Setting up the Augur Alpha

Note: this tutorial only covers setup on a Mac. Detailed instructions for Windows & Linux can be found here.

Last week, I wrote about opening a store on OpenBazaar, a decentralized marketplace. Augur is the next cool decentralized application on my plate: a prediction network.

Augur is in alpha, so setting it up is really about testing out the experience and giving feedback to the awesome developers. To get started, open up your terminal.

Setting up Augur

Installing the Ethereum client

Augur runs on Ethereum, a Bitcoin-esque network that is optimized for building decentralized applications (learn more here). Right now, the network is still in testing — the Augur Alpha is running on the Ethereum test network — so there’s no actual money involved.

In order to use Augur, we’ll need to have a local version of Ethereum. To do this, first thing we need to do is install the Go Ethereum client, or geth. To do this, we’ll use Homebrew (if you don’t already have Homebrew, you can install it here). Installing geth is as easy as two commands (then a version check):

$ brew tap ethereum/etheruem
$ brew install ethereum
$ geth version
# Geth
# Version: 0.9.32 
# Protocol Version: 60
# Network Id: 0
# Go Version: go1.4.2
# OS: darwin
# GOPATH=/Users/jessepollak/go
# GOROOT=/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.4.2/libexec

Creating an Ethereum account

Now that we have Ethereum installed locally, we’ll need to create an account. We’ll use this account to run our Augur client.

$ geth --networkid 1010101 --protocolversion 59 --datadir ~/.augur account new

Running Ethereum locally

In order for Augur to connect to the Ethereum network, we need to run Ethereum locally. The Augur client then connects through this node to the rest of the network. The following command is long, so just copy and paste it.

$ geth --rpc --rpccorsdomain "http://client.augur.net http://localhost:8080" --shh --networkid 1010101 --datadir "~/.augur" --protocolversion 59 --bootnodes "enode://587aa127c580e61a26a74ab101bb15d03e121a720401f77647d41045eae88709b01136e30aba56d1feddff757d4a333f68b9a749acd6852f20ba16ef6e19855a@[::]:30303 enode://4014c7fa323dafbb1ada241b74ce16099efde03f994728a55b9ff09a9a80664920045993978de85cb7f6c2ac7e9218694554433f586c1290a8b8faa186ce072c@97.125.111.149:30303 enode://e30a4cd1ec5ca4dbd19c40785d7d61363b44110cb20f27a21c5009ec20f68548b1d0705ba4483cb889cf835e0774db4df0f062054b412b0e17dae063c875939e@[::]:30303 enode://b8092b9c390c40463f152bfb5e16837b435255db0780594bc473811e31c05ea0994c4cb435f2ce93eef59786477d445a558b2d8519e6afb614918ae0924ff727@24.4.140.216:30303" --unlock primary console

With that command run, you’ll have an Ethereum node with your account running. Now, we need to boot up our Augur client.

Installing the Augur Client

Because we want to be able to test well, we’ll install the Augur Client locally. That said, if you just want to play around with the network, you can use the hosted client at client.augur.net.

Let’s install the client:

$ git clone https://github.com/AugurProject/augur-client.git
$ cd augur-client
$ git checkout develop
$ npm install -g grunt-cli
$ npm install
$ grunt browserify:build

We just installed and build the client. Now we can run it!

npm start && open http://localhost:8080

With that, we should have an Augur client up and running!

Getting started with Augur

Now that we have our Augur Alpha client up and running, let’s do something.

Adding some cash to our wallet

The first thing we need is some money. If you look in the top right corner of the client, you’ll see that you have 0 cash right now.

Because this is an alpha, running on a test network, that’s easy to fix. Navigate to the Account page, then click the Faucet button next to cash. Wait a few seconds and you should get some cash put into your wallet.

Now that we have some cash, let’s make a prediction.

Making a prediction

With the setup and “free money” behind us, it’s time to do what we’re here for: make an actual prediction on the market. Navigate to the Markets page and pick a market you’re interested in.

Once you’re on the specific Market page, decide what side you want to predict will happen. Right now, Augur only supports binary markets (“yes” or “no”), so you’ll only have two options.

When you’ve decided, click the Buy button and enter the number of shares you want to buy.

Then click Buy — you’ve made your first prediction on the Augur platform!

When you buy shares, the purchase will go into a “pending” status while it is being confirmed on the Ethereum blockchain.

When the confirmation period is over, you’ll see that you own the shares — and that your purchase has had an effect on what the market thinks will happen!

Wrapping up

Because the Augur market is currently running on a test network, there’s no actual monetary stake in any of these predictions. This makes the current market a horrible predictor of the future — the Alpha release is really just a testing ground to see what can be improved before the market launches officially.

Even with test money and horrible predictions, it’s pretty exciting to see Augur taking shape. I have no doubt that it will be a powerful platform when it goes live.