Beem FTWin

Background

    Having been interfacing with the Hive blockchain using Beem for years using Linux virtual machines and servers, I decided to work out installation on my Windows 10 laptop for convenience and ease of use. Decided to produce this guide which I hope will help others on their way. We understand that ease of use is a significant factor in adoption and facilitating that is the intent of this post.

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    From the beginning of Steem from which Hive was forked, there had been much contention about Windows users being left in the dust during the PoW (Proof-of-Work) period sometimes not endearingly referred to as the ninja mining period. The Scrypt miner that was made available was not released for the Windows OS which, in effect, created a technical hurdle for those users to acquire stake via PoW mining. The reason I bring this up is the implications one may infer against adoption. Not to suggest that Linux is niche but it is certainly not mainstream.

    This is why I appreciate the approach that projects like @koinos that have created a platform independent GUI miner albeit lacking some flexibility presenting via the CLI on Linux e.g. proof frequency. This approach allows more people who may not necessarily be tech savvy to get on the group floor of the project in contrast to Steem which to target the opportunity in a manner that is more esoteric in nature. The overarching point I am trying to make here is, to achieve the end goal of mass adoption, tools and utilities that would confer advantages to users should not be platform exclusive. That reasoning is precisely why I think it should be helpful that I produce this guide for Beem, being the robust library with many potential advantages, to be leveraged from the Windows operating system.

Prerequisites

• Windows 10 Operating System (Pending future testing, this guide may be able to be employed on prior releases)
• Visual Studio Build Tools - (Select options per screensnip below)
  
• Python 3.9.1
• Win32/Win64 OpenSSL by Shining Light Productions

Steps

1. Install Prerequisites
2. Add "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Python\Python39\Scripts" to local machine PATH environmental variable
3. Copy C:\Program Files\OpenSSL-Win64 directory including contents to C:\
4. Open an elevated command prompt.
5. Use pip to install cryptography module
   py -m pip install cryptography
6. Use pip to install beem
   py -m pip install beem
   

That's it! You should now be able to use the beempy CLI module and import beem into your python scripts.

You may now create your BIP38 wallet to store your passphrase protected private keys.

    Now, let's try importing an account. I'll use my main account. (If more granular control is desired i.e. only posting key, recommend using the beempy addkey command instead)

Now, let's give upvoting a spin using WIF.

Now again but using BIP38 wallet.

    So, there it is, folks! Successful interaction with Hive via Beem on Windows without the need of any complex virtual machine or containerized setup. Now you may choose to use my Beem FTWin guide if you should so choose whether it is a matter of convenience or something else entirely. The power is now in your hands. Thanks for reading and appreciate your supporting this work. Also, kudos to @holger80 for providing us such a sophisticated Python library.

Go forth and BUIDL great things!

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