Blockchain Ardor Part 1: Introduction to Ardor and How To Download the Ardor Client Wallet

Welcome to Blockchain Ardor — Medium Series! This is the first in a series of articles providing introductory tours and tutorials of the features available on the Ardor “parent chain” and its “child chains.” This first article introduces the Ardor platform and provides a demonstration of how to download the full Ardor Client Wallet. This tour represents a modified version of the information presented the video here.

Introduction to Ardor

After 5 years of successful work building the NXT blockchain, with source code in Java and more than 250+ APIs, the developers at Jelurida launched Ardor in January 2018 to address their observed issues with single chain blockchains. The developers separated NXT into two parts. The energy efficient proof of stake consensus mechanism was implemented on the Ardor “parent chain” while the smart transaction capabilities of NXT were implemented on Ardor’s first “child chain” — “Ignis.” Businesses and developers can choose between launching assets, new monetary supplies, voting systems, arbitrary messaging, and more directly on existing child chains, like Ignis — or businesses can pick from Ignis’ features and reuse them on their own child chain. All child chain transactions are secured by the Ardor network. This architecture means businesses can focus on what they do best: provide their services and ensure an enjoyable customer experience. Free transactions for app or service end users are also a possibility, thanks to this innovative design. Don’t take my word for it — download the wallet and continue the tour to learn how to use these features yourself.

Downloading the Ardor Client Wallet

Open your web browser and type in https://jelurida.com and you will land on the page pictured below.

Scroll down on the homepage until you reach the “Ardor Downloads” section with various download options for different operating systems. You will notice two versions for each operating system, a stable release and an experimental release.

Click on the “Installer” for the latest stable production release for your operating system, and save the application to your desired destination on your computer.

Navigate to wherever you saved the Ardor Client, and open the installer. You may get a notification asking for permission to allow the client to install, click “yes.” The file will extract, and then you will select your language and click “ok.” You land on a page that looks like this:

Click “Next” and you land on a page with the license agreement.

Read the agreement. If you agree, select “I accept the terms of this license agreement,” and click “Next.”

This page gives you some extra information on bug fixes. Click “Next.”

You need to select the destination on your computer for the Ardor Client application, then click “Next.”

On this page, you can decide whether to run the full client, the light client, or the testnet. If you do not check any of these options, then you will download the full client, and therefore you will need to download the full Ardor blockchain on your computer. You must download the full client if you wish to forge in your own wallet. Learn about forging in Part 5 here.

If you have slow internet connection and you are not concerned with forging your Ardor coins in your own wallet, then you should check the box for the light client. If you want to do some testing of Ardor’s features using fake coins, then you should use the testnet. Please note that this is not the experimental testnet including lightweight contracts and transactions vouchers, please find a guide on how to download that testnet here.

Once you have decided on which version of the client you wish to download, click “Next.”

Click “Next.”

Allow the application to download, then click, “Next” and you are done!

Continue Your Journey by Creating an Account

The Ardor Client is now installed on your computer. Continue your journey by learning how to create your first account here, then take a tour of the features on the Ardor parent chain and it’s first child chain, Ignis, here and here!