Polkadot

Implementation of a https://polkadot.io node in Rust.

To play

If you'd like to play with Polkadot, you'll need to install a client like this one. First, get Rust and the support software if you don't already have it:

curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh
sudo apt install make clang

Then, install Polkadot PoC-1:

cargo install --git https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot.git --branch v0.1

You'll now have a polkadot binary installed to your PATH. You can drop the --branch v0.1 to get the very latest version of Polkadot, but these instructions might not work in that case.

Development

You can run a simple single-node development "network" on your machine by running in a terminal:

polkadot --chain=dev --validator --key Alice

You can muck around by cloning and building the http://github.com/paritytech/polka-ui and http://github.com/paritytech/polkadot-ui or just heading to https://polkadot.js.org/apps.

PoC-1 Testnet

You can also connect to the global PoC-1 testnet. To do this, just use:

polkadot --chain=poc-1

If you want to do anything on it (not that there's much to do), then you'll need to get some PoC-1 testnet DOTs. Ask in the Polkadot watercooler.

Local Two-node Testnet

If you want to see the multi-node consensus algorithm in action locally, then you can create a local testnet. You'll need two terminals open. In one, run:

polkadot --chain=local --validator --key Alice -d /tmp/alice

and in the other, run:

polkadot --chain=local --validator --key Bob -d /tmp/bob --port 30334 --bootnodes 'enode://ALICE_BOOTNODE_ID_HERE@127.0.0.1:30333'

Ensure you replace ALICE_BOOTNODE_ID_HERE with the node ID from the output of the first terminal.

Hacking on Polkadot

If you'd actually like hack on Polkadot, you can just grab the source code and build it. Ensure you have Rust and the support software installed:

curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh
rustup update nightly
rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown --toolchain nightly
rustup update stable
cargo install --git https://github.com/alexcrichton/wasm-gc
cargo install --git https://github.com/pepyakin/wasm-export-table.git
sudo apt install make clang

Then, grab the Polkadot source code:

git clone https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot.git
cd polkadot

Then build the code:

./build.sh  # Builds the WebAssembly binaries
cargo build # Builds all native code

You can run the tests if you like:

cargo test --all

You can start a development chain with:

cargo run -- --chain=dev --validator --key Alice