Introduction

Unchained is a multi-blockchain backend interface with three main goals:

1. Provide a common interface to multiple blockchains
2. Provide additional information not always accessible from the node directly
3. Provide realtime updates about blockchain transactions (pending and confirmed)

Table Of Contents

• Project Details
• Helpful Docs
• Coin Stack Components
• Notes
• Local Networking
• Docker-Compose Local Dev Instructions
  • Prerequisites
  • Running
• Kubernetes Local Dev Instructions
  • Docker Desktop (macOS)
  • Minikube (Linux)

Helpful Docs

• Pulumi
• Kubernetes
• OpenAPI

Coin Stack Components

• Node - coin specific node daemon providing historical blockchain data (ex. bitcoind, geth, etc)
• Indexer - optional service that indexes transaction and balance history by address, or any other applicable information, if not provided by the node directly
• API - provides a base set of functionality via REST and WebSocket that can be extended with coin specific logic

Architecture Diagrams

With Indexer	No Indexer

Notes

• The ethereum coinstack is used in all examples. If you wish to run a different coinstack, just replace ethereum with the coinstack name you wish to run
• All paths are relative to the root unchained project directory (ex. unchained/[go|node]/{path})
• All pulumi commands should be run in a pulumi/ directory (ex. pulumi/, coinstacks/ethereum/pulumi/)

Local Networking

We use traefik as a reverse-proxy to expose all of our docker containers. Traefik is exposed at port 80. Traefik Dashboard is exposed at port 8080

Traefik routes requests based on host name. which includes the coinstack name. For Example:

• api.ethereum.localhost

Setup

• Each language subdirectory has setup requirements before running a coinstack locally
  • Go - unchained/go
  • Node - unchained/node
• Both go and node module have linter installed in git pre-commit hook. To set up the hook:

  cd node && yarn
  

Docker-Compose Local Dev Instructions

Lightweight local development environment

Prerequisites

• Install docker-compose

Running

• unchained/node/packages/client generates a typescript client for each coinstack using the generated swagger.json files. To ensure everything successfully builds, make the golang coinstacks first:

  cd go && make
  

• Start the reverse proxy and any common service (ex. hot reloading):

  docker-compose up -d
  

  Note: -d runs the containers in daemon (background) mode. If you want to see logs, -d can be omitted.

• Start a coinstack:

  cd node/coinstacks/ethereum && docker-compose up
  

• Visit http://api.ethereum.localhost/docs to view the OpenAPI documentation for the API

• Tear down a coinstack (including docker volumes):

  cd node/coinstacks/ethereum && docker-compose down -v
  

Common Issues

• If you are running Docker Desktop and see any SIGKILL errors, increase your resource limits in the Resources Tab.
• To fix the error:

  Error response from daemon: pull access denied for unchained-local, repository does not exist or may require 'docker login': denied: requested access to the resource is denied
  

  Run the following command to force building the local image from the root unchained/ directory:

  docker-compose up unchained-local
  

Kubernetes Local Dev Instructions

Mirrors production kubernetes environment as closely as possible

Docker Desktop (macOS)

Minikube (Linux)