HowTo Setup Altchain vBFI

See: Main_Page, HowTo_Setup_vBFI

See: https://veriblock.org/vbfi

This is for an altchain. For VeriBlock NodeCore, please see HowTo_Setup_vBFI

Overview

Altchain vBFI (sometimes referred to as ABFI) provides BFI for Altchains, analogous to vBFI for NodeCore.

Eventually this will be directly embedded within the altchain daemon itself (as vBFI is directly embedded within NodeCore), but currently it runs as an external service.

Currently ABFI requires both a full NodeCore instance, and a full Bitcoin instance, and therefore is best run as a service.

Similar to a decentralized PoW mining pool, anyone can run an ABFI instance.

As a convenience, the Dev Team currently runs an instance.

Operational Requirements

• Disk space = 150GB (will run both full NodeCore daemon and full Altchain daemon)
• Memory = 16GB (docker compose will run multiple processes)
• SSD
• OS = linux preferred (i.e. Ubuntu 18.04 and higher)

Software = Docker preferred

Video

This video walks through steps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5Yb6na5-dI

Proposed default setup

1. Create folder -> /root/VeriBlock

2. Inside of that folder place application.conf with the following content:

  downloader {
      network = "mainnet"
      url = "https://mirror.veriblock.org/bootstrap"
      localUrl = false
      autoClose = true
  }

  bfi {
    # NodeCore RPC timeouts in seconds
    nodeCoreTimeOuts {
      getLastBlock = 20
      getBlock = 15
      ping = 5
      listBlocksSince = 15
      getAltChainPoPEndorsements = 15
      getStateInfo = 5
    }

    altchainId = btcsq
    blockChainNetwork = mainnet

    # below setup is for nodecore setup through docker-compose, with rpc on port 10500
    nodeCoreRpcHost = "nodecore:10500"
    api {
      port = 4568
      notificationsTest = false
    }

    forkThreatThreshold = 2
    forkThreatRatioThreshold = 0.8 
  }

  securityInheriting {
    btcsq: {
      payoutAddress: "<ADDRESS>"
      pluginKey: btc
      id: 252980111103
      name: "BTCSQ"
      host: "http://btcsq:8332"
      auth: {
        username: "btcsq"
        password: "btcsqpass"
      }
      
      network: "mainnet"
      payoutDelay: 150
      blockPeriodSeconds: 120
      extraConfig: {
        daemonConnectionTimeout: 60000
      }
    } 
  }

3. In the same folder (ex. /root/VeriBlock) create "nodecore.properties" file with the following content:

rpc.security.password.enabled=false
rpc.security.password=<password_if_above_is_enabled>
network=mainnet
http.api.bind.address=0.0.0.0
peer.bind.address=0.0.0.0
rpc.whitelist.addresses=0.0.0.0/0
rpc.bind.address=0.0.0.0

4. In the same folder (ex. /root/VeriBlock) create btcsq folder with "btcsq.conf" file inside of it with the following content:

dnsseed=0
upnp=0
debug=0
debugexclude=libevent
debugexclude=leveldb
poplogverbosity=info

fallbackfee=0.0001

zmqpubrawblock=tcp://0.0.0.0:28032
zmqpubhashblock=tcp://0.0.0.0:20332

rpcworkqueue=256

server=1
txindex=1
listen=1
rpcallowip=0.0.0.0/0
rpcport=8332
rpcbind=0.0.0.0

rpcuser=btcsq
rpcpassword=btcsqpass

addnode=95.216.252.203

Docker instance setup

Note: You have to have docker installed for this part -> link

Since btcsq container runs as it's own user you will need to change btcsq folder ownership to:

chown -R 1001:1001 btcsq

Create a "docker-compose.yml" file in the same parent folder (ex. /root/VeriBlock) that the above folder was created in, with the following content:

version: '3'

services:
  bootstrap-downloader:
    container_name: bootstrap-downloader
    image: veriblock/bootstrap-downloader:snapshot
    environment:
      - DOWNLOADER_NETWORK=mainnet
      - DOWNLOADER_NODECORE_DATA_DIRECTORY=/data
      - CONFIG_FILE=/data/application.conf
      - DOWNLOADER_AUTO_CLOSE=true
    volumes:
      - /root/VeriBlock:/data
    restart: unless-stopped

  # name of container
  btcsq:
    image: veriblock/btcsq:master-734a3a0
    ports:
      - 0.0.0.0:8033:8033     # p2p
      - 0.0.0.0:8332:8332     # rpc
      - 0.0.0.0:28032:28032 # zmq raw blocks
    volumes:
      - ./btcsq:/home/btcsq/.btcsq:rw
      - ./coredumps:/tmp/cores
    command: sh -c 'sleep 7 && btcsqd'

  nodecore:
    container_name: nodecore
    image: veriblock/nodecore:0.4.13-rc.13.dev.7
    expose:
      - 7500 # p2p
      - 10500 # rpc
      - 10600 # api
    ports:
      - 0.0.0.0:7500:7500
      - 127.0.0.1:10500:10500
      - 127.0.0.1:10600:10600
    volumes:
      - /root/VeriBlock:/data:rw
    environment:
      - NODECORE_LOG_PATH=/data/
      - NODECORE_LOG_LEVEL=INFO
    entrypoint: ""
    command: ./nodecore -d /data

  abfi:
    container_name: abfi
    restart: unless-stopped
    image: veriblock/altchain-bfi:0.4.13-rc.13.dev.7
    expose:
      - 4568 # api
    ports:
      - 0.0.0.0:4568:4568
      - 0.0.0.0:10001:10001
    volumes:
      - /root/VeriBlock/application.conf:/altchain-bfi/bin/application.conf:rw
    entrypoint: ""
    command: ./altchain-bfi
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "10m"
        max-file: "5"

To run this, use

docker-compose run bootstrap-downloader && docker-compose up -d nodecore btcsq abfi // also add the following after if you want to see logs -> && docker-compose logs -f

in the same folder above-mentioned folder.

Customisation notes

1. '/data' folder in nodecore and 'bin/application.conf' file in abfi are being mounted to the project root (in the example above that's '/root/VeriBlock'). to specify a different mounting point replace '/root/VeriBlock/application.conf' and '/root/VeriBlock' in nodecore and abfi containers with paths you would rather use.

2. Ports that are being exposed inside of docker-compose can also be edited, just make sure the ports are reflected in "application.conf" as well

3. If setting password for nodecore in nodecore.properties or btcsq in btcsq/btcsq.conf make sure it is reflected in application.conf as well

Get results

View in Altchain Explorer

Each Transaction page can show the BFI status:

View in QT Wallet

The transaction page can show the BFI status:

Note that this can be configured to whichever service you would like (such as pointing to your own decentralized instance). Go to "Options", and select the new "vBFI" tab.

API

There are two APIs:

(1) Ping

https://<hosted_instance>/<altchain_id>/ping

Such as: https://testnet.abfi.veriblock.org/16579303907010303/ping

(2) Chain details

https://<hosted_instance>/<altchain_id>/chains

Roadmap

Currently ABFI requires multiple services (Full NodeCore, Full BTC node, Kotlin Service, Altchain daemon).

For easier operations, the eventual roadmap is to have ABFI fully embedded within the altchain daemon.

Troubleshooting

No known block with Bitcoin Finality

While ABFI is doing initial calculations "There's no known block with Bitcoin Finality" message might be shown in /api/ping path. But if this message is still shown after 3 hours make sure to restart with

`docker-compose down` + `docker-compose up -d nodecore btcsq abfi`