RUST_LOG=info cargo run
This starts the client locally. The blockchain is not persisted anywhere.
You can start it in multiple terminals to get multiple connected peer-to-peer clients.
In each client, you can enter the following commands:
ls p - list peers ls c - print local chain create b $data - $data is just a string here - this creates (mines) a new block with the data entry $data and broadcasts it Once a block is created by a node, it's broadcasted and the blockchain in all other nodes is updated (if it's a valid block).
On startup, a node asks another node on the network for their blockchain and, if it's valid and longer than the current local blockchain, it updates its own chain to the longest one it receives.
This is a VERY overly simplified, offline-running, highly inefficient, and insecure blockchain implementation. If a node gets out of sync, it's broken. This example demonstrates some of the concepts behind building a blockchain system in Rust, so it shouldn't be used anywhere near a production scenario. But you can have fun with it and learn something.