Chainpoint Core

See Chainpoint Start for an overview of the Chainpoint Network.

Draft Chainpoint Architecture Diagram

Chainpoint Core runs as a node on a distributed network. Cores aggregate hashes received from Gateways, maintain the Chainpoint Calendar, and periodically anchor data to the Bitcoin blockchain.

Each Core has an integrated Lightning Node running LND. Cores receive anchor fee payments from Gateways via Lightning. The default anchor fee is 2 satoshis. Core operators can set their anchor fee to adapt to changing market conditions and compete to earn fees from Gateways.

When joining the network, new Cores automatically open Lightning channels with the existing Cores. Each channel must have a minimum capacity of 1,000,000 satoshis. This provides a measure of Sybil resistance and helps ensure Cores have sufficient liquidity to receive Lightning payments from Gateways.

Once per hour, a Core is elected to anchor data to Bitcoin. As more Cores join the network, each Core anchors less frequently, thus reducing each Core’s cost of paying Bitcoin transaction fees.

You do not need to run Chainpoint Core to use the Chainpoint protocol. Chainpoint Core is for operators that want to participate in running the anchoring service, and earn fees from Gateways.

Installing Chainpoint Core

Requirements

Software

An Ubuntu or MacOS system with Git, Make, and BASH are required for operation. A bash script to install all other dependencies (docker, openssl, nodejs, yarn) can be run from make install-deps.

The following tcp ports need to be open:

Web: 80, 443
Lightning: 8080, 9735, 10009
Tendermint: 26656, 26657

It is possible to run Core from home, but you must have a static IP and have publicly forwarded the ports above.

Hardware

Chainpoint Core has been tested with a couple of different hardware configurations.

Minimum:

>= 4GB RAM
>= 2 CPU Cores
100+ GB SSD
Public IPv4 address

Recommended (high usage):

>= 8GB RAM
>= 4 CPU Cores
>= 500 GB SSD
Public IPv4 address

Quick Start

To start up a Core node and connect to the Chainpoint Network:

Install Dependencies

$ sudo apt-get install make git
$ git clone https://github.com/chainpoint/chainpoint-core.git
$ cd chainpoint-core
$ make install-deps    # installs go and cleveldb
$ source ~/.bashrc     # reload path after dependency installation
$ make install         # compiles core binary
$ chainpoint-core      # Run setup

If you wish to daemonize the service with systemd, the following commands are available:

$ make install-daemon  # install systemd if necessary
$ make start-daemon    # start systemd daemon
$ make log-daemon      # print daemon logs

By default the resulting binary will be placed in ~/go/bin.

Configure Core

Before running the binary for the first time, ensure you have contacted Tierion with your public IP so your traffic is allowed through the seed node's firewall.

$ ssh user@<your_ip> #Log back into your server
$ chainpoint-core

 ██████╗██╗  ██╗ █████╗ ██╗███╗   ██╗██████╗  ██████╗ ██╗███╗   ██╗████████╗     ██████╗ ██████╗ ██████╗ ███████╗
██╔════╝██║  ██║██╔══██╗██║████╗  ██║██╔══██╗██╔═══██╗██║████╗  ██║╚══██╔══╝    ██╔════╝██╔═══██╗██╔══██╗██╔════╝
██║     ███████║███████║██║██╔██╗ ██║██████╔╝██║   ██║██║██╔██╗ ██║   ██║       ██║     ██║   ██║██████╔╝█████╗
██║     ██╔══██║██╔══██║██║██║╚██╗██║██╔═══╝ ██║   ██║██║██║╚██╗██║   ██║       ██║     ██║   ██║██╔══██╗██╔══╝
╚██████╗██║  ██║██║  ██║██║██║ ╚████║██║     ╚██████╔╝██║██║ ╚████║   ██║       ╚██████╗╚██████╔╝██║  ██║███████╗
 ╚═════╝╚═╝  ╚═╝╚═╝  ╚═╝╚═╝╚═╝  ╚═══╝╚═╝      ╚═════╝ ╚═╝╚═╝  ╚═══╝   ╚═╝        ╚═════╝ ╚═════╝ ╚═╝  ╚═╝╚══════╝

? Will this Core use Bitcoin mainnet or testnet? testnet
? Enter your Core's Public IP Address: 3.17.78.45

Auto-Initialize Lightning

You will need at least 3000000 Satoshis (0.03 BTC) to join the Chainpoint Network!

