Background Information

What is an API Server?

First, an API — or Application Programming Interface — receives requests from users, or programs, and sends responses after performing the requested function on the relevant, accessible data. This response is presented as easily manipulable data, so it can be integrated into programs.

In the context of the NEO Smart Economy Network, an API Server hosts a full blockchain node, which means it maintains an up-to-date copy of the entire NEO blockchain. The NEO blockchain is the data set which the API analyzes when responding to requests.

For more information about APIs see here.

How Does Hosting a NEO API Server Help?

Hosting a NEO API Server helps the NEO Smart Economy Network in two ways:

By operating a NEO API Server, you help ensure a fast and efficient interface between the NEO blockchain and the users, smart contracts, and dApps constantly interacting with it. The NEO Smart Economy services an ever-increasing number of users while hosting a growing number of projects, smart contracts, and dApps, which interact with the NEO blockchain constantly. As the number of requests increase, the response time from servers can slow if they become overloaded. Your NEO API Server will help reduce API response time. Each NEO API Server hosts a full blockchain node, which means your server could act as a seed node for other servers and nodes in the network. If your node is employed as a seed node, it is being used as a block source for other servers or nodes that do not have a current copy of the NEO blockchain.

Choosing to host a NEO API Server is a tangible way to support the NEO Smart Economy Network and, as Fabio C. Canesin said, “build the infrastructure of the future.”

For more information see Fabio C. Canesin’s reddit post here.

The next section provides instructions for installing the required dependency programs on your Windows computer. If you already have these programs installed, skip to Installing NEO-Python.

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