This article is published on Medium.

Coda is a succinct blockchain where full nodes only require downloading and verification of a tiny proof to ensure that the state of the blockchain is valid. It achieves this through incrementally computed SNARKs where the latest block contains a proof that validates the new block in addition to the previous SNARK.

Coda utilizes a proof of stake (POS) consensus mechanism as opposed to the proof of work (POW) consensus mechanism popularized by Bitcoin. POS consensus algorithms have unique challenges, most notably the nothing at stake issue. Whereas in POW, miners are forced to complete work that expends energy and has a cost, in a POS system it is essentially free to participate, and an adversary can try different things to see what is favorable at no cost.

Docker provides one of the simplest ways of getting a Coda node up and running while providing the benefits of container isolation. It also resolves issues around dependencies on unsupported systems and allows specifying restart policies should the daemon crash.

It is important to use the correct image for each testnet release. The tags for all releases are available on DockerHub. For testnet 3.2b this tag is 0.0.12-beta-feature-bump-genesis-timestamp-3e9b174. This image is updated for each testnet, so the image used in the below commands should be updated accordingly.

At its simplest, we can start a Coda node with the following command. We’ll build upon this basic command for other Coda specific functions such as block production and SNARK workers.

$ docker run -d --name coda \
-p 8302:8302 \
-p 8303:8303 \
--restart always \
codaprotocol/coda-daemon:0.0.12-beta-feature-bump-genesis-timestamp-3e9b174 daemon \
-peer <PEER_1> \
-peer <PEER_2>

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This article is published on Medium.

A block explorer is a tool typically used to visualise the current and historical state of a blockchain including all transaction information. Coda, a succinct blockchain, presents some interesting challenges in this regard as this prior state information is not required to be stored by end-users or even block producers, but rather the protocol relies on cryptographic proofs to prove the current chain state (and thus everything preceding it).

Coda currently provides an option for users to run an archive node that persists block data. This data is then exportable via the GraphQL API and it is this data that has been used to produce a prototype block explorer to help users become better acquainted with the testnet and Coda’s functionality.

Coda is a cryptocurrency that uses a succinct blockchain that is enabled through the recursive composition of zk-SNARKs. For clients, this means they can verify the chain with only a few kB of data which opens up exciting opportunities for scalable blockchain applications.

Coda recently launched their public testnet and encourages users who want to help develop the protocol to join the testnet and complete various weekly challenges. While Coda has a traditional command-line interface (CLI) that will be familiar to anyone running a full node implementation, e.g. Bitcoin Core, it also exposes a GraphQL API that we will explore in this article.

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With the launch of 2.0.7, zcashd now includes full support for the Insight blockchain explorer. The Insight explorer, which will be familiar to those who have used one of the many popular block explorers it powers, was developed by Bitpay as part of its bitcore suite of tools. The tool, released under a permissive open-source license (MIT), contains many development tools to “build bitcoin and blockchain applications” but we will concentrate on installing the explorer portion for this article which has been ported to support Zcash.

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