/status.go
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ func Status() (*ctypes.ResultStatus, error) {
 	)
 	if latestHeight != 0 {
 		latestBlockMeta = blockStore.LoadBlockMeta(latestHeight)
-		latestBlockHash = latestBlockMeta.Hash
+		latestBlockHash = latestBlockMeta.BlockID.Hash
 		latestAppHash = latestBlockMeta.Header.AppHash
 		latestBlockTime = latestBlockMeta.Header.Time.UnixNano()
 	}
diff --git a/rpc/core/types/responses.go b/rpc/core/types/responses.go
index 5915c1db6..bcab4f59c 100644
--- a/rpc/core/types/responses.go
+++ b/rpc/core/types/responses.go
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 package core_types
 
 import (
+	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-crypto"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-p2p"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-rpc/types"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-wire"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
-	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
 )
 
 type ResultBlockchainInfo struct {
@@ -23,6 +23,12 @@ type ResultBlock struct {
 	Block     *types.Block     `json:"block"`
 }
 
+type ResultCommit struct {
+	Header          *types.Header `json:"header"`
+	Commit          *types.Commit `json:"commit"`
+	CanonicalCommit bool          `json:"canonical"`
+}
+
 type ResultStatus struct {
 	NodeInfo          *p2p.NodeInfo `json:"node_info"`
 	PubKey            crypto.PubKey `json:"pub_key"`
@@ -64,7 +70,7 @@ type ResultBroadcastTx struct {
 }
 
 type ResultBroadcastTxCommit struct {
-	CheckTx  *abci.ResponseCheckTx  `json:"check_tx"`
+	CheckTx   *abci.ResponseCheckTx   `json:"check_tx"`
 	DeliverTx *abci.ResponseDeliverTx `json:"deliver_tx"`
 }
 
@@ -74,14 +80,11 @@ type ResultUnconfirmedTxs struct {
 }
 
 type ResultABCIInfo struct {
-	Data             string `json:"data"`
-	Version          string `json:"version"`
-	LastBlockHeight  uint64 `json:"last_block_height"`
-	LastBlockAppHash []byte `json:"last_block_app_hash"`
+	Response abci.ResponseInfo `json:"response"`
 }
 
 type ResultABCIQuery struct {
-	Result abci.Result `json:"result"`
+	Response abci.ResponseQuery `json:"response"`
 }
 
 type ResultUnsafeFlushMempool struct{}
@@ -109,6 +112,7 @@ const (
 	ResultTypeGenesis        = byte(0x01)
 	ResultTypeBlockchainInfo = byte(0x02)
 	ResultTypeBlock          = byte(0x03)
+	ResultTypeCommit         = byte(0x04)
 
 	// 0x2 bytes are for the network
 	ResultTypeStatus    = byte(0x20)
@@ -151,6 +155,7 @@ var _ = wire.RegisterInterface(
 	wire.ConcreteType{&ResultGenesis{}, ResultTypeGenesis},
 	wire.ConcreteType{&ResultBlockchainInfo{}, ResultTypeBlockchainInfo},
 	wire.ConcreteType{&ResultBlock{}, ResultTypeBlock},
+	wire.ConcreteType{&ResultCommit{}, ResultTypeCommit},
 	wire.ConcreteType{&ResultStatus{}, ResultTypeStatus},
 	wire.ConcreteType{&ResultNetInfo{}, ResultTypeNetInfo},
 	wire.ConcreteType{&ResultDialSeeds{}, ResultTypeDialSeeds},
diff --git a/rpc/test/client_test.go b/rpc/test/client_test.go
index da0b86f36..1141de4ee 100644
--- a/rpc/test/client_test.go
+++ b/rpc/test/client_test.go
@@ -8,12 +8,12 @@ import (
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
 	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
-	"github.com/tendermint/go-wire"
 	ctypes "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/core/types"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
-	"github.com/tendermint/abci/example/dummy"
-	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
 )
 
 //--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -26,42 +26,35 @@ import (
 
 func TestURIStatus(t *testing.T) {
 	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
-	_, err := clientURI.Call("status", map[string]interface{}{}, tmResult)
-	if err != nil {
-		panic(err)
-	}
+	_, err := GetURIClient().Call("status", map[string]interface{}{}, tmResult)
+	require.Nil(t, err)
 	testStatus(t, tmResult)
 }
 
 func TestJSONStatus(t *testing.T) {
 	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
-	_, err := clientJSON.Call("status", []interface{}{}, tmResult)
-	if err != nil {
-		panic(err)
-	}
+	_, err := GetJSONClient().Call("status", []interface{}{}, tmResult)
+	require.Nil(t, err)
 	testStatus(t, tmResult)
 }
 
 func testStatus(t *testing.T, statusI interface{}) {
+	chainID := GetConfig().GetString("chain_id")
+
 	tmRes := statusI.(*ctypes.TMResult)
 	status := (*tmRes).(*ctypes.ResultStatus)
-	if status.NodeInfo.Network != chainID {
-		panic(Fmt("ChainID mismatch: got %s expected %s",
-			status.NodeInfo.Network, chainID))
-	}
+	assert.Equal(t, chainID, status.NodeInfo.Network)
 }
 
 //--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 // broadcast tx sync
 
 // random bytes (excluding byte('='))
-func randBytes() []byte {
+func randBytes(t *testing.T) []byte {
 	n := rand.Intn(10) + 2
 	buf := make([]byte, n)
 	_, err := crand.Read(buf)
-	if err != nil {
-		panic(err)
-	}
+	require.Nil(t, err)
 	return bytes.Replace(buf, []byte("="), []byte{100}, -1)
 }
 
@@ -69,11 +62,9 @@ func TestURIBroadcastTxSync(t *testing.T) {
 	config.Set("block_size", 0)
 	defer config.Set("block_size", -1)
 	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
-	tx := randBytes()
-	_, err := clientURI.Call("broadcast_tx_sync", map[string]interface{}{"tx": tx}, tmResult)
-	if err != nil {
-		panic(err)
-	}
+	tx := randBytes(t)
+	_, err := GetURIClient().Call("broadcast_tx_sync", map[string]interface{}{"tx": tx}, tmResult)
+	require.Nil(t, err)
 	testBroadcastTxSync(t, tmResult, tx)
 }
 
@@ -81,91 +72,64 @@ func TestJSONBroadcastTxSync(t *testing.T) {
 	config.Set("block_size", 0)
 	defer config.Set("block_size", -1)
 	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
-	tx := randBytes()
-	_, err := clientJSON.Call("broadcast_tx_sync", []interface{}{tx}, tmResult)
-	if err != nil {
-		panic(err)
-	}
+	tx := randBytes(t)
+	_, err := GetJSONClient().Call("broadcast_tx_sync", []interface{}{tx}, tmResult)
+	require.Nil(t, err)
 	testBroadcastTxSync(t, tmResult, tx)
 }
 
 func testBroadcastTxSync(t *testing.T, resI interface{}, tx []byte) {
 	tmRes := resI.(*ctypes.TMResult)
 	res := (*tmRes).(*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTx)
-	if res.Code != abci.CodeType_OK {
-		panic(Fmt("BroadcastTxSync got non-zero exit code: %v. %X; %s", res.Code, res.Data, res.Log))
-	}
+	require.Equal(t, abci.CodeType_OK, res.Code)
 	mem := node.MempoolReactor().Mempool
-	if mem.Size() != 1 {
-		panic(Fmt("Mempool size should have been 1. Got %d", mem.Size()))
-	}
-
+	require.Equal(t, 1, mem.Size())
 	txs := mem.Reap(1)
-	if !bytes.Equal(txs[0], tx) {
-		panic(Fmt("Tx in mempool does not match test tx. Got %X, expected %X", txs[0], tx))
-	}
-
+	require.EqualValues(t, tx, txs[0])
 	mem.Flush()
 }
 
 //--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 // query
 
-func testTxKV() ([]byte, []byte, []byte) {
-	k := randBytes()
-	v := randBytes()
+func testTxKV(t *testing.T) ([]byte, []byte, []byte) {
+	k := randBytes(t)
+	v := randBytes(t)
 	return k, v, []byte(Fmt("%s=%s", k, v))
 }
 
-func sendTx() ([]byte, []byte) {
+func sendTx(t *testing.T) ([]byte, []byte) {
 	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
-	k, v, tx := testTxKV()
-	_, err := clientJSON.Call("broadcast_tx_commit", []interface{}{tx}, tmResult)
-	if err != nil {
-		panic(err)
-	}
-	fmt.Println("SENT TX", tx)
-	fmt.Printf("SENT TX %X\n", tx)
-	fmt.Printf("k %X; v %X", k, v)
+	k, v, tx := testTxKV(t)
+	_, err := GetJSONClient().Call("broadcast_tx_commit", []interface{}{tx}, tmResult)
+	require.Nil(t, err)
 	return k, v
 }
 
 func TestURIABCIQuery(t *testing.T) {
-	k, v := sendTx()
+	k, v := sendTx(t)
 	time.Sleep(time.Second)
 	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
-	_, err := clientURI.Call("abci_query", map[string]interface{}{"query": k}, tmResult)
-	if err != nil {
-		panic(err)
-	}
+	_, err := GetURIClient().Call("abci_query", map[string]interface{}{"path": "", "data": k, "prove": false}, tmResult)
+	require.Nil(t, err)
 	testABCIQuery(t, tmResult, v)
 }
 
 func TestJSONABCIQuery(t *testing.T) {
-	k, v := sendTx()
+	k, v := sendTx(t)
 	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
-	_, err := clientJSON.Call("abci_query", []interface{}{k}, tmResult)
-	if err != nil {
-		panic(err)
-	}
+	_, err := GetJSONClient().Call("abci_query", []interface{}{"", k, false}, tmResult)
+	require.Nil(t, err)
 	testABCIQuery(t, tmResult, v)
 }
 
 func testABCIQuery(t *testing.T, statusI interface{}, value []byte) {
 	tmRes := statusI.(*ctypes.TMResult)
-	query := (*tmRes).(*ctypes.ResultABCIQuery)
-	if query.Result.IsErr() {
-		panic(Fmt("Query returned an err: %v", query))
-	}
+	resQuery := (*tmRes).(*ctypes.ResultABCIQuery)
+	require.EqualValues(t, 0, resQuery.Response.Code)
 
-	qResult := new(dummy.QueryResult)
-	if err := wire.ReadJSONBytes(query.Result.Data, qResult); err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
-	}
 	// XXX: specific to value returned by the dummy
-	if qResult.Exists != true {
-		panic(Fmt("Query error. Expected to find 'exists=true'. Got: %v", qResult))
-	}
+	require.NotEqual(t, 0, len(resQuery.Response.Value))
 }
 
 //--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -173,40 +137,30 @@ func testABCIQuery(t *testing.T, statusI interface{}, value []byte) {
 
 func TestURIBroadcastTxCommit(t *testing.T) {
 	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
-	tx := randBytes()
-	_, err := clientURI.Call("broadcast_tx_commit", map[string]interface{}{"tx": tx}, tmResult)
-	if err != nil {
-		panic(err)
-	}
+	tx := randBytes(t)
+	_, err := GetURIClient().Call("broadcast_tx_commit", map[string]interface{}{"tx": tx}, tmResult)
+	require.Nil(t, err)
 	testBroadcastTxCommit(t, tmResult, tx)
 }
 
 func TestJSONBroadcastTxCommit(t *testing.T) {
 	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
-	tx := randBytes()
-	_, err := clientJSON.Call("broadcast_tx_commit", []interface{}{tx}, tmResult)
-	if err != nil {
-		panic(err)
-	}
+	tx := randBytes(t)
+	_, err := GetJSONClient().Call("broadcast_tx_commit", []interface{}{tx}, tmResult)
+	require.Nil(t, err)
 	testBroadcastTxCommit(t, tmResult, tx)
 }
 
 func testBroadcastTxCommit(t *testing.T, resI interface{}, tx []byte) {
+	require := require.New(t)
 	tmRes := resI.(*ctypes.TMResult)
 	res := (*tmRes).(*ctypes.ResultBroadcastTxCommit)
 	checkTx := res.CheckTx
-	if checkTx.Code != abci.CodeType_OK {
-		panic(Fmt("BroadcastTxCommit got non-zero exit code from CheckTx: %v. %X; %s", checkTx.Code, checkTx.Data, checkTx.Log))
-	}
+	require.Equal(abci.CodeType_OK, checkTx.Code)
 	deliverTx := res.DeliverTx
-	if deliverTx.Code != abci.CodeType_OK {
-		panic(Fmt("BroadcastTxCommit got non-zero exit code from CheckTx: %v. %X; %s", deliverTx.Code, deliverTx.Data, deliverTx.Log))
-	}
+	require.Equal(abci.CodeType_OK, deliverTx.Code)
 	mem := node.MempoolReactor().Mempool
-	if mem.Size() != 0 {
-		panic(Fmt("Mempool size should have been 0. Got %d", mem.Size()))
-	}
-
+	require.Equal(0, mem.Size())
 	// TODO: find tx in block
 }
 
@@ -217,21 +171,22 @@ var wsTyp = "JSONRPC"
 
 // make a simple connection to the server
 func TestWSConnect(t *testing.T) {
-	wsc := newWSClient(t)
+	wsc := GetWSClient()
 	wsc.Stop()
 }
 
 // receive a new block message
 func TestWSNewBlock(t *testing.T) {
-	wsc := newWSClient(t)
+	wsc := GetWSClient()
 	eid := types.EventStringNewBlock()
-	subscribe(t, wsc, eid)
+	require.Nil(t, wsc.Subscribe(eid))
+
 	defer func() {
-		unsubscribe(t, wsc, eid)
+		require.Nil(t, wsc.Unsubscribe(eid))
 		wsc.Stop()
 	}()
 	waitForEvent(t, wsc, eid, true, func() {}, func(eid string, b interface{}) error {
-		fmt.Println("Check:", b)
+		// fmt.Println("Check:", b)
 		return nil
 	})
 }
@@ -241,11 +196,12 @@ func TestWSBlockchainGrowth(t *testing.T) {
 	if testing.Short() {
 		t.Skip("skipping test in short mode.")
 	}
-	wsc := newWSClient(t)
+	wsc := GetWSClient()
 	eid := types.EventStringNewBlock()
-	subscribe(t, wsc, eid)
+	require.Nil(t, wsc.Subscribe(eid))
+
 	defer func() {
-		unsubscribe(t, wsc, eid)
+		require.Nil(t, wsc.Unsubscribe(eid))
 		wsc.Stop()
 	}()
 
