Software Requirements
Last updated
Last updated
The rationale behind the dApps is to develop applications using rock-solid transaction capabilities, tamper-proof immutability, and the impenetrable security offered by the Peerplays blockchain platform.
While these are compelling reasons for developers to use blockchain technology, the need for end-to-end application development knowledge, traditional enterprise-backed software development methods, etc creates entry barriers for developers.
A Blockchain Middleware System (BMS) platform with various components will be built by PBSA to address these unique challenges. Our goal is to expose general-purpose APIs which can be accessed in a language and platform-agnostic way thus making it possible for developers of varying skill sets to create applications on the blockchain.
User management and identity management are a major part of any application development and the blockchain with unique security constraints brings challenges to the same. While the public key cryptography-based account access provided by the Peerplays blockchain is secure compared to a username password based authentication, the same makes it challenging and next to impossible for laymen to create and use dApps. A common alternative proposed is using cryptocurrency wallets. This doesn't solve the onboarding challenge as a tiny set of internet browsing population and cryptocurrency wallets.
To ensure faster and smoother onboarding of users, Peerplays is thus creating an identity management and SSO platform that helps anyone with an email address, Facebook, or Google account to easily create an account on the Peerplays blockchain. For tech-savvy users, the traditional blockchain mechanism will be used to create the accounts.
In addition to the account creation, Peerplays will also provide simpler mechanisms for dApp developers to create and provision dApps and configure various dApp-level permissions.
This section will define each of the high-level components of the the identify manager product - PeerID.
The components:
account creation
retrieving Peerplays keys
dApp provisioning
dApp Permissions
unlinking third-party services
Multi-Factor Authentication
Anti Phishing features
A dApp user account creation will always involve creation of an account on the Peerplays blockchain. PeerID will provide 2 modes of account creation. The first mode will be for advanced users which will use the core Peerplays Faucet to generate a blockchain account and keys. A simpler mechanism wherein the account can be created by signing up with Facebook, and Google accounts. The list of third-party services will be increased in the future and they might include Twitter, Discord, Steam, Snapchat, etc.,
Scenarios might arise that may lead a user to request the Peerplays private keys or master password. In such a scenario, requested keys or a MASTER Password will be sent to the user via an email and shown on the screen/UI. This will be an irreversible action and all the third-party links established during this process will get securely deleted from the PeerID databases.
Developers must be given a simpler interface wherein they can create the dApp, assign permissions, and configure any third-party call-back URLs. Ideally, provisioning of the dApp related permissions, minting the tokens, etc., should be done using the cli_wallet. The provisioning should be used primarily for the staging and development process and the related cli commands can be used to mint tokens, assign permissions, etc., Additionally, multiple accounts can be used to create each type of provisioning. For minting any related token a high-security account can be used, permissions can be created with another user, etc., This must be detailed in the functional specifications.
The blockchain-level permissions capabilities should be used to create permissions.
The permissions must map users to dApps, assets, and operations based on various conditions. The conditions themself can be generic and configurable via the PeerID U
The blockchain will expose a generic interface to validate / verify with any external validator. The dApp can perform the calls with external services like a KYC verification application to receive a callback and then set relevant attributes to a given user.
Limiting users based on conditions set in blockchain-based on external validators. (services like KYC, and geo-location). The external conditions can be is_member_of_facebook, is_MFA_enabled, etc.,
These features will be low-priority, phase II features that will ensure additional controls and enhanced security.
unlinking third-party services
Multi-Factor Authentication
Anti Phishing features
Account creation
A user should be able to create an account only by having an email, Facebook ID, or Google ID
A user should be able to change the passwords
A user should be able to import or export his Peerplays keys
A forgot password option must be provided
The first step of the dApp creation is to create a corresponding blockchain account for the dapp. A simple UI will be provided for the same.
Aspects provisioned
account name
access credentials - usernames, passwords, permissions
secure tokens
federated logins with Google, Twitch, Youtube, Facebook, STEAM, EPIC games etc
support for Multi-factor authentication
