Insight API Installation

The open-source Dash Insight REST API provides you with a convenient, powerful and simple way to read data from the Dash network and build your own services with it. Simple HTTP endpoints exist for all common operations on the Dash blockchain familiar from the Bitcore Insight API, as well as Dash-specific features such as InstantSend transactions, budget proposals, sporks and the masternode list. This documentation describes how to set up the Dash Insight API server and (optionally) the Dash Insight UI block explorer.

A standard installation of Ubuntu Linux 18.04 LTS will be used as an environment for the server. We assume you are running as a user with sudo permissions. First update all packages and install some tools and dependencies:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install npm build-essential libzmq3-dev

Download and extract the latest version of Dash Core:

cd ~
wget https://github.com/dashpay/dash/releases/download/v0.15.0.0/dashcore-0.15.0.0-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
tar -xvzf dashcore-0.15.0.0-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
rm dashcore-0.15.0.0-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz

Install Dashcore Node and create your configuration:

sudo npm install -g @dashevo/dashcore-node
dashcore-node create mynode

Install the Insight API service and (optionally) Insight UI:

cd mynode
dashcore-node install @dashevo/insight-api
dashcore-node install @dashevo/insight-ui

Change paths in the configuration file as follows:

nano dashcore-node.json
  • Change the value of datadir to ../.dashcore
  • Change the value of exec to ../dashcore-0.14.0/bin/dashd
  • Optionally change the value of network to testnet if you want to run Insight on testnet

Run it:

dashcore-node start

Your Insight API node will start up and begin to sync. Progress will be displayed on stdout. Once sync is complete, the API endpoints listed in the documentation will be available at:

https://<ip-address>:3001/insight-api/<endpoint>/

The Insight UI block explorer will be available at:

http://<ip-address>:3001/insight/