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Linchpin

linchpin is a bundle of mini-applications; each one creating content ids or executing a public Ethereum transactions on the blockchain, and sometimes it does both.

Linchpin

Created At

HackFS

Project Description

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in HackFS. I am Scott Stevenson and am joined by my teammates Nate Hart and Youssef Khouidi. Project linchpin is a bundle of mini-applications anchored by Protocol Lab's IPFS, libP2P technology and the public Ethereum blockchain.

Our first order of business for HackFS Was to determine if we could provide value to the sponsors. We asked ourselves if we understood the objectives and what the prizes that were offered. We determined we had the technical abilities to both satisfy the objectives but also to deploy a working solution. Many of the tools required were ones that we currently used on a daily basis in CryptoVoxels and for our regular non-crypto business.

We are hopeful that the judges will see our submission as meaningful and worthy of granting resources to help it along.

Our HackFS research revealed the following.

The power is in the CID, the content identifier. Content identifiers provide a path to return content that can be found using Web3 domains like ENS and Unstoppable Domains.

Now we have made it through various web3 projects in our quest, and we are now excited to show you project linchpin. Each linchpin application either creates a CID content identifier or execute a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain, and in many cases it does both.

For HackFS our brainstorming included hacking common ERC-721, commonly known as in NFT smart contracts. After review we ultimately chose to lean into and explore further two use cases;

Legal agreements in the digital space and enterprise level claim management.

We have experience in both fields and are involved in the metaverse space of Cryptovoxels which we wanted to explore in context HackFS; we experimented experimented with buckets, threadDB, PowerGate and Filecoin and the results are ongoing and being implemented into our applications.

The main deployment using these advanced IPFS features is the claims dashboard linchpin project that can be found at https://linchpin.x5engine.com/ or https://claimdashboard.linchpin.web3bits.com.

We use tools like airdrops, relays, encryption schemes, and support payments by utility tokens. As wewill see in our demo the lines between traditionl content delivery of information, entertainment and business applications are merging into one metaverse.

The MetaVerse - CryptoVoxels Imagine a place where you buy a digital ticket that acts as a key to unlock fun content and services and that you can also keep forever as a Momento; that's what a NFT (non-fungible token) can provide. NFT's can act as a reward system in-game and as an incentive for working groups or tems. Prokject linchpin pplications have built-in incentives built into our smart contracts.

I believe we should "touch" the expensive of Blockchain as a little as possible. Some of the linchpin Solidity code is very short and only a few lines of code while others are more detailed such as the NFT minting contracts.

At the heart of the our submission is a pretty simple design, something that linchpins are perfect for. IPFS for content storage, the public Ethereum Blockchain for settlement, and linchpins as a user interface and experience bridge between the two.

Everything in our demo is served by IPFS CIDs or delivered locally from memory. We use no backend database in the linchpin demostrations.

So how do we make money? We make money by installations of web3 technology. We also attach micro-fees built-in to some select smart-contracts that are delivered in our customized user interfaces. We are also exploring gated services using advanced NFT smart contracts, and are continuously testing and deploying new functionality for our applications.

What would a generous grant allow us to do? We are looking forward to building a small team of dedicated developers with a management-layer like a decentalized autonomous organization (DAO) to help with accounting and general governance.

The metaverse is a perfect metaphor for IPFS and Web3 and it’s what the linchpin project is all about. It’s what joins these technologies together, IPFS for the content storage and delivery, the public Ethereum blockchain as the settlement layer, and linchpin for the experience that the user wants.

As we were running out of time for the HackFS submission we realized many of the bootstrap websites have a lot of typographical error‘s broken links non-functioning buttons which nee to be cleanup and fixed. We will do that. The user interfaces that are shown for the linchpin submission arer more to form then function; however, all the functionality of IPFS and the Ethereum blockchain is working where necesaary to demostrate the linchpin functions.

We look forward to you reviewing our submission and welcome any feedback, comments, or questions. Thank you for the opportunity to participate in HackFS, our first event.

Scott Stevenson Node and blockchain and claim management system developer focused on decentralized node-computing and Ethereum block-chain based protocols for digital evidence and claim management for real world court systems. Scott is the executive manager of Web3 Legal Engineering and oversees general operations. Scott holds a JD degree in law and a bachelor's in business administration.

Nate Hart NFT collector/enthusiast, creator of the Chainfaces NFT project, currently developing InfiNFT platform with IPFS/Arweave file storage and on-chain metadata. I'm admittedly more of a hacker wannabe than an actual developer. I enjoy working on "toy" projects and experimental NFT projects. My goal is to push the NFT space forward while everyone else is busy chasing DeFi millions.

Youssef Khouidi Online Learning platform. MVPs for startups. Senior web/mobile/blockchain developer. Youssef KH is a Senior Web Developer, specialized in Web Development, Linux ,PHP6, Javascript, CSS3 and HTML5, Python, 3D.

How it's Made

Initially I watched all the HackFS videos and they were extremely helpful in formulating a plan. It became clear to me that on the Filecoin level, which is where Fleek, Pinata, and Textile likely sit, the bigger storage provides will be operating on magnitudes much greater and where the prices will likely be reasonable for volume users and the economy of scale. The end-users and the market Pinata and Fleek serve is the outer edges, like a local neighborhood convenience store. That's a little (or a lot) different than mass-scale content nodes.

Ultimately, we just continued with our current development stack which starts from two ends; one is the solidity smart-contracts end and the other is the bootstrap react user interface. Then we start the wiring of the web3 to the UI and get it talking to the Ethereum blockchain and returning content from the tracer CIDS provided by IPFS. We use a lot of solidity files, some we write, many we simply use and some we improve on. Then we do the Javascript program to serve the dynamic content.

We implement Metamask and other Web3 signing software to process transactions and try never to have a back-end database where we can avoid it. We embrace the browser's memory for storing information locally that will be useful to keep the interactions efficient. While we embrace instant access to a web3 account, it's the exposing of private keys and seed phrases that keep us vigilant and to look for workable solutions. we are continuously looking for ways to use proxy-reencryption schemes to keep the users safe.

The real opportunity here is developing the libp2p protocols for specified content on local rings of nodes that can prove the function in a particular jurisdiction. that's the winning ticket. Picking a data-pipe and a schema on a local ring and exposing just enough to the WAN. The big-win is in there, but that's a heavy-lift.

On the Filecoin level, which Textile sits, the bigger storage provides will be operating on magnitudes much greater and where the prices will likely be reasonable for volume users and the economy of scale. The end users and market Pinata and Fleek serve is th outer edges, like a local neighborhood convenience store. Thats a little (or a lot) different.

We are happy to discuss where we would like to improve our technical-stack as we delve deeper into the world of CIDS, IPFS and Textile's tools.

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