NOTE! ⚠️⚠️

Rip is a proof of concept and not production ready just yet, but I'd love to get it there. If you have any interest in using or contributing to RIP, please join our discord.

Install

npm install --save rip-db-js

# or with yarn
yarn add rip-db-js

Motivation

The SQL database is a powerful tool unrivaled for storing and querying relational data.

BUT, I believe most Dapps can live without a traditional SQL database in favor of something more light weight and decentralized.

Here are some problems with setting up a db for your dapp

1. There are already many great services which index blockchain data (why reinvent the wheel?)
2. DBs are expensive to host
3. Migrations are often a pain
4. They tend to be centralized / treasure trove for attackers
5. They usually don't give users provenance over their data
6. Encryption / key management is a pain

Many web3 developers opt to store their data as JSON directly on IPFS rather than a traditional DB, but IPFS upload times can be slow and gateway timeouts are brutal.

If a traditional db seems overkill for your use case, RIP might be for you. It gives you the speed of in memory cache (redis) but the decentralization of a global network (Filecoin + IPFS), with some ther goodies like encryption.

Example use case

In my own project (https://juicelabs.io), I needed some sort of store for a list of allowlist addresses (to calculate merkle proofs). Database seemed like a lot. I wanted something closer to an in memory store like Redis, but I wanted better redundancy / cold storage, and thus the idea for RIP came to be.

Speed

Usage from browser js client

// Setting up client
import { RipClient } from 'rip-db-js'
const ripServerUrl = '';

const rip = new RipClient({ ripServerUrl });

...

const myJson = { hello: 'RIP world' };
await rip.set('myJsonKey', myJson, { encrypt: false });

...

const { data } = await rip.get('myJsonKey');

...

// reclaims memory, but preserves data on IPFS
await rip.purge('myJsonKey');

☠️ simple or what?

Running your own RipDb Instance

You will need to set up a redis instance first.

The fastest way to do this on your local is via homebrew.

> brew install redis
> brew services start redis

Under your environment variables you will need to set IPFS

• TODO (finish instructions lol).

TODO

• [ ] Expose RIP client and Rip server as node_modules
• [ ] Implement other Redis operations e.g. scan on the front end client
• [ ] Maybe, build key -> data models in typescript, get graphql style automatic runtime validation during set based on the typescript models COOL: https://github.com/gcanti/io-ts
• [ ] Get fancier with user owned access control features