minichain

Using the freshest Python 3 syntax
UTXO model
Nakamoto consensus, or PoW
P2P part is powered by asyncio and kademlia
Elliptic curve part is powered by coincurve

How to run

Install dependencies first by running poetry install.

Open 3 terminals and run separately:

python -m chain 8999 --mine --debug # block time is around 5s
python -m chain 9000 -b 127.0.0.1 8999 --debug  # no mining
python -m chain 9001 -b 127.0.0.1 9000 --debug --mine  # connecting second node

How to implement

Find peers

This repo is leveraging Kademlia algorithm for finding peers via UDP and syncing blockchain via TCP.

You can create a UDP server and a TCP server listening at the same port to simplify the logic. When it’s found peers by Kademlia, our node just directly connects to that IP and port to start syncing blockchain data.

Sync blocks

A simple example about syncing the latest block:

Sending REQUEST_LATEST_BLOCK message to a peer or peers.
When receiving REQUEST_LATEST_BLOCK, send back the message RECEIVE_LATEST_BLOCK with block data.
When receiving RECEIVE_LATEST_BLOCK:
1. Check the received block is valid or not;
2. If valid, add it to our blockchain and broadcast it to peers;
3. Else, check if the block is ahead;
  1. If ahead, sending REQUEST_BLOCKCHAIN to peers and wait for the incoming blockchain data.
  2. Else, which means our blockchain is the freshest, do nothing.

For more details, check the p2p.py code. The logic is simple, but more powerful protocols (like log replication of Raft protocol) are based on the simple ideas behind the implementation here.

Reference

Go check this and this to learn the basics and stay tuned with this repo!