

Metamask, covered in Chapter 4, is a Chrome-based wallet.
#HOW TO INSTALL ETHEREUM MIST FULL#
But still, it needs to download the entire blockchain to run a full Ethereum node. Parity is another fully featured GUI Ethereum client. It takes 24 to 48 hours for Mist to start the first time as it needs to download the entire blockchain history. That also means Mist requires more than 4GB of RAM and more than 100GB of hard drive space to run. For example, you can upload smart contract code using Mist. It is more than just a wallet, though it is a “blockchain browser” that includes a full Ethereum node. You can install and run it on your own computer.

Mist is the official wallet software from the Ethereum development team. Here are some notable wallets for Ethereum: Or, it can be a web application that stores your keys on their servers. The wallet can be a completely stand-alone piece of software (or even hardware). It often also provides a UI for you to manage ETHs in your account using the underlying public/private key pair. And if you somehow lose the private key, you will forever lose control over the ETHs in your account-the ETHs will remain in the account for the world to see, but no one can move or spend them without the private key.Īll the wallet does is store and manage your public/private key pair. If someone else gets hold of it, that person will have full authority over the ETHs in that account. Now you see that it is critical to safeguard your private key. Without the private key, the Ethereum miners will deem the transaction invalid and refuse to include it in the blockchain. When you need to move ETH out of the account (i.e., to spend it or transfer to another account), you will need the private key. The private key is used to identify the owner of this account.

If someone wants to send you some ETHs, all they need is the account number. The Ethereum account number is directly derived from the public key. The key pair can be randomly generated on your own computer. A key is a long string of seemingly random numbers and characters. An account is uniquely identified by a pair of public and private keys. Like Bitcoin, anyone can create an “account” on the Ethereum blockchain to hold and transact ETH coins. To use Ethereum, you first need an Ethereum wallet to hold your ETH coins. Those concepts also apply to Ethereum-compatible blockchains. In the process, you will learn critical concepts behind the design, implementation, and operation of the Ethereum blockchain.
#HOW TO INSTALL ETHEREUM MIST HOW TO#
In this chapter, I will explain how to run and interact with an Ethereum node. However, by focusing on graphical user interface (GUI) tools, we have also left many concepts and points unexplained. In the previous chapter, I showed you how to build, deploy, and interact with an Ethereum smart contract.