Initializing Lightning wallet...
Create new address for wallet...
****************************************************
Lightning initialization has completed successfully.
****************************************************
LND Wallet Password: rjcOgYehDmthuurduuriAMsr
LND Wallet Seed: absorb behind drop safe like herp derp celery galaxy wait orient sign suit castle awake gadget pass pipe sudden ethics hill choose six orphan
LND Wallet Address: tb1qfvjr20txm464fxcr0n9d4j2gkr5w4xpl55kl6u
******************************************************
You should back up this information in a secure place.
******************************************************

Please fund your Lightning address with at least [staking requirement] Satoshis (0.0X BTC) to join the Chainpoint Network`

Chainpoint Core Setup Complete. Run with chainpoint-core -config ~/.chainpoint/core/core.conf

$ chainpoint-core -config ~/.chainpoint/core/core.conf

The staking requirement is determined by the number of cores on the Chainpoint Network multiplied by 1,000,000 satoshis.

If startup is successful, the log output will show the log message Executed block every minute after the binary connects to the Chainpoint Network, and going to <your ip>/status in a browser will show the Core status in JSON format.

During startup, lnd and tendermint will initialize in separate background threads. During this time you may see errors or warnings related to GetStatus or BlockSyncMonitor; these can be ignored.

The process can be daemonized with systemd by running make install-daemon && make start-daemon. Additionally, make log-daemon will use journald to parse the process logs and make stop-daemon will shut down the daemon.

Joining another Network

By default, the init process will join either the Chainpoint Testnet or Mainnet, depending on user choice. However, peering with custom networks is also possible:

Specify peers by adding a comma-delimited list of Tendermint URIs, such as peers=087186cd1d631c5e709c4afa15a1ce218c6a28c1@3.133.119.65:26656 to the .conf file in the config directory (by default ~/.chainpoint/core)
Run chainpoint-core -config ~/.chainpoint/core/core.conf to start Core. In order to obtain permission to submit hashes to the network, your Core will automatically stake bitcoin by opening lightning channels with the existing network validators.

Upgrade

Core can be upgraded by pulling the latest main branch from this repository and recompiling with make install.

Troubleshooting

If setup fails and the Lightning wallet hasn't yet been generated and funded, run rm -rf ~/.chainpoint/core, then run chainpoint-core again.

To reset the core chain state if the Lightning wallet has already been generated and funded, run make clean-tendermint, then chainpoint-core again.

For further help, submit an issue to the Chainpoint Core repo.

Configuration

Running chainpoint-core for the first time will perform the configuration process for you. However, you may wish to setup a custom Core or Network. To do this, you will need to set up a configuration and secrets (lightning wallet) before running.

Chainpoint Core currently uses a config file, which by default is at ~/.chainpoint/core/core.conf. Running chainpoint-core without arguments for the first time will initialize this file. Modifying these settings may be invaluable for setting up a private Chainpoint Network with different parameters, for example by configuring more frequent bitcoin anchoring.

A full list of configuration parameters is located at abci/config.go or by running chainpoint-core -h. |

Development

We encourage anyone interested in contributing to fork this repo and submit a pull-request with desired changes. Please be sure to use gofmt (go) to check/fix any style issues.

Build

make build will build a production application, provided go has been installed via install-deps. make build-dev will compile a core instance with tendermint and lightning node geared toward production.

Run

After running chainpoint-core with test parameters, API will be accessible by default on port 80, while Tendermint is accessible on ports 26656-26657.

Documentation

A description of the Chainpoint Network is available in the chainpoint-start repository.

The README for the Core application in this repo is available here.

License

This is Open Source software released under AGPLv3

chainpoint / chainpoint-core

readme