diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index e1751907..9d284be6 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -268,6 +268,28 @@ jobs:
           name: Run tests
           command: bash test/persist/test_failure_indices.sh
 
+  localnet:
+      working_directory: /home/circleci/.go_workspace/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint
+      machine:
+        image: circleci/classic:latest
+      environment:
+        GOBIN: /home/circleci/.go_workspace/bin
+        GOPATH: /home/circleci/.go_workspace/
+        GOOS: linux
+        GOARCH: amd64
+      parallelism: 1
+      steps:
+        - checkout
+        - run:
+            name: run localnet and exit on failure
+            command: |
+              set -x
+              make get_tools
+              make get_vendor_deps
+              make build-linux
+              make localnet-start &
+              ./scripts/localnet-blocks-test.sh 40 5 10 localhost
+
   test_p2p:
     environment:
       GOBIN: /home/circleci/.go_workspace/bin
@@ -337,6 +359,9 @@ workflows:
       - test_persistence:
           requires:
             - setup_dependencies
+      - localnet:
+          requires:
+            - setup_dependencies
       - test_p2p
       - upload_coverage:
           requires:
diff --git a/scripts/localnet-blocks-test.sh b/scripts/localnet-blocks-test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..a33ab00f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/localnet-blocks-test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+ITERATIONS=$1
+SLEEP=$2
+NUMBLOCKS=$3
+NODEADDR=$4
+
+if [ -z "$1" ]; then
+  echo "Need to input number of iterations to run..."
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+if [ -z "$2" ]; then
+  echo "Need to input number of seconds to sleep between iterations"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+if [ -z "$3" ]; then
+  echo "Need to input block height to declare completion..."
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+if [ -z "$4" ]; then
+  echo "Need to input node address to poll..."
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+I=0
+while [ ${I} -lt "$ITERATIONS" ]; do
+  var=$(curl -s "$NODEADDR:26657/status" | jq -r ".result.sync_info.latest_block_height")
+  echo "Number of Blocks: ${var}"
+  if [ ! -z "${var}" ] && [ "${var}" -gt "${NUMBLOCKS}" ]; then
+    echo "Number of blocks reached, exiting success..."
+    exit 0
+  fi
+	I=$((I+1))
+  sleep "$SLEEP"
+done
+
+echo "Timeout reached, exiting failure..."
+exit 1