Alright, story time. Last week, I dove into the very first Build & Chill Workshop run by LazAI’s DevRel squad — shoutout to @0xthiru and @nidhinakranii for running the show. The whole thing was super hands-on. We weren’t just watching slides; we were actually minting our own private DATs (Data Anchoring Tokens) with a little Python magic. Mint.py
Basically, we were getting under the hood of LazAI’s data registry — learning how data anchoring works, why it matters for privacy, and how you can actually trace stuff without exposing it. Pretty slick.
The mint.py script handles all the heavy lifting: encrypts your file so no one’s peeking, shoots it up to IPFS via Pinata, registers it on the blockchain as a DAT, and even chases down a proof and an on-chain reward for you. Encryption, decentralized storage, and blockchain
Prepping the Playground
First things first, I had to set up a virtual environment and grab a few Python libraries:
python -m venv venv
venv\Scripts\activate
pip install alith python-dotenv rsa eth-account openai
Then came the secret sauce — environment variables. Wallet key, Pinata JWT… the usual suspects. (And seriously, don’t put your .env files on GitHub unless you want free drama.)
$env:PRIVATE_KEY = "0x<your_wallet_private_key>"
$env:IPFS_JWT = "<your_pinata_jwt>"
The Fun Part: Running the Script
Once the setup was done, it was time to Run:
python mint.py
A few seconds later, the terminal spits out:
Tx Hash: 0x.....
Proof request sent successfully
Reward requested for file id 0000
That feeling when you realize your file just got encrypted, uploaded, registered, and actually earned you a reward on-chain? Not gonna lie, it’s pretty cool. I could actually see my data as a real, verifiable piece of the LazAI puzzle.
Wanna See My Project?
Yep, the whole thing’s up on My GitHub: DAT Mint