funP2P – Kademlia DHT-Based P2P Network

funP2P began as a personal project to understand peer-to-peer networking, and it’s now evolving toward launching its own blockchain mainnet for fully decentralized connectivity.

Project inquiries → elastic7327@proton.me Telegram → @jhe7327

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Project Overview

This repository demonstrates a peer-to-peer network built on a lightweight Kademlia Distributed Hash Table (DHT). It was created to explore and experiment with core distributed-system concepts.

Key Capabilities (via Python kademlia)

• Configure and manage bootstrap nodes
• Store and retrieve data in a distributed hash table
• Discover peers and create direct P2P links
• Exchange simple messages between nodes

System Components

1. Bootstrap Node (bootstrap_node.py)

   • Entry point to the network
   • Persists DHT data
   • Assists with peer discovery

2. Peer Node (peer.py)

   • Discovers other peers through the DHT
   • Joins topic-based groups
   • Establishes direct P2P communication

Tech Stack

• Python 3.9+
• aiokademlia – Kademlia DHT protocol implementation
• asyncio – asynchronous I/O
• JSON – data serialization

Installation

# (Optional) create virtual env via pyenv
pyenv virtualenv 3.12.1 fun_p2p
pyenv local fun_p2p

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements/requirements.txt

Quick Start

1 ▪ Run the Bootstrap Node

python bootstrap_node.py

The bootstrap node listens on 0.0.0.0:8468 by default.

2 ▪ Run a Peer Node

python peer.py

Each peer starts on a random port and automatically connects to the bootstrap node.

How It Works

1. Node Bootstrapping

   • On startup, a peer connects to the known bootstrap node and learns the network topology via the Kademlia protocol.

2. Peer Discovery

   • Every peer stores its ID and address in the DHT, using topic keys (e.g., "global-chat") to form interest groups.

3. Direct Connections

   • Using information from the DHT, peers establish direct TCP links and exchange test messages to confirm connectivity.

System Diagram

┌─────────────────┐         ┌─────────────────┐
│  Bootstrap Node │◀────────▶│    Peer Node    │
└─────────────────┘         └─────────────────┘
        ▲                          ▲  ▲
        │                          │  │
        ▼                          │  │
┌─────────────────┐                │  │
│  Kademlia DHT   │◀───────────────┘  │
└─────────────────┘                   │
        ▲                             │
        ▼                             ▼
┌─────────────────┐         ┌─────────────────┐
│    Peer Node    │◀────────▶│    Peer Node    │
└─────────────────┘         └─────────────────┘

Features

• Distributed Data Storage – key–value data is spread across the network
• Automatic Peer Discovery – nodes find each other without manual lists
• Topic-Based Groups – peers cluster around shared interests
• Direct P2P Messaging – communication without central servers

Development Notes

Known Limitations

• NAT Traversal – nodes behind NAT currently can’t connect directly
• Data-Type Constraints – DHT natively holds primitive types (work-around: JSON)
• Security – no encryption or authentication yet

Planned Improvements

• NAT punch-through using STUN/TURN
• End-to-end encryption for peer traffic
• Distributed content storage for large objects
• Trust mechanisms to identify reputable peers

License

MIT

Contributing

Bug reports and feature suggestions are welcome via the issue tracker. Pull requests gladly accepted!