This is a quick introduction to get new developers and witnesses up to speed on Peerplays blockchain. It is intended for witnesses plannig to join a live, already deployed blockchain.

For Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and up users, see this link first: https://github.com/cryptonomex/graphene/wiki/build-ubuntu

and then proceed with:

git clone https://github.com/pbsa/peerplays.git
cd peerplays
git submodule update --init --recursive
cmake -DBOOST_ROOT="$BOOST_ROOT" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release .
make
./programs/witness_node/witness_node

Launching the witness creates required directories. Next, stop the witness and continue.

vi witness_node_data_dir/config.ini
p2p-endpoint = 0.0.0.0:9777
rpc-endpoint = 127.0.0.1:8090
seed-node = 213.184.225.234:59500

Start the witness back up

./programs/witness_node/witness_node

Then, in a separate terminal window, start the command-line wallet cli_wallet:

./programs/cli_wallet/cli_wallet

To set your initial password to 'password' use:

>>> set_password password
>>> unlock password

A list of CLI wallet commands is available here.

• chain-id - be6b79295e728406cbb7494bcb626e62ad278fa4018699cf8f75739f4c1a81fd

Pending ...

1. Start up the node without any parameters.

witness_node

This should start the node and create the witness_node_data_dir directory and a default configuration file.

2. Kill/stop the node. The clean way to kill is to find the process ID of the witness_node process, and then send a kill signal for it.

3. Modify the node's configuration file (witness_node_data_dir/config.ini) to "start" the empty chain by operating all of the initial witnesses. The following settings should be specified.

p2p-endpoint = 0.0.0.0:6666

rpc-endpoint = 127.0.0.1:8090

witness-id = "1.6.1" witness-id = "1.6.2" witness-id = "1.6.3" witness-id = "1.6.4" witness-id = "1.6.5" witness-id = "1.6.6" witness-id = "1.6.7" witness-id = "1.6.8" witness-id = "1.6.9" witness-id = "1.6.10" witness-id = "1.6.11"

enable-stale-production = true

4. Re-start up the node without any parameters.

witness_node

You should see

•                          *
  

• ------- NEW CHAIN ------ *
• • Welcome to Graphene! - *
• ------------------------ *

•                          *
  

and you should see the node producing blocks.

Generated block #1 with timestamp ...

5. Import the private key for the "bts-adam" account into the wallet (which coincidentally is also the private key for the proper "adam" account)

import_key adam 5KQwrPbwdL6PhXujxW37FSSQZ1JiwsST4cqQzDeyXtP79zkvFD3

6. Transfer some funds from the "bts-adam" account to the "adam" account (which is a "proper" account) that can later create other accounts such as witness accounts

transfer bts-adam adam 5000 PPYTEST "" true

1. Start up the node with a local API server that is listening on port 8090

witness_node --rpc-endpoint 127.0.0.1:8090

2. There is an account on the testnet called "testnet-adam" that initially has funds which can be used to create and register new accounts on the blockchain. If operating on a "trusting" testnet, that account will still have funds when you join. In this scenario, you can use the funds to register your own witness account by using the CLI. Start by running the CLI on the same machine that is running the witness_node.

cli_wallet

3. Set the password the CLI wallet

set_password WalletPasswordHere
unlock WalletPasswordHere

4. Import the private key for the "adam" account.

import_key adam 5KQwrPbwdL6PhXujxW37FSSQZ1JiwsST4cqQzDeyXtP79zkvFD3

5. Create a witness account with suggest_brain_key, create_account_with_brain_key, upgrade_account, create_witness. You will probably also want to vote_for_the_witness. More details farther below.

Pending ...

You will to generate owner and active keys

get_private_key_from_password your_witness_username active the_key_you_received_from_the_faucet

This will reveal an array for your active key ["PPYxxx", "xxxx"]

• use the second value in the array returned from the previous step for the private key
• be sure to wrap your username in quotes
• import the key with this command

import_key "your_witness_username" xxxx

upgrade_account your_witness_username true

• place quotes around url

create_witness your_witness_username "url" true

Be sure to take note of the block_signing_key

IMPORTANT (issue below command using block_signing_key just obtained)

get_private_key block_signing_key

Compare this result to

dump_private_keys

You should see 3 pairs of keys. One of the pairs should match your block_signing_key and this is the one you will use in the next step!

get_witness username (note the "id" for your config)

Comment out the existing private-key before adding yours

vim witness_node_data_dir/config.ini

witness-id = "1.6.x"
private-key = ["block_signing_key","private_key_for_your_block_signing_key"]

./programs/witness_node/witness_node

If it fails to start, try with these flags (not for permanent use)

./programs/witness_node/witness_node --resync --replay

vote_for_witness your_witness_account your_witness_account true true

Join @Peerplays Telegram group to find information about the witness group. http://t.me/@peerplayswitness

You will get logs that look like this:

2070264ms th_a       application.cpp:506           handle_block         ] Got block: #87913 time: 2017-05-27T16:34:30 latency: 264 ms from: bhuz-witness  irreversible: 87903 (-10)
2071000ms th_a       witness.cpp:204               block_production_loo ] Not producing block because slot has not yet arrived
2072000ms th_a       witness.cpp:204               block_production_loo ] Not producing block because slot has not yet arrived
2073000ms th_a       witness.cpp:201               block_production_loo ] Not producing block because it isn't my turn

Assuming you've received votes, you will start producing as a witness at the next maintenance interval (once per hour). You can check your votes with.

get_witness your_witness_account

It's important for your witness to start when your system boots up. The filepaths here assume that you installed your witness into /home/ubuntu/peerplays

Create a logfile to hold your stdout/err logging

sudo touch /var/log/peerplays.log

Save this file in your peerplays directory. vi /home/ubuntu/peerplays/start.sh

#!/bin/bash

cd /home/ubuntu/peerplays
./programs/witness_node/witness_node &> /var/log/peerplays.log

Make it executable

chmod 744 /home/ubuntu/peerplays/start.sh

Create this file: sudo vi /etc/systemd/system/peerplays.service Note the path for start.sh. Change it to match where your start.sh file is if necessary.

[Unit]
Description=Peerplays Witness
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/home/ubuntu/peerplays/start.sh

[Install]
WantedBy = multi-user.target

Enable the service

sudo systemctl enable peerplays.service

Make sure you don't get any errors

sudo systemctl status peerplays.service

Stop your witness if it is currently running from previous steps, then start it with the service.

sudo systemctl start peerplays.service

Check your logfile for entries

tail -f /var/log/peerplays.log

• tests/chain_tests -t block_tests/name_of_test