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How to start a client?

Introduction​

This guide will help you get and start the Tea Ceremony client. You can find the additional information about the Tea Ceremony algorithm here.

Set up your environment​

note

To start the Tea ceremony client, ensure you have Erlang installed on your machine.

Before starting Tea Ceremony you need to set up your environment by installing Erlang. You will need Erlang to run the Tea Ceremony client. You will not be able to start the node and connect to the chain without Tea Ceremony. To install Erlang, run:

apt -y install erlang-base erlang-public-key erlang-ssl
note

You need to install erlang-public key and erlang-ssl. Otherwise, Erlang will not operate properly!

Get the Tea Ceremony client​

Open the terminal and run the following command to get the Tea Ceremony client:

wget https://tea.thepower.io/teaclient

Start the Tea Ceremony client​

  1. Change teaclient file mode to executable by running the following command:

    chmod +x tea*

To start the client, run the following command:

./teaclient -n nickname aaaaa.bbbbb

where

  • teaclient — Tea Ceremony client,
  • nickname - The name of your node. Maximum 10 characters,
  • aaaaa.bbbbb — Tea Ceremony Token, you've got from the Tea Ceremony bot,
  • -n is used with a minus sign, not with a dash.

The token (aaaaa.bbbbb) consists of two parts:

  1. aaaaa — chain token. It is common for all nodes in the chain, and
  2. bbbbb — personal token. It can't be expired until it is used, but you can use it only once.

If you start the Tea Ceremony with the chain part of the token, you will be able to check the ports availability.

After you have started the client, wait for other participants. Please, DON'T turn off the Tea Ceremony client for 24 hours.

note

If the client is started without options, you will see a short reference on the command and options.

If you have successfully started the Tea Ceremony client, you will get node.config and genesis.txt files after the ceremony ends. You can find these files under the same directory where you have started the Tea Ceremony client.

caution

After the tea ceremony ends, you need to edit the node.config. To do this, refer to the guide, depending on your way of building the node (Step 6).

tip

You can get a ready-to-work node.config file. To do this, rerun the Tea Ceremony.

note

Nickname requirements

Check out the nickname requirements:

  • min. 4 symbols;
  • max. 16 symbols;
  • the nickname must contain alphanumeric symbols of any case.

After the client is started​

After the client is started, all the nodes in the chain sign the genesis.txt with their private keys. After that, the ceremony ends.

Note

You can shut the client down and start it up again if you need to. It will slow down the Tea Ceremony but will not disrupt it.

After the successful ceremony​

After the successful tea ceremony, the following files are created in the working directory:

  • genesis.txt signed with the private keys of all the nodes in the chain,
  • node.config containing the node private key.

After the Tea Ceremony ends successfully, you can start the node from the Docker image or source code using our guides.