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feat : bounded difficulty adjustment for PoW consensus #29

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91c9969
feat: issue #8 project scaffolding
arunabha003 Feb 16, 2026
1a26ae7
feat(crypto): add Ed25519 identity and signature helpers
arunabha003 Feb 16, 2026
fce3e7a
test(crypto): cover keypair, address, and signature validation
arunabha003 Feb 16, 2026
15c67bd
feat(serialization): add canonical transaction and header encoding
arunabha003 Feb 16, 2026
313ee5d
test(serialization): add deterministic encoding coverage
arunabha003 Feb 16, 2026
58125c2
chore: fix serialization lint formatting
arunabha003 Feb 17, 2026
dcc3d23
feat: implement signed transaction model and verification
arunabha003 Feb 17, 2026
ca2fd8e
test: add transaction tamper and identity mismatch coverage
arunabha003 Feb 17, 2026
92e96a4
feat: add merkle root computation using blake2b
arunabha003 Feb 21, 2026
761eb20
test: add merkle root determinism and edge-case coverage
arunabha003 Feb 21, 2026
0b5b764
feat: add deterministic transaction id hashing
arunabha003 Feb 21, 2026
bd229ab
feat: implement block header hashing and merkle validation
arunabha003 Feb 21, 2026
a7b4f4b
test: add block hash and merkle-root coverage
arunabha003 Feb 21, 2026
aa7ea05
feat: implement account state transitions and atomic block apply
arunabha003 Feb 21, 2026
af35a69
test: add state transfer, nonce, and rollback coverage
arunabha003 Feb 21, 2026
1fb521f
feat: add configurable genesis block and state initialization
arunabha003 Feb 21, 2026
b930f7e
test: add genesis block creation and application coverage
arunabha003 Feb 21, 2026
42cba00
feat: implement proof-of-work mining engine
arunabha003 Feb 21, 2026
0783e6d
test: add pow validation and mining interruption coverage
arunabha003 Feb 21, 2026
3d723fd
feat: implement bounded difficulty adjustment
arunabha003 Feb 22, 2026
8a4d38b
test: add difficulty retarget scenarios
arunabha003 Feb 22, 2026
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29 changes: 29 additions & 0 deletions .github/workflows/ci.yml
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@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
name: CI

on:
push:
branches: [main]
pull_request:

jobs:
test:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v4

- name: Setup Python
uses: actions/setup-python@v5
with:
python-version: "3.11"
Comment on lines +15 to +18
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🧹 Nitpick | 🔵 Trivial

Add pip dependency caching to avoid re-downloading packages on every run.

actions/setup-python@v5 supports built-in pip caching via cache: 'pip'. Without it, every CI run re-downloads all dependencies from PyPI.

⚡ Proposed improvement 
       - name: Setup Python
         uses: actions/setup-python@v5
         with:
           python-version: "3.11"
+          cache: "pip"
📝 Committable suggestion

‼️ IMPORTANT
Carefully review the code before committing. Ensure that it accurately replaces the highlighted code, contains no missing lines, and has no issues with indentation. Thoroughly test & benchmark the code to ensure it meets the requirements.

Suggested change
- name: Setup Python
uses: actions/setup-python@v5
with:
python-version: "3.11"
- name: Setup Python
uses: actions/setup-python@v5
with:
python-version: "3.11"
cache: "pip"
🤖 Prompt for AI Agents 
Verify each finding against the current code and only fix it if needed.

In @.github/workflows/ci.yml around lines 15 - 18, The Setup Python step (name:
Setup Python, uses: actions/setup-python@v5) lacks pip caching; add the built-in
pip cache by adding cache: 'pip' under the with block for
actions/setup-python@v5 so dependencies are cached between CI runs and not
re-downloaded every time.


- name: Install dependencies
run: |
python -m pip install --upgrade pip
python -m pip install -e .[dev]
- name: Lint
run: make lint

- name: Run tests
run: make test
14 changes: 14 additions & 0 deletions .gitignore
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Expand Up @@ -258,6 +258,17 @@ pythontex-files-*/
# easy-todo
*.lod

# MiniChain local planning docs (do not commit)
issues.md
architectureProposal.md

# Python caches and virtualenvs
__pycache__/
*.py[cod]
.pytest_cache/
.ruff_cache/
.venv/

# xcolor
*.xcp

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -324,3 +335,6 @@ TSWLatexianTemp*
# option is specified. Footnotes are the stored in a file with suffix Notes.bib.
# Uncomment the next line to have this generated file ignored.
#*Notes.bib


docs/
Comment on lines +338 to +340
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⚠️ Potential issue | 🟡 Minor

Broad docs/ ignore may silently suppress tracked documentation.