@@ -269,35 +225,29 @@ func TestWSBlockchainGrowth(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 func TestWSTxEvent(t *testing.T) {
-	wsc := newWSClient(t)
-	tx := randBytes()
+	require := require.New(t)
+	wsc := GetWSClient()
+	tx := randBytes(t)
 
 	// listen for the tx I am about to submit
 	eid := types.EventStringTx(types.Tx(tx))
-	subscribe(t, wsc, eid)
+	require.Nil(wsc.Subscribe(eid))
+
 	defer func() {
-		unsubscribe(t, wsc, eid)
+		require.Nil(wsc.Unsubscribe(eid))
 		wsc.Stop()
 	}()
 
 	// send an tx
 	tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
-	_, err := clientJSON.Call("broadcast_tx_sync", []interface{}{tx}, tmResult)
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatal("Error submitting event")
-	}
+	_, err := GetJSONClient().Call("broadcast_tx_sync", []interface{}{tx}, tmResult)
+	require.Nil(err)
 
 	waitForEvent(t, wsc, eid, true, func() {}, func(eid string, b interface{}) error {
 		evt, ok := b.(types.EventDataTx)
-		if !ok {
-			t.Fatal("Got wrong event type", b)
-		}
-		if bytes.Compare([]byte(evt.Tx), tx) != 0 {
-			t.Error("Event returned different tx")
-		}
-		if evt.Code != abci.CodeType_OK {
-			t.Error("Event returned tx error code", evt.Code)
-		}
+		require.True(ok, "Got wrong event type: %#v", b)
+		require.Equal(tx, []byte(evt.Tx), "Returned different tx")
+		require.Equal(abci.CodeType_OK, evt.Code)
 		return nil
 	})
 }
@@ -347,14 +297,12 @@ var testCasesUnsafeSetConfig = [][]string{
 func TestURIUnsafeSetConfig(t *testing.T) {
 	for _, testCase := range testCasesUnsafeSetConfig {
 		tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
-		_, err := clientURI.Call("unsafe_set_config", map[string]interface{}{
+		_, err := GetURIClient().Call("unsafe_set_config", map[string]interface{}{
 			"type":  testCase[0],
 			"key":   testCase[1],
 			"value": testCase[2],
 		}, tmResult)
-		if err != nil {
-			panic(err)
-		}
+		require.Nil(t, err)
 	}
 	testUnsafeSetConfig(t)
 }
@@ -362,27 +310,20 @@ func TestURIUnsafeSetConfig(t *testing.T) {
 func TestJSONUnsafeSetConfig(t *testing.T) {
 	for _, testCase := range testCasesUnsafeSetConfig {
 		tmResult := new(ctypes.TMResult)
-		_, err := clientJSON.Call("unsafe_set_config", []interface{}{testCase[0], testCase[1], testCase[2]}, tmResult)
-		if err != nil {
-			panic(err)
-		}
+		_, err := GetJSONClient().Call("unsafe_set_config", []interface{}{testCase[0], testCase[1], testCase[2]}, tmResult)
+		require.Nil(t, err)
 	}
 	testUnsafeSetConfig(t)
 }
 
 func testUnsafeSetConfig(t *testing.T) {
+	require := require.New(t)
 	s := config.GetString("key1")
-	if s != stringVal {
-		panic(Fmt("got %v, expected %v", s, stringVal))
-	}
+	require.Equal(stringVal, s)
 
 	i := config.GetInt("key2")
-	if i != intVal {
-		panic(Fmt("got %v, expected %v", i, intVal))
-	}
+	require.Equal(intVal, i)
 
 	b := config.GetBool("key3")
-	if b != boolVal {
-		panic(Fmt("got %v, expected %v", b, boolVal))
-	}
+	require.Equal(boolVal, b)
 }
diff --git a/rpc/test/grpc_test.go b/rpc/test/grpc_test.go
index 73ba22a78..4935a09d9 100644
--- a/rpc/test/grpc_test.go
+++ b/rpc/test/grpc_test.go
@@ -5,20 +5,16 @@ import (
 
 	"golang.org/x/net/context"
 
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/grpc"
 )
 
 //-------------------------------------------
 
 func TestBroadcastTx(t *testing.T) {
-	res, err := clientGRPC.BroadcastTx(context.Background(), &core_grpc.RequestBroadcastTx{[]byte("this is a tx")})
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
-	}
-	if res.CheckTx.Code != 0 {
-		t.Fatalf("Non-zero check tx code: %d", res.CheckTx.Code)
-	}
-	if res.DeliverTx.Code != 0 {
-		t.Fatalf("Non-zero append tx code: %d", res.DeliverTx.Code)
-	}
+	require := require.New(t)
+	res, err := GetGRPCClient().BroadcastTx(context.Background(), &core_grpc.RequestBroadcastTx{[]byte("this is a tx")})
+	require.Nil(err)
+	require.EqualValues(0, res.CheckTx.Code)
+	require.EqualValues(0, res.DeliverTx.Code)
 }
diff --git a/rpc/test/helpers.go b/rpc/test/helpers.go
index da6482483..cf64ac155 100644
--- a/rpc/test/helpers.go
+++ b/rpc/test/helpers.go
@@ -1,104 +1,124 @@
 package rpctest
 
 import (
+	"fmt"
+	"math/rand"
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"strings"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
-	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
-	cfg "github.com/tendermint/go-config"
-	"github.com/tendermint/go-p2p"
-	"github.com/tendermint/go-wire"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+	logger "github.com/tendermint/go-logger"
+	wire "github.com/tendermint/go-wire"
 
+	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
+	cfg "github.com/tendermint/go-config"
 	client "github.com/tendermint/go-rpc/client"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/config/tendermint_test"
 	nm "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/node"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/proxy"
 	ctypes "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/core/types"
-	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/grpc"
+	core_grpc "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/grpc"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
 )
 
-// global variables for use across all tests
 var (
-	config            cfg.Config
-	node              *nm.Node
-	chainID           string
-	rpcAddr           string
-	requestAddr       string
-	websocketAddr     string
-	websocketEndpoint string
-	grpcAddr          string
-	clientURI         *client.ClientURI
-	clientJSON        *client.ClientJSONRPC
-	clientGRPC        core_grpc.BroadcastAPIClient
+	config cfg.Config
 )
 
-// initialize config and create new node
-func init() {
-	config = tendermint_test.ResetConfig("rpc_test_client_test")
-	chainID = config.GetString("chain_id")
-	rpcAddr = config.GetString("rpc_laddr")
-	grpcAddr = config.GetString("grpc_laddr")
-	requestAddr = rpcAddr
-	websocketAddr = rpcAddr
-	websocketEndpoint = "/websocket"
-
-	clientURI = client.NewClientURI(requestAddr)
-	clientJSON = client.NewClientJSONRPC(requestAddr)
-	clientGRPC = core_grpc.StartGRPCClient(grpcAddr)
-
-	// TODO: change consensus/state.go timeouts to be shorter
-
-	// start a node
-	ready := make(chan struct{})
-	go newNode(ready)
-	<-ready
+const tmLogLevel = "error"
+
+// f**ing long, but unique for each test
+func makePathname() string {
+	// get path
+	p, err := os.Getwd()
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+	fmt.Println(p)
+	sep := string(filepath.Separator)
+	return strings.Replace(p, sep, "_", -1)
 }
 
-// create a new node and sleep forever
-func newNode(ready chan struct{}) {
-	// Create & start node
-	node = nm.NewNodeDefault(config)
-	protocol, address := nm.ProtocolAndAddress(config.GetString("node_laddr"))
-	l := p2p.NewDefaultListener(protocol, address, true)
-	node.AddListener(l)
-	node.Start()
+func randPort() int {
+	// returns between base and base + spread
+	base, spread := 20000, 20000
+	return base + rand.Intn(spread)
+}
 
-	// Run the RPC server.
-	node.StartRPC()
-	time.Sleep(time.Second)
+func makeAddrs() (string, string, string) {
+	start := randPort()
+	return fmt.Sprintf("tcp://0.0.0.0:%d", start),
+		fmt.Sprintf("tcp://0.0.0.0:%d", start+1),
+		fmt.Sprintf("tcp://0.0.0.0:%d", start+2)
+}
 
-	ready <- struct{}{}
+// GetConfig returns a config for the test cases as a singleton
+func GetConfig() cfg.Config {
+	if config == nil {
+		pathname := makePathname()
+		config = tendermint_test.ResetConfig(pathname)
+		// Shut up the logging
+		logger.SetLogLevel(tmLogLevel)
+		// and we use random ports to run in parallel
+		tm, rpc, grpc := makeAddrs()
+		config.Set("node_laddr", tm)
+		config.Set("rpc_laddr", rpc)
+		config.Set("grpc_laddr", grpc)
+	}
+	return config
+}
 
-	// Sleep forever
-	ch := make(chan struct{})
-	<-ch
+// GetURIClient gets a uri client pointing to the test tendermint rpc
+func GetURIClient() *client.ClientURI {
+	rpcAddr := GetConfig().GetString("rpc_laddr")
+	return client.NewClientURI(rpcAddr)
 }
 
-//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-// Utilities for testing the websocket service
+// GetJSONClient gets a http/json client pointing to the test tendermint rpc
+func GetJSONClient() *client.ClientJSONRPC {
+	rpcAddr := GetConfig().GetString("rpc_laddr")
+	return client.NewClientJSONRPC(rpcAddr)
+}
 
-// create a new connection
-func newWSClient(t *testing.T) *client.WSClient {
-	wsc := client.NewWSClient(websocketAddr, websocketEndpoint)
+func GetGRPCClient() core_grpc.BroadcastAPIClient {
+	grpcAddr := config.GetString("grpc_laddr")
+	return core_grpc.StartGRPCClient(grpcAddr)
+}
+
+func GetWSClient() *client.WSClient {
+	rpcAddr := GetConfig().GetString("rpc_laddr")
+	wsc := client.NewWSClient(rpcAddr, "/websocket")
 	if _, err := wsc.Start(); err != nil {
 		panic(err)
 	}
 	return wsc
 }
 
-// subscribe to an event
-func subscribe(t *testing.T, wsc *client.WSClient, eventid string) {
-	if err := wsc.Subscribe(eventid); err != nil {
-		panic(err)
-	}
+// StartTendermint starts a test tendermint server in a go routine and returns when it is initialized
+func StartTendermint(app abci.Application) *nm.Node {
+	node := NewTendermint(app)
+	node.Start()
+	fmt.Println("Tendermint running!")
+	return node
 }
 
-// unsubscribe from an event
-func unsubscribe(t *testing.T, wsc *client.WSClient, eventid string) {
-	if err := wsc.Unsubscribe(eventid); err != nil {
-		panic(err)
-	}
+// NewTendermint creates a new tendermint server and sleeps forever
+func NewTendermint(app abci.Application) *nm.Node {
+	// Create & start node
+	config := GetConfig()
+	privValidatorFile := config.GetString("priv_validator_file")
+	privValidator := types.LoadOrGenPrivValidator(privValidatorFile)
+	papp := proxy.NewLocalClientCreator(app)
+	node := nm.NewNode(config, privValidator, papp)
+	return node
 }
 
