gambercoin is a project fully written in Go that aims to create a full enviroment to emulate a distributed network using the Gossip Protocol.
It is an extension if the iplementation of the Peerster including a simple monetary system based in UTXOs.
gambercoin is part of the practical projects from the subject Decentralized Systems Engineering
The project is ´go-gettable´ like other Go projects.
Other commands
# launch server on port 8080
make serve
# launch node on port 8080 in headless mode
make run1
# send test message to node on headless mode
make send1
Gossip protocols are distributed exchange protocols for robust information exchange, typically deployed on dynamic network topologies, e.g, because nodes can join and leave the network, they are mobile, their connectivity varies, etc. Examples of applications are ad-hoc communication between self-driving cars, peer-to-peer networks that broadcast a TV program, sensor nodes that detect fire hazard in remote areas. The way gossip protocols spread information resembles gossipping in real life: a rumor may be heard by many people, although they don’t hear it directly from the rumor initiator. The figure below depicts a gossip protocol.
(source: introduction-to-gossip)
When a node joins a gossip protocol, it has the contact information (e.g., network address) of a few nodes it can send messages to. For instance, node C in the figure above knows the addresses of nodes E and F. Additionally, when a node receives a message, it learns the address of the sender. As an example, node C learns the address of node A when it receives the message from A.
Each node in gambercoin acts as a node, as depicted above, but also exposes an API to
clients to allow them to send messages, list received messages etc. The client could, in
principle, run either locally, on the same machine, or remotely.The node communicates
with other peers on the gossipPort, and with clients on the UIPort.
Below you can find the high-level design:
(source: Decentralized Systems Engineering docs)
- Keep connected list updated with a failure detector.
- Optimized routing
- Use of UTXOs to create a simple monetary system