ChainForge

Production-grade crypto/blockchain client skeleton in modern C++ (C++20/23)

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Table of Contents

• Quick Start
• Architecture
• Development
• Docker Services
• Monitoring & Observability
• Project Structure
• Documentation
• Development Guidelines
• Security Features
• Performance
• CI/CD Pipeline
• Roadmap
• Contributing

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Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Docker & Docker Compose - Container orchestration
• CMake 3.20+ - Build system
• Conan 2.0+ - Dependency management
• C++20 compiler - GCC 11+, Clang 14+, MSVC 2019+

Local Development

# Start all services
docker compose up -d

# Build the project
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
make -j$(nproc)

# Run tests
ctest --output-on-failure

# Run specific tests
ctest -R "core_tests" --output-on-failure

Docker Services

Service	Purpose	Port	Status
PostgreSQL	Persistent blockchain data	5432	Ready
Redis	Caching layer for explorer	6379	Ready
chainforge-node	Full node service	8080, 8545	Building
chainforge-explorer	Blockchain explorer API	8081, 4000	Building
Prometheus	Metrics collection	9090	Ready
Grafana	Metrics visualization	3000	Ready
Jaeger	Distributed tracing	16686	Ready

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Architecture

Core Modules

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    ChainForge System                       │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Explorer API  │  Node Service  │  Tools Service  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  RPC Server    │  P2P Network   │  Consensus      │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Execution     │  Storage       │  Core Models    │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Crypto        │  Mempool       │  Metrics        │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Technology Stack

Category	Technology	Purpose
Language	C++20/23	Core implementation
Build	CMake + Conan	Build system & deps
Container	Docker	Application packaging
Orchestration	Kubernetes	Production deployment
Database	RocksDB + PostgreSQL	Storage & persistence
Cache	Redis	Performance optimization
Networking	Boost.Asio + libp2p	P2P communication
Security	OpenSSL + libsecp256k1	Cryptographic operations
Monitoring	Prometheus + Grafana	Observability
Tracing	Jaeger + OpenTelemetry	Distributed tracing

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Development

Build Commands

# Configure build
cmake -B build -S . -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

# Build all targets
cmake --build build --parallel

# Run tests
cmake --build build --target test

# Install
cmake --build build --target install

# Clean build
cmake --build build --target clean

Development Tools

# Code formatting
make format

# Linting
make lint

# Testing
make test

# Docker operations
make docker-up
make docker-down
make docker-logs

# Security checks
make security-check

# SBOM generation
make sbom

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Monitoring & Observability

Metrics Endpoints

• Prometheus: http://localhost:9090 - Metrics collection
• Grafana: http://localhost:3000 - Dashboards & visualization
• Jaeger: http://localhost:16686 - Distributed tracing
• Node Metrics: http://localhost:8080/metrics - ChainForge metrics
• Explorer Metrics: http://localhost:8081/metrics - Explorer metrics

Key Metrics

Metric	Description	Target
Block Height	Current blockchain height	Real-time
Transaction Rate	TPS (Transactions per second)	>10,000 TPS
Active Peers	Connected P2P nodes	>50 peers
Memory Usage	System memory consumption	<4GB
CPU Usage	System CPU utilization	<80%
Network Latency	P2P communication delay	<100ms

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Project Structure

ChainForge/
├─ CMakeLists.txt          # Root CMake configuration
├─ conanfile.txt           # Conan dependencies
├─ cmake/                  # CMake modules and presets
├─ .github/workflows/      # CI/CD pipelines
├─ documentation/           # Project documentation
├─ modules/                # Core modules
│  ├─ core/               # Domain models (blocks, tx, hashing)
│  ├─ crypto/             # Cryptographic primitives
│  ├─ storage/            # Database abstraction
│  ├─ p2p/                # Peer-to-peer networking
│  ├─ consensus/          # Consensus algorithms
│  ├─ execution/          # State machine execution
│  ├─ mempool/            # Transaction pool management
│  ├─ rpc/                # RPC server implementation
│  ├─ node/                # Node composition root
│  └─ explorer/           # Blockchain explorer
├─ tools/                  # Utility tools
├─ tests/                  # Test suite
└─ deploy/                 # Deployment configurations
    ├─ docker/            # Docker configurations
    ├─ helm/              # Kubernetes Helm charts
    ├─ prometheus/        # Monitoring setup
    └─ grafana/           # Dashboard configurations

