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Blockstack API

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Step-by-step instructions for deploying a Blockstack API node on Debian or Ubuntu are below.

• Step 1: Make sure you have Blockstack Core running locally (see instructions).

• Step 2: Make sure you have virtualenv installed. Then, setup the API:

$ sudo apt-get install -y python-pip memcached rng-tools python-dev libmemcached-dev zlib1g-dev libgmp-dev libffi-dev libssl-dev
$ sudo service memcached start
$ sudo pip install virtualenv
$ sudo npm -g install aglio
$ virtualenv api && source api/bin/activate
$ git clone https://github.com/blockstack/blockstack-core.git
$ cd blockstack-core/
$ pip install .
$ pip install -r api/requirements.txt
$ blockstack setup_wallet
$ blockstack api start
$ deactivate
$ ./build_docs.sh public_api

Search Subsystem

If you want to enable the search subsystem in your installation, you can follow the instructions here.

Nginx Deployment

For a production deployment we recommend using nginx and uwsgi:

• Step 1: Install nginx and uWSGI:

$ sudo apt-get install -y nginx
$ sudo pip install uwsgi

• Step 2: Copy this sample nginx sites file to

/etc/nginx/sites-available/blockstack_api

and edit the paths depending on the uwsgi blockstack_api socket directory (defaults to /tmp/blockstack_api.sock) You can test your nginx settings:

$ sudo nginx -t

• Step 3: Copy this sample systemd service file to

/etc/systemd/system/blockstack_api.service

and edit the service user and blockstack paths depending on where your blockstack repo is located, and where your virtualenv is located.

Note: The following sed commands will work if the virtualenv is currently active and your shell is in the repo's root directory.

$ sudo sed -i "s/User\=USER/User\=$USER/" /etc/systemd/system/blockstack_api.service
$ sudo sed -i "s#/path/to/blockstack#$PWD#" /etc/systemd/system/blockstack_api.service
$ sudo sed -i "s#/path/to/virtualenv#$VIRTUAL_ENV#" /etc/systemd/system/blockstack_api.service

• Step 4: Get a security certificate from Let's Encrypt.

$ git clone https://github.com/certbot/certbot.git
$ cd certbot/
$ ./certbot-auto --nginx -d <your_domain>

And copy the cert files to the path given in the nginx sites file earlier.

• Step 5: Start nginx and the Blockstack API uwsgi server:

sudo systemctl restart blockstack_api
sudo systemctl restart nginx

If you run into any issues, please submit a Github issue and we'll update these instructions.