Become a Provider

This page describes how to create a lighthouse and become a provider in the Robonomics network.

Prepare an address

First of all, an Ethereum address is required. You must have access to a private key of the address. In case you don’t have one, below are steps to create an address via Parity.

$ sudo snap install parity
$ parity.ethkey generate random
secret:  15abe71557c07b69537bbe4352ed10a057be89037c69d4b35556112519911539
public: 38b800bfd90d486c78c646da79bb94b9d038aca8aad221062ce1b148df7764bfef02f6b3cf931786b6997540b798ea226ae60bd201c222d8f702e408a1a5cbff
address: c531fa8f141493df3da264a864bdcbec19695b4c

The secret field is a private key, you’ll need it to run the provider client. Save it to a file:

$ echo '0x15abe71557c07b69537bbe4352ed10a057be89037c69d4b35556112519911539' > private.key

The next step is to deposit some ethers and XRT tokens to the address which is held in the address field.

Create a lighthouse

Go to the lighthouse dapp and fill in a name in the right side:

The Right Side

Click on the Create lighthouse and connect to the network button and sign a transaction. After a while you should see:

Success of Creating a Lighthouse

Now it’s time to put a stake. Select the new lighthouse and click Connect to the network:

Selecting the Lighthouse

On this page in the Provider section click the Approve button, sign a transaction. When it’s mined click the Refill button and do the same.

Install the client

You must install robonomics-tools at least 0.4.2. version. You can build from the source or do the following steps:

Note

Make sure you have Nix and Stack installed:

$ curl -sSL https://get.haskellstack.org/ | sh
$ curl https://nixos.org/nix/install | sh
  • Setup Airalab binary cache at https://aira.cachix.org/

  • Import Airalab channel:

    $ nix-channel --add http://aira.life/channels/aira-unstable/ aira
    $ nix-channel --update
    
  • Install from the binary cache:

    $ nix-env -iA aira.robonomics-tools
    
  • Run the client:

    $ xrtd --lighthouse mobilerobotics.lighthouse.5.robonomics.eth --private $(cat private.key)
    

Hint

Get familiar with the xrtd options via xrtd --help

Test the provider

To test your provider go again to the lighthouse dapp and connect to the just created lighthouse.

At the bottom you should see the TEST LIGHTHOUSE section.

Click on the Demand button and then on the Offer one. You should see something similar to:

Demand and Offer messages

Don’t forget to sign every message with the MetaMask extension.

Finally you should see a new liability contract created:

Liability is created