Decentralized App development on Tezos for beginners part 1

Set up your own Tezos node and learn the basics concepts

Updated @ 2018.02.23 (outdated, waiting for the formal release of zeronet)

The series will cover all the essential ideas you need to know about the Dapps development based on Tezos Blockchain system.

NOTICE: The current version of Tezos contains two chains. One is alphanet, the other is zeronet. As I know, the zeronet will be the release chain. But since the zeronet is not stable yet, the chain we’ll talk here is based on alphanet currently. When the zeronet becomes stable, this series will be updated to zeronet.

2) Download the alphanet.sh script.

3) Start the node.

It will display something like this:

4) Now your node is ready.

1) How do smart contracts work?

Even if you have never developed a Blockchain project before, you may somewhat know something about how it works. In developers higher-level perspective, the Blockchain system is a bunch of decentralized back-end servers. In short, you can actually consider it as one back-end server with amounts of entry points. Initially, the server is loaded with no functionality except for the mechanism of calling a function. Here the function can be represented as a smart contract.

So in a word, smart contract works as a function in the Blockchian which works as a back-end server. Writing a smart contract is like writing a function in normal back-end server development.

2) What is the alphanet?

Alphanet is the test net of Tezos. Everyone can test the whole functionalities of it with unlimited testing XTZ coin.

3) What is the relation between Manager, Account and Contract in Tezos?

Manager is an operator. It can create Accounts and Contracts. It has an implicit default Account. So it can store XTZ. Its ID looks like this tz1TwYbKYYJxw7AyubY4A9BUm2BMCPq7moaC.

Account is a contract without functionality. It can only store XTZ and call other contracts(accounts). It has an input-type unit and return-type unit. The manager’s default Account looks like this tz1TwYbKYYJxw7AyubY4A9BUm2BMCPq7moaC. But the created Account by Manager looks like this TZ1rM3KL4aERKYgZiPf1tvZZqKggvfh9Cs9Q.

Contract is a smart contract with functionality. It can store XTZ and call other contracts(accounts) in code or by the client command. You can define custom input-type and return-type for it. Its ID looks like this TZ1gKLVeKNiZn18jEPKuKGH6fMdtCB2ZDs26.

4) What does the action call mean?

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Well, now you have the Tezos node ready. Before jumping into the Michelson ocean, you need to memorize some useful commands of alphanet.

1) I want to know my Manager ID

2) I want to know the balance of my Manager’s default Account

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Here comes the end of this part. Hope you enjoy it.

Donation BTC: 1L7oCqy7GHx7EiQc9SPFputCWftfaoT3kB

View the next part… Meet the Tezos smart contract language — Michelson.

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