+//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// Utilities for testing the websocket service
+
 // wait for an event; do things that might trigger events, and check them when they are received
 // the check function takes an event id and the byte slice read off the ws
 func waitForEvent(t *testing.T, wsc *client.WSClient, eventid string, dieOnTimeout bool, f func(), check func(string, interface{}) error) {
@@ -142,7 +162,7 @@ func waitForEvent(t *testing.T, wsc *client.WSClient, eventid string, dieOnTimeo
 	case <-timeout.C:
 		if dieOnTimeout {
 			wsc.Stop()
-			panic(Fmt("%s event was not received in time", eventid))
+			require.True(t, false, "%s event was not received in time", eventid)
 		}
 		// else that's great, we didn't hear the event
 		// and we shouldn't have
@@ -150,16 +170,13 @@ func waitForEvent(t *testing.T, wsc *client.WSClient, eventid string, dieOnTimeo
 		if dieOnTimeout {
 			// message was received and expected
 			// run the check
-			if err := check(eventid, eventData); err != nil {
-				panic(err) // Show the stack trace.
-			}
+			require.Nil(t, check(eventid, eventData))
 		} else {
 			wsc.Stop()
-			panic(Fmt("%s event was not expected", eventid))
+			require.True(t, false, "%s event was not expected", eventid)
 		}
 	case err := <-errCh:
 		panic(err) // Show the stack trace.
-
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/rpc/test/main_test.go b/rpc/test/main_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f95176d9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rpc/test/main_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+/*
+package tests contain integration tests and helper functions for testing
+the RPC interface
+
+In particular, it allows us to spin up a tendermint node in process, with
+a live RPC server, which we can use to verify our rpc calls.  It provides
+all data structures, enabling us to do more complex tests (like node_test.go)
+that introspect the blocks themselves to validate signatures and the like.
+
+It currently only spins up one node, it would be interesting to expand it
+to multiple nodes to see the real effects of validating partially signed
+blocks.
+*/
+package rpctest
+
+import (
+	"os"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/tendermint/abci/example/dummy"
+	nm "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/node"
+)
+
+var node *nm.Node
+
+func TestMain(m *testing.M) {
+	// start a tendermint node (and merkleeyes) in the background to test against
+	app := dummy.NewDummyApplication()
+	node = StartTendermint(app)
+	code := m.Run()
+
+	// and shut down proper at the end
+	node.Stop()
+	node.Wait()
+	os.Exit(code)
+}
diff --git a/scripts/dist.sh b/scripts/dist.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..14f0fef12
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/dist.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -e
+
+# Get the version from the environment, or try to figure it out.
+if [ -z $VERSION ]; then
+	VERSION=$(awk -F\" '/Version =/ { print $2; exit }' < version/version.go)
+fi
+if [ -z "$VERSION" ]; then
+    echo "Please specify a version."
+    exit 1
+fi
+echo "==> Building version $VERSION..."
+
+# Get the parent directory of where this script is.
+SOURCE="${BASH_SOURCE[0]}"
+while [ -h "$SOURCE" ] ; do SOURCE="$(readlink "$SOURCE")"; done
+DIR="$( cd -P "$( dirname "$SOURCE" )/.." && pwd )"
+
+# Change into that dir because we expect that.
+cd "$DIR"
+
+# Generate the tag.
+if [ -z "$NOTAG" ]; then
+  echo "==> Tagging..."
+  git commit --allow-empty -a -m "Release v$VERSION"
+  git tag -a -m "Version $VERSION" "v${VERSION}" master
+fi
+
+# Do a hermetic build inside a Docker container.
+docker build -t tendermint/tendermint-builder scripts/tendermint-builder/
+docker run --rm -e "BUILD_TAGS=$BUILD_TAGS" -v "$(pwd)":/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint tendermint/tendermint-builder ./scripts/dist_build.sh
+
+# Add "tendermint" and $VERSION prefix to package name.
+rm -rf ./build/dist
+mkdir -p ./build/dist
+for FILENAME in $(find ./build/pkg -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type f); do
+  FILENAME=$(basename "$FILENAME")
+	cp "./build/pkg/${FILENAME}" "./build/dist/tendermint_${VERSION}_${FILENAME}"
+done
+
+# Make the checksums.
+pushd ./build/dist
+shasum -a256 ./* > "./tendermint_${VERSION}_SHA256SUMS"
+popd
+
+# Done
+echo
+echo "==> Results:"
+ls -hl ./build/dist
+
+exit 0
diff --git a/scripts/dist_build.sh b/scripts/dist_build.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..f75faee58
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/dist_build.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -e
+
+# Get the parent directory of where this script is.
+SOURCE="${BASH_SOURCE[0]}"
+while [ -h "$SOURCE" ] ; do SOURCE="$(readlink "$SOURCE")"; done
+DIR="$( cd -P "$( dirname "$SOURCE" )/.." && pwd )"
+
+# Change into that dir because we expect that.
+cd "$DIR"
+
+# Get the git commit
+GIT_COMMIT="$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)"
+GIT_DESCRIBE="$(git describe --tags --always)"
+GIT_IMPORT="github.com/tendermint/tendermint/version"
+
+# Determine the arch/os combos we're building for
+XC_ARCH=${XC_ARCH:-"386 amd64 arm"}
+XC_OS=${XC_OS:-"solaris darwin freebsd linux windows"}
+
+# Delete the old dir
+echo "==> Removing old directory..."
+rm -rf build/pkg
+mkdir -p build/pkg
+
+# Make sure build tools are available.
+make tools
+
+# Get VENDORED dependencies
+make get_vendor_deps
+
+# Build!
+echo "==> Building..."
+"$(which gox)" \
+		-os="${XC_OS}" \
+		-arch="${XC_ARCH}" \
+		-osarch="!darwin/arm !solaris/amd64 !freebsd/amd64" \
+		-ldflags "-X ${GIT_IMPORT}.GitCommit='${GIT_COMMIT}' -X ${GIT_IMPORT}.GitDescribe='${GIT_DESCRIBE}'" \
+		-output "build/pkg/{{.OS}}_{{.Arch}}/tendermint" \
+		-tags="${BUILD_TAGS}" \
+		github.com/tendermint/tendermint/cmd/tendermint
+
+# Zip all the files.
+echo "==> Packaging..."
+for PLATFORM in $(find ./build/pkg -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d); do
+		OSARCH=$(basename "${PLATFORM}")
+		echo "--> ${OSARCH}"
+
+		pushd "$PLATFORM" >/dev/null 2>&1
+		zip "../${OSARCH}.zip" ./*
+		popd >/dev/null 2>&1
+done
+
+exit 0
diff --git a/scripts/tendermint-builder/Dockerfile b/scripts/tendermint-builder/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..84c198ee0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/tendermint-builder/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+FROM golang:1.7.4
+
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+		zip \
+	&& rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+
+# We want to ensure that release builds never have any cgo dependencies so we
+# switch that off at the highest level.
+ENV CGO_ENABLED 0
+
+RUN mkdir -p $GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
+WORKDIR $GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
diff --git a/state/errors.go b/state/errors.go
index 0d0eae14c..32a9351ce 100644
--- a/state/errors.go
+++ b/state/errors.go
@@ -9,47 +9,47 @@ type (
 	ErrProxyAppConn error
 
 	ErrUnknownBlock struct {
-		height int
+		Height int
 	}
 
 	ErrBlockHashMismatch struct {
-		coreHash []byte
-		appHash  []byte
-		height   int
+		CoreHash []byte
+		AppHash  []byte
+		Height   int
 	}
 
 	ErrAppBlockHeightTooHigh struct {
-		coreHeight int
-		appHeight  int
+		CoreHeight int
+		AppHeight  int
 	}
 
 	ErrLastStateMismatch struct {
-		height int
-		core   []byte
-		app    []byte
+		Height int
+		Core   []byte
+		App    []byte
 	}
 
 	ErrStateMismatch struct {
-		got      *State
-		expected *State
+		Got      *State
+		Expected *State
 	}
 )
 
 func (e ErrUnknownBlock) Error() string {
-	return Fmt("Could not find block #%d", e.height)
+	return Fmt("Could not find block #%d", e.Height)
 }
 
 func (e ErrBlockHashMismatch) Error() string {
-	return Fmt("App block hash (%X) does not match core block hash (%X) for height %d", e.appHash, e.coreHash, e.height)
+	return Fmt("App block hash (%X) does not match core block hash (%X) for height %d", e.AppHash, e.CoreHash, e.Height)
 }
 
 func (e ErrAppBlockHeightTooHigh) Error() string {
-	return Fmt("App block height (%d) is higher than core (%d)", e.appHeight, e.coreHeight)
+	return Fmt("App block height (%d) is higher than core (%d)", e.AppHeight, e.CoreHeight)
 }
 func (e ErrLastStateMismatch) Error() string {
-	return Fmt("Latest tendermint block (%d) LastAppHash (%X) does not match app's AppHash (%X)", e.height, e.core, e.app)
+	return Fmt("Latest tendermint block (%d) LastAppHash (%X) does not match app's AppHash (%X)", e.Height, e.Core, e.App)
 }
 
 func (e ErrStateMismatch) Error() string {
-	return Fmt("State after replay does not match saved state. Got ----\n%v\nExpected ----\n%v\n", e.got, e.expected)
+	return Fmt("State after replay does not match saved state. Got ----\n%v\nExpected ----\n%v\n", e.Got, e.Expected)
 }
diff --git a/state/execution.go b/state/execution.go
index a7ba2399e..aa9113011 100644
--- a/state/execution.go
+++ b/state/execution.go
@@ -1,17 +1,15 @@
 package state
 
 import (
-	"bytes"
 	"errors"
 
 	"github.com/ebuchman/fail-test"
 
+	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
 	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
-	cfg "github.com/tendermint/go-config"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-crypto"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/proxy"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
-	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
 )
 
 //--------------------------------------------------
@@ -54,10 +52,6 @@ func (s *State) ExecBlock(eventCache types.Fireable, proxyAppConn proxy.AppConnC
 	nextValSet.IncrementAccum(1)
 	s.SetBlockAndValidators(block.Header, blockPartsHeader, valSet, nextValSet)
 
-	// save state with updated height/blockhash/validators
-	// but stale apphash, in case we fail between Commit and Save
-	s.SaveIntermediate()
-
 	fail.Fail() // XXX
 
 	return nil
@@ -229,7 +223,7 @@ func (s *State) validateBlock(block *types.Block) error {
 
 // Execute and commit block against app, save block and state
 func (s *State) ApplyBlock(eventCache types.Fireable, proxyAppConn proxy.AppConnConsensus,
-	block *types.Block, partsHeader types.PartSetHeader, mempool Mempool) error {
+	block *types.Block, partsHeader types.PartSetHeader, mempool types.Mempool) error {
 
 	// Run the block on the State:
 	// + update validator sets
@@ -250,7 +244,7 @@ func (s *State) ApplyBlock(eventCache types.Fireable, proxyAppConn proxy.AppConn
 // mempool must be locked during commit and update
 // because state is typically reset on Commit and old txs must be replayed
 // against committed state before new txs are run in the mempool, lest they be invalid
-func (s *State) CommitStateUpdateMempool(proxyAppConn proxy.AppConnConsensus, block *types.Block, mempool Mempool) error {
+func (s *State) CommitStateUpdateMempool(proxyAppConn proxy.AppConnConsensus, block *types.Block, mempool types.Mempool) error {
 	mempool.Lock()
 	defer mempool.Unlock()
 
@@ -264,6 +258,7 @@ func (s *State) CommitStateUpdateMempool(proxyAppConn proxy.AppConnConsensus, bl
 		log.Debug("Commit.Log: " + res.Log)
 	}
 
+	log.Info("Committed state", "hash", res.Data)
 	// Set the state's new AppHash
 	s.AppHash = res.Data
 
@@ -273,165 +268,23 @@ func (s *State) CommitStateUpdateMempool(proxyAppConn proxy.AppConnConsensus, bl
 	return nil
 }
 
