VotingPrototype

Prototype for Auditable Voting.

Dependencies:

• A machine or instance running Linux or MacOS. It might be possible to do all of this under Windows; if you manage to do so please create a branch and update this document. I developed this using the community edition of IntelliJ, but nothing in this project should depend on that.
• Java -- JDK 21
• Kotlin -- Version 2.0
• Gradle -- Version 8.12.1 (I made it out of clay)
• PostgreSQL -- Version 15.1
• pgAdmin or some other database management tool. (Optional but recommended).
• Geth -- Version 1.14
• Clef -- Version 1.14
• web3j -- Version 1.6.2
• solc -- Version 0.8.28 (Scary!)
• Various open source packages defined in build.gradle.kts. Currently, there are some artifacts from my initial attempt to use hyperledger -- ignore these for now.

Configuration:

AWS Secrets is used to store configuration information. Currently, there are two sets of secrets in use.

WSFS-Blockchain

• NodeURL -- The URL to access an Ethereum Blockchain node. Currently, this is set up to use a local node run under geth, but it should work on a real blockchain as well.
• AccountKey -- This is the Ethereum "wallet" which owns the smart contracts. For demonstration purposes, I created an account using clef and transferred the JSON to this entry.
• AccountPassword -- This is the password to the Ethereum "wallet" above.

WSFS-Database

• username -- The user name used to access the PostgreSQL database
• password -- The password used for access. Imaginative, no?
• host -- A wafer or piece of bread that is consecrated during the Eucharist. Also, the host name of the postgreSQL instance.
• port -- The port number used to access the database instance on the host.
• dbname -- The database instance used for day-to-day operations.
• testdbname -- A database instance for testing. It should have the same schema as the main database.
• aesBase64 -- A base 64 encoded private key to use with AES encryption.

Setup

Starting point: https://geth.ethereum.org/docs/developers/dapp-developer/dev-mode

Create your database instances. From the root of this project, run the following psql commands, replacing the $SECRETS placeholders with whatever you configured in AWS:
psql -U $SECRETS_username -d $SECRETS_testdbname -f ./docs/schema.sql
psql -U $SECRETS_username -d $SECRETS_dbname -f ./docs/schema.sql

To start a local Ethereum style blockchain node define an environment variable LOCUS, as a directory for storing the various "bits." Then start your node by running:
geth --dev --http --http.api eth,web3,net --http.corsdomain "https://remix.ethereum.org" --datadir $LOCUS

Next while geth is running, create an account by running: clef newaccount --keystore $LOCUS/keystore clef will ask for a password and create a second file in $LOCUS/keystore with a name beginning with UTF--. Transfer this password and the contents of the file to AWS secrets.

The next step is to "fund" the account you just created. While geth is running, connect to with the following command.
geth attach $LOCUS/geth.ipc

You can then exit this program by typing control-D. (Old-school Unix/Linux geeks rejoice) eth.sendTransaction({from: eth.accounts[0], to: eth.accounts[1], value: web3.toWei(50, "ether")})