A Command Line Interface (CLI) for creating and verifying Chainpoint proofs. See https://chainpoint.org
The Chainpoint CLI lets you submit hashes to a Chainpoint Node on the Chainpoint Network. Nodes periodically aggregate hashes and send data to Chainpoint Core for anchoring the hash to public blockchains.
The CLI lets you retrieve and verify a Chainpoint proof. Each proof cryptographically proves the integrity and existence of data at a point in time.
The CLI also maintains a simple local database that keeps track of every hash you submit, and stores and manages Chainpoint proofs locally for easy retrieval, export, and verification.
Git tagged releases are automatically built as a single-file binary and uploaded as Github releases. Binaries are compiled for:
- Alpine Linux (x64)
- Linux (x64)
- Linux (x86)
- macOS (x64)
You can find the most current releases at https://github.com/chainpoint/chainpoint-cli/releases
These binaries are created with the pkg tool and have no pre-requisites. It is not necessary to install even Node.js as it is packaged in the binary. Installation is a simple matter of downloading the appropriate file, giving it execute permissions, and running it from a location on your PATH.
Install & Run
$ wget https://github.com/chainpoint/chainpoint-cli/releases/download/v1.4.6/chainpoint-cli-macos-x64 -O chp && chmod 755 chp
$ ./chp
Usage: chp <command> [options] <argument>
...
You can get an overview of the CLI usage by typing the command (chp). The Node that the CLI will
communicate with will be chosen from those advertised as healthy on the network.
On first use, the CLI will create a ~/.chainpoint directory
where it will store its chainpoint-proofs.db
file. The database file will be managed for you and it is not recommended to
modify it yourself. The database stores a record of every hash
you submit, which Node it was submitted to, and a copy of the
proofs. You can create a chainpoint-cli.config file in this directory
with a CHAINPOINT_NODE_API_BASE_URI= value if you'd like to
permanently specify a Node of your own choosing.
$ chp
Usage: chp <command> [options] <argument>
Commands:
submit submit a hash to be anchored (3x Nodes default)
update retrieve an updated proof for your hash(es), if available
verify verify a proof's anchor claims
evaluate evaluate and display a proof's anchor claims
export export a proof
list display the status of every hash in the local database
show show the proof for a hash_id_node
delete delete a hash from the local database
version show the CLI version
Options:
-s, --server specify server to use[string] [default: "http://0.0.0.0"]
-q, --quiet suppress all non-error output [boolean]
-j, --json format all output as json [boolean]
--help show help [boolean]
You must specify a command.
First you'll need to generate a hash of a local file or data
of your choice. We recommended using the SHA256 one-way cryptographic hash function. Other hash types will also be accepted as long as they are hex strings between 40 and 128 hex characters ([0-9a-fA-F]) in length.
The Chainpoint Network only sees a hash of your data, never the original. It is not possible for us to learn anything about your data from the hash.
To submit a hash, simply call:
chp submit 2e75eaf17b8345c67234dfa92e867541ef41dda08baa6f8d5464fac432950794
52eb62c0-f556-11e7-bcf8-016fed1c55ad | 2e75eaf17b8345c67234dfa92e867541ef41dda08baa6f8d5464fac432950794 | submitted
The output returned consists of three parts:
The node_hash_id is 52eb62c0-f556-11e7-bcf8-016fed1c55ad in this example. This type 1 UUID serves as a handle to retrieve a proof.
The original hash you submitted (2e75eaf17b8345c67234dfa92e867541ef41dda08baa6f8d5464fac432950794) is echoed back.
The action that occurred, submitted in this case, is returned.
You can also submit multiple hashes at once by calling submit with multiple hashes.
chp submit <hash> <hash> <hash>
Once a hash has been submitted, it will first be anchored to the Calendar and a proof will be generated. A proof that anchors your hash to the Calendar is generally available within ten seconds or less.
chp update 52eb62c0-f556-11e7-bcf8-016fed1c55ad
52eb62c0-f556-11e7-bcf8-016fed1c55ad | updated | cal
You can see that you call chp update and just pass the node_hash_id as well.
You'll see echoed back to you the status, where the cal at the end indicates that the proof is anchored to the Calendar. Later you will see other blockchain anchors become available, such as btc to indicate that a
hash was anchored to the Bitcoin blockchain.
You can also call chp update --all to update all proofs locally stored.
Verifying a proof submits it to the Node for cryptographic verification that the hash captured in the proof is anchored all the way up to either the Calendar or to public blockchains. The Calendar contains all of the information needed to verify a proof.
chp verify 52eb62c0-f556-11e7-bcf8-016fed1c55ad
52eb62c0-f556-11e7-bcf8-016fed1c55ad | verified | cal
You can see here that the proof represented by the node_hash_id provided is anchored to the Calendar (cal) level.
You can of course view a proof in its entirety by asking
to see the proof associated with a node_hash_id.
chp show 52eb62c0-f556-11e7-bcf8-016fed1c55ad | jq
{
"@context": "https://w3id.org/chainpoint/v3",
"type": "Chainpoint",
"hash": "2e75eaf17b8345c67234dfa92e867541ef41dda08baa6f8d5464fac432950794",
"hash_id_node": "52eb62c0-f556-11e7-bcf8-016fed1c55ad",
"hash_submitted_node_at": "2018-01-09T16:01:16Z",
"hash_id_core": "534fc9e0-f556-11e7-b0bd-016959c78193",
"hash_submitted_core_at": "2018-01-09T16:01:17Z",
"branches": [
{
"label": "cal_anchor_branch",
"ops": [
{
"l": "node_id:52eb62c0-f556-11e7-bcf8-016fed1c55ad"
},
{
"op": "sha-256"
},
{
"l": "core_id:534fc9e0-f556-11e7-b0bd-016959c78193"
},
{
"op": "sha-256"
},
{
"l": "nist:1515513660:042c2248a9b3af5f1d33f64bb3f8d6a2d1028409b9a028538cca63521e79aeb684f3a48cdbf2074cbf48e54fcd3375703d1ad56602e326a3805ebf1066f7aaff"
},
{
"op": "sha-256"
},
{
"l": "986719:1515513680:1:https://b.chainpoint.org:cal:986719"
},
{
"r": "4d8c2a7eab273ac9a7aa32e3c35805a4eaac3652be27142f8b459dd61737ab06"
},
{
"op": "sha-256"
},
{
"anchors": [
{
"type": "cal",
"anchor_id": "986719",
"uris": [
"https://b.chainpoint.org/calendar/986719/hash"
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
You can see in this case I piped the output of the show sub-command to the jq program. This is just for viewing convenience so we can see the pretty-printed version of the proof.
list will show you a list of all hash IDs and hashes that have been submitted from this CLI client.
export allows you to export a proof in either JSON or binary file formats.
delete <hash_id> allows you to manually delete any hash from your local DB.
evaluate <hash_id> calculates and displays the expected values for each anchor in the proof.
You can also get JSON output by passing in the --json flag. For example:
chp verify --json 52eb62c0-f556-11e7-bcf8-016fed1c55ad
You should note that each of the sub-commands also has its own help screen.
$ chp submit --help
Usage: submit [options] (<hash> <hash>... | <hash>,<hash>,... )
Options:
-s, --server specify server to use
[string] [default: "http://SERVER"]
-q, --quiet suppress all non-error output [boolean]
-j, --json format all output as json [boolean]
--help show help [boolean]