FilestorageVM

This project was implemented as part of a hackathon. The goal was to create a custom virtual machine / subnet which run on Avalanche. I created a chain which allows users to store arbitrary data (e.g. for files or other things). Validators of the subnet are able to earn rewards for validating.

For further reading:

• "Tokenomics" - lol
• "Data storage / transaction details

VIDEO DEMO / me rambling.

This project currently is only local. I intend to deploy it to Fuji, but of course I forgot to sync the chain and now it's taking forever. Will update with more details if I put it live.

Validating on Fuji

1. You'll need to copy the binary out of /bin (or compile yourself using the build script) into your avalanchego/plugins directory.
2. Add your node as a validator on the primary subnet
3. Add your node as a validator on the subnet wtyFZF1UUyjyXeiVCP5Vd5dpQ6KPCmG24qW3agbSRdtVEh7Jb

Then, to validate on Fuji, we need to run avalanchego as follows:

avalanchego --network-id=fuji --whitelisted-subnets=wtyFZF1UUyjyXeiVCP5Vd5dpQ6KPCmG24qW3agbSRdtVEh7Jb --index-enabled

Unfortunately --index-enabled requires resyncing the whole chain.

Connecting to Fuji

Will provide more info on this once I resync the chain with index-enabled haha.

SUBNET_ID=wtyFZF1UUyjyXeiVCP5Vd5dpQ6KPCmG24qW3agbSRdtVEh7Jb
BLOCKCHAIN_ID=6XHJC4cJVzSyF4iaA5TugsnWzn3LTY1Y5DwGwaTYYUrWuwQJ7

Installation

1. Clone repo
2. Install avash & avalanchego (v1.5.3). I have them in /avash & /avalanchego-v1.5.3 (relative to the root of this project). It might work if you put them elsewhere but no guarantees.
3. Install the required tools (see Required Tools section below)
4. Configure ~/.avash.yaml (see Avash Configuration section below)
5. Set up environment variables (see Environment section below)
6. Install the Python requirements: pip install -r cli/requirements.txt

Operating System Note

This won't work on windows probably, maybe on other OS. Mostly because of path separators but maybe there are other issues.

Required Tools

Ok so, this project is all over the place. Good luck, you'll need:

• Golang
• Python & pip (I'm running 3.7.x)
• NodeJS (I'm running v15.0.1, this isn't really a hard requirement, but it's used in one of the scripts)

Avash Configuration

Edit your ~/.avash.yaml file. Make sure that you set avalancheLocation: <absolute_path_to_avalanche_go>.

Environment

The following environment variables need to be set

• AVALANCHEGO_DIR: absolute path to Avalanche Go
• FILESTORAGEVM_DIR: absolute path to the root directory of this project

Running Locally

Launch Avash & the local dev network

1. From the avash directory, ./avash
2. In the avash CLI, type runscript ../scripts/avash-start.lua. This will only work if you installed avash into /avash relative to the project root. Otherwise, replace the .. with the full path to the project root.
3. Wait for everything to boot. At the end you'll see done, we are validating! along with the blockchain id and the subnet id.
4. Leave this open
5. Copy your blockchain_id - you'll need it to run the CLI

Building the VM

1. From the project root, run bash build.sh
2. From the Avash shell, type runscript ../scripts/avash-reload.lua (this reboots the node validating the subnet)

Running the CLI

From the /cli directory, run python3 cli.py <blockchain_id>

More details on the CLI are available here