Blockchain Programming Part 2: Our Blockchain as an API

In this section, we will be discussing how we can use our Blockchain as an API, this post is the continuation of the Blockchain Programming series which is a detailed and practical hands-on guide to build your very own Blockchain.

Step 2: Our Blockchain as an API

We’re going to use the Python Flask Framework. It’s a micro-framework and it makes it easy to map endpoints to Python functions. This allows us talk to our blockchain over the web using HTTP requests.

We’ll create three methods:

• /transactions/new to create a new transaction to a block
• /mine to tell our server to mine a new block.
• /chain to return the full Blockchain.

Setting up Flask

Our “server” will form a single node in our blockchain network. Let’s create some boilerplate code:

Setting up Flask

A brief explanation of what we’ve added above:

• Line 15: Instantiates our Node. Read more about Flask here.
• Line 18: Create a random name for our node.
• Line 21: Instantiate our Blockchain class.
• Line 24–26: Create the /mine endpoint, which is a GET request.
• Line 28–30: Create the /transactions/new endpoint, which is a POSTrequest, since we’ll be sending data to it.
• Line 32–38: Create the /chain endpoint, which returns the full Blockchain.
• Line 40–41: Runs the server on port 5000.

Also Read: Blockchain Programming Part 1: ‘Building A Blockchain’

The Transactions Endpoint

This is what the request for a transaction will look like. It’s what the user sends to the server:

{
 "sender": "my address",
 "recipient": "someone else's address",
 "amount": 5
}

Since we already have our class method for adding transactions to a block, the rest is easy. Let’s write the function for adding transactions:

Also Read: Blockchain Programming Part 3: Interacting with our Blockchain using Postman

The Mining Endpoint

Our mining endpoint is where the magic happens, and it’s easy. It has to do three things:

1. Calculate the Proof of Work
2. Reward the miner (us) by adding a transaction granting us 1 coin
3. Forge the new Block by adding it to the chain

The Mining Endpoint

Note that the recipient of the mined block is the address of our node. And most of what we’ve done here is just interact with the methods on our Blockchain class. At this point, we’re done, and can start interacting with our blockchain.

Also Read: Blockchain Programming Part 4: Consensus

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Featured Photo by Nate Grant on Unsplash

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