FileCoin

If you want to use FileCoin as a storage instead of IPFS, this article is for you! Follow the steps in the usage section.

Core concepts

FileCoin is a decentralized storage network that brings scalability, security, and privacy to decentralized storage.

We use Lighthouse which works on FileCoin. Lighthouse is a perpetual file storage protocol that allows you to pay once for your files and store them long-term.

On the SingularityNET platform service providers can choose which storage to use for metadata and service (like .proto, etc.) files. Invoking services via AI Marketplace and publishing organizations/services via Publisher Portal will be available in the next version of the FileCoin integration.

Usage

API key

Generating

The Lighthouse API key is required to use FileCoin as a storage. To get it you should sign up on Lighthouse, сhoose the subscription plan (optionally) that suits you and generate an API key. To get more information see Lighthouse Quick Start or Lighthouse creating API key.

Note: Lighthouse API key is only needed to load files. It is not needed to use commands, that read files from FileCoin.

Setting up

To use API key in the CLI you can add it to the CLI config file as follows:

snet set filecoin_api_key <YOUR_LIGHTHOUSE_API_KEY>

or stop using it by running:

snet unset filecoin_api_key

Note: This key is used regardless of identity.

Publishing

Storage Type argument

Once you have added the API key, you can use Lighthouse to publish organization and service metadata, as well as service files. To select a storage type, you need to specify a new named argument --storage in the commands you already know. This argument is used in all commands related to creating a service or organization, creating and publishing their metadata and service files.

Commands

Here is a list these commands:

• snet organization create
• snet organization update-metadata
• snet service metadata-init
• snet service metadata-set-api
• snet service publish
• snet service update-metadata

You can also select the storage type when running the snet service metadata-init-utility command. In addition, to publish metadata only in FileCoin, without publishing in Registry, you can use the snet service publish-in-filecoin command.

Example

Here is an example of using snet service publish command:

> snet service publish -h
usage: snet service publish [-h] [--metadata-file METADATA_FILE] [--update-mpe-address] [--storage {ipfs,filecoin}] [--multipartyescrow-at MULTIPARTYESCROW_AT] [--registry-at REGISTRY_AT]
                            [--wallet-index WALLET_INDEX] [--yes] [--quiet | --verbose]
                            ORG_ID SERVICE_ID

positional arguments:
  ORG_ID                Id of the Organization
  SERVICE_ID            Id of service

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --metadata-file METADATA_FILE
                        Service metadata json file (default service_metadata.json)
  --update-mpe-address  Update mpe_address in metadata before publishing them
  --storage {ipfs,filecoin}
                        Choose storage for uploading metadata/protobuf file (defaults to 'ipfs')
  --multipartyescrow-at MULTIPARTYESCROW_AT, --mpe MULTIPARTYESCROW_AT
                        Address of MultiPartyEscrow contract, if not specified we read address from "networks"
  --registry-at REGISTRY_AT, --registry REGISTRY_AT
                        Address of Registry contract, if not specified we read address from "networks"

transaction arguments:
  --wallet-index WALLET_INDEX
                        Wallet index of account to use for signing (defaults to session.identity.default_wallet_index)
  --yes, -y             Skip interactive confirmation of transaction payload
  --quiet, -q           Quiet transaction printing
  --verbose, -v         Verbose transaction printing


> snet service publish --metadata-file service_metadata.json --storage filecoin -y <YOUR_ORGANIZATION_ID> <YOUR_SERVICE_ID>

As you can see from the example, there are two types of storage to choose from: ipfs and filecoin. If this argument is not specified, ipfs is used by default.

To get more information about using FileCoin use -h option in any command to see a detailed description.

Last modified on : 15-Oct-24