-// Updates to the mempool need to be synchronized with committing a block
-// so apps can reset their transient state on Commit
-type Mempool interface {
-	Lock()
-	Unlock()
-	Update(height int, txs []types.Tx)
-}
-
-type MockMempool struct {
-}
-
-func (m MockMempool) Lock()                             {}
-func (m MockMempool) Unlock()                           {}
-func (m MockMempool) Update(height int, txs []types.Tx) {}
-
-//----------------------------------------------------------------
-// Handshake with app to sync to latest state of core by replaying blocks
-
-// TODO: Should we move blockchain/store.go to its own package?
-type BlockStore interface {
-	Height() int
-	LoadBlock(height int) *types.Block
-	LoadBlockMeta(height int) *types.BlockMeta
-}
-
-type Handshaker struct {
-	config cfg.Config
-	state  *State
-	store  BlockStore
-
-	nBlocks int // number of blocks applied to the state
-}
-
-func NewHandshaker(config cfg.Config, state *State, store BlockStore) *Handshaker {
-	return &Handshaker{config, state, store, 0}
-}
-
-// TODO: retry the handshake/replay if it fails ?
-func (h *Handshaker) Handshake(proxyApp proxy.AppConns) error {
-	// handshake is done via info request on the query conn
-	res, err := proxyApp.Query().InfoSync()
+// Apply and commit a block, but without all the state validation.
+// Returns the application root hash (result of abci.Commit)
+func ApplyBlock(appConnConsensus proxy.AppConnConsensus, block *types.Block) ([]byte, error) {
+	var eventCache types.Fireable // nil
+	_, err := execBlockOnProxyApp(eventCache, appConnConsensus, block)
 	if err != nil {
-		return errors.New(Fmt("Error calling Info: %v", err))
+		log.Warn("Error executing block on proxy app", "height", block.Height, "err", err)
+		return nil, err
 	}
-
-	blockHeight := int(res.LastBlockHeight) // XXX: beware overflow
-	appHash := res.LastBlockAppHash
-
-	log.Notice("ABCI Handshake", "appHeight", blockHeight, "appHash", appHash)
-
-	// TODO: check version
-
-	// replay blocks up to the latest in the blockstore
-	err = h.ReplayBlocks(appHash, blockHeight, proxyApp.Consensus())
-	if err != nil {
-		return errors.New(Fmt("Error on replay: %v", err))
+	// Commit block, get hash back
+	res := appConnConsensus.CommitSync()
+	if res.IsErr() {
+		log.Warn("Error in proxyAppConn.CommitSync", "error", res)
+		return nil, res
 	}
-
-	// Save the state
-	h.state.Save()
-
-	// TODO: (on restart) replay mempool
-
-	return nil
-}
-
-// Replay all blocks after blockHeight and ensure the result matches the current state.
-func (h *Handshaker) ReplayBlocks(appHash []byte, appBlockHeight int, appConnConsensus proxy.AppConnConsensus) error {
-
-	storeBlockHeight := h.store.Height()
-	stateBlockHeight := h.state.LastBlockHeight
-	log.Notice("ABCI Replay Blocks", "appHeight", appBlockHeight, "storeHeight", storeBlockHeight, "stateHeight", stateBlockHeight)
-
-	if storeBlockHeight == 0 {
-		return nil
-	} else if storeBlockHeight < appBlockHeight {
-		// if the app is ahead, there's nothing we can do
-		return ErrAppBlockHeightTooHigh{storeBlockHeight, appBlockHeight}
-
-	} else if storeBlockHeight == appBlockHeight {
-		// We ran Commit, but if we crashed before state.Save(),
-		// load the intermediate state and update the state.AppHash.
-		// NOTE: If ABCI allowed rollbacks, we could just replay the
-		// block even though it's been committed
-		stateAppHash := h.state.AppHash
-		lastBlockAppHash := h.store.LoadBlock(storeBlockHeight).AppHash
-
-		if bytes.Equal(stateAppHash, appHash) {
-			// we're all synced up
-			log.Debug("ABCI RelpayBlocks: Already synced")
-		} else if bytes.Equal(stateAppHash, lastBlockAppHash) {
-			// we crashed after commit and before saving state,
-			// so load the intermediate state and update the hash
-			h.state.LoadIntermediate()
-			h.state.AppHash = appHash
-			log.Debug("ABCI RelpayBlocks: Loaded intermediate state and updated state.AppHash")
-		} else {
-			PanicSanity(Fmt("Unexpected state.AppHash: state.AppHash %X; app.AppHash %X, lastBlock.AppHash %X", stateAppHash, appHash, lastBlockAppHash))
-
-		}
-		return nil
-
-	} else if storeBlockHeight == appBlockHeight+1 &&
-		storeBlockHeight == stateBlockHeight+1 {
-		// We crashed after saving the block
-		// but before Commit (both the state and app are behind),
-		// so just replay the block
-
-		// check that the lastBlock.AppHash matches the state apphash
-		block := h.store.LoadBlock(storeBlockHeight)
-		if !bytes.Equal(block.Header.AppHash, appHash) {
-			return ErrLastStateMismatch{storeBlockHeight, block.Header.AppHash, appHash}
-		}
-
-		blockMeta := h.store.LoadBlockMeta(storeBlockHeight)
-
-		h.nBlocks += 1
-		var eventCache types.Fireable // nil
-
-		// replay the latest block
-		return h.state.ApplyBlock(eventCache, appConnConsensus, block, blockMeta.PartsHeader, MockMempool{})
-	} else if storeBlockHeight != stateBlockHeight {
-		// unless we failed before committing or saving state (previous 2 case),
-		// the store and state should be at the same height!
-		PanicSanity(Fmt("Expected storeHeight (%d) and stateHeight (%d) to match.", storeBlockHeight, stateBlockHeight))
-	} else {
-		// store is more than one ahead,
-		// so app wants to replay many blocks
-
-		// replay all blocks starting with appBlockHeight+1
-		var eventCache types.Fireable // nil
-
-		// TODO: use stateBlockHeight instead and let the consensus state
-		// do the replay
-
-		var appHash []byte
-		for i := appBlockHeight + 1; i <= storeBlockHeight; i++ {
-			h.nBlocks += 1
-			block := h.store.LoadBlock(i)
-			_, err := execBlockOnProxyApp(eventCache, appConnConsensus, block)
-			if err != nil {
-				log.Warn("Error executing block on proxy app", "height", i, "err", err)
-				return err
-			}
-			// Commit block, get hash back
-			res := appConnConsensus.CommitSync()
-			if res.IsErr() {
-				log.Warn("Error in proxyAppConn.CommitSync", "error", res)
-				return res
-			}
-			if res.Log != "" {
-				log.Info("Commit.Log: " + res.Log)
-			}
-			appHash = res.Data
-		}
-		if !bytes.Equal(h.state.AppHash, appHash) {
-			return errors.New(Fmt("Tendermint state.AppHash does not match AppHash after replay. Got %X, expected %X", appHash, h.state.AppHash))
-		}
-		return nil
+	if res.Log != "" {
+		log.Info("Commit.Log: " + res.Log)
 	}
-	return nil
+	return res.Data, nil
 }
diff --git a/state/execution_test.go b/state/execution_test.go
deleted file mode 100644
index 55a899a02..000000000
--- a/state/execution_test.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,210 +0,0 @@
-package state
-
-import (
-	"bytes"
-	"fmt"
-	"path"
-	"testing"
-
-	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/config/tendermint_test"
-	//	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
-	cfg "github.com/tendermint/go-config"
-	"github.com/tendermint/go-crypto"
-	dbm "github.com/tendermint/go-db"
-	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/proxy"
-	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
-	"github.com/tendermint/abci/example/dummy"
-)
-
-var (
-	privKey      = crypto.GenPrivKeyEd25519FromSecret([]byte("handshake_test"))
-	chainID      = "handshake_chain"
-	nBlocks      = 5
-	mempool      = MockMempool{}
-	testPartSize = 65536
-)
-
-//---------------------------------------
-// Test block execution
-
-func TestExecBlock(t *testing.T) {
-	// TODO
-}
-
-//---------------------------------------
-// Test handshake/replay
-
-// Sync from scratch
-func TestHandshakeReplayAll(t *testing.T) {
-	testHandshakeReplay(t, 0)
-}
-
-// Sync many, not from scratch
-func TestHandshakeReplaySome(t *testing.T) {
-	testHandshakeReplay(t, 1)
-}
-
-// Sync from lagging by one
-func TestHandshakeReplayOne(t *testing.T) {
-	testHandshakeReplay(t, nBlocks-1)
-}
-
-// Sync from caught up
-func TestHandshakeReplayNone(t *testing.T) {
-	testHandshakeReplay(t, nBlocks)
-}
-
-// Make some blocks. Start a fresh app and apply n blocks. Then restart the app and sync it up with the remaining blocks
-func testHandshakeReplay(t *testing.T, n int) {
-	config := tendermint_test.ResetConfig("proxy_test_")
-
-	state, store := stateAndStore(config)
-	clientCreator := proxy.NewLocalClientCreator(dummy.NewPersistentDummyApplication(path.Join(config.GetString("db_dir"), "1")))
-	clientCreator2 := proxy.NewLocalClientCreator(dummy.NewPersistentDummyApplication(path.Join(config.GetString("db_dir"), "2")))
-	proxyApp := proxy.NewAppConns(config, clientCreator, NewHandshaker(config, state, store))
-	if _, err := proxyApp.Start(); err != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("Error starting proxy app connections: %v", err)
-	}
-	chain := makeBlockchain(t, proxyApp, state)
-	store.chain = chain //
-	latestAppHash := state.AppHash
-	proxyApp.Stop()
-
-	if n > 0 {
-		// start a new app without handshake, play n blocks
-		proxyApp = proxy.NewAppConns(config, clientCreator2, nil)
-		if _, err := proxyApp.Start(); err != nil {
-			t.Fatalf("Error starting proxy app connections: %v", err)
-		}
-		state2, _ := stateAndStore(config)
-		for i := 0; i < n; i++ {
-			block := chain[i]
-			err := state2.ApplyBlock(nil, proxyApp.Consensus(), block, block.MakePartSet(testPartSize).Header(), mempool)
-			if err != nil {
-				t.Fatal(err)
-			}
-		}
-		proxyApp.Stop()
-	}
-
-	// now start it with the handshake
-	handshaker := NewHandshaker(config, state, store)
-	proxyApp = proxy.NewAppConns(config, clientCreator2, handshaker)
-	if _, err := proxyApp.Start(); err != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("Error starting proxy app connections: %v", err)
-	}
-
-	// get the latest app hash from the app
-	res, err := proxyApp.Query().InfoSync()
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
-	}
-
-	// the app hash should be synced up
-	if !bytes.Equal(latestAppHash, res.LastBlockAppHash) {
-		t.Fatalf("Expected app hashes to match after handshake/replay. got %X, expected %X", res.LastBlockAppHash, latestAppHash)
-	}
-
-	if handshaker.nBlocks != nBlocks-n {
-		t.Fatalf("Expected handshake to sync %d blocks, got %d", nBlocks-n, handshaker.nBlocks)
-	}
-
-}
-
-//--------------------------
-// utils for making blocks
-
-// make some bogus txs
-func txsFunc(blockNum int) (txs []types.Tx) {
-	for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {
-		txs = append(txs, types.Tx([]byte{byte(blockNum), byte(i)}))
-	}
-	return txs
-}
-
-// sign a commit vote
-func signCommit(height, round int, hash []byte, header types.PartSetHeader) *types.Vote {
-	vote := &types.Vote{
-		ValidatorIndex:   0,
-		ValidatorAddress: privKey.PubKey().Address(),
-		Height:           height,
-		Round:            round,
-		Type:             types.VoteTypePrecommit,
-		BlockID:          types.BlockID{hash, header},
-	}
-
-	sig := privKey.Sign(types.SignBytes(chainID, vote))
-	vote.Signature = sig
-	return vote
-}
-
-// make a blockchain with one validator
-func makeBlockchain(t *testing.T, proxyApp proxy.AppConns, state *State) (blockchain []*types.Block) {
-
-	prevHash := state.LastBlockID.Hash
-	lastCommit := new(types.Commit)
-	prevParts := types.PartSetHeader{}
-	valHash := state.Validators.Hash()
-	prevBlockID := types.BlockID{prevHash, prevParts}
-
-	for i := 1; i < nBlocks+1; i++ {
-		block, parts := types.MakeBlock(i, chainID, txsFunc(i), lastCommit,
-			prevBlockID, valHash, state.AppHash, testPartSize)
-		fmt.Println(i)
-		fmt.Println(prevBlockID)
-		fmt.Println(block.LastBlockID)
-		err := state.ApplyBlock(nil, proxyApp.Consensus(), block, block.MakePartSet(testPartSize).Header(), mempool)
-		if err != nil {
-			t.Fatal(i, err)
-		}
-
-		voteSet := types.NewVoteSet(chainID, i, 0, types.VoteTypePrecommit, state.Validators)
-		vote := signCommit(i, 0, block.Hash(), parts.Header())
-		_, err = voteSet.AddVote(vote)
-		if err != nil {
-			t.Fatal(err)
-		}
-
-		blockchain = append(blockchain, block)
-		prevHash = block.Hash()
-		prevParts = parts.Header()
-		lastCommit = voteSet.MakeCommit()
-		prevBlockID = types.BlockID{prevHash, prevParts}
-	}
-	return blockchain
-}
-
-// fresh state and mock store
-func stateAndStore(config cfg.Config) (*State, *mockBlockStore) {
-	stateDB := dbm.NewMemDB()
-	return MakeGenesisState(stateDB, &types.GenesisDoc{
-		ChainID: chainID,
-		Validators: []types.GenesisValidator{
-			types.GenesisValidator{privKey.PubKey(), 10000, "test"},
-		},
-		AppHash: nil,
-	}), NewMockBlockStore(config, nil)
-}
-
-//----------------------------------
-// mock block store
-
-type mockBlockStore struct {
-	config cfg.Config
-	chain  []*types.Block
-}
-
-func NewMockBlockStore(config cfg.Config, chain []*types.Block) *mockBlockStore {
-	return &mockBlockStore{config, chain}
-}
-
-func (bs *mockBlockStore) Height() int                       { return len(bs.chain) }
-func (bs *mockBlockStore) LoadBlock(height int) *types.Block { return bs.chain[height-1] }
-func (bs *mockBlockStore) LoadBlockMeta(height int) *types.BlockMeta {
-	block := bs.chain[height-1]
-	return &types.BlockMeta{
-		Hash:        block.Hash(),
-		Header:      block.Header,
-		PartsHeader: block.MakePartSet(bs.config.GetInt("block_part_size")).Header(),
-	}
-}
diff --git a/state/state.go b/state/state.go
index 455ba4093..c4c6d7489 100644
--- a/state/state.go
+++ b/state/state.go
@@ -14,8 +14,7 @@ import (
 )
 
 var (
-	stateKey             = []byte("stateKey")
-	stateIntermediateKey = []byte("stateIntermediateKey")
+	stateKey = []byte("stateKey")
 )
 
 //-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -82,35 +81,6 @@ func (s *State) Save() {
 	s.db.SetSync(stateKey, s.Bytes())
 }
 
-func (s *State) SaveIntermediate() {
-	s.mtx.Lock()
-	defer s.mtx.Unlock()
-	s.db.SetSync(stateIntermediateKey, s.Bytes())
-}
-
-// Load the intermediate state into the current state
-// and do some sanity checks
-func (s *State) LoadIntermediate() {
-	s2 := loadState(s.db, stateIntermediateKey)
-	if s.ChainID != s2.ChainID {
-		PanicSanity(Fmt("State mismatch for ChainID. Got %v, Expected %v", s2.ChainID, s.ChainID))
-	}
-
-	if s.LastBlockHeight+1 != s2.LastBlockHeight {
-		PanicSanity(Fmt("State mismatch for LastBlockHeight. Got %v, Expected %v", s2.LastBlockHeight, s.LastBlockHeight+1))
-	}
-
-	if !bytes.Equal(s.Validators.Hash(), s2.LastValidators.Hash()) {
-		PanicSanity(Fmt("State mismatch for LastValidators. Got %X, Expected %X", s2.LastValidators.Hash(), s.Validators.Hash()))
-	}
-
-	if !bytes.Equal(s.AppHash, s2.AppHash) {
-		PanicSanity(Fmt("State mismatch for AppHash. Got %X, Expected %X", s2.AppHash, s.AppHash))
-	}
-
-	s.setBlockAndValidators(s2.LastBlockHeight, s2.LastBlockID, s2.LastBlockTime, s2.Validators.Copy(), s2.LastValidators.Copy())
-}
-
 func (s *State) Equals(s2 *State) bool {
 	return bytes.Equal(s.Bytes(), s2.Bytes())
 }
@@ -166,7 +136,10 @@ func MakeGenesisStateFromFile(db dbm.DB, genDocFile string) *State {
 	if err != nil {
 		Exit(Fmt("Couldn't read GenesisDoc file: %v", err))
 	}
-	genDoc := types.GenesisDocFromJSON(genDocJSON)
+	genDoc, err := types.GenesisDocFromJSON(genDocJSON)
+	if err != nil {
+		Exit(Fmt("Error reading GenesisDoc: %v", err))
+	}
 	return MakeGenesisState(db, genDoc)
 }
 
diff --git a/test/README.md b/test/README.md
index 8333e27ad..f53dc371d 100644
--- a/test/README.md
+++ b/test/README.md
@@ -3,26 +3,28 @@
 The unit tests (ie. the `go test` s) can be run with `make test`.
 The integration tests can be run wtih `make test_integrations`.
 
-Running the integrations test will build a docker container with latest tendermint
+Running the integrations test will build a docker container with local version of tendermint
 and run the following tests in docker containers:
 
 - go tests, with --race
+	- includes test coverage
 - app tests
 	- dummy app over socket
 	- counter app over socket
 	- counter app over grpc
+- persistence tests
+	- crash tendermint at each of many predefined points, restart, and ensure it syncs properly with the app
 - p2p tests
 	- start a local dummy app testnet on a docker network (requires docker version 1.10+)
 	- send a tx on each node and ensure the state root is updated on all of them
+	- crash and restart nodes one at a time and ensure they can sync back up (via fastsync)
+	- crash and restart all nodes at once and ensure they can sync back up
 
 If on a `release-x.x.x` branch, we also run
 
 - `go test` for all our dependency libs (test/test_libs.sh)
 - network_testing - benchmark a mintnet based cloud deploy using netmon
 
-# Coverage
-
-TODO!
 
