Crowd Funding Demo (Observable States)

This is a small demo that aims to demonstrate the new observable states feature in Version 2 of Corda. As well as observable states, it also uses the following features:

• Confidential identities
• Queryable states and custom vault queries
• Schedulable states

TODO

1. Finish the contract and flow unit tests
2. Add a Spring Reactive web server
3. Finish the campaign contract code
4. Finish the README.md
5. Fill in the checkTransaction menthod of collect sigs flow
6. The manager should check that the cash transactions send the cash to him. For this to work, we need to use the same key for each cash state

How it works

There are two types of parties:

• Campaign Managers
• Pledgers

As all nodes have the same CorDapp they all have the capability of setting up campaigns and pledging to other campaigns.

1. The demo begins with a node starting a new campaign. The node starting a new campaign becomes the manager for that campaign. The manager also needs to specify what the target amount to raise is, along with the campaign deadline and a name for the campaign. The manager is the only participant in the Campaign state, so it should only be stored in the manager node's vault. However, as we use the observable states feature via the BroadcastTransaction and RecordTransactionAsObserver flows, all the other nodes on the network will store this campaign state in their vaults too. The create new campaign transaction looks like this:

   

2. To make a pledge to a campaign, a node user must know the linearId of the campaign they wish to pledge to. As all the nodes on the network will receive new Campaign states, they can query their vault to enumerate all the campaigns, then pick the one they wish to pledge to. Making a pledge requires a node user to specify the linearId of the campaign they wish to pledge to as well as the amount they wish to pledge. The pledging node then constructs a transaction that contains the new Pledge state as an output as well as the Campaign state to be updated. As such there is both a Campaign input and output. The transaction looks like this:

   

   The CampaignContract code ensures that Campaign.raisedSoFar property is updated in-line with the amount pledged. Note in the above diagram, as this is the only pledge so far in this scenario, the Campaign output state reflects the amount in the Pledge state.

   This as with the create campaign transaction covered above, this transaction is broadcast to all nodes on the network. It is worth noting, that currently, one can only observe a whole transaction as opposed to parts of a transaction. This is not necessarily an issue for privacy as the pledgers can create a confidential identity to use when pledging, such that it is only known by the pledger and the campaign manager. The main complication with only being able to store full transactions manifests itself when querying the vault - all the pledges that you have been broadcast, can be returned

3. The Campaign is actually a SchedulableState. When we create a new campaign, we are required to enter a deadline to which the campaign will run until. Once the deadline is reached, a flow is run to determine whether the campaign was a success or failure.

   Success: The campaign ends successfully if the target amount is reached. In this case, an atomic transaction is produced to exit the Campaign state and all the Pledge states from the ledger as well as transfer the required pledged amounts in cash from the pledgers to the campaign manger.

   

   Failure: The campaign ends in failure if the target is not reached. In this case, an atomic transaction is produced to exit the Campaign state and all the Pledge states from the ledger. The transaction looks like this:

   

   As with all the other transactions in this demo, these transactions will be broadcast to all other nodes on the network.

Assumptions

1. If a node makes a pledge, they will have enough cash to fulfill the pledge when the campaign ends.
2. Confidential pledger identities are adequate from a privacy perspective. We don't mind that the cash and pledge states are shared to all nodes on the business network. If this an issue then we need to facilitate observable states via the use of FilteredTransactions.
3. Each pledger can only make one pledger per campaign. They may update their pledge if they wish, though.
4. The Campaign state only needs to be signed by the campaign manager.
5. The Pledge states are bilateral agreements and are signed by the pledger and the campaign manager.
6. The Campaign state is included in all create pledge transactions to make sure the amount raised is updated with the correct amount pledged. As such, if two pledgers try to pledge at the same time, one pledge will end up being a double spend. We assume this is OK.
7. Any node can start a Campaign.
8. Nodes can pledge to multiple Campaigns.
9. After the campaign ends, it is OK to exit the Campaign state and all the Pledge states.
10. Only campaign managers can cancel pledges and a pledge cancellation must be accompanied with a campaign state and campaign End command.

Pre-Requisites

You will need the following installed on your machine before you can start:

• JDK 8 installed and available on your path (Minimum version: 1.8_131).
• IntelliJ IDEA (Minimum version 2017.1)
• git
• Optional: h2 web console (download the "platform-independent zip")

For more detailed information, see the getting set up page on the Corda docsite.

Running the unit tests

Via gradle:

Unix:

 ./gradlew clean test

Windows:

 gradlew.bat clean test

If you want to run the tests via IntelliJ then navigate to cordapp/strc/test/kotlin/net.corda.demos.crowdFunding in the project explorer to see the unit test files. To run a test click the Green arrow in the left handle margin of the editor.

Running the CorDapp

Clone the repo

To get started, clone this repository with:

 git clone https://github.com/roger3cev/observable-states.git

And change directories to the newly cloned repo:

 cd observable-states

Building the CorDapp:

Unix:

 ./gradlew deployNodes

Windows:

 gradlew.bat deployNodes

Note: You'll need to re-run this build step after making any changes to the template for these to take effect on the node.

Running the Nodes

Once the build finishes, change directories to the folder where the newly built nodes are located:

 cd build/nodes

The Gradle build script will have created a folder for each node. You'll see three folders, one for each node and a runnodes script. You can run the nodes with:

Unix:

./runnodes --log-to-console --logging-level=INFO

Windows:

runnodes.bat --log-to-console --logging-level=INFO

You should now have three Corda nodes running on your machine serving the template.

When the nodes have booted up, you should see a message like the following in the console:

 Node started up and registered in 5.007 sec

Interacting with the CorDapp via HTTP

To be added.

Further reading

Tutorials and developer docs for CorDapps and Corda are here.