Launch a Cli Wallet

The following will explain about the installation and how to use the console wallet (not GUI).

Steps

1.Installation

  • 1a) Build from source - Please refer Installation Guide.

    To reduce compilation time, you can tell the compile infrastructure to only compile the cli wallet by running:

    $ make cli_wallet

    instead of:

    $ make

  • 1b) Use the prebuilt binaries - Go to the BitShares release page and download the binaries.


2. Launching a cli_wallet

The cli_wallet creates a local wallet.json file that contains the encrypted private keys required to access the funds in your account. It requires a running witness node (not necessarily locally) and connects to it on launch.

programs/cli_wallet/cli_wallet -s ws://127.0.0.1:8090

Depending on the actual chain that you want to connect to your may need to specify –chain-id.

Examples

The below section shows two example patterns how to launch the cli_wallet. The first example, we use a public API server node to connect the cli_wallet and also open WebSocket RPC or RPC-HTTP ports. The cli_wallet opens an RPC port for Wallet operations (i.e., spend, buy, sell…). The second example, we use an IP address (localhost) and also open the port for HTTP-RPC.

  • <Examples>

    • 1.Connecting a Cli-Wallet by using a public API server node

    • 2.Connecting a Cli-Wallet by an IP address (localhost)

<Example 1> Connecting a Cli-Wallet by using a public API server node

We use the public API node of bts.mobi wss://api.bts.mobi/ws and connect via secured WebSocket connection:

./programs/cli_wallet/cli_wallet -s wss://api.bts.mobi/ws
                                 -H 127.0.0.1:8092

This will open the cli-wallet and a RPC port. In order to allow RPC calls for wallet operations (spend, buy, sell, …), you need to specify the RPC port.

Note

The cli-wallet can open a RPC port so that you can interface your application with it. It accepts Websocket RPC and HTTP RPC.

<Example 2> Connecting a Cli-Wallet by an IP address (localhost)

./programs/cli_wallet/cli_wallet -s ws://127.0.0.1:8090
                                 -H 127.0.0.1:8091

This will open the port 8091 for HTTP-RPC requests and has the capabilities to handle accounts (by Wallet API Calls) while the witness_node can only answer queries to the blockchain.

After opening the cli-wallet, if you have not had a local wallet yet, you will receive >>> new prompt to provide a pass-phrase for the local wallet. Once a wallet has been created (default wallet file is wallet.json), then it will prompt with locked >>>.


3.Unlock the Cli_Wallet

If you open the cli-wallet successfully, you will receive new >>> prompt (if no local wallet found, you will be asked to set a password). The following shows how to use cli_wallet unlock/lock commands.

Please use the set_password method to initialize a new wallet before continuing
new >>>

4. Gain Access to Blockchain

In BitShares, balances are contained in accounts. To claim an account that exists in the genesis, imports the private key for an existing account. The private key must match either an owner key or an active key for the named account.

  • import_key

>>> import_key <name> "<wifkey>"

Funds are stored in genesis balance objects. These funds can be claimed, with no fee, by using the import_balance command. This call will construct transaction(s) that will claim all balances controlled by wif_keys and deposit them into the given account.

  • import_balance

>>> import_balance <name> ["*"] true

5. Create Accounts

Note

To register an account, the registrar needs to be a lifetime member. You can use upgrade_account to upgrade the account to be Lifetime member (LTM) status.

We upgrade faucet account because faucet is the registrar in this example below.

>>> upgrade_account faucet true

  • register_account

>>> register_account <name> <owner-public_key> <active-public_key> <registrar_account> <referrer_account> <referrer_percent> <broadcast>

This command allows you to register an account using only a public key.

<Example>

>>> register_account alpha BTS4zSJHx7D84T1j6HQ7keXWdtabBBWJxvfJw72XmEyqmgdoo1njF BTS4zSJHx7D84T1j6HQ7keXWdtabBBWJxvfJw72XmEyqmgdoo1njF faucet faucet 0 true

6. Transfer Funds by using the Cli-wallet

In transfer, if the broadcast flag is False, the wallet will construct and sign, but not, broadcast the transaction.

  • transfer:

    unlocked >> transfer <from> <to> <amount> <asset> <memo> <broadcast>

<Example> `faucet` wants to send 100000 `CORE` to `alpha` user.:

unlocked >> transfer faucet alpha 100000 CORE "here is the cash" true

The wallet will return the actually signed transaction.

Note

In order to transfer, the wallet must be unlocked. If the broadcast flag is False, the wallet will construct and sign, but not broadcast the transaction. This can be very useful for a cold storage setup or to verify transactions.

<Example> Open a new Wallet for `alpha` user:

>>> import_key alpha 5HuCDiMeESd86xrRvTbexLjkVg2BEoKrb7BAA5RLgXizkgV3shs

>>> upgrade_account alpha true

>>> create_witness alpha "http://www.alpha" true

7. Obtain the private key

The get_private_key command allows us to obtain the private key corresponding to the public key.:

>>> get_private_key <pubkey>


>>> get_private_key BTS6viEhYCQr8xKP3Vj8wfHh6WfZeJK7H9uhLPDYWLGCRSj5kHQZM

Tip

If you want to import your current GUI wallet fund(s), see