Deploy dapp to IPFS

[MyBitIO]

Our goal is to go serverless and decentralised with the MyBit application. We no longer want to rely on a centralised server hosting company such as AWS. If possible, we would like it to be deployed to IPFS and we will redirect the domain to the IPFS URL where the application can be located.

We understand this is a new approach to deploying applications and may have some limitations or not be feasible. Please ask all the questions you have and share any uncertainties, constraints, limitations, or otherwise issues that you believe may arise from taking on this approach.

This task was inspired by this blog: https://medium.com/elbstack/decentralized-hosting-of-a-static-react-app-with-ipfs-aae11b860f5e

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[iamonuwa]

@gitcoinbot waiting for feedback from the team

[think-in-universe]

Does this issue allow or need cooperative work? I don't mean to request for the bounty since it's already approved to the developer.

I'm interested to do some research for this issue if needed.

[gitcoinbot]

@iamonuwa Hello from Gitcoin Core - are you still working on this issue? Please submit a WIP PR or comment back within the next 3 days or you will be removed from this ticket and it will be returned to an ‘Open’ status. Please let us know if you have questions!

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Issue Status: 1. Open 2. Started 3. Submitted 4. Done

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[crypto-guys]

I think I can do this project if your current developer is unable to complete. I have some experience with IPFS and Arweave. Please see this article for more information
https://medium.com/@arweave/arweave-ipfs-persistence-for-the-interplanetary-file-system-9f12981c36c3

[cryptnotiq]

hey @crypto-guys the current developer was unable to complete so it is now available on gitcoin if you are interested in tackling it. But before you start on it let's have a quick discussion to make sure we're on the same page. We can either do that here or on telegram t.me/mybitio

I'm curious about the limitations specifically. Such as managing updates and if that requires a redeployment to IPFS for even small changes, and then having to update the hash/URL after each update.

[gitcoinbot]

Issue Status: 1. Open 2. Started 3. Submitted 4. Done

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Work has been started.

These users each claimed they can complete the work by 2 days, 23 hours from now.
Please review their action plans below:

1) tcrowe has been approved to start work.

Very cool! I've checked out MyBit apps and docs before. I recently put in some patches for ipfs-deploy. Maybe some of my experience can help you get deployed!
2) mikehibbert has applied to start work (Funders only: approve worker | reject worker).

Hi

I've deployed several ReactJS apps to the Arweave permaweb network which sounds like its doing what you would like to achieve. You can also redirect your sites domain to the permaweb link once created, (see the example below).

Here's an example:
https://arweave.net/I24VcIjNFAQQpyXLcu-eBSl3DPGL2aioaltIeXpSUlc

You can get a free wallet with 1AR worth of coin so you can access the site and look it over here:
https://tokens.arweave.org/

I'm happy to assist you in converting your app to a serverless version and deploying to the permaweb for you.

Kind Regards

Mike
3) devilla has applied to start work (Funders only: approve worker | reject worker).

We're able to deploy the DAPP to IPFS recently. Hope we can do it again. Thanks.
4) kryptos-ke has applied to start work (Funders only: approve worker | reject worker).

Hello, I am interested in taking on the project. Thanks, let's do it!

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[cryptnotiq]

@tcrowe could you expand on how you plan to approach this deployment to IPFS?

And also explain how publishing updates works? Does it require having to redeploy to IPFS for even very small changes to the codebase? And will that create a new hash each time which we will have to repoint the URL to?

If there are any other limitations or aspects that may be a concern for running an application efficiently please also mention those here.

[tcrowe]

@cryptnotiq Yes, your understanding is correct. Finding the correct solution could be somewhat involved. Let me show why.

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app.mybit.io subdomain runs with Lets Encrypt possibly on zeit now.

There's some connections to static assets and API servics across these hosts. Most of these would not need to change.

mybit.io domain runs on a different server but could be unified into IPFS if there is a solution for proper domain, subdomain, and SSL certs.

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Now that we've mapped out the static and dynamic assets there's a few things to consider.

IPFS direct

If someone has an IPFS extension in their browser they would be able to directly view the dApp.

Pinners & Gateways

These are the public gateways: https://ipfs.github.io/public-gateway-checker/

They will mostly give you URLs like:

• https://ipfs.infura.io/ipfs/{mybit-dapp-CID}
• https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/{mybit-dapp-CID}

Some will provide:

• https://{mybit-dapp-CID}.ipfs.dweb.link
• https://{mybit-dapp-CID}.ipfs.2read.net

With IPNS+ENS courtesy of ens.domains you get something like mybit.eth.link.

Some of those services can host the content for free, or up to 1GB, or so.

Some R&D would need to be done to figure out which gateway, if any, can correctly give *.mybit.io an SSL certificate.

MyBit domains

The above solutions are fine as mirrors but if you want *.mybit.io to have the correct SSL for non-IPFS-extension users then some other solution is needed. Otherwise we could end up with this for people without IPFS-enabled browser.

For example you could easily set DNS CNAME or ALIAS some of the above URL patterns. But you will likely get this SSL message above if you don't have it setup correctly with the gateways. Even then there is no guarantee they will have that feature.

Invent a solution

If it's needed to have *.mybit.io hosted on an IPFS gateway and none of the gateways on the list support the feature it may need to be invented. Most of the puzzle pieces are available via node+npm+express.

What is missing?

If you or anyone sees flaws in my arguments comment and we can roll this into an article or tutorial.

[tcrowe]

The above would be repeated similarly for deployment on Dat Protocol with Dat+BeakerBrowser or Dat+hashbase.io Pinner.

[tcrowe]

Ideally, for IPFS, one of the built-in Pinners will suffice on ipfs-deploy:
https://github.com/ipfs-shipyard/ipfs-deploy

[tcrowe]

I forgot to mention the above can get rolled into the CI:
https://github.com/MyBitFoundation/MyBit-Go.app/blob/develop/.circleci/config.yml
https://github.com/MyBitFoundation/MyBit-Go.app/blob/develop/.travis.yml

⚠️ If there is actually a need for private or secret key operations on the server it wont work:
https://github.com/MyBitFoundation/MyBit-Go.app/blob/develop/now.json#L5
https://github.com/MyBitFoundation/MyBit-Go.app/blob/develop/server/controllers/civicController.js#L7
https://github.com/MyBitFoundation/MyBit-Go.app/blob/develop/server/controllers/airTableController.js#L12
https://github.com/MyBitFoundation/MyBit-Go.app/blob/develop/server/controllers/awsController.js#L5

[cryptnotiq]

Hey @tcrowe awesome explanation, I really appreciate it. Everything makes sense to me, and I don't think there is actually a need for secret key operations.