Melnode quick start

In this section, you will learn how to use melnode, Mel's reference node implementation.

Setup and Installation

Hardware requirements

Minimum

  • 1-core CPU

  • 4 GB of RAM

  • at least 200 GB of free storage (SSD not necessary)

  • 10 Mbps download Internet service

  • 4+ core CPU

  • 16 GB of RAM

  • 200+ GB of free storage on a fast device (SSD, RAID array, etc)

  • 50+ Mbps up/download Internet service

Install Rust and Cargo

For security reasons, until we have reliable, reproducible build infrastructure, we stick to releasing source code and do not distribute any official binary packages.

Fortunately, Rust's package manager, Cargo, is very easy to use, likely easier than whichever package manager you are already accustomed to.

Follow the instructions from the official Cargo Book to get started. Make sure that the cargo command is available and of the latest version:

Compile and install melnode

Simply run the following command:

Don't forget the --locked parameter! That ensures that all dependencies are locked to the specific version we specify, which can sometimes be important for correct functionality.

This should kick off a fairly long build process, but eventually you should see something like this, indicating that melnode has been installed successfully:

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