Phala Blockchain

Phala Network is a blockchain-based confidential computing cloud. This repo includes:

• node/: the main blockchain built on Substrate
• standalone/pherry/: the message relayer to connect the blockchain and pRuntime
• standalone/pruntime/: the contract execution kernel running inside TEE enclave

Overview

The blockchain is the central component of the system. It records commands (confidential contract invocation), serves as the pRuntime registry, runs the native token and on-chain governance modules.

pherry is the message relayer. It connects the blockchain and pRuntime. It passes the block data from the chain to pRuntime and passes pRuntime side effects back to the chain. A multi-client version of the runtime bridge is being developed here and now in alpha version.

pRuntime (Phala Network Secure Enclave Runtime) is a runtime to execute confidential smart contracts, based on confidential computing.

Native Build

Dependencies

Expand

• Rust

  curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh

• Substrate dependencies:

  git submodule update --init
  sh ./scripts/init.sh

• LLVM 10

  wget https://apt.llvm.org/llvm.sh
  chmod +x llvm.sh
  ./llvm.sh 10

• Protobuf Compiler

  • Ubuntu

  apt install -y protobuf-compiler

  • macOS

  brew install protobuf

  • See here for more options

Build the blockchain and bridge

Make sure you have Rust and LLVM-10 installed.

Note for Mac users: you also need llvm and binutils from Homebrew or MacPort, and to add their binaries to your $PATH

Run git submodule update --init to fetch submodules before build if you haven't add option --recursive when clone code.

cargo build --release

The build script enforces LLVM-10 or newer is used. LLVM-10 is needed because of the wasm port of rust crypto library, ring. We have to compile the C code into wasm while keeping the compatibility with the current rustc.

Run

1. Launch a dev node:

   ./target/release/phala-node --dev

   • Can be purged by ./target/release/phala-node purge-chain <args like --dev>
   • The Polkadot.js UI can connect to the node at port 9944.

2. Compile & launch pRuntime (Simulation mode)

   cd standalone/pruntime
   mkdir -p data
   cargo run

3. Compile & launch pRuntime (Hardware mode)

   Apply for Remote Attestation API keys at Intel IAS service. The SPID must be linkable.

   Follow gramine's document to install the gramine toolchain.

   After installing the toolchain, you can graminify and run the pRuntime.

   export SGX_SIGNER_KEY=path/to/your/key.pem
   export IAS_SPID=your_spid
   export IAS_API_KEY=your_api_key_in_hex
   cd standalone/pruntime/gramine-build
   make run

4. Run pherry (node and pRuntime required):

   ./target/release/pherry --dev --no-wait

5. Web UI (TODO: still being refactored)

Sub-pages

• RPC: RPC documentations
• Test: How to test the components

External Resources

• phala-wiki: The technical documentation.
• phala-docker: The production dockerfiles, including the blockchain, pherry, and pRuntime.
• Code Bounty Program
• Responsible Disclosure