Counterfactual is a simple off-chain framework for building state channel applications on top of the Ethereum blockchain. It aims to make it simpler to build permissionless applications that have instant finality with zero-fee transactions.
You can learn more about what state channels are by reading our whitepaper or a less technical written description. Further, if you want to dive into the specifications of the Counterfactual protocol you can read them here.
🚨 WARNING: the code found here has been created for demonstration and example purposes, with developers looking to build state channel applications as the intended audience and user-base. This code is not yet intended for production use with real funds, assets or users. In particular, specific safety measures have been intentionally omitted from this early version for the sake of simplicity, and various pieces of its architecture (e.g., the messaging layer) use trust assumptions that, while appropriate to a "playtesting" development environment, would have serious consequences if used to protect actual assets in the real world. This framework, once further developed, finalized, and hardened, is intended to eventually become a tool that will be used in production deployments. If you have those use cases in mind we welcome your participation and feedback now, to ensure that early production versions will meet your needs. But please don't deploy this framework in its current form. That is not its intended use.
| Package | Version | Description |
|---|---|---|
@counterfactual/cf-funding-protocol-contracts |
 |
Contracts implementation of the Counterfactual funding protocol |
@counterfactual/cf-adjudicator-contracts |
 |
Contracts implementation of an AppInstance Adjudicator |
Counterfactual-specific packages
| Package | Version | Description |
|---|---|---|
@counterfactual/node |
 |
The core state channels client that a user runs |
@counterfactual/cf.js |
 |
A JS API for interacting with off-chain apps |
@counterfactual/node-provider |
 |
Wrapper around API calls to a Node |
Utilities
| Package | Version | Description |
|---|---|---|
@counterfactual/types |
 |
Shared type declarations |
@counterfactual/typescript-typings |
 |
Shims for external library typings |
- Join us in Discord to help with development or to hang out with some ethereum hackers :)
- Create a new issue to report bugs
- Fix an issue. Counterfactual is an Open Source Project!
The Playground currently only supports the Kovan network.
Make sure you have Yarn v1.12.3 installed. For easy management of specific Yarn versions, we recommend using Yarn Version Manager (YVM).
To install the dependencies:
yarnIt is recommended (optional) that you installed solc compiler binary on your machine (installation guide) and specify the following in your .env under cf-funding-protocol-contracts and apps
NATIVE_SOLC=trueTo build all packages:
yarn buildTo clean all packages:
yarn cleanTo lint all packages:
yarn lintTo also apply automatic fixes:
yarn lint:fixTo run all tests:
yarn testTo run E2E tests:
- If you're using E2E tests for the first time or have done recent changes to the code, run:
yarn test:e2e:setup- If you're re-running tests or writing new scenarios, run:
NODE_MNEMONIC="..." yarn test:e2eSee the "Funding the Hub Account for Playground Testing" section on the Simple Hub Server package for more information about NODE_MNEMONIC.
We generate patches using the patch-package tool with a workaround described in this issue for yarn workspaces.