The bare docs/ pattern at Line 340 ignores the entire documentation tree. If any hand-authored docs (e.g., ADRs, API references) ever land in docs/, they will be invisible to git add by default, which is a common source of accidentally untracked documentation. Consider scoping it narrowly (e.g., docs/_build/ for Sphinx output) unless the intent is to never commit any file under docs/.

🤖 Prompt for AI Agents 
Verify each finding against the current code and only fix it if needed.

In @.gitignore around lines 338 - 340, The .gitignore currently contains a broad
"docs/" entry which can hide hand-authored documentation; replace this broad
pattern with a targeted ignore (for example change "docs/" to "docs/_build/" or
similar generated-output paths) or narrow it and add explicit negations for
source docs (e.g., keep "docs/*.md" or "!docs/**/README.md") so that generated
artifacts are ignored but authored docs in the docs tree remain trackable;
update the entry in the .gitignore where "docs/" appears.

21 changes: 21 additions & 0 deletions Makefile
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PYTHON ?= python3

.PHONY: install dev-install test lint format start-node
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🧹 Nitpick | 🔵 Trivial

Consider adding a clean target for cache/build artifact hygiene.

checkmake flags missing all (not critical here) and clean. A clean target for removing __pycache__, .pytest_cache, dist/, and *.egg-info/ is a useful convention.

♻️ Proposed addition 
-.PHONY: install dev-install test lint format start-node
+.PHONY: install dev-install test lint format start-node clean

+clean:
+	find . -type d -name "__pycache__" -exec rm -rf {} +
+	find . -type d -name ".pytest_cache" -exec rm -rf {} +
+	find . -type d -name "*.egg-info" -exec rm -rf {} +
+	find . -type d -name "dist" -exec rm -rf {} +
📝 Committable suggestion

‼️ IMPORTANT
Carefully review the code before committing. Ensure that it accurately replaces the highlighted code, contains no missing lines, and has no issues with indentation. Thoroughly test & benchmark the code to ensure it meets the requirements.

Suggested change
.PHONY: install dev-install test lint format start-node
.PHONY: install dev-install test lint format start-node clean
clean:
find . -type d -name "__pycache__" -exec rm -rf {} +
find . -type d -name ".pytest_cache" -exec rm -rf {} +
find . -type d -name "*.egg-info" -exec rm -rf {} +
find . -type d -name "dist" -exec rm -rf {} +
🧰 Tools
🪛 checkmake (0.2.2)

[warning] 3-3: Missing required phony target "all"

(minphony)

[warning] 3-3: Missing required phony target "clean"

(minphony)

🤖 Prompt for AI Agents 
Verify each finding against the current code and only fix it if needed.

In `@Makefile` at line 3, Add a standard clean target to the Makefile and include
it (and optionally all) in the .PHONY list: add a target named clean that
removes Python and build artifacts such as __pycache__, .pytest_cache, dist/,
build/, and any *.egg-info/ directories (use rm -rf on those patterns or a find
-name approach), and update the existing .PHONY line (which currently lists
install dev-install test lint format start-node) to include clean (and add all
if you want the checkmake suggestion honored); ensure the clean target is
runnable with make clean and does not depend on other targets.


install:
$(PYTHON) -m pip install .

dev-install:
$(PYTHON) -m pip install -e .[dev]

test:
$(PYTHON) -m pytest

lint:
$(PYTHON) -m ruff check src tests

format:
$(PYTHON) -m ruff format src tests

start-node:
PYTHONPATH=src $(PYTHON) -m minichain --host 127.0.0.1 --port 7000
265 changes: 50 additions & 215 deletions README.md
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@@ -1,236 +1,71 @@
<!-- Don't delete it -->
<div name="readme-top"></div>
# MiniChain

<!-- Organization Logo -->
<div align="center" style="display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; gap: 16px;">
<img alt="Stability Nexus" src="public/stability.svg" width="175">
<img src="public/todo-project-logo.svg" width="175" />
</div>
MiniChain is a minimal, research-oriented blockchain implementation in Python. This repository currently contains the project scaffolding and development environment for the v0 core chain roadmap.

&nbsp;
## Current Status

<!-- Organization Name -->
<div align="center">
Issue #1 (project scaffolding) is implemented with:

[![Static Badge](https://img.shields.io/badge/Stability_Nexus-/TODO-228B22?style=for-the-badge&labelColor=FFC517)](https://TODO.stability.nexus/)
- Python package layout under `src/minichain`
- Placeholder component modules for:
- `crypto`, `transaction`, `block`, `state`, `mempool`, `consensus`, `network`, `storage`, `node`
- `pyproject.toml` project configuration
- `Makefile` for common developer tasks
- Basic CI workflow (`.github/workflows/ci.yml`)
- Baseline tests under `tests/`

