語典チェーン · Goten Chain

A decentralized, community-governed registry of Japanese loanword (外来語) etymologies on the Ethereum blockchain
Features · Setup · Structure · Smart Contract

About The Project

語典チェーン (Goten Chain), meaning "word-lexicon chain," is a decentralized application (DApp) that implements a trustless, community-governed registry of Japanese loanwords (gairaigo, 外来語). Built with Solidity, Hardhat, ethers.js v6, and Svelte 4 + TypeScript, it deploys a smart contract to a local Ethereum node where any wallet holder can propose an etymology entry, vote on pending proposals, and earn an on-chain contributor score when their entries are ratified by community consensus.

Existing Japanese linguistic databases (JMdict, Daijisen) are centralized, maintained by small editorial teams with no transparent contribution history. Etymology disputes in gairaigo are real (e.g., パン: Portuguese pão vs. Spanish pan). Goten Chain solves this with immutable, attributed records and trustless voting rather than editorial gatekeeping.

This project was built for COSC 402: Current Trends and Topics in Computing (Individual Smart Contract / DApp Implementation). It is the fourth (though, technically fifth if we included AC) in a series of Japanese-language NLP projects: Gairaigo statistical analysis -> Kataklassifer (LinearSVC donor-language classifier) -> 語旅 Kotabi (interactive gairaigo world map) -> 語典チェーン Goten Chain.

Table of Contents

1. About The Project
2. Features
3. Technologies Used
4. Setup
5. Project Structure
6. Smart Contract
7. Website Snapshots

Features

• On-Chain Proposals: Any wallet holder can propose a gairaigo entry with katakana, romaji, donor language, source word, meaning, and semantic category, permanently stored on-chain with the proposer's address
• Trustless Voting: One vote per wallet per entry; proposers cannot vote on their own entries; all rules enforced at the contract level with no admin override
• Auto-Ratification / Rejection: Entries automatically move to Ratified (net votes ≥ +3) or Rejected (net votes ≤ −3) without any manual intervention
• Contributor Score: Proposer's on-chain reputation score increments each time one of their entries is ratified, visible in the stats bar
• Browse Tab (閲覧): Searchable, filterable card grid of all ratified entries; click any card to open a full-detail modal; supports search by katakana, romaji, meaning, or source word
• Propose Tab (提案): Wallet-gated form with 24 donor language options and 8 semantic categories; bilingual labels throughout
• Vote Tab (投票): Pending entries with upvote/downvote controls, a consensus progress bar, and per-wallet voted tracking
• Japanese Aesthetic: Seigaiha wave header, washi paper tones, vermillion accents, Shippori Mincho B1 and Noto Sans JP typography, Japanese pigment palette for status and category chips
• Toast Notifications: Auto-dismissing success/error toasts replace inline DOM alerts
• Responsive Cards: Long meanings clamped to two lines with full text in modal; long continuous strings wrap correctly

Technologies Used

Technology	Purpose
Solidity 0.8.20	Smart contract language
Hardhat	Local Ethereum node, compilation, testing, deployment
Chai	Smart contract unit assertions
ethers.js v6	Blockchain interaction from the frontend
Svelte 4 + TypeScript	Frontend framework and type safety
Vite	Build tool and dev server
MetaMask	Browser wallet (EIP-1193 provider)

Setup

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• MetaMask browser extension

Installation

git clone https://github.com/krislette/goten-chain.git
cd goten-chain
npm install
cd frontend && npm install && cd ..

Run

# Terminal 1: Start local Ethereum node (keep running)
npm run node

# Terminal 2: Compile and deploy contract
npm run compile
npm run deploy

# Terminal 3: Start frontend
cd frontend && npm run dev

Frontend available at http://localhost:5173.

MetaMask Configuration

1. Add network: RPC URL http://127.0.0.1:8545, Chain ID 31337, Currency ETH
2. Import a test account: copy a private key from the npm run node output and import it into MetaMask (each account starts with 10,000 ETH)
3. Repeat for additional accounts to test voting with multiple wallets

Note: Every time you restart npm run node, you must re-run npm run deploy — the chain resets and the old contract address becomes invalid.

Run Tests

npm run test

Project Structure

goten-chain/
├── contracts/
│ └── GotenChain.sol        # Smart contract: proposals, voting, ratification, scores
├── scripts/
│ └── deploy.js             # Deploys contract and writes contractConfig.json to frontend
├── test/
│ └── GotenChain.test.js    # 10 Hardhat/Chai unit tests
├── hardhat.config.js       # viaIR + optimizer (stack-depth fix)
├── package.json
└── frontend/
├── index.html
├── src/
│ ├── App.svelte            # Layout: header, stats strip, tab nav, footer
│ ├── app.css               # Design tokens, washi palette, seigaiha pattern
│ ├── main.ts
│ └── lib/
│ ├── contract.ts           # ethers v6 helpers: connectWallet, fetchAllEntries, proposeEntry, castVote
│ ├── contractConfig.json   # Auto-generated by deploy script
│ ├── stores/
│ │ ├── chainStore.ts       # Svelte stores: provider, signer, account, entries, loading
│ │ └── toast.ts            # Toast notification store and showToast helper
│ └── components/
│ ├── WalletConnect.svelte
│ ├── BrowseTab.svelte      # Ratified entries, search, filter, card modal
│ ├── ProposeTab.svelte     # Entry submission form
│ ├── VoteTab.svelte        # Pending entries, vote buttons, progress bar
│ └── Toaster.svelte        # Auto-dismissing toast overlay
├── svelte.config.js
├── vite.config.ts
└── tsconfig.json

Smart Contract

GotenChain.sol — deployed to localhost:8545, address written to frontend/src/lib/contractConfig.json by the deploy script.

Function	Description
proposeEntry(katakana, romaji, donorLanguage, sourceWord, meaning, category)	Stores a new entry on-chain, emits EntryProposed
vote(id, upvote)	Casts a vote; enforces one-vote-per-wallet and no-self-vote; auto-ratifies or rejects at threshold
getEntry(id)	Returns a single entry struct
getTotalEntries()	Returns total entry count
contributorScore(address)	Returns on-chain reputation score for a wallet
hasVoted(entryId, address)	Returns whether a wallet has voted on an entry

Constants: RATIFY_THRESHOLD = 3, REJECT_THRESHOLD = 3

Website Snapshots

Browse Tab (閲覧)

Propose Tab (提案)

Vote Tab (投票)

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