Getting started on EOS Mainnet in 10 minutes

The EOS network launch was one of the most anticipated events of this summer in the crypto developer community. Although not without issues, the launch happened, and we’re super excited to start building applications on EOS. We’ll stay away from any debate surrounding the launch and EOS’s overall model, and instead provide a short intro that allows anyone to get their hands dirty as quickly as possible. Here we’ll describe: Connecting to Mainnet with minimum effort Wallets and Accounts How the resource allocation works Useful links Getting started For the purpose of this article, we’re not concerned with running a local EOS node. Although this is , for the sake of simplicity we’ll be connecting to an of one of the 21 block producers. pretty easy to do API endpoint We still need to install some local software in order to interact with the API. The main tool we need is , a command line interface allowing users to sign transactions and make API calls. Currently, the easiest way to install cleos locally is via . Here’s how you do it: cleos Docker # Download EOS docker imagedocker pull eosio/eos-dev # Run keosd tool in dockerdocker run --rm --name eosio -d -v ~/eosio-wallet:/root/eosio-wallet eosio/eos-dev /bin/bash -c 'keosd' # Create an alias for conveniencealias cleos='docker exec -i eosio /opt/eosio/bin/cleos --wallet-url -u ' http://localhost:8888 https://api.eosnewyork.io:443 Once you run these commands you’re ready to interact with the Mainnet. Let’s test that it’s working: cleos get info If this produces output similar to below, you’re good to go! Wallets Just like in any other blockchain, when you send transactions to the EOS network you authorize them by signing with a private key. Your keys are stored in a local wallet. Initially, you don’t have any wallets, so let’s create one. # don’t forget to save the displayed password — you’ll need it to unlock the wallet and view private keys cleos wallet create This creates a wallet named . Let’s check if it has any keys in it: default cleos wallet private_keys The default wallet comes with initial private/public key pair / . Never use this one, it is hardcoded in the source code and is not secure. Instead, let’s generate a new key pair. WARNING EOS6MRyAjQq8ud7hVNYcfnVPJqcVpscN5So8BhtHuGYqET5GDW5CV 5KQwrPbwdL6PhXujxW37FSSQZ1JiwsST4cqQzDeyXtP79zkvFD3 # generate new key paircleos create key # import the private key into the walletcleos wallet import ${private key you just generated} The wallet will be auto-locked after 15 minutes of inactivity. To unlock it run: cleos wallet unlock Now you’re all set with the wallet. Let’s get to accounts. Accounts Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum where your public key is an account that you send transactions from, there is a separate concept of accounts in EOS. It’s more like in traditional web applications. You create a named account — which in EOS is 12 characters long, e.g. — and your private key is similar to a password that controls the account. This is a slightly oversimplified description, and you can learn more in the . eoscentralio official EOS docs Now, there’s a bummer: you can’t create an account unless you already have an account with some EOS in it. Meaning you can’t really interact with the network unless you ask somebody with an account to create one for you. And it’s not free! What?? Yes, this chicken-and-egg problem is due to how EOS resource allocation works. We’ll explain this below. Knowing this, some people developed services that allow creating EOS accounts in exchange for a small payment. There are describing how to do so, but we can’t endorse any particular service. articles Resource allocation Now a word on the resource allocation and why accounts are not free. In EOS, unlike other blockchains such as Ethereum or Bitcoin, there are no transaction fees. Instead, spam prevention and resource distribution are regulated through staking and RAM market. There are three types of resources consumed by accounts: Bandwidth and Log Storage (Disk) — staking Computation and Computational Backlog (CPU) — staking State Storage (RAM) — market purchase The first two (bandwidth and CPU) are allocated proportional to the amount of tokens held in a 3-day staking contract. For example, let’s say the total CPU capacity of the network is 1,000 units. If during a 3-day window you want to consume 10 CPU units, you need to have 1% of all CPU-staked tokens in your name. In other words, you’re competing with other accounts for available CPU capacity, and the more you stake relative to others the more you get. As time goes by, the consumed CPU and bandwidth free up and you can use the same staked tokens again and again. For example, if you don’t produce any activity for 3 days, your resources fully free up and you can consume them again without staking any additional tokens. RAM is a different story. You need to purchase it at the that is determined by supply and demand. RAM is consumed by data your accounts store in the blockchain state. For example, creating a new account consumes RAM as there is now a record describing this account. Unlike CPU and bandwidth RAM doesn’t get freed up automatically. The only way to free it up is to delete data from the account state. Once freed up, the RAM can be sold at the market price. market price It’s worth noting that for CPU and bandwidth you can either stake your own EOS or somebody else can stake it in your name (i.e. delegate it). Delegation can’t be considered a gift, because they can un-delegate the staked EOS later. Same goes for RAM, however in this case somebody has to actually transfer the RAM to your account as a gift as there is no way for them to force you to return it. Useful links Now you have all you need to interact with the EOS Mainnet, publish transactions and start building DApps. Below are some useful resources to help get you further. Feel free to suggest other tools that can benefit readers. Official EOS docs Official Github repo EOS explorer List of block producer API endpoints Node.js SDK (i.e. MetaMask of EOS) Scatter wallet Dan Larimer (creator of EOS) Medium profile RAM market monitor