Setting up your workstation

This first guide will walk you through a step-by-step installation of the required tools to start developing on Sirius Chain.

Sirius Chain Layers

Sirius Chain Layer

Sirius Chain Server nodes (layer 1) build the peer-to-peer blockchain network. Sirius Chain Rest nodes (layer 2) provide the API gateway that the applications may use to access the blockchain and its features.

Access our existing testing network without setting up a local node

Node DescriptionNetwork TypeNode REST API URLAddress Prefix (1st Letter)
Public Test Network 2 nodeTEST_NEThttps://api-2.testnet2.xpxsirius.ioV

If you wish to use other nodes, you can refer to our API nodes

You can use our Sirius Chain REST API directly with your respective URL and network type as above.

To get first block information:

curl {API URL}/block/1

Creating a test account

An account is a key pair (private and public key) associated to a mutable state stored in the Sirius Chain. In other words, you have a deposit box on the blockchain, which only you can modify with your key pair. As the name suggests, the private key has to be kept secret at all times. Anyone with access to the private key ultimately has control over the account.

The public key is cryptographically derived from the private key. It would take millions of years to do the reverse process and therefore, the public key is safe to be shared.

Finally, the account address is generated with the public key, following the Sirius Chain protocol. Share this address instead of the public key, as it contains more information, such as a validity check or which network it uses (public, testnet or private).

Using sdk to make a keypair

  1. Install sdk using npm.
npm install tsjs-xpx-chain-sdk
  1. Create an account with the command line tool.
import {Account, NetworkType, Address} from 'tsjs-xpx-chain-sdk';

const NETWORK_TYPE = NetworkType.TEST_NET;

const newAccount = Account.generateNewAccount(NETWORK_TYPE);

console.log('Private Key: ' + newAccount.privateKey);
console.log('Public Key:  ' + newAccount.publicKey);
console.log('Address:     ' + newAccount.address.plain());
  1. You should be able to see the following lines in your terminal, containing the account credentials:

Private Key: af8...530
Public Key: 37f...346
Address: VAUOT2T4IRGFAY4WSD7DY3EUHANTRL3IAUG2TPNZ

What is XPX and how to get it?

The underlying cryptocurrency of the Sirius Chain network is called XPX. Every action on the Sirius Chain costs XPX, in order to provide an incentive for those who validate and secure the network.

Use our faucet to get test-XPX

For testnet, you can get test-XPX from our online faucet. Simply go to our faucet to get your test-XPX.

Setting up the development environment

It is time to choose a programming language. Pick the one you feel most comfortable with, or follow your project requirements.

Create a folder for your new project and run the instructions for the selected languages:

go get github.com/proximax-storage/go-xpx-chain-sdk
  1. Create a package.json file. The minimum required Node.js version is 8.9.X.
npm init
  1. Install tsjs-xpx-chain-sdk and rxjs library.
npm install tsjs-xpx-chain-sdk rxjs
  1. tsjs-xpx-chain-sdk is build with TypeScript language. It is recommended to use TypeScript instead of JavaScript when building applications for Sirius Chain.

Make sure you have at least version 2.5.X installed.

sudo npm install --global typescript
typescript --version
  1. Use ts-node to execute TypeScript files with node.
sudo npm install --global ts-node
  1. Create a package.json file. The minimum required Node.js version is 8.9.X.
npm init
  1. Install tsjs-xpx-chain-sdk and rxjs library.
npm install tsjs-xpx-chain-sdk rxjs
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