Cosmos Code Review: Dammit, Time To Build
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Cosmos Code Review: Dammit, Time To Build

THELOGICALINDIAN - Billions and billions of affidavit to use this SDK

Let’s alpha this Cosmos cipher analysis with a attending at the claims. Well, aloof this one really, because it’s affectionate of a biggie. “Cosmos solves today’s hardest blockchain problems.”

Only three items, but a lot to ameliorate here. Cosmos is a big alloyed bag of altered things, so sometimes it’s a bit catchy to apperceive what we are talking about. We accept the following;

So anyone can body a dapp (blockchain) by application the Cosmos SDK (Software Development Kit) that runs on Tendermint and by application Cosmos it becomes IBC adjustable and appropriately can be interoperable.

So the scalability is addressed via two areas, breadth 1 Tendermint pBFT and breadth 2 that anniversary dapp has it’s own accord arrangement (Tendermint). So if you body a Cosmos dapp you aren’t architecture it on Gaia, you are architecture a absolutely new blockchain, but because it is IBC adjustable it can collaborate with added blockchains congenital with Cosmos SDK (thus interoperable)

Usability, is because of Cosmos SDK, which wraps all the catchy bits, the consensus, the communication, the p2p, all taken affliction off with the Cosmos SDK.

So the mix aloft covers, scalability, usability, and interoperability.

The aloft has some absorbing implications on the badge side, back added than Gaia (which is array of a audience archetype of Cosmos SDK) there isn’t absolutely annihilation to do with Atom. You don’t charge it to body your own Cosmos blockchain, you don’t charge it for IBC or interoperability. You aloof affectionate of pale it and that’s it, back Gaia doesn’t abutment architecture on top of it. That aside, let’s attending at Gaia and assignment bottomward from there.

Only 20 commits? Normally a big admonishing sign. Here it’s 100% ok, because this is aloof the accomplishing of Cosmos SDK, the absolute assignment is in Cosmos SDK and Tendermint. Which we will get into later. Gaia itself is a adequately small, beeline advanced cipher base, and that’s absolutely because it’s aloof the “demo” for Cosmos SDK. Cosmos SDK and Tendermint are the absolute abundant lifters. But let’s see how it works.

Golang project, so we alpha with /cmd/

gaiacli — command band interface, acclimated for creating accounts, sending transfers, blockage balances. This wraps about the RPC / HTTP endpoints, so we will attending into it, but first, we appetite gaiad — daemon, this runs the nodes / software.

All the accepted accommodate candidates, cobra/viper for command line. Tendermint actuality is interesting, cosmos-sdk makes sense.

Bech32 prefixes for accounts, validators, and accord nodes. Usual command candidates.

Pruning, MinGasPrice, HaltHeight and again we are array of done. That’s it, this starts our blockchain. So the absolute assignment happens in NewGaiaApp, so let’s go coursing it down. Head over to cosmos/giaia/app

app.go

This gives a acceptable overview of what is appropriate to acceptation from Cosmos SDK, baseapp is the amount skeleton, codec handles all inter basal communication, auth and coffer for basal accounts and transfers. Distribution, excellent (block rewards), slashing (bad behavior), staking (dPoS) all included. This is absolutely all you need.

Just bureaucracy and initialization of the components, this book will mostly accept bureaucracy boilerplate.

This is archetype / adhesive stuff, aloof charge to bureaucracy the key amount stores, again you charge to bureaucracy all the keepers (keepers administer all the assignment — we will get into them later)

AddRoute for proposals (http/rpc), acquiesce association to bureaucracy and vote on proposals.

This is interesting, SetOrderBeginBlockers, we do mint, again distribution, again slashing, against setOrderEndBlockers we do administer and again staking. So we aboriginal accomplish block minting, again administer it, and again carve afterward by appointment rewards (after block). I’ll accept to dig added to see why it’s this order.

Again, mostly boilerplate from Cosmos SDK.

And that’s kinda it.

Networks is bureaucracy scripts. docs is documentation, the blow is analysis systems. That’s all the “code” you charge to run your own Gaia (Atom staking arrangement — which is absolutely all it is).

And that’s a absolutely acceptable sign, it shows you how able Cosmos SDK and Tendermint are.

Now to be fair, if this was addition blockchain added than Gaia (which is Cosmos) I would be absolutely unimpressed, back they didn’t do anything, but back Gaia is Cosmos is Cosmos SDK is Tendermint we can accumulate going.

Cosmos SDK, the absolute abstruse sauce. 5k commits, 86 branches, 112 releases, 92 contributors, this affair is as alive as any of the big boys. Abundant PR and Issue management, abundant absorption and encapsulation. We see a lot from actuality we already saw in the Gaia implementation, we have;

baseapp — the amount applicant — applicant interacting with the server codec — manages all the comms server — runs the server ancillary abundance — handles all the accumulator x — this is area all the amount modules go

In x/ we accept auth, bank, distribution, ibc, gov, mint, slashing, staking. Everything appropriate to accomplish your own interoperable aerial scalability dPoS blockchain in beneath than 100 curve of code.

anteHandler for fee and auth, activate / end block is area you do best of your work, what do you appetite to appear afore you get a block and what after. This is area you commonly put best of your assignment argumentation (gaia didn’t absolutely charge it). Peer filters, accompaniment checkers, adaptation management. This is aloof absurd assembly akin code.

Not abundant to say, it’s aloof absolutely absorbing how tendermint, abci, creation sdk all collaborate with anniversary other. It’s absolutely able-bodied advised and anticipation out architecture.

Not activity to go into this too much, applicant side, keys, rpc, tx generation. Blockchain boilerplate, alike if it is absurd blockchain boilerplate.

Codec is an amino wrapper. Amino is solid as well. But /x/ is area the absolute assignment is, so let’s go accept a attending at coffer / excellent / slashing / staking

We alpha from keeper.

Keeper defines what we can do;

Setcoins SubtractCoins AddCoins InputOutputCoins DelegateCoins UndelegateCoins

So the affair to agenda at this point, Keepers are functionality wrappers. When you accompany it all bottomward to zero, the difficult allotment in blockchain is the broadcast systems part, consensus. This is handled by Tendermint, and accord is basically a “save” barrier. Normally you would artlessly say 10 10=20 so let’s save 20 in the abundance (database). In this case you charge consensus, but it’s taken affliction off after you defective to anguish about it, so you can aloof say 10 10=20 and store. So all the Keepers are aloof simple basal functionality.

So for article like AddCoins, it artlessly takes an address, a bread type, and again adds the amount.

Really as simplistic as that.

This is ancillary aftereffect chargeless cipher btw, not article you see often, abundant architecture principals.

Cosmos Code Review Conclusion:

Gaia is kinda pointless, it’s aloof a audience of Cosmos SDK, but damn, Cosmos SDK is good. Think I’ll alpha architecture a few chains with it as well.

UPDATE 6/10/19: Thanks to Alessio Treglia, a Senior Software Consultant for the Tendermint team, who added that “Gaia is 20 commits alone as it has afresh been extracted from its aboriginal area in the repo.”

Disclaimer: Crypto Briefing code reviews are performed by auditing what is on affectation in the adept annex of the repo’s fabricated available. This was performed as an educational analysis and any comments in the commodity are the assessment of the writer. It is accustomed for cipher to change rapidly, appropriately we timestamp our cipher reviews so that they present a snapshot at a moment in time. Information independent herein should not be acclimated as any animadversion or admonition on the activity as a whole.

Cosmos Code Review Timestamp: June 5th, 2024