Category Archives: Nethereum

It’s Pronounced “See-Wee”

Blazor, Blockchain, C#, Ethereum, Nethereum, Open Source, SIWE

At least, that’s how Wayne Chang explained it. Since he’s one of the cofounders, I trust him. 🙂

In any case, the first iteration of siwe-nethereum is now done, using the first iteration of the official Nethereum SIWE implementation! It’s nothing fancy, but it does work. Since last time, there’s been more parties expressing their interest in SIWE, including Auth0 and Time Magazine. And in the future, there might be possible integrations with other chains/platforms (like Ceramic), making the future of DIDs and decentralized logins to be very exciting. Maybe its time has officially come!

And now I have to read more about CACAOs, whatever those are…

I Throw My Dunce Cap into the Ring

Blazor, Blockchain, C#, Ethereum, Nethereum, Open Source, SIWE

So, after gushing over the SIWE project in my last post, the Spruce ID team finally created their first reference implementation on Github. And after a couple tweeks (since Mozilla seems to be a little troublesome), it worked! Hurray!

And other people are beginning to discover the project and get involved, especially within the channels of Discord. Talk about something like standardizing UI controls for login (much like Apple does) gets me excited at all the potential. The more basic and fundamental the discussion, the more it all seems like it could be real someday soon. 🙂

So, with much hubris, I thought that I could somehow contribute to this whole movement, by attempting to port their reference implementation to C#. And so siwe-nethereum was born! I had to steal some code from the Nethereum project to get it started, and I’ve probably made a mess of it…

Hopefully, Juan Blanco will forgive me. It was done with the best of intentions, and I hope that it doesn’t ruin our friendship. 🙂

The Way Forward

Blockchain, C#, Ethereum, Nethereum, Open Source

So, if you’re involved in the Ethereum world at all, you’ve noticed the high gas prices, a bummer for Ethereum’s user community. Which is why Optimism might be the very thing that we all need to get out of this mess.

Not so familiar with Optimism or don’t really understand it at all? Me neither, so welcome aboard! (Based on what happened when I tried to understand Karl’s lecture on Plasma in Osaka, I know that my brain is scheduled for a beating as I read about Optimism.) But I know someone who does understand it all: Juan Blanco! And if you’ve got some .NET skills and if you’re looking to learn more (along with get your hands a little dirty), check out his Optimism Template in order to test out his libraries and get a feel for the whole thing. That’s exactly what I’m gonna do!

It’s So Hard to Commit (Get It?)

Blockchain, C#, Ethereum, GitHub, Metadata-Driven Design, Nethereum, ONIX, Open Source, Working Example

Okay, I didn’t intend to make a code pun there, but I did by accident…so live with it.

In any case, it’s true: I’m never one to try and make anything official of my open source projects on Github. But with the Wonka project, I decided to go ahead and do something more official. So, the alpha release of the Wonka engine is now available on Nuget.org, composed of 6 essential libraries:

  • Wonka.BizRulesEngine
  • Wonka.Eth
  • Wonka.IpfsW
  • Wonka.MetaData
  • Wonka.Product
  • Wonka.Storage

    • In order to understand how they are used, you should still refer to the examples found in the TestHarness folder, but now you can easily plug them into your project via Nuget.org. Maybe if I’m not feeling too lazy in the near future, I’ll also add the ONIX-Data project to Nuget one day…

    But I wouldn’t hold your breath. 😛

    EIP-2746: Rules Engine Interface

    Blockchain, C#, Ethereum, GitHub, Metadata-Driven Design, Nethereum, Open Source, Working Example

    So, as I’ve been tinkering away on this Wonka thing for a while now, the idea suddenly came to me one day: what if a rules engine standard (especially in the form of a smart contract standard interface, like ERC-20) existed on the Ethereum mainnet? In that sense, wouldn’t enterprises be more interested in the mainnet if there was a common approach to deploying and invoking straightforward functionality, with this approach being used by potential SaaS vendors? Even though I’m obviously biased with my own implementation, I would favor any method (or even libraries) created around an approach of consensus, in order to pool resources that can create solutions furthering enterprise adoption. At first, it seemed a little crazy, but I decided to draft and submit a proposal, not sure of what to expect…

    But I was pleased to see others of the Ethereum vanguard also thought that the idea had potential. And so, thus was born EIP-2746! I’m honored for my idea to even be considered, and I look forward to reading any and all comments that help to hone and enhance its development, with the hopes of it being adopted as an official ERC. There’s also an Ethereum Magicians thread where you can add any questions or suggestions.

    Let’s see what happens next!

    Magic Marker on a Pig

    Blockchain, C#, Ethereum, Metadata-Driven Design, Nethereum, Open Source, Working Example

    Well, I’ve been working on Wonka, a rules engine that uses Nethereum to integrate with the Ethereum blockchain, for about 2 years now and…2 years?! How did all that time simply disappear?! In any case…

    After playing with it for so long as just code and libraries, I figured that it would be more interesting if there as a GUI (i.e., “a shiny”) to showcase what it can do, on a very elementary level. So, I created a rules editor (i.e., this rudimentary Blazor app) that uses Radzen controls to demonstrate a few key things:

  • How to download a Wonka rules file through IPFS
  • How to instantiate the Wonka engine
  • How to traverse a RuleTree and view its contents
  • How to dynamically add new rules onto a RuleTree
  • How to export a RuleTree into XML form
  • How to execute a RuleTree with a data record

    • This version of the Blazor app just showcases how one can use Wonka to run the rules in the .NET domain and how it could be extended (especially in utilizing Nethereum). Later, I hope to show more advanced functionality, like how one can serialize the RuleTree to the blockchain and then invoke it on the chain.

