I'm sure it has been mentioned many times in this thread, but at over 1000 pages isn't exactly easy to find. But can someone point me to a masternode setup guide? What is needed exactly and how is it setup?
I need baby-level instructions, or at least some instructions. Thanks.
Read through this:
https://darkcointalk.org/threads/how-to-set-up-ec2-t1-micro-ubuntu-for-masternode-part-1-3.240/If you're not using Amazon EC2, skip to - Part 2, applies to any VPS provider from here, excepting the firewall bit. You also don't need to bother with the compiling bit at the moment as you can just use the latest binary, but it might be worth doing anyway as in the near future you'll want to compile from source when DarkSend is opened, and you'll need the dependencies in place.
You now also need to generate a unique key for your masternode:
cd .darkcoin
nano darkcoin.conf - change masternode=1 to masternode=0
darkcoind
darkcoind masternode genkey - copy output to clipboard or whatever
darkcoind stop
nano darkcoin.conf - change masternode=0 to masternode=1 and add line masternodeprivkey=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx....xxxx, also add line maxconnections=200
darkcoind
darkcoind masternode start 'your-wallet-passphrase'
When you're up and running, updating if required is simple:
cd .darkcoin
darkcoind stop
mv darkcoind darkcoind-old-version-number
wget
http://darkcoin.io/downloads/rc/darkcoindchmod 755 darkcoind
darkcoind
darkcoind masternode start 'your-wallet-passphrase'
Have a play, you can do everything as a trial except start your masternode without depositing 1000DRK in the masternode wallet.
To get 1000DRK into your masternode wallet, do this on your server:
cd .darkcoin
darkcoind getaccountaddress 0 - copy address to clipboard or whatever
---send test amount from local wallet to that address, check it arrives in your server wallet with:
darkcoind listaddressgroupings
Then send 1000DRK in one transaction to your masternode wallet - when you have 6 confirmations in the blockchain, you can start your masternode.
That's the gist of it, and I have not covered non-amazon firewalls and other security steps like limiting ssh connection from anything but your own IP or using an ssh keyfile instead, backing up your masternode wallet, etc., as I have typed enough shit for now and need a some food...
Good luck!
edit:
This is a very newbie question, but how secure is using EC2 in regard to keeping your coins safe? I mean, there were comments by some that people could try to hack at the nodes and take the coins. Is that possible?
Anything is possible! If you are not confident of your security measures, you should not be risking 1000DRK
And also newbie-ish, instead of using EC2 or any VPS service, could we just set up our own server and run it on that? Would something like this work on a low power raspberry pi/beagleboard type of system?
It's possible, but inadvisable unless you know what you are doing, ...and good god no, don't even think about running a masternode on a Pi.