Gnostr Bitcoin P2P Client

This project is a command-line interface (CLI) application written in Rust that connects to the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network. It provides a real-time, terminal-based user interface (TUI) to monitor network activity, connected peers, and log messages.

Features

• Bitcoin P2P Network Connection: Connects to Bitcoin nodes using the standard P2P protocol.
• Peer Discovery: Utilizes DNS seeds to discover initial peers and exchanges peer addresses with connected nodes.
• Handshake Protocol: Implements the Bitcoin P2P handshake, including sending and receiving version and verack messages.
• Real-time Monitoring: Displays connected peers, their inbound/outbound traffic, and connection status.
• Log Viewer: Shows a live stream of network events, connection status, and errors in a scrollable log.
• TUI Interface: Provides an interactive terminal user interface for monitoring and basic control.
• Graceful Shutdown: Handles Ctrl+C signals for a clean exit, saving peer data.
• Persistence: Stores known peer information and traffic statistics to a local file (peers.json).
• Message Handling: Processes common P2P messages like version, verack, ping, pong, mempool, inv, tx, block, headers, getheaders, getdata, and addr.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Rust Toolchain: Ensure you have Rust and Cargo installed. You can install them from rustup.rs.

Building the Project

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/gnostr-org/gnostr-bitcoin.git
   cd gnostr-bitcoin

2. Build the application:

   cargo build --release

Running the Application

After building, you can run the application using Cargo or directly execute the binary:

• Using Cargo:

  cargo run --release

• Directly executing the binary: The binary will be located in target/release/.

  ./target/release/gnostr-bitcoin

Usage

The application launches into a TUI that displays the following information:

• Block Height & Hash: Shows the current block height and hash of the connected peer.
• Instructions: Provides basic keybindings for navigation and control.
• Log: Displays real-time messages, connection events, and errors.
  • Navigation: Use Up/Down arrow keys to scroll through the log. Press Enter to auto-scroll to the bottom.
  • Visibility: Press l to toggle the visibility of the log panel.
• Peers: Lists connected peers, their total inbound/outbound traffic, and connection time.
  • Visibility: Press p to toggle the visibility of the peer list panel.
  • Sorting: Peers are sorted by inbound traffic (descending) and then by connection time (ascending).

Keybindings

• q: Quit the application.
• Tab: Cycle focus between UI elements (Block Height -> Instructions -> Log -> Peers -> Block Height).
• Up/Down: Scroll the log panel.
• Enter: Auto-scroll the log to the bottom.
• l: Toggle the visibility of the log panel.
• p: Toggle the visibility of the peer list panel.
• Esc: Enable auto-scrolling for the log if manual scrolling was used.

Project Structure

• src/lib.rs: Contains core Bitcoin P2P protocol logic, message building, connection handling, and utility functions.
• src/main.rs: The application's entry point, responsible for setting up threads, managing shared state, initializing the TUI, and running the main application loop.
• src/ui.rs: Implements the terminal user interface using the ratatui crate, handling rendering and user input.
• Cargo.toml: Defines project dependencies and metadata.
• README.md: This file.

Dependencies

This project relies on several external crates, including:

• anyhow: For flexible error handling.
• log & simplelog: For logging.
• sha2: For SHA-256 hashing (used for checksums).
• dirs: To find user-specific directories for configuration and logs.
• ctrlc: To handle Ctrl+C signals.
• serde & serde_json: For serializing/deserializing peer data.
• crossterm & ratatui: For building the terminal user interface.
• time: For timestamp formatting.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please refer to the project's issue tracker or submit a pull request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.