86 lines
3.6 KiB
Markdown
86 lines
3.6 KiB
Markdown
# vspd
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[](https://github.com/jholdstock/vspd/actions)
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[](http://copyfree.org)
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[](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/jholdstock/vspd)
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## Overview
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vspd is a from scratch implementation of a Voting Service Provider (VSP) for
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the Decred network.
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A VSP running vspd can be used to vote on any ticket - tickets do not need to
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be purchased with any special conditions such as dedicated outputs for paying
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VSP fees. Fees are paid directly to the VSP with an independent on-chain
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transaction.
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To use vspd, ticket holders must prove ownership of their ticket with a
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cryptographic signature, pay the fee requested by the VSP, and submit a private
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key which enables the VSP to vote the ticket. Once this process is complete the
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VSP will add the ticket to a pool of always-online voting wallets.
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## Features
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- **API** - Tickets are registered with the VSP using a JSON HTTP API. For more
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detail on the API and its usage, read [api.md](./docs/api.md)
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- **Web front-end** - A minimal, static, website providing pool stats.
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- **Two-way accountability** - All vspd requests must be signed with a private
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key corresponding to the relevant ticket, and all vspd responses are signed
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by with a private key known only by the server. This enables both the client
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and the server to prove to outside observers if their counterparty is
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misbehaving. For more detail, and examples, read
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[two-way-accountability.md](./docs/two-way-accountability.md).
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- **Dynamic fees** - Clients must request a new fee address and amount for every
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ticket. When these are given to a client, there is an associated expiry
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period. If the fee is not paid in this period, the client must request a new
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fee. This enables the VSP admin to change their fee as often as they like.
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## Implementation
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vspd is built and tested on go 1.13 and 1.14, making use of the following
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libraries:
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- [gin-gonic/gin](https://github.com/gin-gonic/gin) webserver.
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- [etcd-io/bbolt](https://github.com/etcd-io/bbolt) k/v database.
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- [jrick/wsrpc](https://github.com/jrick/wsrpc) for RPC communication with dcrd
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and dcrwallet.
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## Deployment
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- Single server running vspd and dcrd. dcrd on this server is used for fishing
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ticket details out of the chain, and for broadcasting and checking the status
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of fee transactions. `--txindex` is required so `getrawtransaction` can be
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used.
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- A xpub key is provided to vspd via config. vspd will use this key to
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derive a new addresses for each fee payments. It is recommended to export an
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xpub from a cold wallet which is not a part of the vspd deployment.
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- Multiple remote voting servers, each running dcrwallet and dcrd. dcrwallet on
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these servers should be constantly unlocked and have voting enabled. Three
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voting servers in different physical locations are recommended for production.
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## Backup
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The bbolt database file used by vspd is stored in the process home directory, at
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the path `{homedir}/data/{network}/vspd.db`. vspd keeps a file lock on this
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file, so it cannot be opened by any other processes while vspd is running.
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To facilitate back-ups, vspd will write periodically write a copy of the bbolt
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database to the path `{homedir}/data/{network}/vspd.db-backup`. A copy of the
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database file will also be written to this path when vspd shuts down.
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## Issue Tracker
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The [integrated github issue tracker](https://github.com/jholdstock/vspd/issues)
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is used for this project.
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## License
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vspd is licensed under the [copyfree](http://copyfree.org) ISC License.
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