ALEPH-API

A Python Api that interacts with the Aleph Zero blockchain. This Api includes transfering of azero, signing of statements, verification of signed statements and many more.

CHALLENGE CATEGORY

TOOLING / INFRASTRUCTURE

The Python Community boasts the largest number of developers, and Python's emphasis on readability and simplicity positions it as an excellent option for crafting APIs. Its straightforward syntax minimizes development time, fosters team collaboration, and eases maintenance efforts. Additionally, Python serves as an inviting language for newcomers to the tech field. Therefore, introducing a Python library for the Aleph Zero blockchain constitutes a significant addition that can significantly drive adoption within Python's development community.

Installation

Prerequisite

• Rust
• Maturin (pip install maturin)
• Python > 3.8
• virtual environment

Enter the base directory of the project and activate the virtual environment with the following command and install the required python packages.

source env/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

To compile the code, you can run the following command. This command builds a python wheel for the rust code.

maturin develop

Usage

You can create a new python file in the base folder or you can edit the main.py in the base folder to run your code. api/lib.py contains a python module that interacts with the aleph zero blockchain. To use the module, you can import the Chain class from api/lib.py.

from api.lib import Chain

You can generate a seed phrase programmatically by running. The generate_phrase() method takes a password for the phrase.

chain = Chain()
password = "horse-staple-zenith"
phrase = chain.generate_phrase(password)
print(phrase)
>>> unable brief apple enhance wool host join service sample kiss blossom iron

To generate the address of a phrase, we can call the get_wallet_address() method passing the seed phrase as an arguement.

phrase = "unable brief enhance .... "
address = chain.get_wallet_address(phrase)
print(address)
>>> 5G6LVo8aJmFiXTdTioDDt49ZseJ5eh9UQRga2MYf1hzdyhUJ

To check a wallet address, we can use the get_balance() exposed by the api. This method takes an address and a provider. if a provider is not given, it uses the default public mainnet provider.

addr = "5G6LVo8aJmFiXTdTioDDt49ZseJ5eh9UQRga2MYf1hzdyhUJ"
provider = "wss://aleph-zero-rpc.dwellir.com:443"
balance = chain.get_balance(addr,provider)
print(balance)
>>> 0

To sign a statement with your secret key, we can use the sign method exposed by the api that takes a statement and seed, then returns a signature in bytes.

statement = "A legal binding contract ......"
signature = chain.sign(phrase, statement)
print(signature)
>>> (0,210,166,165,128,235 ......)

Also a signed statement can be verified to be True or False using the verify_sig() method

kpub = chain.get_public_key(phrase)
verified = chain.verify_sig(signature,statement,kpub)
print(verified)
>>> True

OTHER METHOD'S IMPLEMENTED

• get_block_hash() : gets block has when given a block number
• get_block_number() : get block number when given a hash
• sign_and_transfer_azero() : transfers azero to a given wallet address
• get_public_key() : generates the given public key in bytes, this is useful for verifying signatures.

NOTE: All methods were tested and used on the azero mainnet except the transfer_azero(). The API could not be tested on the testnet because the node endpoints were not responding and i could not run my own node.