diff --git a/tests/beacon_chain_sim/src/main.rs b/tests/beacon_chain_sim/src/main.rs
index fba4995f78..f7dfddedc3 100644
--- a/tests/beacon_chain_sim/src/main.rs
+++ b/tests/beacon_chain_sim/src/main.rs
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 use node_test_rig::{
     environment::{EnvironmentBuilder, RuntimeContext},
-    testing_client_config, ClientConfig, LocalBeaconNode, LocalValidatorClient, ProductionClient,
-    ValidatorConfig,
+    testing_client_config, ClientConfig, ClientGenesis, LocalBeaconNode, LocalValidatorClient,
+    ProductionClient, ValidatorConfig,
 };
+use std::time::{SystemTime, UNIX_EPOCH};
 use types::EthSpec;
 
 pub type BeaconNode<E> = LocalBeaconNode<ProductionClient<E>>;
@@ -27,7 +28,16 @@ fn simulation(num_nodes: usize, validators_per_node: usize) -> Result<(), String
         .multi_threaded_tokio_runtime()?
         .build()?;
 
-    let base_config = testing_client_config();
+    let mut base_config = testing_client_config();
+
+    let now = SystemTime::now()
+        .duration_since(UNIX_EPOCH)
+        .expect("should get system time")
+        .as_secs();
+    base_config.genesis = ClientGenesis::Interop {
+        genesis_time: now,
+        validator_count: num_nodes * validators_per_node,
+    };
 
     let boot_node =
         BeaconNode::production(env.service_context("boot_node".into()), base_config.clone());
@@ -39,7 +49,7 @@ fn simulation(num_nodes: usize, validators_per_node: usize) -> Result<(), String
         })
         .collect::<Vec<_>>();
 
-    let validators = nodes
+    let _validators = nodes
         .iter()
         .enumerate()
         .map(|(i, node)| {
@@ -90,25 +100,6 @@ fn new_with_bootnode_via_enr<E: EthSpec>(
     BeaconNode::production(context, config)
 }
 
-fn new_with_bootnode_via_multiaddr<E: EthSpec>(
-    context: RuntimeContext<E>,
-    boot_node: &BeaconNode<E>,
-    base_config: ClientConfig,
-) -> BeaconNode<E> {
-    let mut config = base_config;
-    config.network.libp2p_nodes.push(
-        boot_node
-            .client
-            .libp2p_listen_addresses()
-            .expect("bootnode must have a network")
-            .first()
-            .expect("bootnode must have at least one listen addr")
-            .clone(),
-    );
-
-    BeaconNode::production(context, config)
-}
-
 fn new_validator_client<E: EthSpec>(
     context: RuntimeContext<E>,
     beacon_node: &BeaconNode<E>,
diff --git a/tests/node_test_rig/src/lib.rs b/tests/node_test_rig/src/lib.rs
index 1499cff31d..37e84c2057 100644
--- a/tests/node_test_rig/src/lib.rs
+++ b/tests/node_test_rig/src/lib.rs
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-use beacon_node::{beacon_chain::BeaconChainTypes, Client, ClientGenesis, ProductionBeaconNode};
+use beacon_node::{beacon_chain::BeaconChainTypes, Client, ProductionBeaconNode};
 use environment::RuntimeContext;
 use futures::Future;
 use remote_beacon_node::RemoteBeaconNode;
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ use tempdir::TempDir;
 use types::EthSpec;
 use validator_client::{validator_directory::ValidatorDirectoryBuilder, ProductionValidatorClient};
 
-pub use beacon_node::{ClientConfig, ProductionClient};
+pub use beacon_node::{ClientConfig, ClientGenesis, ProductionClient};
 pub use environment;
 pub use validator_client::Config as ValidatorConfig;
 
@@ -60,6 +60,8 @@ pub fn testing_client_config() -> ClientConfig {
     client_config.rest_api.port = 0;
     client_config.websocket_server.port = 0;
 
+    client_config.dummy_eth1_backend = true;
+
     let now = SystemTime::now()
         .duration_since(UNIX_EPOCH)
         .expect("should get system time")
@@ -121,6 +123,10 @@ impl<E: EthSpec> LocalValidatorClient<E> {
         let client =
             ProductionValidatorClient::new(context, config).expect("should start validator client");
 
+        client
+            .start_service()
+            .expect("should start validator client");
+
         Self { client, datadir }
     }
 }
diff --git a/validator_client/src/service.rs b/validator_client/src/service.rs
index c733ef31ed..60d1fad018 100644
--- a/validator_client/src/service.rs
+++ b/validator_client/src/service.rs
@@ -169,10 +169,6 @@ impl<E: EthSpec> Service<ValidatorServiceClient, Keypair, E> {
 
         let slots_per_epoch = E::slots_per_epoch();
 
-        // TODO: keypairs are randomly generated; they should be loaded from a file or generated.
-        // https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse/issues/160
-        //let keypairs = Arc::new(generate_deterministic_keypairs(8));
-
         // Builds a mapping of Epoch -> Map(PublicKey, EpochDuty)
         // where EpochDuty contains slot numbers and attestation data that each validator needs to
         // produce work on.