Exchange integration

This page lists the general steps and workflows you need to follow to offer FIL on an exchange.

Running a Filecoin node

If you plan to offer FIL on your exchange, you will need to run a Filecoin node. Lotus is the reference implementation node for the Filecoin network, and as such, is currently the most production-ready implementation available.

Node setup and installation

Follow the Lotus installation guide to properly install the Lotus applications and launch node. The basic steps are:

Prepare your hardware by meeting the minimal requirements.
Install dependencies.
Start the Lotus daemon and sync the chain by either:
- Syncing from scratch: in your lotus directory run lotus daemon
- Syncing from a full snapshot.
- Syncing from minimal snapshot

A snapshot only has the state trees from the recent tipset (2000 epochs) onward and nothing before that tipset, which means it does not have all the historical states of the network. In addition, only a full snapshot has full state trees from a certain tipset.

Check sync status

You can check the sync status by running lotus sync status. You are fully synced when the Height difference is 0. Lotus will output any sync error.

lotus sync status

> worker 28975:
>         Base:   [bafy2bzacec2exqtdvxzzvikwg3sg67e57yaocpmrljkfxth3isjmruzd45vsa bafy2bzacecbbqdvidaf56eeth7oul2raycjpddvgtb23ywoyrqyh7ajulepai bafy2bzaceajtc3mgie5b72ivuiv3svwnbfq7kl2gnbni5tqc2ja6zi22vkttu bafy2bzacebf7oavffgiajf5goi6verhepsclhb7pcfwirkptu4dxrdoqshadw bafy2bzaceddtymcr5onnh63uznctks5hujpgzxcd45f5ef7oiuqocpmqs6rh2 bafy2bzacebuqm43mspki4ekdbu6xj663mpkrcoxtdss64t27fo77bg7pzbaia bafy2bzaceaxurgudmnphjcoz5sfad7yd63axyhmretqr5jjmvnicyu7betvvi bafy2bzaceali3oihrslxmnjdu2ysesxradorczjimruxdbkqidtcuag7wlr5a]
>         Target: [bafy2bzacedmswd73yn5faqzpbu5ofqinmh6fnzxfvazy52jrfthfhod4ssfgw] (1272951)
>         Height diff:    1
>         Stage: complete
>         Height: 1272951
>         Elapsed: 243.770396ms
> worker 28976:
>         Base:   [bafy2bzacedmswd73yn5faqzpbu5ofqinmh6fnzxfvazy52jrfthfhod4ssfgw]
>         Target: [bafy2bzacebxf27yxmzksno5ajkvp6shwojrx5mxsrtmlchrdchaqfg2wo7o3i] (1272951)
>         Height diff:    0
>         Stage: complete
>         Height: 1272951
>         Elapsed: 1.00020144s
> worker 28977:
>         Base:   []
>         Target: [] (0)
>         Height diff:    0
>         Stage: idle
>         Height: 0

You can run lotus sync wait to wait for the sync to be complete. Lotus will output Done! once your node is fully synced.

Basic network technology info

The Filecoin network uses a Proof of Storage (PoRep) + Proof of SpaceTime (PoSt) consensus algorithm. Time in the Filecoin network is dissected into epochs set to 30 seconds. A new set of blocks is produced for every epoch for a tipset. The hard finality of the Filecoin network is 900 epochs.

Accounts and wallets

Filecoin uses an account-based model. There are 4 types of account prefixes:

f0 for ID address
f1 for Secp256k1 wallets
f2for actor accounts
f3 for BLS wallets

f1, f2, and f3 prefixed addresses are called account addresses. An account address is activated when it first receives a transaction. f0 prefixed addresses are mapped to each active account address.

Testnet addresses Within a testnet, the address prefix is t. So ID addresses become t0, Secp256k1 wallets become t1, etc.

Signatures

Filecoin currently uses two types of signatures:

ECDSA signatures over the Secp256k1 elliptic curve
BLS signatures over the BLS12-381 group of curves.

Details and reference implementations can be found in the Filecoin specification.

Messages

There are two message types:

Messages are fully irreversible at 900 epochs. Waiting 200 epochs for message confirmation is acceptable.

There are multiple gas fees associated with each message. Refer to the practical guide to gas section of this blog post for details.

An ExitCode of 0 in the message receipt indicates that the message was sent successfully.

Mempool

When a user sends a transaction to the network, it gets placed into the mempool queue. If a transaction doesn’t have enough gas, it stays in the mempool and doesn’t go anywhere. To new users, it looks like this transaction is lost forever. However, users can update the transaction with an updated GasLimit, GasFeeCap, and/or GasPremium. As long as you don’t change anything else in the transaction (nonse, to, from, value), then the transaction that is sat in the mempool will get updated with the new gas allowance.

Expiration

There is no limit for how long a message can spend in the mempool. However, the mempool does get cleaned when there are too many messages in it, starting with the messages with the least gas.

Automatic gas values

When GasFeeCap, GasPremium and MaxFee are set to 0, Lotus will do the gas estimation for the message with 25% overestimation for the gas limit based on the current network condition.

Some JavaScript libraries attempt to estimate the gas fees before sending the transaction to the Filecoin network. However, they sometimes underestimate, leading to transactions getting stuck in the mempool. If you are noticing your transactions getting stuck in the mempool after sending them to the network using a JavaScript library, try GasFeeCap, GasPremium, and MaxFee to 0.

