What is the difference between cleos create account and cleos system newaccount?

Question

I noticed that cleos system newaccount requires these arguments to be set --stake-net --stake-cpu --buy-ram-kbytes. Does this mean that users would have to create accounts using the system contracts instead of the create account command?

Answer 1

cleos create account is for boot purpose, several accounts MUST created first before deploy eosio.system contract. See more.

  eosio.bpay
  eosio.msig
  eosio.names
  eosio.ram
  eosio.ramfee
  eosio.saving
  eosio.stake
  eosio.token
  eosio.vpay

And cleos system newaccount is a normal way to create account, it is call 'action' (same like function) of eosio.system contract. And if you looking into eosio.system contract, you will find that newaccount is same as create account.

And just like Todd said, after your deploy eosio.system contract, it is not allowed to create account using cleos create account.

Answer 2

If the system contract isn't running, then accounts don't need to buy ram or stake resources. cleos create account works in this mode.

If the system contract is running, then accounts need enough ram to hold the account information. They also need staked resources to cover any transactions they sign. cleos system newaccount takes care of these issues.