 
 
diff --git a/test/app/dummy_test.sh b/test/app/dummy_test.sh
index 276742221..0449bc491 100644
--- a/test/app/dummy_test.sh
+++ b/test/app/dummy_test.sh
@@ -30,9 +30,9 @@ echo "... testing query with abci-cli"
 RESPONSE=`abci-cli query \"$KEY\"`
 
 set +e
-A=`echo $RESPONSE | grep '"exists":true'`
+A=`echo $RESPONSE | grep "$VALUE"`
 if [[ $? != 0 ]]; then
-	echo "Failed to find 'exists=true' for $KEY. Response:"
+	echo "Failed to find $VALUE for $KEY. Response:"
 	echo "$RESPONSE"
 	exit 1
 fi
@@ -41,9 +41,9 @@ set -e
 # we should not be able to look up the value
 RESPONSE=`abci-cli query \"$VALUE\"`
 set +e
-A=`echo $RESPONSE | grep '"exists":true'`
+A=`echo $RESPONSE | grep $VALUE`
 if [[ $? == 0 ]]; then
-	echo "Found 'exists=true' for $VALUE when we should not have. Response:"
+	echo "Found '$VALUE' for $VALUE when we should not have. Response:"
 	echo "$RESPONSE"
 	exit 1
 fi
@@ -53,28 +53,28 @@ set -e
 # test using the /abci_query
 #############################
 
-echo "... testing query with /abci_query"
+echo "... testing query with /abci_query 2"
 
 # we should be able to look up the key
-RESPONSE=`curl -s 127.0.0.1:46657/abci_query?query=$(toHex $KEY)`
-RESPONSE=`echo $RESPONSE | jq .result[1].result.Data | xxd -r -p`
+RESPONSE=`curl -s "127.0.0.1:46657/abci_query?path=\"\"&data=$(toHex $KEY)&prove=false"`
+RESPONSE=`echo $RESPONSE | jq .result[1].response.log`
 
 set +e
-A=`echo $RESPONSE | grep '"exists":true'`
+A=`echo $RESPONSE | grep 'exists'`
 if [[ $? != 0 ]]; then
-	echo "Failed to find 'exists=true' for $KEY. Response:"
+	echo "Failed to find 'exists' for $KEY. Response:"
 	echo "$RESPONSE"
 	exit 1
 fi
 set -e
 
 # we should not be able to look up the value
-RESPONSE=`curl -s 127.0.0.1:46657/abci_query?query=\"$(toHex $VALUE)\"`
-RESPONSE=`echo $RESPONSE | jq .result[1].result.Data | xxd -r -p`
+RESPONSE=`curl -s "127.0.0.1:46657/abci_query?path=\"\"&data=$(toHex $VALUE)&prove=false"`
+RESPONSE=`echo $RESPONSE | jq .result[1].response.log`
 set +e
-A=`echo $RESPONSE | grep '"exists":true'`
+A=`echo $RESPONSE | grep 'exists'`
 if [[ $? == 0 ]]; then
-	echo "Found 'exists=true' for $VALUE when we should not have. Response:"
+	echo "Found 'exists' for $VALUE when we should not have. Response:"
 	echo "$RESPONSE"
 	exit 1
 fi
diff --git a/test/docker/Dockerfile b/test/docker/Dockerfile
index a663926e4..7c322976d 100644
--- a/test/docker/Dockerfile
+++ b/test/docker/Dockerfile
@@ -1,25 +1,33 @@
 # Pull base image.
-FROM golang:1.6
+FROM golang:1.7.4
+
+# Add testing deps for curl
+RUN echo 'deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian testing main non-free contrib' >> /etc/apt/sources.list
 
 # Grab deps (jq, hexdump, xxd, killall)
 RUN apt-get update && \
   apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-  jq bsdmainutils vim-common psmisc 
+  jq bsdmainutils vim-common psmisc netcat curl
 
-# Setup tendermint repo with vendored dependencies
-# but without code - docker caching prevents reinstall on code change!
+# Setup tendermint repo 
 ENV REPO $GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
 WORKDIR $REPO
+
+# Install the vendored dependencies before copying code
+# docker caching prevents reinstall on code change!
 ADD glide.yaml glide.yaml
 ADD glide.lock glide.lock
 ADD Makefile Makefile
 RUN make get_vendor_deps
 
+# Install the apps
+ADD scripts scripts
+RUN bash scripts/install_abci_apps.sh
+
 # Now copy in the code
 COPY . $REPO
 
 RUN go install ./cmd/tendermint
-RUN bash scripts/install_abci_apps.sh
 
 # expose the volume for debugging
 VOLUME $REPO
diff --git a/test/net/start.sh b/test/net/start.sh
index 1980280d1..9e9ea3a0d 100644
--- a/test/net/start.sh
+++ b/test/net/start.sh
@@ -17,18 +17,13 @@ if [[ "$MACH_PREFIX" == "" ]]; then
 fi
 set -u
 
-export TMHEAD=`git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD`
-export TM_IMAGE="tendermint/tmbase"
-
-cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/network_testing
+cd "$GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/network_testing"
 echo "... running network test $(pwd)"
-bash experiments/exp_throughput.sh $DATACENTER $VALSETSIZE $BLOCKSIZE $TX_SIZE $NTXS $MACH_PREFIX $RESULTSDIR $CLOUD_PROVIDER
+TMHEAD=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD) TM_IMAGE="tendermint/tendermint" bash experiments/exp_throughput.sh $DATACENTER $VALSETSIZE $BLOCKSIZE $TX_SIZE $NTXS $MACH_PREFIX $RESULTSDIR $CLOUD_PROVIDER
 
 # TODO: publish result!
 
 # cleanup
 
 echo "... destroying machines"
-mintnet destroy --machines $MACH_PREFIX[1-$VALSETSIZE] 
-
-
+mintnet destroy --machines $MACH_PREFIX[1-$VALSETSIZE]
diff --git a/test/p2p/README.md b/test/p2p/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5cd314d3a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/p2p/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+# Tendermint P2P Tests
+
+These scripts facilitate setting up and testing a local testnet using docker containers.
+
+Setup your own local testnet as follows.
+
+For consistency, we assume all commands are run from the Tendermint repository root (ie. $GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint).
+
+First, build the docker image:
+
+```
+docker build -t tendermint_tester -f ./test/docker/Dockerfile .
+```
+
+Now create the docker network:
+
+```
+docker network create --driver bridge --subnet 172.57.0.0/16 my_testnet
+```
+
+This gives us a new network with IP addresses in the rage `172.57.0.0 - 172.57.255.255`.
+Peers on the network can have any IP address in this range. 
+For our four node network, let's pick `172.57.0.101 - 172.57.0.104`.
+Since we use Tendermint's default listening port of 46656, our list of seed nodes will look like:
+
+```
+172.57.0.101:46656,172.57.0.102:46656,172.57.0.103:46656,172.57.0.104:46656
+```
+
+Now we can start up the peers. We already have config files setup in `test/p2p/data/`.
+Let's use a for-loop to start our peers:
+
+```
+for i in $(seq 1 4); do
+	docker run -d \
+	  --net=my_testnet\
+	  --ip="172.57.0.$((100 + $i))" \
+	  --name local_testnet_$i \
+	  --entrypoint tendermint \
+	  -e TMROOT=/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test/p2p/data/mach$i/core \
+	  tendermint_tester node --seeds 172.57.0.101:46656,172.57.0.102:46656,172.57.0.103:46656,172.57.0.104:46656 --proxy_app=dummy
+done
+```
+
+If you now run `docker ps`, you'll see your containers!
+
+We can confirm they are making blocks by checking the `/status` message using `curl` and `jq` to pretty print the output json:
+
+```
+curl 172.57.0.101:46657/status | jq . 
+```
+
+
+
diff --git a/test/p2p/client.sh b/test/p2p/client.sh
index f3025ba58..fa11ce870 100644
--- a/test/p2p/client.sh
+++ b/test/p2p/client.sh
@@ -11,9 +11,9 @@ NAME=test_container_$ID
 echo "starting test client container with CMD=$CMD"
 # run the test container on the local network
 docker run -t --rm \
-	-v $GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test/p2p/:/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test/p2p \
-	--net=$NETWORK_NAME \
+	-v "$GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test/p2p/:/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test/p2p" \
+	--net="$NETWORK_NAME" \
 	--ip=$(test/p2p/ip.sh "-1") \
-	--name $NAME \
+	--name "$NAME" \
 	--entrypoint bash \
-	$DOCKER_IMAGE $CMD
+	"$DOCKER_IMAGE" $CMD
diff --git a/test/p2p/fast_sync/test_peer.sh b/test/p2p/fast_sync/test_peer.sh
index a065ea5c7..615ae9e06 100644
--- a/test/p2p/fast_sync/test_peer.sh
+++ b/test/p2p/fast_sync/test_peer.sh
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ SEEDS="$(test/p2p/ip.sh 1):46656"
 for j in `seq 2 $N`; do
 	SEEDS="$SEEDS,$(test/p2p/ip.sh $j):46656"
 done
-bash test/p2p/peer.sh $DOCKER_IMAGE $NETWORK_NAME $ID $PROXY_APP $SEEDS
+bash test/p2p/peer.sh $DOCKER_IMAGE $NETWORK_NAME $ID $PROXY_APP "--seeds $SEEDS --pex"
 
 # wait for peer to sync and check the app hash
 bash test/p2p/client.sh $DOCKER_IMAGE $NETWORK_NAME fs_$ID "test/p2p/fast_sync/check_peer.sh $ID"
diff --git a/test/p2p/kill_all/check_peers.sh b/test/p2p/kill_all/check_peers.sh
index 3c9250790..d085a025c 100644
--- a/test/p2p/kill_all/check_peers.sh
+++ b/test/p2p/kill_all/check_peers.sh
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ for i in $(seq 2 "$NUM_OF_PEERS"); do
     ((attempt++))
     if [ "$attempt" -ge $MAX_ATTEMPTS_TO_CATCH_UP ] ; then
       echo "$attempt unsuccessful attempts were made to catch up"
+      curl -s "$addr/dump_consensus_state" | jq .result[1]
       exit 1
     fi
 
diff --git a/test/p2p/local_testnet_start.sh b/test/p2p/local_testnet_start.sh
index 4dd2ab05d..b7cfb959e 100644
--- a/test/p2p/local_testnet_start.sh
+++ b/test/p2p/local_testnet_start.sh
@@ -6,17 +6,19 @@ NETWORK_NAME=$2
 N=$3
 APP_PROXY=$4
 
-cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
+set +u
+SEEDS=$5
+if [[ "$SEEDS" != "" ]]; then
+	echo "Seeds: $SEEDS"
+	SEEDS="--seeds $SEEDS"
+fi
+set -u
 
-# create docker network
-docker network create --driver bridge --subnet 172.57.0.0/16 $NETWORK_NAME
+cd "$GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint"
 
-seeds="$(test/p2p/ip.sh 1):46656"
-for i in `seq 2 $N`; do
-	seeds="$seeds,$(test/p2p/ip.sh $i):46656"
-done
-echo "Seeds: $seeds"
+# create docker network
+docker network create --driver bridge --subnet 172.57.0.0/16 "$NETWORK_NAME"
 
-for i in `seq 1 $N`; do
-	bash test/p2p/peer.sh $DOCKER_IMAGE $NETWORK_NAME $i $APP_PROXY $seeds
+for i in $(seq 1 "$N"); do
+	bash test/p2p/peer.sh "$DOCKER_IMAGE" "$NETWORK_NAME" "$i" "$APP_PROXY" "$SEEDS --pex"
 done
diff --git a/test/p2p/local_testnet_stop.sh b/test/p2p/local_testnet_stop.sh
index 8edd3eeb7..1dace4694 100644
--- a/test/p2p/local_testnet_stop.sh
+++ b/test/p2p/local_testnet_stop.sh
@@ -4,9 +4,9 @@ set -u
 NETWORK_NAME=$1
 N=$2
 
-for i in `seq 1 $N`; do
-  docker stop local_testnet_$i
-  docker rm -vf local_testnet_$i
+for i in $(seq 1 "$N"); do
+  docker stop "local_testnet_$i"
+  docker rm -vf "local_testnet_$i"
 done
 
-docker network rm $NETWORK_NAME
+docker network rm "$NETWORK_NAME"
diff --git a/test/p2p/peer.sh b/test/p2p/peer.sh
index 76314f586..5299a3c60 100644
--- a/test/p2p/peer.sh
+++ b/test/p2p/peer.sh
@@ -7,18 +7,33 @@ ID=$3
 APP_PROXY=$4
 
 set +u
-SEEDS=$5
+NODE_FLAGS=$5
 set -u
-if [[ "$SEEDS" != "" ]]; then
-	SEEDS=" --seeds $SEEDS "
-fi
+
+set +eu
 
