Ethereum Writer Service

Node service to send Ethereum transactions for elections lifecycle (like auto vote unready).

How to run

The service is packaged as a Docker image. It is routinely published from this repo to Docker Hub.

Command-line arguments

Argument	Description
--config <path>	Path for a JSON configuration file. Multiple files can be given one after the other. (see JSON format below).

Static JSON config file

• Example as JavaScript code

Field Name	Description
ManagementServiceEndpoint	HTTP URL endpoint of an instance of management service, for example http://management-service:8080.
EthereumEndpoint	HTTP URL endpoint for an Ethereum full node which will be used for all Ethereum queries and sending transactions.
SignerEndpoint	HTTP URL endpoint of an instance of signer service, for example http://signer:7777.
EthereumElectionsContract	Ethereum address of Orbs V2 Elections contract, for example 0x02Ca9F2c5dD0635516241efD480091870277865b.
NodeOrbsAddress	The Orbs address of the node, configured during initialization with Polygon, for example 8cd2a24f0c3f50bce2f12c846277491433b47ae0.
ManagementServiceEndpointSchema	Local schema of the Public API HTTP endpoint of the management service where {GUARDIAN_IP} is a replacable parameter of the IP address of any guardian of the network. Default: 'http://{{GUARDIAN_IP}}/services/management-service/status'
StatusJsonPath	The local path on disk where status JSON should be written by the service. Default: ./status/status.json
RunLoopPollTimeSeconds	The interval in seconds of how often the runloop of the service wakes up to execute its routine of reading data, update state and write side effects. Default: 120 (2 minutes)
EthereumBalancePollTimeSeconds	How often in seconds should Ether balance be queried, must be a a multiple of RunLoopPollTimeSeconds. Default: 14400 (4 hours)
EthereumCanJoinCommitteePollTimeSeconds	How often in seconds should the service query the Ethereum Elections contract to check whether a node that isn't in the committee can successfully join it. Default: 600 (10 minutes)
OrbsReputationsContract	The name of the Orbs smart contract running on a virtual chain that returns reputation scores for all peers. Default: _Committee
EthereumSyncRequirementSeconds	How near Ethereum Management ref time should be for Ethereum to be considered synchronized, ETHEREUM_PROGRESS_REQ in the spec. Default: 1200 (20 minutes)
FailToSyncVcsTimeoutSeconds	If virtual chains could not be properly synchronized within this time frame, the node will require reset, FAIL_TO_SYNC_TIMEOUT in the spec. Default: 86400 (24 hours)
ElectionsRefreshWindowSeconds	Committee update stale window, REFRESH_WINDOW in the spec. Default: 7200 (2 hours)
InvalidReputationGraceSeconds	Time validator needs to have invalid reputation for vote unready to be sent, INVALID_REPUTATION_GRACE in the spec. Default: 108000 (30 hours)
VoteUnreadyValiditySeconds	How often vote outs should be resent against the same validator, VOTEOUT_VALIDAITY in the spec. Default: 604800 (7 days)
ElectionsAuditOnly	Whether the node is audit only and should avoid joining the committee as elected validator and remain standby in the topology instead. Default: false
SuspendVoteUnready	Should the node avoid sending actual vote-unready transactions to Ethereum and instead just log the intent. Default: false
EthereumDiscountGasPriceFactor	When trying to send transactions to Ethereum, the first attempt tries to reduce the recommended gas price and send under a discount. Default: 0.75
EthereumDiscountTxTimeoutSeconds	On the first attempt of sending transactions to Ethereum under discount, how long to wait before considering the transaction timed out. Default: 3600 (1 hour)
EthereumNonDiscountTxTimeoutSeconds	On the following attempts of sending transactions to Ethereum without discount, how long to wait before considering the transaction timed out. Default: 600 (10 minutes)
EthereumMaxGasPrice	What is the maximum gas price that will be used for sending transactions to Ethereum. Default: 500000000000 (500 gwei)
EthereumMaxCommittedDailyTx	The maximum allowed number of transactions sent to Ethereum in one day (actually committed, could be either successful or reverted). This protects against bugs that may cause too many transactions to be sent and Ether balance to drain. Default: 4

Developer instructions

Install dev environment

• Make sure Node.js is installed (min 12.14.0).

  • Install with brew install node, check version with node -v.

• VSCode is recommended as IDE.

  • Recommended extensions ESLint, Prettier - code Formatter.

• Docker is required for running E2E tests.

  • Install here, check version with docker -v.

• Run in terminal in root project directory:

  npm install
  npm test
  

Build

• Run in terminal in root project directory:

  npm run build
  

  Note that the Python errors gyp ERR! find Python on keccak node-gyp rebuild are ok.

• Built code will be inside ./dist.

  • Run it with npm start.

• Docker image will be built and tagged as local/ethereum-writer.

  • Run it with docker run local/ethereum-writer.

Test

• For unit tests, run in terminal in root project directory:

  npm run test
  

  To run a single test:

  npm run test:quick -- src/config.test.ts
  

• For E2E tests (on docker), run in terminal in root project directory:

  npm run build
  npm run test:e2e
  

  • Note: running E2E locally may leave docker residues:

    • See which instances are running with docker ps, stop all with docker stop $(docker ps -a -q)

    • See which images exist with docker images, delete all relevant with docker rmi $(docker images --format '{{.Repository}}:{{.Tag}}' | grep 'cicontainer')

Matic-writer - Polygon

The code has been updated to add EVM write capabilities for Polygon network, as well as Ethereum in order to support polygon proof of stake functionality as of March 29 2022.

the network runs another docker image of this repo under the name matic-writer to support writing to POS contracts on polygon network.