decentralized grpc service platform

Introduction

This is a sample decentralized service platform powered by gRPC, Ethereum, IPFS and Lightning Network.

Built for Codemotion Milan 2019: Protobuf all the things! End to end gRPC service architectures

Platform overview

• Decentralized service registry on the Ethereum blockchain
• gRPC clients and services
• Decentralized storage for gRPC service definitions on IPFS

Instructions

• npm install to get dependencies
• npm run network to start a local Ethereum blockchain
• npm run compile to compile the Registry smart contract
• npm run deploy to deploy the compiled Registry smart contract to the local Ethereum blockchain
• npm run startService to start the demo service. The service registers itself to the Registry smart contract. The service is a full-fledged IPFS node; it uploads, advertises and serves its own service definition to IPFS
• npm run callService to call the demo service from a demo client. The client gets the service endpoint and the service definition IPFS hash from the Registry smart contract. The client is a full-fledged IPFS node; if requests the service definition it needs from IPFS
• npm run listServices lists all the services in the Registry contract

Stay tuned for

• Clients pay for services using Lightning Network

Slides and video

Coming after the talk

Resources

• grpc.io: high performance, open-source universal RPC framework
• ipfs.io: peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol
• js-ipfs: IPFS implementation in JavaScript
• Ethereum: global, open-source platform for decentralized applications
• Solidity: Ethereum smart contracts language documentation
• Truffle suite: tools for local smart contract development
• web3.js: library to interact with Ethereum nodes
• Lightning Network: scalable, instant Bitcoin/Blockchain Transactions
• LND, the Lightning Network Daemon: gRPC API reference documentation