On a Mac we can use brew to install the geth client.
brew install geth
Check that geth is correctly installed globally:
geth version
...you should see something like this output:
Geth
Version: 1.9.12-stable
Architecture: amd64
Protocol Versions: [65 64 63]
Go Version: go1.14
Operating System: darwin
GOPATH=
GOROOT=/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.14/libexec
If you are using Ubuntu or you want to run this bot in AWS / Digital Ocean etc then in your Ubuntu terminal run:
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ethereum/ethereum
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ethereum -y
Using the provided genesis.json file we can write our first block using the following command.
geth --datadir ./geth-test init genesis.json
You should see some output including the following final two statements:
INFO [08-17|12:38:00.503] Writing custom genesis block
INFO [08-17|12:38:00.503] Persisted trie from memory database nodes=0 size=0.00B time=4.085µs gcnodes=0 gcsize=0.00B gctime=0s livenodes=1 livesize=0.00B
INFO [08-17|12:38:00.504] Successfully wrote genesis state database=lightchaindata hash=6e92f8…23a660
Now we can start our private network using the following command
geth --nodiscover --datadir ./geth-test --networkid 15
Now in a separate terminal attach to the running node using the IPC connection
geth attach ./geth-test/geth.ipc
ALTERNATIVELY you can start in light mode and sync with a testnet on you local computer like so
geth --syncmode light --ropsten --nodiscover --datadir ./geth-ropsten
geth attach ./geth-ropsten/geth.ipc
There will be some output and then, on last line, you can see a terminal session is waiting our command! (>).
In the Geth REPL session, you can issue commands like so:
> eth.blockNumber
0
> eth.accounts
[]
Note that we are on a private network of our own so that is why block number is 0 and there are no accounts. Lets therefore create a new account using the personal namespace. By the way to see the available methods ina name space just type the namespace like so:
> personal
personal
{
listAccounts: [],
listWallets: [],
newAccount: function(),
...etc...
So for example we can use newAccount to create a new account like so:
> personal.newAccount('Darren')
INFO [08-17|12:54:31.821] Your new key was generated address=0x13C558e47C26BD998F8eCA719C01459e363a0D4f
WARN [08-17|12:54:31.821] Please backup your key file! path=./geth-test/keystore/UTC--2020-08-17T05-54-30.190499000Z--13c558e47c26bd998f8eca719c01459e363a0d4f
WARN [08-17|12:54:31.821] Please remember your password!
We now have an account to use:
> eth.accounts
["0x13c558e47c26bd998f8eca719c01459e363a0d4f"]
The balance of this account will be 0 Wei, as expected.
> eth.getBalance(eth.accounts[0])
0
Set the etherbase to the default account just created so that they are rewarded for mining:
> miner.setEtherbase('0x13c558e47c26bd998f8eca719c01459e363a0d4f')
Now start mining and making money (although there is not much to mine on our private network!!)
> miner.start(1)
This is starting the miner with 1 thread. It will create a local DAG and while its
INFO [08-17|13:03:26.852] Generating DAG in progress epoch=0 **percentage=91** elapsed=1m57.351s
Once percentage reaches 100 you will see the following output which means you are mining blocks!:
INFO [08-17|13:08:12.212] Successfully sealed new block number=86 sealhash=e3dc56…8ea2ef hash=2b8f9d…a216e7 elapsed=137.409ms
INFO [08-17|13:08:12.212] 🔗 block reached canonical chain number=79 hash=adc50e…3fa794
INFO [08-17|13:08:12.212] 🔨 mined potential block number=86 hash=2b8f9d…a216e7
INFO [08-17|13:08:12.212] Commit new mining work number=87 sealhash=6f8593…3c00e1 uncles=0 txs=0 gas=0 fees=0 elapsed=106.152
Now stop mining and check the block number as well as the default owners balance:
> miner.stop()
null
> eth.blockNumber
100
>
> eth.getBalance(eth.accounts[0])
500000000000000000000
> web3.fromWei('500000000000000000000')
"500"
Nice! 500 Ether for 100 Blocks - so thats 5 Ether per block!! Lets create a new account and send ether between them:
personal.newAccount('Sophia')
eth.accounts // should see two accounts here
eth.getBalance(eth.accounts[1]) // should show new account has 0 balance
eth.sendTransaction({from: eth.accounts[0], to: eth.accounts[1], value: web3.toWei(5, 'Ether')})
The last statement results in an error Error: authentication needed: password or unlock because the first account is locked. Lets confirm the status of the account like so:
> personal.listWallets[0].status
"Locked"
Also the pending transactions in the txpool is empty. Note below we can use eth.pendingTransactions or txpool to see the state of the transaction pool.
