Today, I’m going to teach you how to launch your very own Elastos Carrier node on your personal Mac machine at home. You will be utilizing the Elastos Carrier Network for end to end encrypted, peer to peer (P2P) communications to your friends and family. Yes, that’s right, an end to end encryption to relay messages that cannot be tracked by any single entity is our aim today.

To be clear, this is the equivalent of running nodes that might even show up on peerjet.net. Currently, 400,000+ Carrier nodes spread across 61 countries have been identified and after today, yours might be next!

Peerjet.net was created by Jimmy Lipham, an Elastos Community Member

To launch this Elastos Carrier Node, you’ll only need 1 thing:

A Mac Machine

After you’ve got that in order, let us begin the process of launching your first Elastos Carrier Node!

No Patience Section

Don’t care about the extra details and just want the commands? This is the section for you! However, if you’d like to be guided, continue reading!

For video, check out the following link. The video was produced by Chico Crypto, Famous Amos, Ace, James (Chico Crypto’s Video Editor) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEvOBkXoQQg (41 Minutes)

brew update

brew install node

brew install git

git clone https://github.com/elastos/Elastos.NET.Carrier.Nodejs.SDK.git

cd Elastos.NET.Carrier.Nodejs.SDK/example/demo/

npm install

node demo.js

Step 1 — Initialize Homebrew

You might be asking, “what is homebrew Famous Amos?”. Well,

Homebrew is a free and open-source software package management system that simplifies the installation of software on Apple’s macOS operating system. Originally written by Max Howell, the package manager has gained popularity in the Ruby on Rails community and earned praise for its extensibility

In essence, homebrew will allow you to download/install the Elastos Carrier code from the Elastos Carrier Github Repositories and initialize your node. To do this, you must first install Homebrew.

To install homebrew, search for the “Terminal” Application on your Mac system. After you’ve run the “Terminal” Application, a window that looks similar to this should be displayed:

Terminal Application

Next, to install homebrew, copy and paste the following command into your terminal screen. Ensure that there are no spaces before and after the command as it might not run the command as a result of this.

You should be prompted with a notification that the application has been installed, if not, you probably already have it installed. On to the next step!

Step 2 — Update Your Homebrew

Updating your homebrew is even easier! Simply copy and paste the following command.

brew update

After you’ve completed your updated, you should be prompted with a list of Updated Formulae, this lets you know you’ve completed that step. This should check for the latest versions of homebrew and update accordingly.

On to the next step!

Step 3 — Install Node on Brew

To install Node on Brew, copy and paste the following command into your terminal window:

brew install node

After running that command, you should see the progress of the installation represented by various amounts of “#’s” and a percentage to determine how far along you are. Similar to the below screenshot:

After Running “brew install node”

You should then continue to see a long list of locations for file placements. If no error has been prompted, you’ve successfully installed Node. If you do get an error, you might have already installed Node, much like myself in the below screenshot:

Install Completed!

Next, let us install git.

Step 4 — Install Git

We’re going to need Git to complete this process. What is git?

Git is a version-control system for tracking changes in computer files and coordinating work on those files among multiple people. It is primarily used for source-code management in software development, but it can be used to keep track of changes in any set of files.

By installing git, we will now be able to allow our system to reach the Elastos Carrier code that is stored on github. We’ll be cloning that repository to then create our very own Elastos Carrier Node and utilize the Elastos Carrier Network for secure End to End encrypted messaging.

To install Git copy and paste the following command:

brew install git

As you can see below, I was given a warning as I already have git installed on my system, after you’re done with that, you’re ready for the exciting part!

Step 5— Clone The Elastos Carrier Github Repository

Next, we’re going to clone the Elastos Carrier Github Repository. This will allow us to basically have our own copy of the code which we can then utilize on our system to build our node. Copy and paste the following code into your terminal screen.

git clone https://github.com/elastos/Elastos.NET.Carrier.Nodejs.SDK.git

Error If Already Installed.

Alright, you’ve officially got that code on your system. Now, let’s hop into that directory.

Step 6 — Enter Elastos Carrier Directory via Terminal

To “Change Directory” copy and paste the following command:

cd Elastos.NET.Carrier.Nodejs.SDK/example/demo/

The “CD” in this command represents Change Directory. To notice the difference, I’m going to show you before and after photos of the results of running this command.

Before Running Command

After Running the command

As you can see, the directory “Demo” is now shown.

Next, we’re going to install NPM.

Step 7 — Install NPM

What is NPM?

NPM is a package manager for the JavaScript programming language. It is the default package manager for the JavaScript runtime environment Node.js. It consists of a command line client, also called npm, and an online database of public and paid-for private packages, called the npm registry.

To initialize npm, copy and paste the following command into your terminal:

npm install

I already have NPM installed, thus, it prompted that my npm is up-to-date

Now, it’s time for the ultimate moment, you’re about to officially activate your first node.

Step 8 — Start your node

Now that you’ve got everything else in order, its time to spool up your node and become one with a network that spans 61 countries. To do this, copy and paste the following command into your Terminal window.

node demo.js

After you’ve run this, you should see the following window after you’ve connected to the network:

Congratulations, you’ve officially launched and created your very first Elastos Carrier Node, welcome to the family.

How To Send Encrypted Messages

Now, you might have noticed when you’ve successfully connected to the Elastos Carrier Network, you have zero friends. Within the Elastos Carrier Network, everything is blacklisted by default, this adds an additional layer of security as the only way someone can contact you is if you willingly share your contact information with them.

To message someone, you will need to know their Identification Address. The only way for this to be known is you must forward your ID to your friend, or, your friend must forward you his/her ID. As you can see below, my friend Ace’s address is “EBNsPVzhsFHhtfMCMctsgpKstcuXou4gDHTBvn6kJq2p”. Thus, to message Tyler I must input the following command,

There is a syntax that must be followed here. (Syntax is simply rules that must be followed when coding/writing commands)

There must be “msg” BEFORE the address you are trying to contact followed by a space. (“MSG” stands for Message) After the space, there must be an ADDRESS (or ID). (Obtained from your friend) You must then place your messages WITHIN quotes. → “This represents a message that I’m sending”

Thus, when you put all of this into practice, your command should look like

msg.SPACE.address.SPACE.“Message I want to send”

msg EBNsPVhhsFHrtfMCMctsgpKstcuXuu4gDHTBon6kJq2p “Hey Bro!”

You now know how to send encrypted messages via the Elastos Carrier Network, have fun!

Shout Out

Ace Ventura Crypto Detective — Forwarded these commands and guided Chico & I through the entire process.

Tyler — Chico Crypto — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHop-jpf-huVT1IYw79ymPw/featured

Author

Famous Amos(or ChillZoneInt on Twitter)

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