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Documentation

Document	Description	Audience
ROADMAP	60+ development milestones	Product, Engineering
PROJECT_OVERVIEW	System architecture & vision	Architects, Stakeholders
MILESTONE_TEMPLATE	Milestone tracking template	Project Managers
README	Documentation overview	All users

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Development Guidelines

C++ Standards & Practices

• Standard: C++20 (prefer), C++23 optional
• Error Handling: std::expected<T, E> for recoverable errors
• Ownership: unique_ptr by default, shared_ptr only when necessary
• Concurrency: Explicit thread pools, no implicit global threads
• Security: ASAN/UBSAN/TSAN in CI, fuzzing, SBOM generation

Code Quality

# Static analysis
clang-tidy build/compile_commands.json

# Test coverage
gcov --coverage build/tests/

# Code metrics
cloc modules/ --include-lang=C++

# Security scan
make security-scan

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Security Features

Security Measures

Feature	Description	Status
Cryptographic Primitives	OpenSSL, libsecp256k1, libsodium	✅ Implemented
Memory Safety	ASAN/UBSAN/TSAN sanitizers	🚧 In Progress
Fuzzing	libFuzzer/AFL++ integration	🚧 In Progress
SBOM Generation	Software Bill of Materials	✅ Implemented
Image Signing	Cosign/Sigstore integration	🚧 In Progress
Security Audits	Regular security assessments	📅 Planned

Security Best Practices

• Zero-trust architecture - Verify everything
• Defense in depth - Multiple security layers
• Continuous monitoring - Real-time threat detection
• Security documentation - Comprehensive guidelines
• Regular testing - Penetration testing & audits

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Performance

Performance Targets

Metric	Target	Current	Status
Transaction Throughput	>10,000 TPS	🚧 TBD	🚧 In Progress
Block Time	<1 second	🚧 TBD	🚧 In Progress
Network Latency	<100ms	🚧 TBD	🚧 In Progress
Memory Usage	<4GB	🚧 TBD	🚧 In Progress
Storage I/O	>100K ops/sec	🚧 TBD	🚧 In Progress

Optimization Strategies

• Parallel execution - Multi-threaded processing
• Efficient caching - Redis + RocksDB optimization
• Network optimization - Connection pooling & load balancing
• Profiling - Continuous performance monitoring
• Benchmarking - Automated performance testing

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CI/CD Pipeline

GitHub Actions Workflow

Job	Purpose	Triggers
Build	Multi-compiler builds	Push, PR
Security	Sanitizers & fuzzing	Push, PR
Docker	Image building & testing	Push, PR
SBOM	Software Bill of Materials	Push, PR
Deploy	Production deployment	Main branch

Quality Gates

• ✅ Build Success - All compilers pass
• ✅ Test Coverage - >90% coverage required
• ✅ Static Analysis - No critical issues
• ✅ Security Scan - No vulnerabilities
• ✅ Performance - No regressions

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Roadmap

Phase 1: Foundation (Months 1-6)

• [] Project setup & build system
• [] Core domain models
• [] Cryptographic foundation
• Database abstraction layer
• Basic block structure
• Transaction pool (mempool)
• Simple Proof of Work
• Basic RPC server

Phase 2: Networking (Months 7-12)

• Network transport layer
• Peer discovery
• Peer management
• Message protocol
• Block synchronization
• Transaction propagation

Phase 3: Consensus & Execution (Months 13-18)

• Advanced consensus engine
• State management
• Smart contract engine
• Gas model
• Transaction execution
• Block execution

Phase 4: Production (Months 19-24)

• Advanced RPC APIs
• GraphQL support
• Advanced indexing
• Analytics engine
• Production deployment
• Documentation & training

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Contributing

Getting Started

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Add tests
5. Update documentation
6. Submit a pull request

Development Setup

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/Skpow1234/ChainForge.git
cd ChainForge

# Install dependencies
make install-deps

# Build project
make build

# Run tests
make test

# Code quality checks
make lint
make format

Acknowledgments

• OpenSSL - Cryptographic primitives
• Boost Libraries - Networking & utilities
• RocksDB - High-performance storage
• Prometheus - Metrics collection
• Grafana - Visualization platform
• Jaeger - Distributed tracing