Your first ten minutes on ARCADE

What an arcade is

An arcade is a website run by one person on their own computer, called a node. It gives you a wallet, a messenger, a public feed and more, and everything that matters (your name, your coins, your posts) is written on a public blockchain, not kept in a company database.

A blockchain is a shared record that many computers keep the same copy of. Any arcade that reads the same chain sees the same names, coins and posts.

Choosing an arcade

Any arcade will do. Every arcade is the same program talking to the same chains, so your account is not tied to the machine you made it on. The same name and password open the same account on any arcade.

• Seats. One arcade seats a fixed number of people (50 unless its operator changes it). The Join page says how many seats are open. If none are, go to another arcade: nothing is lost.
• A seat comes back after 90 days of silence (no sign-in, no post, no transaction). Nothing of yours is touched when it does: sign in again wherever there is a space and it is the same account.
• Use https. Making an account needs a secure connection (an address starting with https://), or the arcade's own machine. Over plain http on a network address, the page says so instead of half working.
• Type the address yourself. Get the arcade's address from someone you trust and type it into the address bar. Do not follow links to it from messages.

Making your account

Go to /join on the arcade (for example https://the-arcade-address/join). The page is called Join the arcade.

1. Under Make an account, type Your name, for example yourname. The page tells you as you type whether @yourname is free.
2. Type A password of at least twelve characters. A few words in a row are easy to remember. A password found on leaked-password lists is refused.
3. Type it again in The password again, then press Create my account.
4. The page shows Write these down with your twelve words. Write them on paper, in order (see chapter 4).
5. While you write, the page sets your account up by itself: coins, your name on the chain, and your key, so people can write to you. You can leave before it finishes.
6. Tick I have written them down and press Take me in.

What the arcade keeps, and what it does not

Your wallet is made in your browser and only ever opened there. The arcade hands your sealed wallet to anybody who asks for it by your name, which is how you can sign in from another device. That is also why the password matters: someone can take the sealed copy away and guess at it as long as they like. Nobody can reset your password, not the operator and not anybody else.

Keeping your twelve words safe

Your twelve words are your wallet. With them you can always get your account back, on any device, on any arcade. Without them, a lost password means the account and everything in it is gone for good.

• On paper, not a screenshot. Write them in order and keep the paper somewhere safe. Anyone who sees them owns everything in the account.
• Only one page ever asks for them: Restore, reached from Forgot your password? under Sign in. It checks them in your browser and never sends them. Anything else that asks for your words (a message, a helper, another page, "to verify", "to migrate") is stealing them.

The Backup page

Signed in, open /me/backup (in the Lite window: File → Backup…).

• Show my twelve words shows them again after you type your password once more.
• Check them: type the words back from your paper. Your browser checks them against your own address and the arcade is told only the answer. This marks them as backed up and takes away the warning. It spends nothing.
• Download my encrypted wallet saves a file. With your password it opens your wallet on any arcade's Join page (I have a backup file), without your words. Without the password it is no use to anybody.

The words bring back your name, every coin, token and NFT on every chain, and your published key. Two things do not come back, because they are kept only in your browser: your message history and your address book. A new browser starts with both empty.

Your @name

Your @name (also called a tag) is how people find you, pay you and write to you. Names live on the Pepecoin test chain, the same chain the messenger uses.

• The name you chose at sign-up is claimed for you during set-up. You do not need to do anything else.
• Rules: lower case a–z, digits 0–9 and _, from 2 to 24 characters. No hyphens and no dots. A short list of names that would look official is reserved.
• First claim wins, in the order the chain records them. One name per address, one address per name.
• A claim is one small transaction, so it costs a small network fee, paid from your test coins.
• If set-up did not finish, open your address book: it shows Claim your name with a Claim my name button, and then Publish my key so people can message you.

Your first coins

Everything you do on the chain (claiming a name, posting, messaging) is a transaction, and every transaction needs coins (UTXOs) to pay its small fee. A UTXO is one separate piece of value your wallet holds; when you spend one, any change comes back to you as a new one.

