README.md
1# Faucet
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3The `faucet` is a simplistic web application with the goal of distributing small amounts of Ether in private and test networks.
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5Users need to post their Ethereum addresses to fund in a Twitter status update or public Facebook post and share the link to the faucet. The faucet will in turn deduplicate user requests and send the Ether. After a funding round, the faucet prevents the same user requesting again for a pre-configured amount of time, proportional to the amount of Ether requested.
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7## Operation
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9The `faucet` is a single binary app (everything included) with all configurations set via command line flags and a few files.
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11First thing's first, the `faucet` needs to connect to an Ethereum network, for which it needs the necessary genesis and network infos. Each of the following flags must be set:
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13- `--genesis` is a path to a file containin the network `genesis.json`
14- `--network` is the devp2p network id used during connection
15- `--bootnodes` is a list of `enode://` ids to join the network through
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17The `faucet` will use the `les` protocol to join the configured Ethereum network and will store its data in `$HOME/.faucet` (currently not configurable).
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19## Funding
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21To be able to distribute funds, the `faucet` needs access to an already funded Ethereum account. This can be configured via:
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23- `--account.json` is a path to the Ethereum account's JSON key file
24- `--account.pass` is a path to a text file with the decryption passphrase
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26The faucet is able to distribute various amounts of Ether in exchange for various timeouts. These can be configured via:
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28- `--faucet.amount` is the number of Ethers to send by default
29- `--faucet.minutes` is the time to wait before allowing a rerequest
30- `--faucet.tiers` is the funding tiers to support (x3 time, x2.5 funds)
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32## Sybil protection
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34To prevent the same user from exhausting funds in a loop, the `faucet` ties requests to social networks and captcha resolvers.
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36Captcha protection uses Google's invisible ReCaptcha, thus the `faucet` needs to run on a live domain. The domain needs to be registered in Google's systems to retrieve the captcha API token and secrets. After doing so, captcha protection may be enabled via:
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38- `--captcha.token` is the API token for ReCaptcha
39- `--captcha.secret` is the API secret for ReCaptcha
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41Sybil protection via Twitter requires an API key as of 15th December, 2020. To obtain it, a Twitter user must be upgraded to developer status and a new Twitter App deployed with it. The app's `Bearer` token is required by the faucet to retrieve tweet data:
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43- `--twitter.token` is the Bearer token for `v2` API access
44- `--twitter.token.v1` is the Bearer token for `v1` API access
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46Sybil protection via Facebook uses the website to directly download post data thus does not currently require an API configuration.
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48## Miscellaneous
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50Beside the above - mostly essential - CLI flags, there are a number that can be used to fine tune the `faucet`'s operation. Please see `faucet --help` for a full list.