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Blockchain Node

PoA/PoS consensus blockchain with REST/WebSocket RPC, real-time gossip layer, and comprehensive observability

● Live
System Flow: See the complete system flow diagram to understand how the blockchain node interacts with other AITBC components.

Overview

The AITBC Blockchain Node is the core infrastructure component that maintains the distributed ledger. It implements a hybrid Proof-of-Authority/Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism with fast finality and supports high throughput for AI workload transactions.

Key Features

  • Hybrid PoA/PoS consensus with sub-second finality
  • REST and WebSocket RPC APIs
  • Real-time gossip protocol for block propagation
  • Comprehensive observability with Prometheus metrics
  • SQLModel-based data persistence
  • Built-in devnet tooling and scripts

Architecture

The blockchain node is built with a modular architecture separating concerns for consensus, storage, networking, and API layers.

Consensus Engine

Hybrid PoA/PoS with proposer rotation and validator sets

Storage Layer

SQLModel with SQLite/PostgreSQL support

Networking

WebSocket gossip + REST API

Observability

Prometheus metrics + structured logging

API Reference

The blockchain node exposes both REST and WebSocket APIs for interaction.

REST Endpoints

GET /rpc/get_head

Get the latest block header

POST /rpc/send_tx

Submit a new transaction

GET /rpc/get_balance/{address}

Get account balance

GET /rpc/get_block/{height}

Get block by height

WebSocket Subscriptions

  • new_blocks - Real-time block notifications
  • new_transactions - Transaction pool updates
  • consensus_events - Consensus round updates

Configuration

The node can be configured via environment variables or configuration file.

Key Settings

# Database
DATABASE_URL=sqlite:///blockchain.db

# Network
RPC_HOST=0.0.0.0
RPC_PORT=9080
WS_PORT=9081

# Consensus
CONSENSUS_MODE=poa
VALIDATOR_ADDRESS=0x...
BLOCK_TIME=1s

# Observability
METRICS_PORT=9090
LOG_LEVEL=info

Deployment

The blockchain node runs on the host machine with GPU access requirements.

System Requirements

  • CPU: 4+ cores recommended
  • RAM: 8GB minimum
  • Storage: 100GB+ SSD
  • Network: 1Gbps+ for gossip

Installation

# Clone repository
git clone https://gitea.bubuit.net/oib/aitbc.git
cd aitbc/apps/blockchain-node

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Run node
python -m aitbc_chain.node

Monitoring & Observability

The node provides comprehensive monitoring capabilities out of the box.

Metrics Available

  • Block production rate and intervals
  • Transaction pool size and latency
  • Network gossip metrics
  • Consensus health indicators
  • Resource utilization

Grafana Dashboard

A pre-built Grafana dashboard is available at /observability/grafana/