darkfi/bin/explorer

DarkFi Blockchain Explorer

The DarkFi Blockchain Explorer facilitates the exploration of chain data and interaction with the DarkFi blockchain. It provides detailed insights into block and transaction activity, gas usage metrics, and native contract source code.

Table of Contents

1. Key Features
2. Network Status
3. Prerequisites

4. Quick Start Guide

5. Explorer Components

   • Explorer Nodes
   • Explorer Site

6. Configuration

   • Configuration Files
   • Supported Networks

7. Feature Details

   • Home Page Overview
   • Block and Transaction Exploration
   • Gas Analytics
     • Network-Wide Gas Consumption Metrics
     • Transaction-Level Gas Consumption Metrics
   • Native Contract Source Code Navigation

Key Features

• DarkFi Blockchain Synchronization: Ensures real-time synchronization of blockchain data, providing an accurate and unified view of DarkFi activity across supported networks.
• Blockchain Data Exploration: Access detailed information about blocks and transactions.
• Gas Analytics: Analyze gas usage metrics at both the network level and on a per-transaction basis.
• Native Contract Source Code Access: Review the implementation details of native contract source code for improved transparency.
• Search Blocks and Transactions: Locate specific blocks or transactions using search.

Network Status

The testnet and mainnet configurations serve as placeholders in preparation for their respective launch. When starting environment with these environment configurations , the site will connect to an Explorer Node that point to their respective darkfid networks, but currently only display the network's genesis block.

In addition, testnet and mainnet configurations are currently using development servers for the site and work is ongoing for production-like setups.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed and configured:

• Rust 1.86 or later: For building and running the explorer daemon (explorerd).
• Make: To start and stop explorer environments using make
• Python 3.12: Required for running the Explorer Site (site).
• Darkfi Project Dependencies: Dependencies required to compile the Darkfi code. For more details, see Darkfi Build Dependencies.
• Darkfid: Required for running DarkFi blockchain nodes on respective networks. The make commands build the binary from source code in ../darkfid (if not already built in project root) and apply the appropriate network configuration.
• Minerd: Needed for setups where Darkfid is configured with a miner JSON-RPC endpoint, but the configured miner is not running on the desired network. The make commands build the binary from source code in ../minerd (if not already built in project root) and apply the appropriate network configuration.

Quick Start Guide

Run the following to get explorer environments running, including explorer nodes and site to view blocks on the respective Darkfid configured networks. These commands will automatically install dependencies, configure your environment, and start all necessary components.

Start Localnet Explorer Environment

# Launch an explorer environment using the localnet configuration  
make start-localnet

Start Testnet Explorer Environment

# Launch an explorer environment using the latest testnet configuration 
make start-testnet

Start Mainnet Explorer Environment

# Launch an explorer environment using the latest mainnet configuration 
make start-mainnet

Once started, navigate to http://127.0.0.1:5000 in your browser to access the explorer interface.

Stopping the Explorer Environment

Ctrl-C

To stop the environment, press the keyboard combination Ctrl-C and wait for all components to stop.

Make Command

You can also stop the environment using Make:

# Stop the running explorer environment (nodes and site)
make stop

Getting Help

make help

Explorer Components

Explorer Nodes

DarkFi explorers rely on explorer nodes who are responsible for syncing with DarkFi blockchain networks. Explorer nodes function as background daemons, running continuously to ensure the Explorer database stays up-to-date. They synchronize with the latest blocks during startup and actively listen for new blocks using DarkFi's subscription interface. This ensures that the Explorer provides an accurate and consistent view of blockchain activity. Explorer nodes are implemented in Rust, designed to reliably handle real-world blockchain changes, including reorganizations (reorgs) and block updates, while maintaining data integrity.

For more details on explorer nodes and their functionality, see explorerd/README.md.

Explorer Site

The Explorer Site is a web application that serves as the user interface for viewing DarkFi blockchain data. It provides an interactive way for users to explore blockchain information, analyze gas usage, and navigate contract source code. The site connects to explorer nodes to fetch real-time data, ensuring accurate and up-to-date information is provided.

For more details on the Explorer Site, see site/README.md.

Configuration

Configuration Files

The Explorer uses configuration files to define darkfid endpoints for block synchronization, explorerd endpoints for retrieving blockchain data, and other settings such as log file locations. These configurations can be reviewed and updated as needed.

Configuration File	Description
Darkfid Config	Contains darkfid network configurations for localnet, testnet, and mainnet.
Explorerd Config	Specifies the darkfid endpoint for block synchronization and the explorerd endpoint for retrieving synchronized data.
ExplorerSite Config	Defines the explorerd endpoints for fetching synchronized data, as well as other settings for the Explorer site.

Supported Networks

The Explorer is configured to support the following pre-configured DarkFi blockchain networks.

Network	Description
localnet	Ideal for development and testing in a local environment using darkfid's localnet configuration.
testnet	Used for testing the explorer with darkfid's testnet network (pending availability).
mainnet	The production environment for running the explorer on DarkFi's canonical chain (pending availability).

Note: Once the testnet and mainnet are fully available, the explorer will sync more than just the genesis blocks for these networks.

Feature Details

Home Page Overview

The explorer’s home page serves as the starting point for navigating blockchain data and features. It provides a high-level overview of available resources, including:

• Search Box: Search for blocks and transactions based on hash.
• At-a-Glance Summary: View summaries of network activity, like recent blocks, native contracts, and total gas consumption.
• Navigation Links: Access block details and native contract source code, as well as navigate DarkFi social media links.

