Getting Started with Blockchain - Ethereum

Tools and platforms are constantly evolving and documentation is easily outdated. This is how you get started with Ethereum / geth on Ubuntu as of January 2018.

Install geth command line client on Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ethereum/ethereum

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ethereum

Connect to Rinkeby test network

This will sync the chain - and take some time

geth --rinkeby

Open Console in a separate (screen) window and keep the other command running

geth --datadir=$HOME/.ethereum/rinkeby attach ipc:$HOME/.ethereum/rinkeby/geth.ipc console

Once the console is open, you should have meaningful output from these commands to find out if the syncing is running and/or completed yet:

net.listening

net.peerCount

eth.syncing

You need an Account - let’s create one

geth --datadir=$HOME/.ethereum/rinkeby account new

then in console type: eth.accounts - take note of your account identifier

alternatively create the account in the console:

personal.newAccount("somepassword")

Ask for ‘Free’ Money

https://www.rinkeby.io/#faucet - takes seconds only!

Check Balance

eth.coinbase

eth.getBalance(eth.coinbase)

Look up transactions for account (this is my test account)

https://rinkeby.etherscan.io/address/0xecd2e6a46e3ddd19674581c0464df335fe474c3e

Transfer ETH

create a second account first

from = eth.accounts[0];

to = eth.accounts[1];

amount = 1

personal.unlockAccount(from, "mypassword", 300)

eth.sendTransaction({from: from, to: to, value: amount})

What’s next? Storing data - or ‘contracts’. This is where it gets tricky.

– Thanks to cryptogoth