 echo "starting tendermint peer ID=$ID"
 # start tendermint container on the network
-docker run -d \
-  --net=$NETWORK_NAME \
-  --ip=$(test/p2p/ip.sh $ID) \
-  --name local_testnet_$ID \
-  --entrypoint tendermint \
-  -e TMROOT=/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test/p2p/data/mach$ID/core \
-  $DOCKER_IMAGE node $SEEDS --proxy_app=$APP_PROXY
+if [[ "$CIRCLECI" == true ]]; then
+	set -u
+	docker run -d \
+	  --net="$NETWORK_NAME" \
+	  --ip=$(test/p2p/ip.sh $ID) \
+	  --name "local_testnet_$ID" \
+	  --entrypoint tendermint \
+	  -e TMROOT="/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test/p2p/data/mach$ID/core" \
+		--log-driver=syslog \
+		--log-opt syslog-address=udp://127.0.0.1:5514 \
+		--log-opt syslog-facility=daemon \
+		--log-opt tag="{{.Name}}" \
+  	  "$DOCKER_IMAGE" node $NODE_FLAGS --log_level=debug --proxy_app="$APP_PROXY"
+else
+	set -u
+	docker run -d \
+	  --net="$NETWORK_NAME" \
+	  --ip=$(test/p2p/ip.sh $ID) \
+	  --name "local_testnet_$ID" \
+	  --entrypoint tendermint \
+	  -e TMROOT="/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test/p2p/data/mach$ID/core" \
+  	  "$DOCKER_IMAGE" node $NODE_FLAGS --log_level=info --proxy_app="$APP_PROXY"
+fi
diff --git a/test/p2p/pex/check_peer.sh b/test/p2p/pex/check_peer.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ceabd2ac6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/p2p/pex/check_peer.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+#! /bin/bash
+set -u
+
+ID=$1
+N=$2
+
+addr=$(test/p2p/ip.sh "$ID"):46657
+
+echo "2. wait until peer $ID connects to other nodes using pex reactor"
+peers_count="0"
+while [[ "$peers_count" -lt "$((N-1))" ]]; do
+  sleep 1
+  peers_count=$(curl -s "$addr/net_info" | jq ".result[1].peers | length")
+  echo "... peers count = $peers_count, expected = $((N-1))"
+done
+
+echo "... successful"
diff --git a/test/p2p/pex/dial_seeds.sh b/test/p2p/pex/dial_seeds.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..15c22af67
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/p2p/pex/dial_seeds.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#! /bin/bash 
+set -u
+
+N=$1
+
+cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
+
+echo "Waiting for nodes to come online"
+for i in `seq 1 $N`; do
+	addr=$(test/p2p/ip.sh $i):46657
+	curl -s $addr/status > /dev/null
+	ERR=$?
+	while [ "$ERR" != 0 ]; do
+		sleep 1	
+		curl -s $addr/status > /dev/null
+		ERR=$?
+	done
+	echo "... node $i is up"
+done
+
+set -e
+# seeds need quotes
+seeds="\"$(test/p2p/ip.sh 1):46656\""
+for i in `seq 2 $N`; do
+	seeds="$seeds,\"$(test/p2p/ip.sh $i):46656\""
+done
+echo $seeds
+
+echo $seeds
+IP=$(test/p2p/ip.sh 1)
+curl --data-urlencode "seeds=[$seeds]" "$IP:46657/dial_seeds"
diff --git a/test/p2p/pex/test.sh b/test/p2p/pex/test.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d54d81350
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/p2p/pex/test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+#! /bin/bash
+set -eu
+
+DOCKER_IMAGE=$1
+NETWORK_NAME=$2
+N=$3
+PROXY_APP=$4
+
+cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
+
+echo "Test reconnecting from the address book"
+bash test/p2p/pex/test_addrbook.sh $DOCKER_IMAGE $NETWORK_NAME $N $PROXY_APP
+
+echo "Test connecting via /dial_seeds"
+bash test/p2p/pex/test_dial_seeds.sh $DOCKER_IMAGE $NETWORK_NAME $N $PROXY_APP
diff --git a/test/p2p/pex/test_addrbook.sh b/test/p2p/pex/test_addrbook.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d63096c8d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/p2p/pex/test_addrbook.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+#! /bin/bash
+set -eu
+
+DOCKER_IMAGE=$1
+NETWORK_NAME=$2
+N=$3
+PROXY_APP=$4
+
+ID=1
+
+echo "----------------------------------------------------------------------"
+echo "Testing pex creates the addrbook and uses it if seeds are not provided"
+echo "(assuming peers are started with pex enabled)"
+
+CLIENT_NAME="pex_addrbook_$ID"
+
+echo "1. restart peer $ID"
+docker stop "local_testnet_$ID"
+# preserve addrbook.json
+docker cp "local_testnet_$ID:/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test/p2p/data/mach1/core/addrbook.json" "/tmp/addrbook.json"
+set +e #CIRCLE
+docker rm -vf "local_testnet_$ID"
+set -e
+
+# NOTE that we do not provide seeds
+bash test/p2p/peer.sh "$DOCKER_IMAGE" "$NETWORK_NAME" "$ID" "$PROXY_APP" "--pex"
+docker cp "/tmp/addrbook.json" "local_testnet_$ID:/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test/p2p/data/mach1/core/addrbook.json"
+echo "with the following addrbook:"
+cat /tmp/addrbook.json
+# exec doesn't work on circle
+# docker exec "local_testnet_$ID" cat "/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test/p2p/data/mach1/core/addrbook.json"
+echo ""
+
+# if the client runs forever, it means addrbook wasn't saved or was empty
+bash test/p2p/client.sh "$DOCKER_IMAGE" "$NETWORK_NAME" "$CLIENT_NAME" "test/p2p/pex/check_peer.sh $ID $N"
+
+echo "----------------------------------------------------------------------"
+echo "Testing other peers connect to us if we have neither seeds nor the addrbook"
+echo "(assuming peers are started with pex enabled)"
+
+CLIENT_NAME="pex_no_addrbook_$ID"
+
+echo "1. restart peer $ID"
+docker stop "local_testnet_$ID"
+set +e #CIRCLE
+docker rm -vf "local_testnet_$ID"
+set -e 
+
+# NOTE that we do not provide seeds
+bash test/p2p/peer.sh "$DOCKER_IMAGE" "$NETWORK_NAME" "$ID" "$PROXY_APP" "--pex"
+
+# if the client runs forever, it means other peers have removed us from their books (which should not happen)
+bash test/p2p/client.sh "$DOCKER_IMAGE" "$NETWORK_NAME" "$CLIENT_NAME" "test/p2p/pex/check_peer.sh $ID $N"
+
+echo ""
+echo "PASS"
+echo ""
diff --git a/test/p2p/pex/test_dial_seeds.sh b/test/p2p/pex/test_dial_seeds.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ea72004db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/p2p/pex/test_dial_seeds.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+#! /bin/bash
+set -eu
+
+DOCKER_IMAGE=$1
+NETWORK_NAME=$2
+N=$3
+PROXY_APP=$4
+
+ID=1
+
+cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
+
+echo "----------------------------------------------------------------------"
+echo "Testing full network connection using one /dial_seeds call"
+echo "(assuming peers are started with pex enabled)"
+
+# stop the existing testnet and remove local network
+set +e
+bash test/p2p/local_testnet_stop.sh $NETWORK_NAME $N
+set -e
+
+# start the testnet on a local network
+# NOTE we re-use the same network for all tests
+SEEDS=""
+bash test/p2p/local_testnet_start.sh $DOCKER_IMAGE $NETWORK_NAME $N $PROXY_APP $SEEDS
+
+
+
+# dial seeds from one node
+CLIENT_NAME="dial_seeds"
+bash test/p2p/client.sh $DOCKER_IMAGE $NETWORK_NAME $CLIENT_NAME "test/p2p/pex/dial_seeds.sh $N"
+
+# test basic connectivity and consensus
+# start client container and check the num peers and height for all nodes
+CLIENT_NAME="dial_seeds_basic"
+bash test/p2p/client.sh $DOCKER_IMAGE $NETWORK_NAME $CLIENT_NAME "test/p2p/basic/test.sh $N"
diff --git a/test/p2p/seeds.sh b/test/p2p/seeds.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4bf866cba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/p2p/seeds.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+#! /bin/bash
+set -eu
+
+N=$1
+
+cd "$GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint"
+
+seeds="$(test/p2p/ip.sh 1):46656"
+for i in $(seq 2 $N); do
+	seeds="$seeds,$(test/p2p/ip.sh $i):46656"
+done
+echo "$seeds"
diff --git a/test/p2p/test.sh b/test/p2p/test.sh
index 0f29aa199..6a5537b98 100644
--- a/test/p2p/test.sh
+++ b/test/p2p/test.sh
@@ -6,28 +6,33 @@ NETWORK_NAME=local_testnet
 N=4
 PROXY_APP=persistent_dummy
 
-cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
+cd "$GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint"
 
 # stop the existing testnet and remove local network
 set +e
-bash test/p2p/local_testnet_stop.sh $NETWORK_NAME $N
+bash test/p2p/local_testnet_stop.sh "$NETWORK_NAME" "$N"
 set -e
 
+SEEDS=$(bash test/p2p/seeds.sh $N)
+
 # start the testnet on a local network
 # NOTE we re-use the same network for all tests
-bash test/p2p/local_testnet_start.sh $DOCKER_IMAGE $NETWORK_NAME $N $PROXY_APP
+bash test/p2p/local_testnet_start.sh "$DOCKER_IMAGE" "$NETWORK_NAME" "$N" "$PROXY_APP" "$SEEDS"
 
 # test basic connectivity and consensus
 # start client container and check the num peers and height for all nodes
-bash test/p2p/client.sh $DOCKER_IMAGE $NETWORK_NAME basic "test/p2p/basic/test.sh $N"
+bash test/p2p/client.sh "$DOCKER_IMAGE" "$NETWORK_NAME" basic "test/p2p/basic/test.sh $N"
 
 # test atomic broadcast:
 # start client container and test sending a tx to each node
-bash test/p2p/client.sh $DOCKER_IMAGE $NETWORK_NAME ab "test/p2p/atomic_broadcast/test.sh $N"
+bash test/p2p/client.sh "$DOCKER_IMAGE" "$NETWORK_NAME" ab "test/p2p/atomic_broadcast/test.sh $N"
 
 # test fast sync (from current state of network):
 # for each node, kill it and readd via fast sync
-bash test/p2p/fast_sync/test.sh $DOCKER_IMAGE $NETWORK_NAME $N $PROXY_APP
+bash test/p2p/fast_sync/test.sh "$DOCKER_IMAGE" "$NETWORK_NAME" "$N" "$PROXY_APP"
+
+# test killing all peers 3 times
+bash test/p2p/kill_all/test.sh "$DOCKER_IMAGE" "$NETWORK_NAME" "$N" 3
 
-# test killing all peers
-bash test/p2p/kill_all/test.sh $DOCKER_IMAGE $NETWORK_NAME $N 3
+# test pex
+bash test/p2p/pex/test.sh "$DOCKER_IMAGE" "$NETWORK_NAME" "$N" "$PROXY_APP"
diff --git a/test/persist/test.sh b/test/persist/test.sh
index b27394c51..e24e81deb 100644
--- a/test/persist/test.sh
+++ b/test/persist/test.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #! /bin/bash
 
-cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
+cd "$GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint"
 
 bash ./test/persist/test_failure_indices.sh
diff --git a/test/persist/test_failure_indices.sh b/test/persist/test_failure_indices.sh
index d828afe3f..8a708e508 100644
--- a/test/persist/test_failure_indices.sh
+++ b/test/persist/test_failure_indices.sh
@@ -1,98 +1,117 @@
 #! /bin/bash
 
-
 export TMROOT=$HOME/.tendermint_persist
 
-rm -rf $TMROOT
+rm -rf "$TMROOT"
 tendermint init
 
+# use a unix socket so we can remove it
+RPC_ADDR="$(pwd)/rpc.sock"
+
+TM_CMD="tendermint node --log_level=debug --rpc_laddr=unix://$RPC_ADDR" # &> tendermint_${name}.log"
+DUMMY_CMD="dummy --persist $TMROOT/dummy" # &> dummy_${name}.log"
+
+
 function start_procs(){
 	name=$1
 	indexToFail=$2
 	echo "Starting persistent dummy and tendermint"
-	dummy --persist $TMROOT/dummy &> "dummy_${name}.log" &
+	if [[ "$CIRCLECI" == true ]]; then
+		$DUMMY_CMD &
+	else
+		$DUMMY_CMD &> "dummy_${name}.log" &
+	fi
 	PID_DUMMY=$!
+
+	# before starting tendermint, remove the rpc socket
+	rm $RPC_ADDR
 	if [[ "$indexToFail" == "" ]]; then
 		# run in background, dont fail
-		tendermint node --log_level=debug &> tendermint_${name}.log &
+		if [[ "$CIRCLECI" == true ]]; then
+			$TM_CMD &
+		else
+			$TM_CMD &> "tendermint_${name}.log" & 
+		fi
 		PID_TENDERMINT=$!
 	else
 		# run in foreground, fail
-		FAIL_TEST_INDEX=$indexToFail tendermint node --log_level=debug &> tendermint_${name}.log
+		if [[ "$CIRCLECI" == true ]]; then
+			FAIL_TEST_INDEX=$indexToFail $TM_CMD
+		else 
+			FAIL_TEST_INDEX=$indexToFail $TM_CMD &> "tendermint_${name}.log"
+		fi
 		PID_TENDERMINT=$!
 	fi
 }
 
 function kill_procs(){
-	kill -9 $PID_DUMMY $PID_TENDERMINT
-	wait $PID_DUMMY
-	wait $PID_TENDERMINT
+	kill -9 "$PID_DUMMY" "$PID_TENDERMINT"
+	wait "$PID_DUMMY"
+	wait "$PID_TENDERMINT"
 }
 
-
-# wait till node is up, send txs
-function send_txs(){
-	addr="127.0.0.1:46657"
-	curl -s $addr/status > /dev/null
+# wait for port to be available
+function wait_for_port() {
+	port=$1
+	# this will succeed while port is bound
+	nc -z 127.0.0.1 $port
 	ERR=$?
-	while [ "$ERR" != 0 ]; do
+	i=0
+	while [ "$ERR" == 0 ]; do
+		echo "... port $port is still bound. waiting ..."
 		sleep 1	
-		curl -s $addr/status > /dev/null
+		nc -z 127.0.0.1 $port 
 		ERR=$?
+		i=$((i + 1))
+		if [[ $i == 10 ]]; then
+			echo "Timed out waiting for port to be released"
+			exit 1
+		fi
 	done
-
-	# send a bunch of txs over a few blocks
-	echo "Node is up, sending txs"
-	for i in `seq 1 5`; do
-		for j in `seq 1 100`; do
-			tx=`head -c 8 /dev/urandom | hexdump -ve '1/1 "%.2X"'`
-			curl -s $addr/broadcast_tx_async?tx=0x$tx &> /dev/null
-		done
-		sleep 1
-	done
+	echo "... port $port is free!"
 }
 
 
 failsStart=0
-fails=`grep -r "fail.Fail" --include \*.go . | wc -l`
-failsEnd=$(($fails-1))
+fails=$(grep -r "fail.Fail" --include \*.go . | wc -l)
+failsEnd=$((fails-1))
 
-for failIndex in `seq $failsStart $failsEnd`; do
+for failIndex in $(seq $failsStart $failsEnd); do
 	echo ""
 	echo "* Test FailIndex $failIndex"
 	# test failure at failIndex
 
-	send_txs &
-	start_procs 1 $failIndex
+	bash ./test/utils/txs.sh "localhost:46657" &
+	start_procs 1 "$failIndex"
 
-	# tendermint should fail when it hits the fail index
-	kill -9 $PID_DUMMY
-	wait $PID_DUMMY
+	# tendermint should already have exited when it hits the fail index
+	# but kill -9 for good measure
+	kill_procs
 
 	start_procs 2
 
 	# wait for node to handshake and make a new block
-	addr="localhost:46657"
-	curl -s $addr/status > /dev/null
+	# NOTE: --unix-socket is only available in curl v7.40+
+	curl -s --unix-socket "$RPC_ADDR" http://localhost/status > /dev/null
 	ERR=$?
 	i=0
 	while [ "$ERR" != 0 ]; do
 		sleep 1	
-		curl -s $addr/status > /dev/null
+		curl -s --unix-socket "$RPC_ADDR" http://localhost/status > /dev/null
 		ERR=$?
-		i=$(($i + 1))
-		if [[ $i == 10 ]]; then
+		i=$((i + 1))
+		if [[ $i == 20 ]]; then
 			echo "Timed out waiting for tendermint to start"
 			exit 1
 		fi
 	done
 
