# Blockstack Server

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A global database for people, companies, websites and more. Decentralized, privacy-centric, and blockchain-secured.

Learn more by visiting [the Blockstack Website](https://blockstack.org) and checking out the in-depth articles and documentation:

- [How Blockstack Works](https://blockstack.org/docs/how-blockstack-works)
- [Blockstack vs. DNS](https://blockstack.org/docs/blockstack-vs-dns)
- [Blockstack vs. Namecoin](https://blockstack.org/docs/blockstack-vs-namecoin)
- [Blockstack Namespaces](https://blockstack.org/docs/namespaces)
- [Blockstack Light Clients](https://blockstack.org/docs/light-clients)

### Installation

The fastest way to get started with blockstack is with pip:

```
sudo pip install blockstack
```

If you encounter any problems during the pip install, see the [detailed installation
instructions](https://blockstack.org/docs/installation).

### Getting Started

First, start the Blockstack server and index the blockchain:

```bash
$ blockstack-server start
```

Next, visit the [basic usage docs](https://blockstack.org/docs/basic-usage) and [extended usage docs](https://blockstack.org/docs/basic-usage) to learn how to register names of your own, as well as transfer them and associate data with them.

### Contributing

We welcome any small or big contributions! Please take a moment to
[review the guidelines for contributing to open source](https://guides.github.com/activities/contributing-to-open-source/) in order to make the contribution process easy and effective for everyone involved.

#### Main Authors

- **[Jude Nelson](http://onename.com/judecn)** ([@jcnelson](https://github.com/jcnelson))
- **[Muneeb Ali](http://onename.com/muneeb)** ([@muneeb-ali](https://github.com/muneeb-ali))
- **[Ryan Shea](http://onename.com/ryan)** ([@ryaneshea](https://github.com/shea256))

#### All Code Contributors

- [Contributor Graph](../../graphs/contributors)
- [Code Overview](https://github.com/blockstack/blockstack/blob/master/overview.md)

### Community

The Blockstack community is a group of blockchain developers coming together to define and develop a set of software protocols and tools to serve as a common backend for blockchain-powered decentralized applications.

For more information, visit the community website at [Blockstack.org](http://blockstack.org).

- [Slack Community](http://chat.blockstack.org/)
- [Reddit Community](http://reddit.com/r/blockstack)

### Copyright and License

The code and documentation copyright are attributed to blockstack.org for the year of 2016.

This code is released under
[the GPL v3 license](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.en.html), and the docs are released under [the Creative Commons license](http://creativecommons.org/).