Click to view the Home Page

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Block and Transaction Exploration

The Explorer provides insights into blockchain activity by giving users the ability to view blocks, obtain transaction details, and analyze the relationships between blocks and transactions.

Key Features

• Block Details Overview: Provides key information about each block.
• Transaction Details: Displays details for individual transactions.
• Search Functionality: Enables users to locate specific blocks or transactions using the Explorer's search tools.
• Detail Navigation: Allows users to navigate into block-level details from the Block Explorer home page or view transaction details from within blocks.

Block Details

The Explorer presents detailed information about each block, offering insights into the transactions it contains and other metadata. Below, you’ll find an example of the block details view.

The detailed block view displays the following details.

Field	Description
Version	Indicates the block's version.
Previous Block	A navigable link to the previous block's hash.
Block Hash	The unique identifier of the block.
Block Height	The block's position within the blockchain.
Timestamp	The UTC time at which the block was created.
Nonce	The proof-of-work or equivalent nonce value for the block.
Root	The Merkle root summarizing the hashes of all transactions.
Signature	The digital signature of the block.
Transactions	List of transaction hashes, each navigable for detailed views.

Transaction Details

The Explorer provides an in-depth view of individual transactions, whether accessed from a block's detailed view or using the search functionality. Below is an example of the transaction details view.

For each transaction, the Explorer displays the following details.

Field	Description
Transaction Hash	A unique identifier for the transaction.
Block	The hash of the containing block, linking back to the block’s details.
Payload	Call data associated with the transaction.
Gas Consumption	The amount of gas used for execution (see Transaction Gas Consumption for more details).

Key Benefits

This feature enables users to:

1. View key details of blockchain activity, including blocks and transactions.
2. Analyze relationships between blocks and transactions.
3. Search for specific blocks or transactions of interest.
4. Gain insights into gas usage across the blockchain and individual transactions.

Gas Analytics

The Explorer provides detailed analytics on gas usage, covering both network-wide metrics and transaction-level consumption. This feature empowers users to understand execution costs, identify optimization opportunities, and manage gas expenses.

Key Features

Feature	Description
Network-Wide Gas Metrics	Displays gas consumption across all operations on the blockchain, categorized into multiple categories such as WASM, ZK circuits, signatures, and deployments.
Transaction-Level Analysis	Provides per-transaction gas usage details, allowing users to evaluate the efficiency and execution costs of individual transactions.

Network-Wide Gas Consumption Metrics

The Explorer tracks gas consumption across the blockchain broken down by category. Below is an example of the Explorer’s network-wide gas tracking view.

Each category is outlined in the table below.

Category	Description
Total Gas Usage	The cumulative amount of gas consumed across all blockchain transactions.
WASM Gas Usage	Tracks gas used by WASM-based smart contract execution.
ZK Circuit Gas Usage	Monitors gas usage related to Zero-Knowledge Proof execution.
Signature Gas Usage	Represents gas consumed for transaction signatures.
Deployment Gas Usage	Gas required for deploying contracts on the blockchain.

For each of these categories, the Explorer provides the following metrics.

Metric	Description
Average Gas Usage	The average gas spent per transaction across relevant operations.
Minimum Gas Usage	The smallest amount of gas recorded in any transaction.
Maximum Gas Usage	The highest gas value observed across transactions.

Transaction-Level Gas Consumption Metrics

The Explorer provides detailed data on gas consumption for individual transactions, helping users evaluate the cost and efficiency of specific operations. Below is an example of the gas consumption view for a specific transaction.

Transaction Metrics

Metric	Description
Total Gas Usage	The total gas consumed by all operations within the transaction.
WASM Gas	The gas used during WASM contract execution.
ZK Circuit Gas	Gas consumed for Zero-Knowledge Proof components in the transaction.
Signature Gas	Gas required for transaction signature verification.
Deployment Gas	Gas spent specifically on deploying smart contracts.

Key Benefits

This feature empowers users to:

1. Track blockchain-wide gas consumption across various operational categories
2. Analyze the gas efficiency and cost of transactions, identifying resource-intensive operations and opportunities for optimization
3. Improve cost management by understanding precise gas usage for specific actions ___

Native Contract Source Code Navigation

The Explorer allows users to inspect native contracts deployed on the DarkFi blockchain by presenting their metadata and source code. This feature enhances transparency and facilitates a better understanding of native DarkFi contract behavior.

Key Features

• Metadata Exploration: Displays contract metadata such as its name and description.
• Native Contract List: Provides access to all DarkFi native contracts directly from the Explorer home page.
• Source Code List for a Contract: Displays all source files associated with a native contract.
• Detailed Source File View: Allows users to view individual source files with syntax highlighting for better readability.

List of Native Contracts

The Explorer presents users with an organized list of native contracts on the Explorer home page.

List of Source Code for a Contract

From the list of native contracts, users can navigate to view the individual source files associated with a specific contract.

Source Code View

Users can select source files from the list to view source code content.

Key Benefits

This feature allows users to:

1. Transparently review the purpose and behavior of DarkFi native contracts
2. View contract source code associated with the native smart contracts
3. Explore Zero-Knowledge Proof implementations within the contract code
4. Examine interactions between associated files to understand the overall contract structure