Integration

You can interact with the network by using Lotus CLI or using the JSON-RPC APIs. Follow the API tokens guide to set up API tokens on your node and grant necessary permissions. To find all CLI usage, run lotus -h in your lotus folder.

You can find some other API client libraries developed by the Filecoin community within the API client libraries page.

API examples

Here are some Curl examples for connecting to a Lotus node using the JSON-RPC API:

ChainHead

curl -X POST  -H "Content-Type: application/json"  -H "Authorization: Bearer $(cat ~/.lotus/token)"  --data '{
   "jsonrpc":"2.0",
   "method":"Filecoin.ChainHead",
   "params":[

   ],
   "id":0
}' http://127.0.0.1:1234/rpc/v0

ChainGetTipSetByHeight

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json"
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $(cat ~/.lotus/token)"
  --data '{
   "jsonrpc":"2.0",
   "method":"Filecoin.ChainGetTipSetByHeight",
   "params":[
      100000,
      [
         {
            "/":"bafy2bzacecxm6lhhzem3wshktatwzrcqbvc3k3jepzz7a6wqyc7w3fvav256i"
         }
      ]
   ],
   "id":0
}' http://127.0.0.1:1234/rpc/v0

bafy2bzacecxm6lhhzem3wshktatwzrcqbvc3k3jepzz7a6wqyc7w3fvav256i is the block CID. This field is nullable.

ChainGetParentMessages

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json"
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $(cat ~/.lotus/token)"
  --data '{
   "jsonrpc":"2.0",
   "method":"Filecoin.ChainGetParentMessages",
   "params":[
      {
         "/":"bafy2bzacedplsg3tqrv7e3v5rssvq3qwbd3c6g3en55zpqnyrymexhynz6ixu"
      }
   ],
   "id":0
}' http://127.0.0.1:1234/rpc/v0

bafy2bzacedplsg3tqrv7e3v5rssvq3qwbd3c6g3en55zpqnyrymexhynz6ixu is the block CID. You can pass in any one of the block CIDs included in the desired tipset.

WalletNew

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json"
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $(cat ~/.lotus/token)"
  --data '{
   "jsonrpc":"2.0",
   "method":"Filecoin.WalletNew",
   "params":[
      1
   ],
   "id":1
}' http://127.0.0.1:1234/rpc/v0

1 for Secp2561K account and 2 for BLS account.

WalletBalance

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json"
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $(cat ~/.lotus/token)"
  --data '{
   "jsonrpc":"2.0",
   "method":"Filecoin.WalletBalance",
   "params":[
      “f1d7x4euqwtlk2bqzhclr6gubkufezgddkqftsnky”
   ],
   "id":1
}' http://127.0.0.1:1234/rpc/v0

f1d7x4euqwtlk2bqzhclr6gubkufezgddkqftsnky is the account address.

MpoolPushMessage

curl -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json'
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $(cat ~/.lotus/token)"
  --data '{
   "jsonrpc":"2.0",
   "method":"Filecoin.MpoolPushMessage",
   "params":[
      {
         "To":"t14pu4ogatxvok5727bd7ikp52mnnpxxxqicwyx7i",
         "From":"t3w5afgpwisxkryfb676h7xyku57uupigdh3zdoxj3kyep53hmo5njykfatqx5rga75ra5oucbyczr7lbjaezq",
         "Value":"1000000000000000000001",
         "Method":0,
         "Params":null,
         "GasLimit":20000000,
         "GasFeeCap":"0",
         "GasPremium":"0",
         "Nonce":0
      },
      {
         "MaxFee":"0"
      }
   ],
   "id":0
}' http://127.0.0.1:1234/rpc/v0

Method ID of 0 with null Params is a balance transfer transaction. When the GasFeeCap, GasPremium and MaxFee is 0, Lotus will do the gas estimation for the message with a 25% overestimation for the gas limit based on the current network condition. You can change this value via the GasLimitOverestimation field.

FAQ

How do I sign a message?

Use WalletSign to sign the message and send the signed message using MpoolPush.

You may also use this Filecoin signing tool library.

How do I retrieve the gas fees of a message?

Call StateReplay and look up the GasCost in the response.

How to get the gas estimation of a message?

You can estimate the gas cost of a message by calling GasEstimateMessageGas. This API estimates the gas limit with a 25% overestimation based on the network condition under the given tipset key. You can change this value via the GasLimitOverestimation field.

How do I ensure that all balances transfer in any messages are captured, including msig transfers?

Call StateCompute or StateReplay and go through all the transactions in the execution trace. Whenever the value !=0 && exit code == 0, it indicates a balance transfer has occurred.

How can I check if my transaction is stuck?

The Lotus RPC method to retrieve the list of transactions waiting on the mempool is Filecoin.MpoolPending. The RPC call is:

{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "Filecoin.MpoolPending",
    "id": 1,
    "params": [null]
}

If you are using a JavaScript library, the method you need is mpoolPending.

Join the Filecoin Slack

Join the Filecoin Slack and post any questions you have in there.

Useful Links

Filecoin website
Filecoin Specs
Filecoin Networks
Lotus - the reference implementation for the Filecoin network
Block Explorers

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