Whiteflag API Connector for Ethereum

The Whiteflag API natively supports the Ethereum blockchain.

Ethereum configuration

The blockchains configuration file config/blockchains.toml should contain the Ethereum specific parameters in one of its [[blockchains]] sections.

• name: the name according to the naming convention: {name}-{network}, e.g. ethereum-main or ethereum-rinkeby
• module: the Ethereum module in lib/blockchains, which should be “ethereum”
• chainID: the appropriate Chain ID for the Ethereum network that is used
• active: whether the blockchain is active or should be ignored

These parameters manage Ethereum blockchain accounts:

• createAccount: whether to automatically create an account if none exists; default is false

For retrieving transactions containing Whiteflag messages from the blockchain, these parameters may be provided, otherwise default values are used:

• blockRetrievalInterval: the time in milliseconds between data retrieval intervals; the default is 6000 ms
• blockRetrievalStart: the starting block from where to retrieve transactions; if 0 (default) the API resumes a number of blocks before the highest block as configured below
• blockRetrievalEnd: the last block from where to retrieve transactions; if 0 (default) the API catches up with the highest block on the node
• blockRetrievalRestart: how many blocks before the current highest block the API should look back when (re)starting the API; this prevents that blocks are missed when the API is stopped for a short period
• blockMaxRetries: how many times the API should retry to process a block if it fails, e.g. because of a node timeout; default is 0, which means unlimited retries
• transactionBatchSize: how many transactions from a single block the API may process in parallel; default is 64
• transactionValue: the value of a transaction when sending a Whiteflag message; default is 0 ether
• traceRawTransaction: whether to show each individual transaction when the loglevel is set to 6 (trace); default is false because this results in massive logging

To send and receive Whiteflag messages, the API must be connected to a Ethereum node exposing the standard Ethereum RPC interface. These parameters are used to configure the connection:

• rpcTimeout: the timeout for an RPC request in milliseconds; the default is 10000
• rpcProtocol: the protocol via which the RPC interface is available, usually http or https
• rpcHost: the hostname of the Ethereum node
• rpcPort: the port on which the RPC interface is exposed
• rpcPath: optional path to reach the RPC interface
• username: an optional username for basic http authorization
• password: an optional password for basic http authorization