reactor-iota

This Reactor Extension script is part of EVRYTHNG's Blockchain Integration Hub. It can be used to send EVRYTHNG actions to the IOTA Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and its networks.

IOTA is an open source DLT that enables sharing of any type of data (including IoT data) guaranteeing traceability of their source, alongside with integrity and immutability of the shared information, and dedicated access management, e.g., who can read what. In contrast with traditional blockchain-based DLTs, IOTA is based on a Directed Acyclic Graph, the Tangle. This video explains how the IOTA’s Tangle works.

The IOTA Streams second layer protocol is used to create chains of messages anchored to the Tangle. The anchors library facilitates getting access to the IOTA Streams functionality through the abstraction of an "Anchoring Channel".

Configure

1. Deploy this Reactor script in an application within a project, not forgetting to specify the dependencies in package.json.
2. You can specify a NODE_ADDRESS, otherwise https://chrysalis-nodes.iota.org will be used (see Testing below).
3. Ensure that the CONFIRMATION_ACTION_TYPE action type exists in the same project as the EVRYTHNG application hosting the Reactor script.

Use

The script will react to actions with a sendToIOTA=true custom field and will record a transaction for the action on the IOTA Distributed Ledger (DLT). The script will record transactions on the Chrysalis mainnet default nodes (hosted by the IOTA Foundation) unless a specific node is defined by the NODE_ADDRESS setting.

You can include any extra custom fields that you may require in addition to the one mentioned here. The target of the original action can be either a Thng, product, or collection.

Once the script has run, the resulting channelID, seed and publicKey are added to the target Thng, product, or collection's custom fields under a dictionary named iotaAnchoringChannel. The channelID is the combination of the channel address and the initial anchorage (announce message) provided by the anchoring channel associated to the target. The seed is the secret used to create such a channel and to anchor action's hashes. Such seed is used to generate an Ed25519 key pair which public key component is stored under the publicKey custom field. The public key allows to verify the authenticity of the anchored messages when fetched.

Last but not least, the iotaAnchoringChannel dictionary contains the nextAnchorageID member which allows the Reactor script to continue anchoring messages to the same IOTA Streams channel (i.e.: in a single chain) on subsequent invocations. This allows the anchoring channel to closely resemble the target's action history.

Testing

Once the script is installed, test it by creating an action with the correct custom field specified on a Thng, product, or collection in the project's scope, for example:

{
  "type": "_ItemShipped",
  "thng": "UKn4wYKEYyQnc2aawGhytBfc",
  "customFields": {
    "sendToIOTA": true
  }
}

The confirmation action created by the script will contain the channelID, as well as a pointer to the original action that triggered the script:

{
    "type": "_sentToIOTA",
    "id": "VasQR7nVxNMmYMUNxYMwpFap",
    "createdAt": 1626279332221,
    "customFields": {
        "channelID": "5f9bf50c1e569935e8dee6885623b218653bec4974336f35bb496799479f6dbe0000000000000000:0e39dbea0bf5ded36b7ae626",
        "originalAction": {
            "id": "Vw8Qw7Ha7gNsSfg2MNChAqQe",
            "type": "_bottleOpened"
        },
        "publicKey": "5f9bf50c1e569935e8dee6885623b218653bec4974336f35bb496799479f6dbe"
    },
    "timestamp": 1626279332221,
    "location": {
        "latitude": 39.0481,
        "longitude": -77.4728,
        "position": {
            "type": "Point",
            "coordinates": [
                -77.4728,
                39.0481
            ]
        }
    },
    "locationSource": "geoIp",
    "createdByProject": "Vwrya4hYsEXpPxcxtxGEHrHa",
    "createdByApp": "VasP3WkKBDTfT9Ertk4abmQb",
    "thng": "Vw89wM7ntBfq9FVeEy9EYqbm",
    "product": "VRNr4p4ysF5FBFCHMPRNehnh"
}

You can also inspect the anchoring channel content by using the tangle-cli tool. For instance,

tcli channel inspect --channelID="0d00913710aa876fadfb7aa3a7c1f99399dea03c442111f82976bf41df9dd0b50000000000000000:99c47f5045a0b27876a68087" --seed=jjfwzxqfmbpqiqrqiyntmdtucqxfgwapzciywutlarkzbixerisfqlxkqsgajvpyofmuktweqltnniup --mainnet