Aleo Testnet III: a developer’s gateway to the future

I am Heorhii, and I am thrilled to guide you through the revolutionary space of Aleo Testnet III. While it’s not production-ready yet, this trusted testnet serves as a playground for developers, offering a sneak peek into the decentralized future. Before we dive in, note that rigorous auditing and testing are in the pipeline before it reaches production.

snarkOS: the decentralized operating system

At the core of Aleo’s infrastructure lies snarkOS, a decentralized operating system tailored for anonymous web applications. It empowers developers to checkpoint and finalize application states in a publicly-verifiable manner. This backbone is open-source and hosted on GitHub, inviting collaboration and exploration.

GitHub - AleoHQ/snarkOS: A Decentralized Operating System for ZK Applications

Querying the network

Connecting to Aleo Testnet III

To interact with Aleo Testnet III, developers can make requests to a designated bootnode. The API is organized around REST, providing a familiar and flexible interface.

• URL: https://api.explorer.aleo.org/v1/testnet3

Launching a local instance. Utilizing a local instance of snarkOS, developers can seamlessly launch a client node. The API becomes accessible at 0.0.0.0:3033.

• Command:

snarkos start --client --nodisplay

Dockerizing the experience. For streamlined deployment, Docker offers a quick solution. By initializing a Docker container, developers can interact with the API effortlessly.

• Command:

docker run -it --name snarkos --hostname snarkosc -p 4133:4133 -p 3033:3033 --mount type=bind,source="$(pwd)",target=/aleo/data aleohq/snarkos:latest /aleo/bin/snarkos start --client --nodisplay

This initializes a container called snarkos and maps the container port 3033 to 3033 on your system. Once the client is initialized, you can access the API as usual (http://0.0.0.0:3033/testnet3/latest/height).

You can close the container with ctrl + c and restart it with:

docker start -a snarkos

API exploration. The Aleo Testnet III API provides an array of endpoints, facilitating various interactions with the network. Here’s a glimpse of some key endpoints:

• Latest Height: /testnet3/latest/height
• Latest Hash: /testnet3/latest/hash
• Latest Block: /testnet3/latest/block
• Latest State Root: /testnet3/latest/stateRoot
• Get Block: /testnet3/block/{height_or_hash}
• Get Blocks: /testnet3/blocks?start={start_height}&end={end_height}
• Get Height: /testnet3/height/{blockHash}
• Get Block Transactions: /testnet3/block/{height}/transactions
• Get Transaction: /testnet3/transaction/{transactionID}
• Get Memory Pool Transactions: /testnet3/memoryPool/transactions
• Get Program: /testnet3/program/{programID}
• Get Mapping Names: /testnet3/program/{programID}/mappings
• Get Mapping Value: /testnet3/program/{programID}/mapping/{mappingName}/{mappingKey}
• Get State Path for Commitment: /testnet3/statePath/{commitment}
• Get Beacons: /testnet3/beacons
• Get Peers Count: /testnet3/peers/count
• Get Peers All: /testnet3/peers/all
• Get Peers All Metrics: /testnet3/peers/all/metrics
• Get Node Address: /testnet3/node/address
• Find Block Hash: /testnet3/find/blockHash/{transactionID}
• Find Transaction ID from Program ID: /testnet3/find/transactionID/deployment/{programID}
• Find Transaction ID from Transition ID: /testnet3/find/transactionID/{transitionID}
• Find Transition ID: /testnet3/find/transitionID/{inputOrOutputID}
• Get Environment Information: /testnet3/node/env
• Transaction Broadcast: POST /testnet3/transaction/broadcast

…and many more. Refer to the API documentation for an exhaustive list.

Latest Height | Welcome to Aleo Documentation

Conclusion. Aleo Testnet III opens a portal for developers to explore, innovate, and lay the groundwork for the decentralized future. As subsequent testnets undergo a trusted setup process, the Aleo ecosystem continues to evolve, inviting developers to shape the landscape of decentralized applications.

To know more, join now!
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Prepared by Colliseum