    Wonka is a little rough around the edges, and this Blazor app is a little clunky…but, together, they get the job done!

    …

    Or so I like to think.

    Nethereum.eShop: A Practical Template for the World

    Blockchain, C#, Ethereum, GitHub, Nethereum

    So, it’s been about two years since I started getting involved with Ethereum and since this blog has turned into mostly posts about Ethereum. And it’s approaching two years since I first met the prolific Juan Blanco and since I first got involved with Nethereum, becoming its self-proclaimed mascot. (I just have the face for it.)

    In any case, the Nethereum team has decided that it’s high time to actually show how integration between eCommerce and the Ethereum mainnet is totally possible, especially with Nethereum. And maybe even with the help of Wonka! And how exactly are we going to demonstrate that? By building a working template that’ll give Microsoft’s IBuySpy (for the older folks) and Blazing Pizza a run for their money. Of course, it’s just starting out now, but we hope to have something viable within the next few months.

    So, I present…the eShop Store!

    Of course, we welcome all contributors, so any Ethereum developers are welcome to join the party! Even any possible names for the store are welcome. Maybe it should be called Buterin Books?

    Hmmm…we might need permission for that one.

    DevCon 5, Super Happy Blockchain Time: The End

    Blockchain, C#, Culture, DevCon, Ethereum, Events, Metadata-Driven Design, Nethereum, Open Source, Working Example

    It was the last day of the conference, but who could be sad when you have an unlimited supply of mochi and Ramune on hand?

    Personally, I think that all soda bottles should be made of glass and include a glass marble that spins around inside. I’m looking at you, Boylan.

    But, yes, it was the end, and it was time to catch the penultimate acts of this show, the first of which was Christopher Robinson. He gave a poignant talk about how games can help push Ethereum into mainstream adoption:

    I then stuck around in the same room for the next one by Alejandro Machado. He described how people were desperately trying to acclimate to the financial instability of Venezuela, showing how blockchains like Ethereum were now tools to survive an abysmal environment:

    And for my last talk of the conference (which unfortunately took place in yet another tiny room with no temperature control), I was particularly excited to attend a session with the ragged, fun-loving EMT (Eigenmann,Markou,Tu) band of the Ultralight Beam project, a.k.a. ULB. I can only assume that Kanye would approve, but he’s always been a difficult one to predict:

    In any case, this project was especially interesting since the platform makes use of the Bluetooth protocol and pushes it to the limit. (Something of which I have a little experience and even less hope for myself.) Basically, the goal of ULB was to create an ad-hoc communications network for local phones using only Bluetooth, essentially creating a LAN party for iPhones. Obviously, this kind of solution would be ideal for people looking to evade censorship, surveillance, and restriction of access. (Which could be useful for many people today, especially those who might be protesting oppressive governments.) They explained their case for using Apple platforms, since the current landscape for Bluetooth standards is essentially a heterogeneous mine field in terms of finding reliable standards. Even though Apple does have a walled garden, the guys said that it’s a walled garden that at least works consistently…which I found also to be the case in my experiments. (And even more favorably for my projects, they have committed to their pursuit of local communication, with even more advances to their hardware.)
    What does this have to do with Ethereum? Well…it’s a loose connection. You could use this protocol to synchronize a side chain transaction (of which could happen in a third-world country with little Internet connectivity) with the Ethereum mainnet chain, where one phone could use the ad-hoc network to relay the transaction to a phone with Internet connectivity. Granted, that’s an unlikely scenario for this project…but I was still glad that they got the opportunity to demonstrate such an awesome example of daring ambition. I hope to read more about it in the near future.

    After that, the rest of the day was generally quieter, especially as people were scrambling to flee the conference and Japan. I couldn’t blame them, though: Typhoon Hagibis was sure to make a mess of everything in the next day or two. But that left me more front row seats for the closing show. In place of the usual sing-a-long in times past, the conference planners decided to embrace their hosting country by showcasing their dancing talent, performing the traditional Bon Odori dance with the accompaniment of a laser light show. (I’m fairly sure that the laser light show was intended to be a distraction from the tangle of spastic limbs on the stage.) In any case, it was a refreshing change of pace, though I’m not sure why we were performing a dance for dead ancestors. Perhaps my dead grandparents are fascinated by decentralization? Who knows.

    And that was it for the conference. It had been a fun week, and my curiosity about several different projects had been piqued. (Since I live in my own virtual bubble, I likely wouldn’t have gotten to know about them, without being at the conference to talk with their creators.) But it was now time to move on, since I had a whole itinerary for Japan waiting for me outside of Osaka. That was, if Hagibis didn’t get me first…

    It was great to meet you, Osaka. I hope to come back again!