Scribe

Scribe is a python library for building services that use the processed data from the LBRY blockchain in an ongoing manner. Scribe contains a set of three core executable services that are used together:

• scribe (scribe.blockchain.service) - maintains a rocksdb database containing the LBRY blockchain.
• scribe-hub (scribe.hub.service) - an electrum server for thin-wallet clients (such as lbry-sdk), provides an api for clients to use thin simple-payment-verification (spv) wallets and to resolve and search claims published to the LBRY blockchain.
• scribe-elastic-sync (scribe.elasticsearch.service) - a utility to maintain an elasticsearch database of metadata for claims in the LBRY blockchain

Features and overview of scribe as a python library:

• Uses Python 3.7-3.9 (3.10 probably works but hasn't yet been tested)
• An interface developers may implement in order to build their own applications able to receive up-to-date blockchain data in an ongoing manner (scribe.service.BlockchainReaderService)
• Protobuf schema for encoding and decoding metadata stored on the blockchain (scribe.schema)
• Rocksdb 6.25.3 based database containing the blockchain data (scribe.db)
• A community driven performant trending algorithm for searching claims (code)

Installation

Scribe may be run from source, a binary, or a docker image. Our releases page contains pre-built binaries of the latest release, pre-releases, and past releases for macOS and Debian-based Linux. Prebuilt docker images are also available.

Prebuilt docker image

docker pull lbry/scribe:latest-release

Build your own docker image

git clone https://github.com/lbryio/scribe.git
cd scribe
docker build -f ./docker/Dockerfile.scribe -t lbry/scribe:development .

Install from source

Scribe has been tested with python 3.7-3.9. Higher versions probably work but have not yet been tested.

1. clone the scribe repo

git clone https://github.com/lbryio/scribe.git
cd scribe

2. make a virtual env

python3.9 -m venv scribe-venv

3. from the virtual env, install scribe

source scribe-venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

That completes the installation, now you should have the commands scribe, scribe-elastic-sync and scribe-hub

These can also optionally be run with python -m scribe.blockchain, python -m scribe.elasticsearch, and python -m scribe.hub

Usage

Requirements

Scribe needs elasticsearch and either the lbrycrd or lbcd blockchain daemon to be running.

With options for high performance, if you have 64gb of memory and 12 cores, everything can be run on the same machine. However, the recommended way is with elasticsearch on one instance with 8gb of memory and at least 4 cores dedicated to it and the blockchain daemon on another with 16gb of memory and at least 4 cores. Then the scribe hub services can be run their own instance with between 16 and 32gb of memory (depending on settings) and 8 cores.

As of block 1147423 (4/21/22) the size of the scribe rocksdb database is 120GB and the size of the elasticsearch volume is 63GB.

docker-compose

The recommended way to run a scribe hub is with docker. See this guide for instructions.

If you have the resources to run all of the services on one machine (at least 300gb of fast storage, preferably nvme, 64gb of RAM, 12 fast cores), see this docker-compose example.

From source

Options

Content blocking and filtering

For various reasons it may be desirable to block or filtering content from claim search and resolve results, here are instructions for how to configure and use this feature as well as information about the recommended defaults.

Common options across scribe, scribe-hub, and scribe-elastic-sync:

• --db_dir (required) Path of the directory containing lbry-rocksdb, set from the environment with DB_DIRECTORY
• --daemon_url (required for scribe and scribe-hub) URL for rpc from lbrycrd or lbcd:@.
• --reorg_limit Max reorg depth, defaults to 200, set from the environment with REORG_LIMIT.
• --chain With blockchain to use - either mainnet, testnet, or regtest - set from the environment with NET
• --max_query_workers Size of the thread pool, set from the environment with MAX_QUERY_WORKERS
• --cache_all_tx_hashes If this flag is set, all tx hashes will be stored in memory. For scribe, this speeds up the rate it can apply blocks as well as process mempool. For scribe-hub, this will speed up syncing address histories. This setting will use 10+g of memory. It can be set from the environment with CACHE_ALL_TX_HASHES=Yes
• --cache_all_claim_txos If this flag is set, all claim txos will be indexed in memory. Set from the environment with CACHE_ALL_CLAIM_TXOS=Yes
• --prometheus_port If provided this port will be used to provide prometheus metrics, set from the environment with PROMETHEUS_PORT

Options for scribe

• --db_max_open_files This setting translates into the max_open_files option given to rocksdb. A higher number will use more memory. Defaults to 64.
• --address_history_cache_size The count of items in the address history cache used for processing blocks and mempool updates. A higher number will use more memory, shouldn't ever need to be higher than 10000. Defaults to 1000.
• --index_address_statuses Maintain an index of the statuses of address transaction histories, this makes handling notifications for transactions in a block uniformly fast at the expense of more time to process new blocks and somewhat more disk space (~10gb as of block 1161417).

Options for scribe-elastic-sync

• --reindex If this flag is set drop and rebuild the elasticsearch index.

Options for scribe-hub

• --host Interface for server to listen on, use 0.0.0.0 to listen on the external interface. Can be set from the environment with HOST
• --tcp_port Electrum TCP port to listen on for hub server. Can be set from the environment with TCP_PORT
• --udp_port UDP port to listen on for hub server. Can be set from the environment with UDP_PORT
• --elastic_host Hostname or ip address of the elasticsearch instance to connect to. Can be set from the environment with ELASTIC_HOST
• --elastic_port Elasticsearch port to connect to. Can be set from the environment with ELASTIC_PORT
• --elastic_notifier_host Elastic sync notifier host to connect to, defaults to localhost. Can be set from the environment with ELASTIC_NOTIFIER_HOST
• --elastic_notifier_port Elastic sync notifier port to connect using. Can be set from the environment with ELASTIC_NOTIFIER_PORT
• --query_timeout_ms Timeout for claim searches in elasticsearch in milliseconds. Can be set from the environment with QUERY_TIMEOUT_MS
• --blocking_channel_ids Space separated list of channel claim ids used for blocking. Claims that are reposted by these channels can't be resolved or returned in search results. Can be set from the environment with BLOCKING_CHANNEL_IDS.
• --filtering_channel_ids Space separated list of channel claim ids used for blocking. Claims that are reposted by these channels aren't returned in search results. Can be set from the environment with FILTERING_CHANNEL_IDS
• --index_address_statuses Use the address history status index, this makes handling notifications for transactions in a block uniformly fast (must be turned on in scribe too).

Contributing

Contributions to this project are welcome, encouraged, and compensated. For more details, please check this link.

License

This project is MIT licensed. For the full license, see LICENSE.

Security

We take security seriously. Please contact security@lbry.com regarding any security issues. Our PGP key is here if you need it.

Contact

The primary contact for this project is @jackrobison.