Message Box Server

Facilitates general secure peer-to-peer message exchanges between parties.

Overview

PeerServ is a peer-to-peer messaging API that enables secure and authenticated communication between users on the MetaNet. This is primarily achieved through the use of a message-box architecture.

When a user sends a message, they must specify the messageBox type and the recipient. This design allows for standard messageBox protocols to be defined at a higher layer while creating a separation of messages based on their type and recipient. Once a user sends a message, it is placed in a messageBox specifically designated for that user and that protocol.

Security is a critical aspect of PeerServ. It relies on Authrite middleware to ensure that only the user who created the messageBox can access its contents. Additionally, PeerServ is compatible with PacketPay, which wraps the Authrite middleware and provides a way for PeerServ instance owners to monetize their services through API requests.

To make full use of PeerServ, you can use Tokenator which is the base-level client-side software for interacting with PeerServ.

For more information on the concepts behind PeerServ, check out the documentation on Project Babbage.

API Routes

POST /sendMessage

Sends a message to a specific recipient's message box.

Note: All parameters given in an object.

• Parameters:
  • recipient: The recipient's public key
  • messageBox: The name of the recipient's message box
  • body: The content of the message
• Example Response: { "status": "success" }

POST /listMessages

List all messages in a specific message box.

Parameters:

• messageBox: The name of the message box to list messages from
• Example Response:

{ 
  "status": "success", 
  "messages": [ {
    "messageId": 3301, 
    "body": '{
      "subject":"This is a test!",
      "messageBody":"Do you see the L?",
      "anyRandomData":"Yes, it works!"
    }',
    "sender": "028d37b941208cd6b8a4c28288eda5f2f16c2b3ab0fcb6d13c18b47fe37b971fc1" 
  } ]
}

POST /acknowledgeMessage

Acknowledges that a message has been received, processed, and can now be deleted from the server.

Parameters:

• messageIds: Array of message IDs to acknowledge
• Example Response: { "status": "success" }

Environmental Variables

You can pass ENV=prod, ENV=staging or ENV=dev depending the enviornment.

The following can also be configured:

• SERVER_PRIVATE_KEY - the server's private key for authentication
• MIGRATE_KEY - the key used to run the latest migration
• HOSTING_DOMAIN - the server's hosting domain

Scripts

• build — build the API documentation
• start — start the server without any debugging services
• dev — start the server with debugging capabilities
• test — run all available tests

Spinning Up

Clone the repo with Docker installed.

Generate a SERVER_PRIVATE_KEY (64 random hex digits, 256-bits) and put it into the docker-compose.yml file. This is the key that will be used by authrite for mutual authentication.

Run docker compose up

• Your API will run on port 3002
• Your database will be available on port 3001
  • Username: root
  • Password: test
  • Database: peerserv
• A web SQL database viewer (PHPMyAdmin) is on port 3003

To interact with this API, spin up a copy of the PeerPay Simple UI demo in parallel with this system.

Deploying

You can see some brief guidance on deploying this server with Google Cloud Run.

License

The license for the code in this repository is the Open BSV License.