CovenantSQL/CovenantSQL: A decentralized, trusted, high performance, SQL database with blockchain features

MacOS

• 🍺 Homebrew users can just run:

brew install cql

• non-Homebrew users can run:

sudo bash -c 'curl -L "https://mac.gridb.io/cql" | tar xzv -C /usr/local/bin/ --strip-components=1'

Linux

• Just run：

sudo bash -c 'curl -L "https://linux.gridb.io/cql" | tar xzv -C /usr/local/bin/ --strip-components=1'

To continue: TestNet Quickstart

SDKs

CovenantSQL Testnet is already released, have a try.

• Golang
• Java
• NodeJS
• Python
• Microsoft Excel (by community)

Consensus Algorithm

CQL supports 2 kinds of consensus algorithm:

1. DPoS (Delegated Proof-of-Stake) is applied in Eventually consistency mode database and also Layer 1 (Global Consensus Layer) in BlockProducer. CQL miners pack all SQL queries and its signatures by the client into blocks thus form a blockchain. We named the algorithm Xenomint.
2. BFT-Raft (Byzantine Fault-Toleranted Raft)^bft-raft is applied in Strong consistency mode database. We named our implementation Kayak. The CQL miner leader does a Two-Phase Commit with Kayak to support Transaction.^transaction

Comparison

| | Ethereum | Hyperledger Fabric | Amazon QLDB | CovenantSQL | | ---------------------------- | ----------------- | ---------------------- | ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | | Dev language | Solidity, ewasm | Chaincode (Go, NodeJS) | ? | Python, Golang, Java, PHP, NodeJS, MatLab | | Dev Pattern | Smart Contract | Chaincode | SQL | SQL | | Open Source | Y | Y | N | Y | | Nodes for HA | 3 | 15 | ? | 3 | | Column Level ACL | N | Y | ? | Y | | Data Format | File | Key-value | Document | File^fuse, Key-value, Structured | | Storage Encryption | N | API | Y | Y | | Data Desensitization | N | N | N | Y | | Multi-tenant | DIY | DIY | N | Y | | Throughput (1s delay) | 15~10 tx/s | 3500 tx/s | ? | 11065 tx/s (Eventually Consistency)
1866 tx/s (Strong Consistency) | | Consistency Delay | 2~6 min | < 1 s | ? | < 10 ms | | Secure for Open Internet | Y | N | Only in AWS | Y | | Consensus | PoW + PoS(Casper) | CFT | ? | DPoS (Eventually Consistency)
BFT-Raft (Strong Consistency) |

FootNotes

• BFT-Raft: A CQL leader offline needs CQL Block Producer to decide whether to wait for leader online for data integrity or promote a follower node for availability. This part is still under construction and any advice is welcome.

• Transaction: Talking about ACID, CQL has full "Consistency, Isolation, Durability" and a limited Atomicity support. That is even under strong consistency mode, CQL transaction is only supported on the leader node. If you want to do "read v, v++, write v back" parallelly and atomically, then the only way is "read v from the leader, v++, write v back to leader"

• FUSE: CQL has a simple FUSE support adopted from CockroachDB. The performance is not very ideal and still has some issues. But it can pass fio test like:

fio --debug=io --loops=1 --size=8m --filename=../mnt/fiotest.tmp --stonewall --direct=1 --name=Seqread --bs=128k --rw=read --name=Seqwrite --bs=128k --rw=write --name=4krandread --bs=4k --rw=randread --name=4krandwrite --bs=4k --rw=randwrite

Network Stack

DH-RPC := TLS - Cert + DHT

| Layer | Implementation | |:-------------------|:--------------:| | RPC | net/rpc | | Naming | Consistent Secure DHT | | Pooling | Session Pool | | Multiplex | smux | | Transport Security | Enhanced TLS) | | Network | TCP or KCP for optional later |

Test Tools we use

Papers

Our team members published:

• Thunder crystal: a novel crowdsourcing-based content distribution platform
• Analyzing streaming performance in crowdsourcing-based video service systems
• Performance Analysis of Thunder Crystal: A Crowdsourcing-Based Video Distribution Platform

• Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
• S/Kademlia

• vSQL: Verifying arbitrary SQL queries over dynamic outsourced databases

Traditional App

Privacy data

If you are a developper of password management tools just like 1Password or LastPass. You can use CQL as the database to take benefits:

1. Serverless: no need to deploy a server to store your user's password for sync which is the hot potato.
2. Security: CQL handles all the encryption work. Decentralized data storage gives more confidence to your users.
3. Regulation: CQL naturally comply with GDPR.

IoT storage

CQL miners are deployed globally, IoT node can write to nearest CQL miner directly.

1. Cheaper: Without passing all the traffic through a gateway, you can save a large bandwidth fee. And, CQL is a shared economic database which makes storage cheaper.
2. Faster: CQL consensus protocol is designed for Internet where network latency is unavoidable.

Open data service

For example, you are the most detailed Bitcoin OHLC data maintainer. You can directly expose an online SQL interface to your customers to meet a wide range of query needs.

1. CQL can limit specific SQL query statements to meet the needs while also balancing data security;
2. CQL can record SQL query records on the blockchain, which is very convenient for customers to check their bills for long-tail customers and billing, like this
3. For customers with high performance requirements, Slave nodes can be deployed at the customer to meet the needs of customers with low latency queries while enabling almost real-time data updates.

Secure storage

Thanks to the CQL data history is immutable, CQL can be used as a storage for sensitive operational logs to prevent hacking and erasure access logs.

ĐApp

Storing data on Bitcoin or Ethereum is quite expensive ($4305 / MB on Ethereum 2018-05-15). Programming is very complicated due to the lack of support for structured data storage. CQL gives you a low-cost structured SQL database and also provides more room for ĐApp to exchange data with real-world.