pypowchain

Simple Proof Of Work blockchain written in Python, to be used as a tool to explain how the core concepts of the technology work. Download and install depencies as follows. Python >3.6 must be used.

git clone https://github.com/alrevuelta/pypowchain.git
cd pypowchain
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
cd src
python3 main.py -p 5000

Run in debug mode

Runs a node on port 5000. Note that the mining process has to be manually triggered.

python3 main.py -p 5000

It exposes the following endpoints

localhost:5000
localhost:5000/addtx?sender=A&to=B&amount=100
localhost:5000/addpeer?peer=localhost:5000
localhost:5000/getlastblock
localhost:5000/getblockchain
localhost:5000/getbalance?account=a
localhost:5000/getmempool
localhost:5000/getpeerstore
localhost:5000/mine
localhost:5000/resolvesplit

Other nodes can run in a different machine, where boot-node defines the entry point to the network, a node which is known.

python3 main.py -p 5001 --boot-node=localhost:5000

It can be used as follows. After running a node with the command above, one can add a new transaction by a simple http get. It can be run in the browser or with curl. Note that accounts A and B contain some funds added in the genesis block.

localhost:5000/addtx?sender=A&to=B&amount=100

After that, the transaction won't be recorded in the blockchain, but will be pending to be mined in the mempool. The mempool can be seen with, where we will see the pending transactions.

localhost:5000/getmempool

With a non empty mempool, we are ready to mine the transactions. The consensus algorithim is Proof of Work. This command will find a number that meets a given criteria, and when its found, the mempool is flushed and all transactions are recorded in the blockchain.

localhost:5000/mine

We can now see the new block with either:

localhost:5000/getlastblock
localhost:5000/getblockchain

Run in real time mode

By adding the flag --mine the node will continuously mine one block after another.

python3 main.py -p 5000 --mine

It will also keep a mesh network with the rest of the peers, broadcasting the blocks that are mined and updating its blockchain if a longer one was detected in the network. Everything explained above applies, with the exception that there is no need to call mine.

Run in real p2p environment

The code can also be run in a real p2p environment where nodes are not in the same machine/network:

• Make sure the port is open using this tool. If the port you have configured is not open, other peers won't be able to reach you. Note that you might need to open the ports in your router and set up the NAT.
• Set the flag node-ip with your public IP. Other peers will use this IP to reach you.

Note that its ok if not all peers have the ports open, but at least the bootnode has to have them open. The more nodes with open ports the more decentralized the network would be, as it won't rely in a unique node to relay the blocks.

python3 main.py -p 5000 --boot-node=x.x.x.x:5000 --mine --node-ip=y.y.y.y

Test

cd src
python3 -m unittest test