> eth.pendingTransactions
[]
> txpool
{
content: {
pending: {},
queued: {}
},
inspect: {
pending: {},
queued: {}
},
status: {
pending: 0,
queued: 0
},
getContent: function(callback),
getInspect: function(callback),
getStatus: function(callback)
}
We unlock the account like so (note type in the passphrase which was passed into the personal.newAccount() function above - so in this case the passphrase is 'Darren').
web3.personal.unlockAccount(eth.accounts[0])
Note if you want to keep the account permanently unlocked you can pass in a duration parameter of 0 like so:
web3.personal.unlockAccount(eth.accounts[0], "Darren", 0)
Lets confirm its now unlocked
> personal.listWallets[0].status
"Unlocked"
Now we can try the transaction again:
> eth.sendTransaction({from: eth.accounts[0], to: eth.accounts[1], value: web3.toWei(5, 'Ether')})
INFO [08-17|13:33:59.751] Setting new local account address=0x13C558e47C26BD998F8eCA719C01459e363a0D4f
INFO [08-17|13:33:59.753] Submitted transaction fullhash=0x0c9e994667e50b447df239f71a891fcec6506dcd7ad55187742d5db9657e0927 recipient=0xBAa67002cD2de6CA4FD20c69386F3757a8645aA2
"0x0c9e994667e50b447df239f71a891fcec6506dcd7ad55187742d5db9657e0927"
This time it was accepted but note that its still 'pending' as shown below using the following command:
eth.pendingTransactions
[{
blockHash: null,
blockNumber: null,
from: "0x13c558e47c26bd998f8eca719c01459e363a0d4f",
gas: 21000,
gasPrice: 1000000000,
hash: "0x0c9e994667e50b447df239f71a891fcec6506dcd7ad55187742d5db9657e0927",
input: "0x",
nonce: 0,
r: "0x5249a7380039eac37bb5b7383fb85b2302dd3496085f650f13d0e1975ab5b028",
s: "0x23ec6c960cd180bc5b68043b3e5759f3c9770dae520f6b62fc1456f0c5d14e26",
to: "0xbaa67002cd2de6ca4fd20c69386f3757a8645aa2",
transactionIndex: null,
v: "0x41",
value: 5000000000000000000
}]
This is the transaction in the txpool:
> txpool
{
content: {
pending: {
0x13C558e47C26BD998F8eCA719C01459e363a0D4f: {
1: {...}
}
},
queued: {}
},
inspect: {
pending: {
0x13C558e47C26BD998F8eCA719C01459e363a0D4f: {
1: "0xBAa67002cD2de6CA4FD20c69386F3757a8645aA2: 5000000000000000000 wei + 21000 gas × 1000000000 wei"
}
},
...etc...
The balance of the new account is still 0 of course:
> eth.getBalance(eth.accounts[1])
0
So lets start mining, stop mining and then check again:
> miner.start(1)
> miner.stop()
> eth.getBalance(eth.accounts[1])
5000000000000000000
It worked! Now the second account has the ether.
You need to start geth node
Then attach to it and then drop this into the console
loadScript('./geth/checkAllBalances.js')
loadScript('./geth/checkWork.js')
loadScript('./geth/unlockAllAccounts.js')
Now you can run the function that is defined in that file
checkAllBalances()
eth.accounts[0]: 0x78c6327a4a4ac946c59c4b0c4b75bd0bfc86c767 balance: 7.93627513220227543 ether
eth.accounts[1]: 0xb3ca3169fb9b8f0a7678e52542716044f5364535 balance: 1.123 ether
....etc