liotbchain is a lightweight, versatile blockchain framework designed for both IoT and non-IoT applications for educational and experimental purposes. It allows you to create and manage a blockchain network, add transactions, and mine blocks. This framework can be used to simulate a real-world blockchain environment.
Disclaimer: This framework is not intended for production use. It is designed for educational and experimental purposes only.
- Create and manage a blockchain network
- Add transactions and mine blocks
- Configurable difficulty and nonce limit
- Supports digital signatures for transaction verification
- Integration with PostgreSQL for persistent storage
+-------------------------+
| Raspberry Pi Devices |
| (Multiple IoT Devices) |
+-----------+-------------+
|
v
+-------------------------+
| Sender Server |
| (Data Signing & Sending)|
+-----------+-------------+
|
v
+-------------------------+
| Receiver Server |
| (Blockchain & Storage) |
+-----------+-------------+
|
v
+-------------------------+
| PostgreSQL Database |
+-------------------------+
+--------------------+ +----------------------+ +------------------------+ +---------------------+ +--------------------+
| Raspberry Pi | | Sender Server | | Receiver Server | | Blockchain Module | | PostgreSQL DB |
| (IoT Device) | | (Data Signing) | | (Data Verification) | | (Mining & Storage) | | |
+---------+----------+ +----------+-----------+ +-----------+------------+ +---------+-----------+ +---------+----------+
| | | | |
| 1. Generate Data | | | |
|--------------------------->| | | |
| | | | |
| | 2. Sign Data with Private Key| | |
| |----------------------------->| | |
| | | | |
| | 3. Send Signed Data & | | |
| | Public Key to Receiver | | |
| |----------------------------->| | |
| | | | |
| | | 4. Verify Signature with | |
| | | Public Key | |
| | |----------------------------->| |
| | | | |
| | | 5. Add Transaction to Block | |
| | |----------------------------->| |
| | | | |
| | | 6. Perform Proof of Work | |
| | |----------------------------->| |
| | | | |
| | | 7. Store Block in DB | |
| | |----------------------------->| |
| | | | |
| | | 8. Return Success Response | |
| | |<-----------------------------| |
| | 9. Log Success Response | | |
| |<----------------------------| | |
| | | | |
| 10. Display Logs | | | |
|<-------------------------->| | | |
+---------+----------------------------+------------------------------+-------------------------------+------------------------------+--------------------+
1. **Data Generation**
- Raspberry Pi devices generate sensor data periodically.
2. **Data Signing**
- The Sender Server signs the data using its private key.
- The Sender Server prepares a payload containing the signed data, the signature, and the public key.
3. **Sending Data**
- The Sender Server sends the payload to the Receiver Server via a POST request.
4. **Data Verification**
- The Receiver Server verifies the signature using the provided public key.
- If the signature is valid, the data is added as a transaction in the blockchain.
5. **Blockchain Operations**
- The Receiver Server adds the transaction to the blockchain.
- The blockchain performs Proof of Work (mining) to find a valid nonce for the block.
- The mined block is stored in the PostgreSQL database.
6. **Response Handling**
- The Receiver Server returns a success response to the Sender Server.
- The Sender Server logs the success response.
7. **Display and Validation**
- The Receiver Server can display the full blockchain by retrieving the blocks from the PostgreSQL database.
- The blockchain can be validated to ensure its integrity.
- You can install liotbchain via pip:
pip install liotbchainliotbchain uses environment variables for configuration. You can set these variables in a .env file or export them directly in your terminal session.
DATABASE_URL: Database URL for PostgreSQL database connection
TRANSACTIONS_PER_BLOCK: Number of transactions to be grouped into a single block (default is 2)
DIFFICULTY: Mining difficulty, the number of leading zeros required in the block hash (default is 2)
NONCE_LIMIT: Nonce limit to prevent infinite loops during the mining process (default is 10000000)
Example .env file:DATABASE_URL=your_postgres_db_url
TRANSACTIONS_PER_BLOCK=2
DIFFICULTY=4
NONCE_LIMIT=1000000The receiver server is responsible for receiving data, verifying signatures, and adding transactions to the blockchain. The receiver server runs a Flask application that exposes endpoints for receiving data and retrieving the blockchain.
pip install -r requirements.txtpython3 server/receiver.pyThe sender client server is responsible for generating and signing data, and sending it to the receiver server at specified intervals. The sender server runs a Flask application that exposes an endpoint to start sending data.
python3 client/sender.py- Receive Data
- Endpoint: /receive_data
- Method: POST
- Description: Receives data from the sender client server, verifies the signature, and adds it to the blockchain.
- Request Body:
{
"data": {
"device": "Raspberry Pi 1",
"distance": 120,
"timestamp": 1717979369.243414
},
"signature": "base64_encoded_signature",
"public_key": "-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----...-----END PUBLIC KEY-----"
}- Get Blockchain
- Endpoint: /get_chain
- Method: GET
- Description: Retrieves the full blockchain.
- Response:
[
{
"timestamp": 1717979369.243414,
"index": 0,
"data": "Genesis Block",
"nonce": 0,
"hash": "hash_value",
"previous hash": "previous_hash_value"
},
...
]- Start Sending Data
- Endpoint: /start_sending
- Method: POST
- Description: Starts generating and sending data to the receiver server every specified interval time.
{
"number_of_items_to_send": 2, // Two items in payload
"interval_time": 2 // Wait time in-between payload
}-
Use the Swagger UI for Visualization provided by Flask-Swagger to interact with the endpoints. Open your browser and navigate to:
-
Receiver Server:
http://localhost:5001/apidocs/ -
Sender Client Server:
http://localhost:5000/apidocs/ -
Use the Swagger UI to start sending data from the sender client server to the receiver server by calling the /start_sending endpoint with the desired number of items and interval time.
This project is licensed under the MIT License.
Sharhan Alhassan - sharhanalhassan@gmail.com