• Sign-up gift. The arcade's faucet sends a new account 100 Pepecoin test coins, once (that is the default; the operator can change the amount). The sign-up page says how much was sent. They arrive in a minute or two, but you can use them for your name straight away.
• Daily top-up. Once a day (UTC), when the arcade reads your balance and it is below the gift, the faucet tops you back up to it. This happens only on test chains, and only where the operator has the top-up turned on.
• Test coins have no value. They are for playing. The faucet pays out test coins only; real ones are held back by a setting that is off.

The Lite window and the full arcade

An arcade can be shown two ways. Both use the same account and the same wallet code.

In the Lite window, Settings → Your tabs… lets you hide module tabs you do not use. On a full arcade, File → Open the full arcade takes you to the full pages.

Sending your first message

Messages are private. Each one is sealed (encrypted) to the reader's key in your browser and carried on the Pepecoin test chain. The arcade carries them and cannot read them.

1. Open Messages. If asked, unlock your wallet with your password: messages are opened with your own key, in your browser.
2. Lite window: type @theirname in New and press Open. Full arcade: press New, type their @tag or address, and press Start.
3. Type your message and press Send.

• You can write to anybody who has claimed a name and published a key. People can write to you once your key is on the chain (set-up does this).
• A message usually appears within seconds, marked as in the pool (not in a block yet) until its block lands.
• Each message costs a small transaction fee, shown before anything is sent.
• Keep this browser: your copy of what you sent is kept only here. Nobody, including you, can read a sealed message back off the chain.

Your first post on the Feed

The Feed is everybody's public posts, newest first. It is a module, so it is there only if the operator has it on (on a Lite arcade it shows as a Feed tab once switched on).

1. Open the Feed. You need a claimed @name to post.
2. Type in the box that says Say something as @yourname (up to 2,000 characters; past 280 a post costs a little more).
3. Press Post. Your browser signs it with your key.

Posts are public and stay on the chain for ever. You can delete your own, and then no arcade shows it, but the words remain on the chain. You can also like, reply to and share posts; each is a small transaction.

Receiving coins

1. Open Receive (Lite window tab, or Receive on the full arcade's Wallet).
2. Pick the wallet (coin) you want to be paid in. The page shows your Address and a QR code of it.
3. Press Copy address and send it to the person paying you, or let them scan the QR code.

Each coin has one address in your account, and its tokens and NFTs arrive at that same address. People on the arcade can also simply pay @yourname. Send only that coin to that address: the page reminds you which coin it is, and whether it is a test coin (no value) or a real one.

Sending coins

1. Open Send. Pick the wallet to send from.
2. In Pay to, type an @name or paste an address. On the full arcade, names from your address book come up as you type, and Scan QR reads an address with your camera.
3. Type the Amount and press Review.
4. Read the review: who it goes to, the amount, the Network fee, what comes back to you, and what Leaves your wallet in total. Your browser works this out from the transaction's own bytes. If what the arcade prepared is not what you typed, it stops and says Nothing was signed.
5. Press Send. Only now is the transaction signed, in your browser, and sent.

After sending, the page shows the transaction id and Waiting for its block; a block usually carries it within a few minutes, and it then moves into your history (Transactions in the Lite window, Activity on the full arcade).

Signing in on another arcade

1. Go to /join on the other arcade.
2. Under Already have one? type your @name and password, and press Sign in.
3. The arcade finds your sealed wallet on the arcade where you made it, by itself, and opens it in your browser.

Other ways in, on the same page: I have a backup file (the file from Backup, plus your password), and Forgot your password? Restore with your twelve words, which sets a new password. If you have the optional Arcade Wallet browser extension, Sign in with Arcade Wallet also appears; your words stay in the extension.

Remember: messages and your address book stay in the browser that made them, so a new device starts with both empty.

What next

These guides go further. Your arcade's Docs page (Help → Guides in the Lite window) has its own manual too.

• Keeping Your Keys Safe (PDF)
• Running a Node on a Small Computer (PDF)
• Using the ARCADE API (PDF)
• Mining Test Coins and Stocking a Faucet (PDF)
• Troubleshooting for Operators (PDF)
• ARCADE Guide (PDF)
• DigiDollar on ARCADE (PDF)