 	# wait for a new block
-	h1=`curl -s $addr/status | jq .result[1].latest_block_height`
+	h1=$(curl -s --unix-socket "$RPC_ADDR" http://localhost/status | jq .result[1].latest_block_height)
 	h2=$h1
 	while [ "$h2" == "$h1" ]; do
 		sleep 1
-		h2=`curl -s $addr/status | jq .result[1].latest_block_height`
+		h2=$(curl -s --unix-socket "$RPC_ADDR" http://localhost/status | jq .result[1].latest_block_height)
 	done
 
 	kill_procs
diff --git a/test/run_test.sh b/test/run_test.sh
index ba4e1b0e4..b505126ea 100644
--- a/test/run_test.sh
+++ b/test/run_test.sh
@@ -1,17 +1,18 @@
 #! /bin/bash
 set -e
 
-echo `pwd`
+pwd
 
-BRANCH=`git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD`
+BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)
 echo "Current branch: $BRANCH"
 
+# run the go unit tests with coverage
 bash test/test_cover.sh
 
-# run the app tests
+# run the app tests using bash
 bash test/app/test.sh
 
-# run the persistence test
+# run the persistence tests using bash
 bash test/persist/test.sh
 
 if [[ "$BRANCH" == "master" || $(echo "$BRANCH" | grep "release-") != "" ]]; then
diff --git a/test/test.sh b/test/test.sh
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index 0e779a049..2e164fb3e
--- a/test/test.sh
+++ b/test/test.sh
@@ -1,34 +1,62 @@
 #! /bin/bash
 set -eu
 
-# Top Level Testing Script
-# See the github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test/README.md
+# Get the directory of where this script is.
+SOURCE="${BASH_SOURCE[0]}"
+while [ -h "$SOURCE" ] ; do SOURCE="$(readlink "$SOURCE")"; done
+DIR="$( cd -P "$( dirname "$SOURCE" )" && pwd )"
 
-echo ""
-echo "* building docker image"
-bash ./test/docker/build.sh
+LOGS_DIR="$DIR/logs"
+echo
+echo "* [$(date +"%T")] cleaning up $LOGS_DIR"
+rm -rf "$LOGS_DIR"
+mkdir -p "$LOGS_DIR"
 
-echo ""
-echo "* running go tests and app tests in docker container"
+set +e
+echo
+echo "* [$(date +"%T")] removing run_test container"
+docker rm -vf run_test
+set -e
+
+set +u
+if [[ "$CIRCLECI" == true ]]; then
+	echo
+	echo "* [$(date +"%T")] starting rsyslog container"
+	docker rm -f rsyslog || true
+	docker run -d -v "$LOGS_DIR:/var/log/" -p 127.0.0.1:5514:514/udp --name rsyslog voxxit/rsyslog
+fi
+
+if [[ "$SKIP_BUILD" == "" ]]; then
+	echo
+	echo "* [$(date +"%T")] building docker image"
+	bash "$DIR/docker/build.sh"
+fi
+
+echo
+echo "* [$(date +"%T")] running go tests and app tests in docker container"
 # sometimes its helpful to mount the local test folder
-# -v $GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test:/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test
-docker run --name run_test -t tester bash test/run_test.sh
+# -v $DIR:/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test
+if [[ "$CIRCLECI" == true ]]; then
+	docker run --name run_test -e CIRCLECI=true -t tester bash test/run_test.sh
+else
+	docker run --name run_test -t tester bash test/run_test.sh
+fi
 
 # copy the coverage results out of docker container
 docker cp run_test:/go/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint/coverage.txt .
 
 # test basic network connectivity
 # by starting a local testnet and checking peers connect and make blocks
-echo ""
-echo "* running p2p tests on a local docker network"
-bash test/p2p/test.sh tester
+echo
+echo "* [$(date +"%T")] running p2p tests on a local docker network"
+bash "$DIR/p2p/test.sh" tester
 
 # only run the cloud benchmark for releases
-BRANCH=`git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD`
+BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)
 if [[ $(echo "$BRANCH" | grep "release-") != "" ]]; then
-	echo ""
+	echo
 	echo "TODO: run network tests"
 	#echo "* branch $BRANCH; running mintnet/netmon throughput benchmark"
-	# TODO: replace mintnet 
-	#bash test/net/test.sh
+	# TODO: replace mintnet
+	#bash "$DIR/net/test.sh"
 fi
diff --git a/test/test_cover.sh b/test/test_cover.sh
index 49992d631..b1b754ba4 100644
--- a/test/test_cover.sh
+++ b/test/test_cover.sh
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ PKGS=$(go list github.com/tendermint/tendermint/... | grep -v /vendor/)
 set -e
 echo "mode: atomic" > coverage.txt
 for pkg in ${PKGS[@]}; do
-	go test -timeout 30m -race -coverprofile=profile.out -covermode=atomic $pkg
+	go test -v -timeout 30m -race -coverprofile=profile.out -covermode=atomic "$pkg"
 	if [ -f profile.out ]; then
 		tail -n +2 profile.out >> coverage.txt;
 		rm profile.out
diff --git a/test/test_libs.sh b/test/test_libs.sh
index 8692f5de3..4a531bf35 100644
--- a/test/test_libs.sh
+++ b/test/test_libs.sh
@@ -18,30 +18,30 @@ LIBS_MAKE_TEST=(go-rpc go-wire abci)
 for lib in "${LIBS_GO_TEST[@]}"; do
 
 	# checkout vendored version of lib
-	bash scripts/glide/checkout.sh $GLIDE $lib
+	bash scripts/glide/checkout.sh "$GLIDE" "$lib"
 
 	echo "Testing $lib ..."
-	go test --race github.com/tendermint/$lib/...
+	go test -v --race "github.com/tendermint/$lib/..."
 	if [[ "$?" != 0 ]]; then
 		echo "FAIL"
 		exit 1
 	fi
 done
 
-DIR=`pwd`
+DIR=$(pwd)
 for lib in "${LIBS_MAKE_TEST[@]}"; do
 
 	# checkout vendored version of lib
-	bash scripts/glide/checkout.sh $GLIDE $lib
+	bash scripts/glide/checkout.sh "$GLIDE" "$lib"
 
 	echo "Testing $lib ..."
-	cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/$lib
+	cd "$GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/$lib"
 	make test
 	if [[ "$?" != 0 ]]; then
 		echo "FAIL"
 		exit 1
 	fi
-	cd $DIR
+	cd "$DIR"
 done
 
 echo ""
diff --git a/test/utils/txs.sh b/test/utils/txs.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c49d12c0c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/utils/txs.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+#! /bin/bash
+set -u
+
+# wait till node is up, send txs
+ADDR=$1 #="127.0.0.1:46657"
+curl -s $ADDR/status > /dev/null
+ERR=$?
+while [ "$ERR" != 0 ]; do
+	sleep 1	
+	curl -s $ADDR/status > /dev/null
+	ERR=$?
+done
+
+# send a bunch of txs over a few blocks
+echo "Node is up, sending txs"
+for i in $(seq 1 5); do
+	for _ in $(seq 1 100); do
+		tx=$(head -c 8 /dev/urandom | hexdump -ve '1/1 "%.2X"')
+		curl -s "$ADDR/broadcast_tx_async?tx=0x$tx" &> /dev/null
+	done
+	echo "sent 100"
+	sleep 1
+done
diff --git a/types/block.go b/types/block.go
index a19afaac5..61d25f6e4 100644
--- a/types/block.go
+++ b/types/block.go
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ func (b *Block) FillHeader() {
 // If the block is incomplete, block hash is nil for safety.
 func (b *Block) Hash() []byte {
 	// fmt.Println(">>", b.Data)
-	if b.Header == nil || b.Data == nil || b.LastCommit == nil {
+	if b == nil || b.Header == nil || b.Data == nil || b.LastCommit == nil {
 		return nil
 	}
 	b.FillHeader()
diff --git a/types/block_meta.go b/types/block_meta.go
index b72c0c860..8e5bd43e5 100644
--- a/types/block_meta.go
+++ b/types/block_meta.go
@@ -1,15 +1,13 @@
 package types
 
 type BlockMeta struct {
-	Hash        []byte        `json:"hash"`         // The block hash
-	Header      *Header       `json:"header"`       // The block's Header
-	PartsHeader PartSetHeader `json:"parts_header"` // The PartSetHeader, for transfer
+	BlockID BlockID `json:"block_id"` // the block hash and partsethash
+	Header  *Header `json:"header"`   // The block's Header
 }
 
 func NewBlockMeta(block *Block, blockParts *PartSet) *BlockMeta {
 	return &BlockMeta{
-		Hash:        block.Hash(),
-		Header:      block.Header,
-		PartsHeader: blockParts.Header(),
+		BlockID: BlockID{block.Hash(), blockParts.Header()},
+		Header:  block.Header,
 	}
 }
diff --git a/types/genesis.go b/types/genesis.go
index 9c81bc2d2..3a0395488 100644
--- a/types/genesis.go
+++ b/types/genesis.go
@@ -38,11 +38,7 @@ func (genDoc *GenesisDoc) SaveAs(file string) error {
 //------------------------------------------------------------
 // Make genesis state from file
 
-func GenesisDocFromJSON(jsonBlob []byte) (genState *GenesisDoc) {
-	var err error
-	wire.ReadJSONPtr(&genState, jsonBlob, &err)
-	if err != nil {
-		Exit(Fmt("Couldn't read GenesisDoc: %v", err))
-	}
+func GenesisDocFromJSON(jsonBlob []byte) (genDoc *GenesisDoc, err error) {
+	wire.ReadJSONPtr(&genDoc, jsonBlob, &err)
 	return
 }
diff --git a/types/part_set.go b/types/part_set.go
index c21524405..3a5ee26ad 100644
--- a/types/part_set.go
+++ b/types/part_set.go
@@ -268,6 +268,8 @@ func (ps *PartSet) StringShort() string {
 	if ps == nil {
 		return "nil-PartSet"
 	} else {
+		ps.mtx.Lock()
+		defer ps.mtx.Unlock()
 		return fmt.Sprintf("(%v of %v)", ps.Count(), ps.Total())
 	}
 }
diff --git a/types/services.go b/types/services.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ee20487e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/types/services.go
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+package types
+
+import (
+	abci "github.com/tendermint/abci/types"
+)
+
+//------------------------------------------------------
+// blockchain services types
+// NOTE: Interfaces used by RPC must be thread safe!
+//------------------------------------------------------
+
+//------------------------------------------------------
+// mempool
+
+// Updates to the mempool need to be synchronized with committing a block
+// so apps can reset their transient state on Commit
+type Mempool interface {
+	Lock()
+	Unlock()
+
+	Size() int
+	CheckTx(Tx, func(*abci.Response)) error
+	Reap(int) Txs
+	Update(height int, txs Txs)
+	Flush()
+}
+
+type MockMempool struct {
+}
+
+func (m MockMempool) Lock()                                        {}
+func (m MockMempool) Unlock()                                      {}
+func (m MockMempool) Size() int                                    { return 0 }
+func (m MockMempool) CheckTx(tx Tx, cb func(*abci.Response)) error { return nil }
+func (m MockMempool) Reap(n int) Txs                               { return Txs{} }
+func (m MockMempool) Update(height int, txs Txs)                   {}
+func (m MockMempool) Flush()                                       {}
+
+//------------------------------------------------------
+// blockstore
+
+type BlockStoreRPC interface {
+	Height() int
+
+	LoadBlockMeta(height int) *BlockMeta
+	LoadBlock(height int) *Block
+	LoadBlockPart(height int, index int) *Part
+
+	LoadBlockCommit(height int) *Commit
+	LoadSeenCommit(height int) *Commit
+}
+
+type BlockStore interface {
+	BlockStoreRPC
+	SaveBlock(block *Block, blockParts *PartSet, seenCommit *Commit)
+}
diff --git a/types/validator_set.go b/types/validator_set.go
index 3f5a17d9a..b997b4713 100644
--- a/types/validator_set.go
+++ b/types/validator_set.go
@@ -6,8 +6,9 @@ import (
 	"sort"
 	"strings"
 
-	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
+	cmn "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
 	"github.com/tendermint/go-merkle"
+	"github.com/tendermint/go-wire"
 )
 
 // ValidatorSet represent a set of *Validator at a given height.
@@ -15,7 +16,7 @@ import (
 // The index is in order of .Address, so the indices are fixed
 // for all rounds of a given blockchain height.
 // On the other hand, the .AccumPower of each validator and
-// the designated .Proposer() of a set changes every round,
+// the designated .GetProposer() of a set changes every round,
 // upon calling .IncrementAccum().
 // NOTE: Not goroutine-safe.
 // NOTE: All get/set to validators should copy the value for safety.
@@ -23,9 +24,9 @@ import (
 // TODO: move valset into an iavl tree where key is 'blockbonded|pubkey'
 type ValidatorSet struct {
 	Validators []*Validator // NOTE: persisted via reflect, must be exported.
+	Proposer   *Validator
 
 	// cached (unexported)
-	proposer         *Validator
 	totalVotingPower int64
 }
 
@@ -42,26 +43,28 @@ func NewValidatorSet(vals []*Validator) *ValidatorSet {
 	if vals != nil {
 		vs.IncrementAccum(1)
 	}
+
 	return vs
 }
 
+// incrementAccum and update the proposer
 // TODO: mind the overflow when times and votingPower shares too large.
 func (valSet *ValidatorSet) IncrementAccum(times int) {
 	// Add VotingPower * times to each validator and order into heap.
-	validatorsHeap := NewHeap()
+	validatorsHeap := cmn.NewHeap()
 	for _, val := range valSet.Validators {
 		val.Accum += int64(val.VotingPower) * int64(times) // TODO: mind overflow
-		validatorsHeap.Push(val, accumComparable(val.Accum))
+		validatorsHeap.Push(val, accumComparable{val})
 	}
 
-	// Decrement the validator with most accum, times times.
+	// Decrement the validator with most accum times times
 	for i := 0; i < times; i++ {
 		mostest := validatorsHeap.Peek().(*Validator)
 		if i == times-1 {
-			valSet.proposer = mostest
+			valSet.Proposer = mostest
 		}
 		mostest.Accum -= int64(valSet.TotalVotingPower())
-		validatorsHeap.Update(mostest, accumComparable(mostest.Accum))
+		validatorsHeap.Update(mostest, accumComparable{mostest})
 	}
 }
 
