README
¶
Lightchain
This is the official Lightstreams implementation of a proof-of-authority (PoA) blockchain. Lightchain is an ethereum-compatible blockchain which uses byzantine consensus to replace the original proof-of-work (PoW) from Ethereum. This is achieved by integrating tendermint for the consensus layer.
About Lightstreams
We are currently working hard to release the Lightstream main network which aims to provide a fast, privacy-enabled, content-sharing blockchain. Stay tuned about our project's progress by reading the lightstreams blog or by checking out the Lightstreams' website.
Documentation
You can find more detailed documentation in the lightchain CLI reference documentation.
Pre-requirements
- Go >= 1.10
- deps
Installation
To install lightchain in your system just run following commands:
go get -u github.com/lightstreams-network/lightchain
cd ${GOPATH}/src/github.com/lightstreams-network/lightchain
make get_vendor_deps
make install
To validate if you installation was done correctly, run the following command to obtain current installed version of Lightchain
lightchain version
It should output someething like this
Version: 0.9.1-alpha Sirius-Net
Create a Lightstreams node
Lightstreams provides a testnet called sirius. By default, all new created nodes get connected to this network and are automatically synchronized. Please note that we are actively working on improving the performance and stability of the network, therefore some issues might still occur which force us to restore blockchain.
Node initialization
To initialise a new blockchain you need to run lightchain init and choose a local path where blockchain files are going to be stored.
lightchain init --datadir "${HOME}/.lightchain"
Node launch
To run a lightchain node you only need to run the following command:
lightchain run --datadir "${HOME}/.lightchain"
After you run the command above, the network synchronization will take several minutes. So grab a coffee and request some test tokens while you wait :)
Request Free Tokens
Please sign up to the Lightstreams Community Forum and follow the instructions in this thread to obtain free tokens to use in our test network Sirius
Block explorer
To check the current state of the sirius network a validate the status of your transactions and wallet, you can go to the lightstreams block explorer
Available flags
When you run lightchain run or lightchain run --help, you will see a list of available flags:
Launches lightchain node and all of its online services including blockchain (Geth) and the consensus (Tendermint).
Usage:
lightchain run [flags]
Flags:
--abci_protocol string socket | grpc (default "socket")
--datadir string Data directory for the databases and keystore (default "/home/a/lightchain")
-h, --help help for run
--lvl string Level of logging (default "info")
--rpc Enable the HTTP-RPC server
--rpcaddr string HTTP-RPC server listening interface (default "localhost")
--rpcapi string API's offered over the HTTP-RPC interface
--rpcport int HTTP-RPC server listening port (default 8545)
--tmt_p2p_port uint Tendermint port used to achieve exchange messages across nodes (default 26656)
--tmt_proxy_port uint Lightchain RPC port used to receive incoming messages from Tendermint (default 26658)
--tmt_rpc_port uint Tendermint RPC port used to receive incoming messages from Lightchain (default 26657)
--ws Enable the WS-RPC server
--wsaddr string WS-RPC server listening interface (default "localhost")
--wsport int WS-RPC server listening port (default 8546)
Run in Standalone mode
Once this is done, your blockchain is ready to be launched. The created node is setup to connect to the lightstreams' test network (Sirius). If you prefer to create an isolated node for testing proposes, you can run the following command instead:
lightchain init --datadir "${HOME}/.lightchain" --standalone
At the genesis block, the ether account 0xc916cfe5c83dd4fc3c3b0bf2ec2d4e401782875ehas been initialized with 300M Photons. Passphrase is WelcomeToSirius
Applications
Leth
Lightstreams created a command line application called leth to run and manage a lightstreams node, as well as interact with the Lightstreams network
Leth wraps geth & ipfs into a simple, easy-to-use interface and which connects to the Lightstreams network. For convenience, we provide an HTTP gateway API or you can also use the command line client
Docker
In case you prefer to use Docker, follow the instructions below.
First, create a new docker image, which will be tagged as lightchain:latest
make docker
Once that is completed, you just need to run the following command which will create your container with a running instance of lightchain
docker run -p 8545:8545 -p 26657:26657 -p 26656:26656 -it lightchain:latest
As you can see several ports has been mapped to your local environment:
8545which exposes the rpc api of Ethereum
geth attach http://localhost:8545
26657websocket api of tendermint
curl -X http://localhost:26657/status
26656required by the consensus engine (Tendermint) for p2p communications
Project data structure
├── consensus
│ ├── config
│ │ ├── config.toml
│ │ ├── genesis.json
│ │ ├── node_key.json
│ │ └── priv_validator.json
│ └── data
└── database
├── chaindb
│ ├── 000001.log
│ ├── CURRENT
│ ├── LOCK
│ ├── LOG
│ └── MANIFEST-000000
├── genesis.json
└── keystore
├── UTC--2018-08-26T21-40-07.289727986Z--4eaaad8ea38d5ef75ebdeb3d1be59d56f86c4ca9
└── UTC--2018-08-26T21-40-31.689362077Z--4f5adedca6d869e9f5f7dcf4b7a9dfa8231a095f
Lightchain datadir is split into two main folder:
- consensus: contains all the information regarding consensus
- database: contains all files related to the Ethereum-compatible blockchain
Wiki
To know more about how Lightchain works and how Tendermint is integrated to perform the PoA, visit our repository wiki
Directories