User Interface

Ganache welcome screen

As soon as Ganache is launched, it will display a list of 10 addresses with a default balance of 100.00 ETH. The interface allows you to view and work with the following sections:

Accounts — displays a list of addresses which can be used in the Ethereum blockchain instance. You have the ability to click on the key icon to reveal the private key for the address (bear in mind that in the mainnet, you need to keep this key private, hence its name). Blocks — a list of blocks on the blockchain. Clicking on the block will open more details on the clicked block including the mined on date and block hash. Transactions — the transaction tab will provide a list of all transactions in this instance of the blockchain. Logs — this tab provides us with a descriptive list of logs related to the actions on the private blockchain. Settings — clicking on the top-right settings icon will open the settings view which will allow you to change the configuration including the hostname, port number, network ID, set defaults for the number of accounts/keys to create, gas limit and gas price. After any changes, you have the ability to restart the instance.

Settings page for Ganache

Conclusion

Ganache seems to be a very nice tool to have to set up an ethereum node to get started with blockchain development. There is no need to set up a geth client, set up dependencies and so on. Downloading and installing this tool is enough to get started with Ethereum development, which is very nice for people who are starting to learn Blockchain or Ethereum development. When I started working on Ethereum with Codevigor to develop a Tamper-Proof system for document authentication on StoragePlus.io, it was a bit daunting. Having such a tool is definitely going to be much easier for other developers.

Have fun!!

Feel free to post your questions. I will be happy to answer them.