How to Connect Ethereum Wallet to a Private Network

Mist and Ethereum Wallet are the tools offered by the Ethereum group to manage Ethereum accounts. Connect the Mist and Ethereum with the testnet/mainnet blockchains to test the network functionality and develop smart contracts.

However, let’s understand the difference between Mist and Ethereum

Mist

Mist can be referred to as the browser for DApps (decentralized web apps). What Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are for the web 2.0, the Mist browser is for the web 3.0 (completely decentralized).

Still, in its initial development, Mist is not preferred for visiting untrusted DApps (decentralized apps) until the due diligence is conducted. The latest release of Mist enables you to access any Ethereum based decentralized applications with the Mist browser.

Ethereum Wallet DApp

All other releases than ‘Mist’ can’t be referred to as Mist releases. In reality, they are a bundle of Mist Browser with a single decentralized application: the Ethereum Wallet, also called as the Meteor DApp wallet.

Thus, these releases are known as Ethereum Wallet as it only gives a bundle of the Mist Browser with a single DApps: the wallet.

Mist and Ethereum wallet, both are run as full nodes, so that they connect with the Blockchain through Go ethereum executable for staying synchronized with the network, instead of as light nodes which are connected through an online service that runs its own geth executable. Both Mist and Ethereum wallet gives the alternative to connect to the testnet/mainnet blockchain along with the mining option, though, only available on the testnet.

In this blog, we’ll be focusing on the Ethereum wallet to enable a connection with a geth instance to connect to a private blockchain.

Following are steps to Connect Ethereum Wallet to a Private Network

To Connect Ethereum Wallet to a Private Network, try connecting to a local geth instance without tweaking the code of the wallet. Now, create a clone of the given repositories:

1) Mist: https://github.com/ethereum/mist.git
2) Ethereum Wallet: https://github.com/ehtereum/meteor-dapp-wallet.git

Please, remain synced with the stable branch, also called the master branch.

After the installation of the related tools, try connecting to a local node streaming on a private blockchain network.

//Start Geth in a private network setting - 
geth --datadir localNode --networkid 12345 --rpc --rpcapi miner,admin,net,txpool --rpcport 8001 --port 8002 console
//Run the electron wallet app to connect with the private network geth
electron . --mode wallet --rpc localhost:8001 
//or connect through IPC communication
electron . --mode wallet --rpc pathToLocalNode/geth.ipc

Change the Source code to execute the Ethereum wallet forthwith on the private blockchain.

a) In mist/modules/Setting.js

//Setting the localNode ipc path for Ubuntu
ipcPath += 'pathToLocalNode/geth.ipc'

b) In mist/modules/Ethereum.js

//Using our local geth instance and other private blockchain params , change the args parameter to this
args = ['--fast','--datadir',pathToLocalNode , '--networkid' , 12345

Later, now you can test the private blockchain connection by running the electron application in the wallet mode and the move further to build the binaries.

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