Installing Ganache

For developing a smart contract, people usually use Ganache. Ganache is a private, developmental Ethereum network that you can only use in the Ethereum development phase. The Truffle framework already includes the Ethereum blockchain network, which has the same purpose as Ganache. The difference between the two is that Ganache has a frontend GUI and a more user-friendly interface.

When you launch Ganache, you are equipped with 10 accounts, each filled with 100 ethers, which is the currency in Ethereum blockchain. As you will see later in this chapter, the concept of money (such as holding, sending, and receiving money, and tracking the balance) in Ethereum programming is important. You need to spend money in order to launch a smart contract in Ethereum blockchain. You can send money from an account to a smart contract, and a smart contract can, in turn, send money to other smart contracts or other accounts.

To download the software, go to the Ganache website: https://www.truffleframework.com/ganache. For the Linux platform, the software is called ganache-1.2.3-x86_64.AppImage. After downloading this, you must set the correct permission before executing it:

$ chmod a+x ganache-1.2.3-x86_64.AppImage
$ ./ganache-1.2.3-x86_64.AppImage