On Aleo, full nodes run a [JSON-RPC](https://www.jsonrpc.org/specification) server
to enable API calls for fetching data and interacting with peers connected to the network.

## RPC Port

```ignore
snarkos --rpc-port 3030
```

The default RPC port is `3030`. A custom RPC port may be specified using the `--rpc-port` flag when starting a node.

## Authentication for Private RPC Endpoints

```ignore
snarkos --rpc-username {USERNAME} --rpc-password {PASSWORD}
```

The RPC server exposes protected RPC endpoints for account specific operations, such as creating an account,
creating a transaction, and fetching record commitments.
RPC requests to protected RPC endpoints can be optionally guarded with an authentication header.

To enable this authentication layer, provide the authentication credentials to
the `--rpc-username` and `--rpc-password` flags when booting up a full node.