Spin up and sync a Grin node in ~10min

This is a simplified version of the tutorial from the How to: Run a Grin node on Google Cloud for free page.

Create a Google Account

• Visit http://cloud.google.com and set up an account as an individual.
• This will require a debit or credit card, they do a $1 reserve charge on your card to ensure it's valid.
• As part of signing up you also get $300 in free trial credits to spend within 12 months.

Create a VM

• Using the GUI, go to Compute Engine / VM Instances. In the menu on that page you should see a "New VM Instance" button. Click that. If the GUI menus or links change, just figure out how to spin up a new VM instance.
• Configure the VM to your preferences. I chose Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch) amd64 with 8vCPUs, 30gb memory, and 100gb storage. This is overkill just to run a node, but I'm impatient and this downloads and syncs in ~10min. The f1-micro in the Always Free tier with 5gb of storage will work too, but it takes ~60min to setup.
• When the VM is read you'll see a green check mark next to the name of the VM. Click on the SSH drop-down menu, then ctrl click to open an SSH shell in a new browser tab.

Download and Update Stuff

sudo apt-get install build-essential
sudo apt install git nano tmux zlib1g-dev libncursesw5-dev libssl-dev clang cmake libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev zlib1g-dev pkg-config
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh; source $HOME/.cargo/env
# choose option 1)
rustup update

git clone https://github.com/mimblewimble/grin.git
cd grin
cargo build --release

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

PATH=$PATH:$HOME/grin/target/release:/home/YOUR_USERNAME/.cargo/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games

$ grin
# should open up the command line app and start syncing 

Good luck! :)