@@ -73,7 +76,7 @@ func (valSet *ValidatorSet) Copy() *ValidatorSet {
 	}
 	return &ValidatorSet{
 		Validators:       validators,
-		proposer:         valSet.proposer,
+		Proposer:         valSet.Proposer,
 		totalVotingPower: valSet.totalVotingPower,
 	}
 }
@@ -114,16 +117,24 @@ func (valSet *ValidatorSet) TotalVotingPower() int64 {
 	return valSet.totalVotingPower
 }
 
-func (valSet *ValidatorSet) Proposer() (proposer *Validator) {
+func (valSet *ValidatorSet) GetProposer() (proposer *Validator) {
 	if len(valSet.Validators) == 0 {
 		return nil
 	}
-	if valSet.proposer == nil {
-		for _, val := range valSet.Validators {
-			valSet.proposer = valSet.proposer.CompareAccum(val)
+	if valSet.Proposer == nil {
+		valSet.Proposer = valSet.findProposer()
+	}
+	return valSet.Proposer.Copy()
+}
+
+func (valSet *ValidatorSet) findProposer() *Validator {
+	var proposer *Validator
+	for _, val := range valSet.Validators {
+		if proposer == nil || !bytes.Equal(val.Address, proposer.Address) {
+			proposer = proposer.CompareAccum(val)
 		}
 	}
-	return valSet.proposer.Copy()
+	return proposer
 }
 
 func (valSet *ValidatorSet) Hash() []byte {
@@ -145,7 +156,7 @@ func (valSet *ValidatorSet) Add(val *Validator) (added bool) {
 	if idx == len(valSet.Validators) {
 		valSet.Validators = append(valSet.Validators, val)
 		// Invalidate cache
-		valSet.proposer = nil
+		valSet.Proposer = nil
 		valSet.totalVotingPower = 0
 		return true
 	} else if bytes.Compare(valSet.Validators[idx].Address, val.Address) == 0 {
@@ -157,7 +168,7 @@ func (valSet *ValidatorSet) Add(val *Validator) (added bool) {
 		copy(newValidators[idx+1:], valSet.Validators[idx:])
 		valSet.Validators = newValidators
 		// Invalidate cache
-		valSet.proposer = nil
+		valSet.Proposer = nil
 		valSet.totalVotingPower = 0
 		return true
 	}
@@ -170,7 +181,7 @@ func (valSet *ValidatorSet) Update(val *Validator) (updated bool) {
 	} else {
 		valSet.Validators[index] = val.Copy()
 		// Invalidate cache
-		valSet.proposer = nil
+		valSet.Proposer = nil
 		valSet.totalVotingPower = 0
 		return true
 	}
@@ -190,7 +201,7 @@ func (valSet *ValidatorSet) Remove(address []byte) (val *Validator, removed bool
 		}
 		valSet.Validators = newValidators
 		// Invalidate cache
-		valSet.proposer = nil
+		valSet.Proposer = nil
 		valSet.totalVotingPower = 0
 		return removedVal, true
 	}
@@ -252,6 +263,50 @@ func (valSet *ValidatorSet) VerifyCommit(chainID string, blockID BlockID, height
 	}
 }
 
+// Verify that +2/3 of this set had signed the given signBytes.
+// Unlike VerifyCommit(), this function can verify commits with differeent sets.
+func (valSet *ValidatorSet) VerifyCommitAny(chainID string, blockID BlockID, height int, commit *Commit) error {
+	panic("Not yet implemented")
+	/*
+			Start like:
+
+		FOR_LOOP:
+			for _, val := range vals {
+				if len(precommits) == 0 {
+					break FOR_LOOP
+				}
+				next := precommits[0]
+				switch bytes.Compare(val.Address(), next.ValidatorAddress) {
+				case -1:
+					continue FOR_LOOP
+				case 0:
+					signBytes := tm.SignBytes(next)
+					...
+				case 1:
+					... // error?
+				}
+			}
+	*/
+}
+
+func (valSet *ValidatorSet) ToBytes() []byte {
+	buf, n, err := new(bytes.Buffer), new(int), new(error)
+	wire.WriteBinary(valSet, buf, n, err)
+	if *err != nil {
+		cmn.PanicCrisis(*err)
+	}
+	return buf.Bytes()
+}
+
+func (valSet *ValidatorSet) FromBytes(b []byte) {
+	r, n, err := bytes.NewReader(b), new(int), new(error)
+	wire.ReadBinary(valSet, r, 0, n, err)
+	if *err != nil {
+		// DATA HAS BEEN CORRUPTED OR THE SPEC HAS CHANGED
+		cmn.PanicCrisis(*err)
+	}
+}
+
 func (valSet *ValidatorSet) String() string {
 	return valSet.StringIndented("")
 }
@@ -270,7 +325,7 @@ func (valSet *ValidatorSet) StringIndented(indent string) string {
 %s  Validators:
 %s    %v
 %s}`,
-		indent, valSet.Proposer().String(),
+		indent, valSet.GetProposer().String(),
 		indent,
 		indent, strings.Join(valStrings, "\n"+indent+"    "),
 		indent)
@@ -299,11 +354,15 @@ func (vs ValidatorsByAddress) Swap(i, j int) {
 //-------------------------------------
 // Use with Heap for sorting validators by accum
 
-type accumComparable int64
+type accumComparable struct {
+	*Validator
+}
 
 // We want to find the validator with the greatest accum.
 func (ac accumComparable) Less(o interface{}) bool {
-	return int64(ac) > int64(o.(accumComparable))
+	other := o.(accumComparable).Validator
+	larger := ac.CompareAccum(other)
+	return bytes.Equal(larger.Address, ac.Address)
 }
 
 //----------------------------------------
diff --git a/types/validator_set_test.go b/types/validator_set_test.go
index 9107e77e5..bc7fef798 100644
--- a/types/validator_set_test.go
+++ b/types/validator_set_test.go
@@ -1,23 +1,23 @@
 package types
 
 import (
-	. "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
-	"github.com/tendermint/go-crypto"
-
 	"bytes"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
+
+	cmn "github.com/tendermint/go-common"
+	"github.com/tendermint/go-crypto"
 )
 
 func randPubKey() crypto.PubKeyEd25519 {
 	var pubKey [32]byte
-	copy(pubKey[:], RandBytes(32))
+	copy(pubKey[:], cmn.RandBytes(32))
 	return crypto.PubKeyEd25519(pubKey)
 }
 
 func randValidator_() *Validator {
-	val := NewValidator(randPubKey(), RandInt64())
-	val.Accum = RandInt64()
+	val := NewValidator(randPubKey(), cmn.RandInt64())
+	val.Accum = cmn.RandInt64()
 	return val
 }
 
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ func TestCopy(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-func TestProposerSelection(t *testing.T) {
+func TestProposerSelection1(t *testing.T) {
 	vset := NewValidatorSet([]*Validator{
 		newValidator([]byte("foo"), 1000),
 		newValidator([]byte("bar"), 300),
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ func TestProposerSelection(t *testing.T) {
 	})
 	proposers := []string{}
 	for i := 0; i < 99; i++ {
-		val := vset.Proposer()
+		val := vset.GetProposer()
 		proposers = append(proposers, string(val.Address))
 		vset.IncrementAccum(1)
 	}
@@ -67,74 +67,125 @@ func newValidator(address []byte, power int64) *Validator {
 }
 
 func TestProposerSelection2(t *testing.T) {
-	addr1 := []byte{0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0}
-	addr2 := []byte{0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1}
-	addr3 := []byte{0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2}
+	addr0 := []byte{0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0}
+	addr1 := []byte{0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1}
+	addr2 := []byte{0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2}
 
 	// when all voting power is same, we go in order of addresses
-	val1, val2, val3 := newValidator(addr1, 100), newValidator(addr2, 100), newValidator(addr3, 100)
-	valList := []*Validator{val1, val2, val3}
+	val0, val1, val2 := newValidator(addr0, 100), newValidator(addr1, 100), newValidator(addr2, 100)
+	valList := []*Validator{val0, val1, val2}
 	vals := NewValidatorSet(valList)
 	for i := 0; i < len(valList)*5; i++ {
-		ii := i % len(valList)
-		prop := vals.Proposer()
+		ii := (i) % len(valList)
+		prop := vals.GetProposer()
 		if !bytes.Equal(prop.Address, valList[ii].Address) {
-			t.Fatalf("Expected %X. Got %X", valList[ii].Address, prop.Address)
+			t.Fatalf("(%d): Expected %X. Got %X", i, valList[ii].Address, prop.Address)
 		}
 		vals.IncrementAccum(1)
 	}
 
 	// One validator has more than the others, but not enough to propose twice in a row
-	*val3 = *newValidator(addr3, 400)
+	*val2 = *newValidator(addr2, 400)
 	vals = NewValidatorSet(valList)
-	prop := vals.Proposer()
-	if !bytes.Equal(prop.Address, addr3) {
+	// vals.IncrementAccum(1)
+	prop := vals.GetProposer()
+	if !bytes.Equal(prop.Address, addr2) {
 		t.Fatalf("Expected address with highest voting power to be first proposer. Got %X", prop.Address)
 	}
 	vals.IncrementAccum(1)
-	prop = vals.Proposer()
-	if !bytes.Equal(prop.Address, addr1) {
+	prop = vals.GetProposer()
+	if !bytes.Equal(prop.Address, addr0) {
 		t.Fatalf("Expected smallest address to be validator. Got %X", prop.Address)
 	}
 
 	// One validator has more than the others, and enough to be proposer twice in a row
-	*val3 = *newValidator(addr3, 401)
+	*val2 = *newValidator(addr2, 401)
 	vals = NewValidatorSet(valList)
-	prop = vals.Proposer()
-	if !bytes.Equal(prop.Address, addr3) {
+	prop = vals.GetProposer()
+	if !bytes.Equal(prop.Address, addr2) {
 		t.Fatalf("Expected address with highest voting power to be first proposer. Got %X", prop.Address)
 	}
 	vals.IncrementAccum(1)
-	prop = vals.Proposer()
-	if !bytes.Equal(prop.Address, addr3) {
+	prop = vals.GetProposer()
+	if !bytes.Equal(prop.Address, addr2) {
 		t.Fatalf("Expected address with highest voting power to be second proposer. Got %X", prop.Address)
 	}
 	vals.IncrementAccum(1)
-	prop = vals.Proposer()
-	if !bytes.Equal(prop.Address, addr1) {
+	prop = vals.GetProposer()
+	if !bytes.Equal(prop.Address, addr0) {
 		t.Fatalf("Expected smallest address to be validator. Got %X", prop.Address)
 	}
 
 	// each validator should be the proposer a proportional number of times
-	val1, val2, val3 = newValidator(addr1, 4), newValidator(addr2, 5), newValidator(addr3, 3)
-	valList = []*Validator{val1, val2, val3}
+	val0, val1, val2 = newValidator(addr0, 4), newValidator(addr1, 5), newValidator(addr2, 3)
+	valList = []*Validator{val0, val1, val2}
 	propCount := make([]int, 3)
 	vals = NewValidatorSet(valList)
-	for i := 0; i < 120; i++ {
-		prop := vals.Proposer()
+	N := 1
+	for i := 0; i < 120*N; i++ {
+		prop := vals.GetProposer()
 		ii := prop.Address[19]
 		propCount[ii] += 1
 		vals.IncrementAccum(1)
 	}
 
-	if propCount[0] != 40 {
-		t.Fatalf("Expected prop count for validator with 4/12 of voting power to be 40/120. Got %d/120", propCount[0])
+	if propCount[0] != 40*N {
+		t.Fatalf("Expected prop count for validator with 4/12 of voting power to be %d/%d. Got %d/%d", 40*N, 120*N, propCount[0], 120*N)
+	}
+	if propCount[1] != 50*N {
+		t.Fatalf("Expected prop count for validator with 5/12 of voting power to be %d/%d. Got %d/%d", 50*N, 120*N, propCount[1], 120*N)
 	}
-	if propCount[1] != 50 {
-		t.Fatalf("Expected prop count for validator with 5/12 of voting power to be 50/120. Got %d/120", propCount[1])
+	if propCount[2] != 30*N {
+		t.Fatalf("Expected prop count for validator with 3/12 of voting power to be %d/%d. Got %d/%d", 30*N, 120*N, propCount[2], 120*N)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestProposerSelection3(t *testing.T) {
+	vset := NewValidatorSet([]*Validator{
+		newValidator([]byte("a"), 1),
+		newValidator([]byte("b"), 1),
+		newValidator([]byte("c"), 1),
+		newValidator([]byte("d"), 1),
+	})
+
+	proposerOrder := make([]*Validator, 4)
+	for i := 0; i < 4; i++ {
+		proposerOrder[i] = vset.GetProposer()
+		vset.IncrementAccum(1)
 	}
-	if propCount[2] != 30 {
-		t.Fatalf("Expected prop count for validator with 3/12 of voting power to be 30/120. Got %d/120", propCount[2])
+
+	// i for the loop
+	// j for the times
+	// we should go in order for ever, despite some IncrementAccums with times > 1
+	var i, j int
+	for ; i < 10000; i++ {
+		got := vset.GetProposer().Address
+		expected := proposerOrder[j%4].Address
+		if !bytes.Equal(got, expected) {
+			t.Fatalf(cmn.Fmt("vset.Proposer (%X) does not match expected proposer (%X) for (%d, %d)", got, expected, i, j))
+		}
+
+		// serialize, deserialize, check proposer
+		b := vset.ToBytes()
+		vset.FromBytes(b)
+
+		computed := vset.GetProposer() // findGetProposer()
+		if i != 0 {
+			if !bytes.Equal(got, computed.Address) {
+				t.Fatalf(cmn.Fmt("vset.Proposer (%X) does not match computed proposer (%X) for (%d, %d)", got, computed.Address, i, j))
+			}
+		}
+
+		// times is usually 1
+		times := 1
+		mod := (cmn.RandInt() % 5) + 1
+		if cmn.RandInt()%mod > 0 {
+			// sometimes its up to 5
+			times = cmn.RandInt() % 5
+		}
+		vset.IncrementAccum(times)
+
+		j += times
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/version/version.go b/version/version.go
index e0d7b4261..074876b9a 100644
--- a/version/version.go
+++ b/version/version.go
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 package version
 
 const Maj = "0"
-const Min = "8" // validator set changes, tmsp->abci, app persistence/recovery, BFT-liveness fix
-const Fix = "0" //
+const Min = "9"
+const Fix = "0"
 
-const Version = Maj + "." + Min + "." + Fix
+const Version = "0.9.0"