MiniCoin - A scaled down blockchain implementation in python.

Start the bootstrap server.

This is required as without the bootstrap new peers will be unable to discover existing peers. This bootstrap server will listen for new connections on port 5000.

Bootstrap server:

python3 minicoin.py --type bootstrap

Start some nodes the easy way (recommended).

With the bootstrap server running you may now start as many nodes as you like. For ease I recommend starting each node with the optional user interface in a new window. You must specify a unique port number when starting a node of any type by changing the value after the “--port” option.

Node with user interface:

python3 minicoin.py --type node-ui --port 5001

Start some nodes the “hard” way (no user interface).

Not really that hard. With the bootstrap server running you may start as many new nodes as you like but each node started without a user interface is quite verbose and will print updates to the terminal for many events. As such it is advised that each node is run in a unique terminal or window. You may start a node with no UI as either a simple node or a miner. You must specify a unique port number when starting a node of any type by changing the value after the “--port” option.

Simple node:

python3 minicoin.py --type node --port 5002

Miner node:

python3 minicoin.py --type node --port 5003 --mine

A miner node will mine until a user presses enter. It will then stop its mining thread and revert to being a simple node. For convenience, you may also start a simple node that will periodically print its own ledger out in human readable format and then request each of its peers do the same.

Periodic printing node:

python3 minicoin.py --type node --port 5004 --print

Note A Mining node cannot operate as a printing node and vice versa.