This repository serves as a general guide and proof of concept for deploying a full-stack web application onto blockchain-based decentralized infrastructure.

The repository is structured as a monorepo - with infrastructure configuration, application frontend code, and application backend code all in one repository. This is done so that anyone can clone or fork this one repository and begin to experiment with deploying a decentralized web application.

DNS	Frontend	Backend
Handshake	Skynet	Akash

The demo application deployed in this guide is a note app - with create, read, delete functionality. It serves as a minimal proof of concept for deploying a multitier web application to decentralized infrastructure.

The application structure is bootstrapped using this cookiecutter template https://github.com/Buuntu/fastapi-react. The docker image is based on tiangolo/uvicorn-gunicorn-fastapi-docker.

The application code, technology choices, and configuration used in this repository should provide a general enough base to fork and adapt, or just reference, for future decentralized web application development.

A deployed live demo of the code in this repository is accessible at https://unstoppable-stack.hns.siasky.net/. This demo was deployed using the steps in this guide.

There are a few simple options for registering a Handshake domain name:

1. Use a platform like Namebase https://www.namebase.io/ or a tool like Bob Wallet https://github.com/kyokan/bob-wallet to purchase a top-level Handshake domain.

   Domain purchases using Handshake are achieved through an auction process. It will take 10 days for your auction to finalize. and a winning bid, before you can make use of the domain.

2. Use gateway.io https://gateway.io/ to purchase a domain under one of gateway's existing top-level Handshake domains, like .c or .api. Domains purchased in this way are usable immediately.

1. Make sure Docker https://www.docker.com/ is installed
2. CD to the directory where your Dockerfile is. For this repository, it is in application/backend/Dockerfile
3. Build and tag docker image docker build -t <username>/<image-name>:<tag> .
4. Login to dockerhub docker login --username=<username>. You will be prompted for password.
5. Push your docker image to dockerhub docker push <username/<image-name>. Paste this yaml into the tool.

If you haven't already, take the time to read through the Akash deployment documentation and familiarize yourself with the concepts and steps involved https://docs.akash.network/guides/deploy

You can deploy to Akash using the standard Akash CLI directly https://docs.akash.network/guides/install but for the purpose of this guide, I am using tombeynon's Akash Deploy UI https://github.com/tombeynon/akash-deploy which is a great tool built on top of the standard CLI. Steps for deploying to Akash using this tool are below.

1. Start the Akash Deploy UI tool by running the following:

   docker run -v ~/.akash-ui:/root/akash -p 3000:3000 --rm -it tombeynon/akash-deploy
   

2. Visit http://localhost:3000 to access the tool
3. Use the tool to create a new wallet. Make sure to record your mnemonic phrase so that you can restore the wallet if needed in the future.
4. Fund this new wallet with at least 5 AKT (5,000,000 UAKT) by transferring 5 AKT or more to the displayed wallet address.
5. Create a new certificate. This certificate only needs to be created once and will be used for all future deployments.
6. Create a new deployment using akash/deploy-sample.yml as a template. The Akash Stack Definition Language (SDL)
7. Once you have created your deployment, you will start to receive bids. You can view these in the tool.
8. Chose a bid and Create a lease, then Send manifest.
9. At this point the tool will show you your Web URIs which you can use to access your application.

Deployment of the front-end to Skynet is handled automatically in this repository, using GitHub Actions. When any update to the application/frontend/ directory is pushed to the master branch, the Action workflow will be run automatically by GitHub. This workflow tests, builds, and deploys the static files to Skynet.

This GitHub workflow is based on the excellent write up by Karol Wypchło https://blog.sia.tech/automated-deployments-on-skynet-28d2f32f6ca1 and uses his pre-built Skynet deploy Action.

The result of this GitHub Action is a Skynet registry entry that provides a constant point of reference for your DNS record. The Skylink itself changes with each deployment to Skynet and would require you to constantly update your DNS record if referencing it directly.

Once your GitHub action completes, in the Action log in GitHub under the Deply to Skynet step, you will see a link to https://siasky.net/skynet/registry with parameters in the URL for publickey and datakey.

You now need to copy those param values and create your skyns:// URL in the format skyns://<publickey>/<datakey>. The registry link will remain constant in the future, so this is a one-time manual step.

If using Namebase, you can now configure your Handshake domain to point to your Skynet hosted frontend by adding a TXT record under the Blockchain DNS Records section on your domain manage page. The value of this record is the skyns://<publickey>/<datakey> URL that you just generated above.

This initial DNS configuration can take up to ~6 hours to be synced. For all future code changes pushed to the master branch, the Deploy to Skynet Action will automatically update your Skynet Registry data and you should see the changes reflected very quickly.

Once the DNS change takes effect, your site will be accessible at https://<hns-domain>.hns.siasky.net. For example, the demo application for this guide is accessible at https://unstoppable-stack.hns.siasky.net/

Although you can now make requests directly to your Akash URL over HTTP successfully, if you attempt to make these requests from your frontend that is being served over HTTPS, your API call will be blocked due to Mixed Content.

It is likey possible to enabled an HTTPS connection just using Akash deployment configuration but I was unable to find any documentation on this functionality.

The approach used in this guide is to sign up a free Cloudflare account and set up their flexible SSL/TLS encryption mode on a secondary (non-Handshake) domain in order to provide an HTTPS entrypoint that proxies requests to the Akash API server.

Support for HTTPS with Akash is something that I expect to explore further.

Database backups can be stored in a decentralized manner on Sia, Skynet, or Storj by using Filebase https://filebase.com/ which is an S3-compatible object storage platform. There are a number of services that integrate with Filebase to provide automated backups.

• BackupNinja https://docs.filebase.com/partner-integrations/backupninja
• SimpleBackups https://simplebackups.io/filebase-backup-and-restore/
• SharpShooter https://docs.filebase.com/partner-integrations/snapshooter

To run the application locally, you can follow the steps below.

1. Stand up FastAPI and PostgreSQL backend

   cd backend
   docker-compose up --build
   

2. In a separate terminal, stand up the React frontend

   cd frontend
   npm install
   npm run start
   

You can now visit http://localhost:3000 in the browser to access the UI. For testing the API, requests can be made to port 80, Example: GET http://localhost:80/api/v1/notes

• Akash deployment documentation https://docs.akash.network/guides/deploy
• Akash multi-tier SDL guide https://github.com/ovrclk/docs/blob/master/guides/multi-tier-app.md
• SDL examples https://github.com/ovrclk/awesome-akash
• In-depth walkthrough guide https://medium.com/coinmonks/guide-to-deploying-applications-to-akash-decloud-b35dc97e5ca4
• Akash Discord http://discord.akash.network/

• Detailed Skynet deployment guide https://blog.sia.tech/automated-deployments-on-skynet-28d2f32f6ca1