<!-- Correct deployed url to be added -->
## Requirements

</div>
- Python 3.11+

<!-- Organization/Project Social Handles -->
<p align="center">
<!-- Telegram -->
<a href="https://t.me/StabilityNexus">
<img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Telegram-black?style=flat&logo=telegram&logoColor=white&logoSize=auto&color=24A1DE" alt="Telegram Badge"/></a>
&nbsp;&nbsp;
<!-- X (formerly Twitter) -->
<a href="https://x.com/StabilityNexus">
<img src="https://img.shields.io/twitter/follow/StabilityNexus" alt="X (formerly Twitter) Badge"/></a>
&nbsp;&nbsp;
<!-- Discord -->
<a href="https://discord.gg/YzDKeEfWtS">
<img src="https://img.shields.io/discord/995968619034984528?style=flat&logo=discord&logoColor=white&logoSize=auto&label=Discord&labelColor=5865F2&color=57F287" alt="Discord Badge"/></a>
&nbsp;&nbsp;
<!-- Medium -->
<a href="https://news.stability.nexus/">
<img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Medium-black?style=flat&logo=medium&logoColor=black&logoSize=auto&color=white" alt="Medium Badge"></a>
&nbsp;&nbsp;
<!-- LinkedIn -->
<a href="https://linkedin.com/company/stability-nexus">
<img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/LinkedIn-black?style=flat&logo=LinkedIn&logoColor=white&logoSize=auto&color=0A66C2" alt="LinkedIn Badge"></a>
&nbsp;&nbsp;
<!-- Youtube -->
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@StabilityNexus">
<img src="https://img.shields.io/youtube/channel/subscribers/UCZOG4YhFQdlGaLugr_e5BKw?style=flat&logo=youtube&logoColor=white&logoSize=auto&labelColor=FF0000&color=FF0000" alt="Youtube Badge"></a>
</p>

---

<div align="center">
<h1>MiniChain</h1>
</div>

MiniChain is a minimal fully functional blockchain implemented in Python.

### Background and Motivation

* Most well-known blockchains are now several years old and have accumulated a lot of technical debt.
Simply forking their codebases is not an optimal option for starting a new chain.

* MiniChain will be focused on research. Its primary purpose is not to be yet another blockchain
trying to be the one blockchain to kill them all, but rather to serve as a clean codebase that can be a benchmark for research of
variations of the technology. (We hope that MiniChain will be as valuable for blockchain research as, for instance,
MiniSat was valuable for satisfiability and automated reasoning research. MiniSat had less than 600 lines of C++ code.)

* MiniChain will be focused on education. By having a clean and small codebase, devs will be able to understand
blockchains by looking at the codebase.

* The blockchain space is again going through a phase where many new blockchains are being launched.
Back in 2017 and 2018, such an expansion period led to many general frameworks for blockchains,
such as Scorex and various Hyperledger frameworks. But most of these frameworks suffered from speculative generality and
were bloated. They focused on extensibility and configurability. MiniChain has a different philosophy:
focus on minimality and, therefore, ease of modification.

* Recent advances in networking and crypto libraries for Python make it possible to develop MiniChain in Python.
Given that Python is one of the easiest languages to learn and results in usually boilerplate-minimized and easy to read code,
implementing MiniChain in Python aligns with MiniChain's educational goal.


### Overview of Tasks

* Develop a fully functional minimal blockchain in Python, with all the expected components:
peer-to-peer networking, consensus, mempool, ledger, ...

* Bonus task: add smart contracts to the blockchain.

Candidates are expected to refine these tasks in their GSoC proposals.
It is encouraged that you develop an initial prototype during the application phase.

### Requirements

* Use [PyNaCl](https://pynacl.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) library for hashing, signing transactions and verifying signatures.
* Use [Py-libp2p](https://github.com/libp2p/py-libp2p/tree/main) for p2p networking.
* Implement Proof-of-Work as the consensus protocol.
* Use accounts (instead of UTxO) as the accounting model for the ledger.
* Use as few lines of code as possible without compromising readability and understandability.
* For the bonus task, make Python itself be the language used for smart contracts, but watch out for security concerns related to executing arbitrary code from untrusted sources.

### Resources

* Read this book: https://www.marabu.dev/blockchain-foundations.pdf


---

## Project Maturity

TODO: In the checklist below, mark the items that have been completed and delete items that are not applicable to the current project:

* [ ] The project has a logo.
* [ ] The project has a favicon.
* [ ] The protocol:
- [ ] has been described and formally specified in a paper.
- [ ] has had its main properties mathematically proven.
- [ ] has been formally verified.
* [ ] The smart contracts:
- [ ] were thoroughly reviewed by at least two knights of The Stable Order.
- [ ] were deployed to:
- [ ] Ergo
- [ ] Cardano
- [ ] EVM Chains:
- [ ] Ethereum Classic
- [ ] Ethereum
- [ ] Polygon
- [ ] BSC
- [ ] Base
* [ ] The mobile app:
- [ ] has an _About_ page containing the Stability Nexus's logo and pointing to the social media accounts of the Stability Nexus.
- [ ] is available for download as a release in this repo.
- [ ] is available in the relevant app stores.
* [ ] The web frontend:
- [ ] has proper title and metadata.
- [ ] has proper open graph metadata, to ensure that it is shown well when shared in social media (Discord, Telegram, Twitter, LinkedIn).
- [ ] has a footer, containing the Stability Nexus's logo and pointing to the social media accounts of the Stability Nexus.
- [ ] is fully static and client-side.
- [ ] is deployed to Github Pages via a Github Workflow.
- [ ] is accessible through the https://TODO:PROJECT-NAME.stability.nexus domain.
* [ ] the project is listed in [https://stability.nexus/protocols](https://stability.nexus/protocols).

---

## Tech Stack

TODO:

### Frontend

TODO:

- Next.js 14+ (React)
- TypeScript
- TailwindCSS
- shadcn/ui

### Blockchain

TODO:

- Wagmi
- Solidity Smart Contracts
- Ethers.js

---

## Getting Started

### Prerequisites

TODO

- Node.js 18+
- npm/yarn/pnpm
- MetaMask or any other web3 wallet browser extension

### Installation

TODO

#### 1. Clone the Repository
## Setup

```bash
git clone https://github.com/StabilityNexus/TODO.git
cd TODO
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install --upgrade pip
make dev-install
```

#### 2. Install Dependencies

Using your preferred package manager:
If you also want networking dependencies:

```bash
npm install
# or
yarn install
# or
pnpm install
python -m pip install -e .[network]
```

#### 3. Run the Development Server

Start the app locally:
## Common Commands

```bash
npm run dev
# or
yarn dev
# or
pnpm dev
make test # run unit tests
make lint # run ruff checks
make format # format with ruff
make start-node # run scaffold node entrypoint
```

#### 4. Open your Browser

Navigate to [http://localhost:3000](http://localhost:3000) to see the application.

---

## Contributing

We welcome contributions of all kinds! To contribute:

1. Fork the repository and create your feature branch (`git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature`).
2. Commit your changes (`git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature'`).
3. Run the development workflow commands to ensure code quality:
- `npm run format:write`
- `npm run lint:fix`
- `npm run typecheck`
4. Push your branch (`git push origin feature/AmazingFeature`).
5. Open a Pull Request for review.
## Run the Node Entrypoint

If you encounter bugs, need help, or have feature requests:

- Please open an issue in this repository providing detailed information.
- Describe the problem clearly and include any relevant logs or screenshots.

We appreciate your feedback and contributions!
```bash
PYTHONPATH=src python -m minichain --host 127.0.0.1 --port 7000
```

© 2025 The Stable Order.
## Repository Layout

```text
.github/workflows/ci.yml
src/minichain/
__init__.py
__main__.py
crypto.py
transaction.py
block.py
state.py
mempool.py
consensus.py
network.py
storage.py
node.py
tests/
test_scaffold.py
issues.md
architectureProposal.md
```
Comment on lines +53 to +71
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⚠️ Potential issue | 🟡 Minor

merkle.py and serialization.py are missing from the Repository Layout.

Both modules introduced in this PR (src/minichain/merkle.py, src/minichain/serialization.py) are absent from the layout listing.

📝 Proposed update 
 src/minichain/
   __init__.py
   __main__.py
   crypto.py
   transaction.py
   block.py
+  merkle.py
+  serialization.py
   state.py
   mempool.py
   consensus.py
   network.py
   storage.py
   node.py
📝 Committable suggestion

‼️ IMPORTANT
Carefully review the code before committing. Ensure that it accurately replaces the highlighted code, contains no missing lines, and has no issues with indentation. Thoroughly test & benchmark the code to ensure it meets the requirements.

Suggested change
```text
.github/workflows/ci.yml
src/minichain/
__init__.py
__main__.py
crypto.py
transaction.py
block.py
state.py
mempool.py
consensus.py
network.py
storage.py
node.py
tests/
test_scaffold.py
issues.md
architectureProposal.md
```
.github/workflows/ci.yml
src/minichain/
__init__.py
__main__.py
crypto.py
transaction.py
block.py
merkle.py
serialization.py
state.py
mempool.py
consensus.py
network.py
storage.py
node.py
tests/
test_scaffold.py
issues.md
architectureProposal.md
🤖 Prompt for AI Agents 
Verify each finding against the current code and only fix it if needed.

In `@README.md` around lines 53 - 71, The README repository layout is missing the
two new modules; update the listed tree under the project root to include
src/minichain/merkle.py and src/minichain/serialization.py so the README
accurately reflects the codebase (look for the existing src/minichain/ listing
in README.md and add lines for merkle.py and serialization.py alongside
crypto.py, transaction.py, etc.).

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