Zoom

1. Description

Is a set of tools created in order to make Distributed Applications ( DAPPs ) load faster with optimised network calls and reduced resource usage on Ethereum nodes that process their requests.

Zoom bundles multiple web3 calls into one call that is then sent to an EVM ( Ethereum Virtual Machine ), processed and then once the result is received, it builds a "key / value cache" that will serve the application's data loading needs.

// rinkeby
const ZoomContract_address   = "0xe07a33e2975b7012eb9bf002aa12aba98d7069dc";

// ropsten
const ZoomContract_address   = "0x06015a207fb22eb6d81585e1694c8fff405ee4a4";

2. Modes

2.1. Type 1 calls

Normal Solidity ABI v1/v2 encoded calls

2.2. Type 2 calls

Known as referenced calls, can be enabled by the "use_reference_calls" setting.

// Code example:

contract ListContract {

    struct Item {
        string name;
        address itemAddress;
        bool    status;
        uint256 index;
    }
    mapping ( uint256 => Item ) public items;

}

contract ItemEntity {

    string public name;
    uint256 public age;
    string public location;
    string public imageUrl;

}

Lets say for example that you have contract ListContract which indexes "items" in a mapping, and each item has a bunch of properties that you want to read.

Once your application is profiled and all data is loaded from the blockchain, the Zoom Binary Call builder knows that a call to "ListContract.items( N ) will return the address of an item, that will later be used as a to Address"

In this case, it can create a type 2 call which can then use that result's position and the next 20 bytes as the "call to address".

• Note: is useful for proxy contracts, which have items with dynamic addresses. ( think about upgradeable smart contracts )
• Enable with caution! ( it can fail if the "item" address exists in multiple results )

const ZoomLibraryInstance = new ZoomLibrary.Zoom(
    { use_reference_calls: true }
);

3. Usage details

3.1. Installing Zoom

Add the Zoom package to your project.

npm install zoom.js --save

4.2. Profiling Your Application

1. Replace your current Web3.js Provider with a new ZoomLibrary.HttpProvider instance, with cache enabled.
2. Load all the data you need
3. Call ZoomLibraryInstance.getZoomCall( ZoomProvider.cache ) to create the ZoomQueryBinary
4. Save the output of ZoomQueryBinary in a variable or file for later usage

const ZoomLibrary = require("zoom.js");

// Custom Zoom Provider
const ZoomProvider = new ZoomLibrary.HttpProvider( "https://ropsten.infura.io/" );

// Enable result caching so we can record calls
ZoomProvider.enableCache(true);

// Pass our provider to a new or existing Web3 object.
const web3 = new Web3( ZoomProvider );

/*

 Load your application data
 Init Smart Contracts
 Load properties

*/

// Once everything is loaded instantiate the Zoom Library
const ZoomLibraryInstance = new ZoomLibrary.Zoom({
    use_reference_calls: false // true if you want to use type 2
});

// Prepare the "Zoom Query"
const ZoomQueryBinary = ZoomLibraryInstance.getZoomCall( ZoomProvider.cache );

// save ZoomQueryBinary in a file or a variable for later usage
console.log( ZoomQueryBinary.toString("hex") );

/*

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

*/

Process diagram:

---

4.3. Using Zoom

1. Require ZoomLibrary / ZoomABI / ZoomQueryBinary
2. Replace your current Web3.js Provider with a new ZoomLibrary.HttpProvider instance, with cache enabled.
3. Initialize the Zoom Web3 Contract ( ABI in build/contracts/Zoom.json ) / address depending on network
4. Call the Zoom Smart Contract and pass the ZoomQueryBinary
5. Parse the result and set the new application state

Note: A proper application state store ( vuex store / redux ) should be preferred instead of the "AppProvider"

const ZoomLibrary = require("zoom.js");
const ZoomABI = require("./build/contracts/Zoom.json");
const ZoomQueryFile = require("./ZoomQueryBinary.json");
const ZoomQueryBinary = Buffer.from( ZoomQueryFile.data, "hex" );

// Instantiate the Zoom Library with default config
const ZoomLibraryInstance = new ZoomLibrary.Zoom();

// Create the two providers
// ZoomProvider is used for "zoom"
const ZoomProvider = new ZoomLibrary.HttpProvider( "https://ropsten.infura.io/" );


// AppProvider is used by the application as a state
const AppProvider = new ZoomLibrary.HttpProvider( "https://ropsten.infura.io/" );
// Enable result caching so we can store results
AppProvider.enableCache(true);


// Pass our providers to a new or existing Web3 object.
const web3Zoom = new Web3( ZoomProvider );
const web3 = new Web3( AppProvider );

// Zoom @ Ropsten
const ZoomContract_address = "0x06015a207fb22eb6d81585e1694c8fff405ee4a4";

// Initialize the Zoom Web3 Contract
const ZoomContractInstance = await new web3Zoom.eth.Contract(ZoomABI.abi, ZoomContract_address);


// You can run this once at startup, or each time a block changes
// ----------
// Execute ZoomQuery
const combinedResult = await ZoomContractInstance.methods.combine( ZoomQueryBinary );

// Parse result
const newDataCache = ZoomLibraryInstance.resultsToCache( combinedResult, ZoomQueryBinary );

// Load into "provider cache"
AppProvider.setCache( newDataCache );
// ----------

/*

 Load your application data
 Init Smart Contracts
 Load properties

*/

Process diagram:

---

5. Benchmarks

5.1. Results

	Ganache	Infura	Parity	Geth
Zoom Call is X	Times Faster	Times Faster	Times Faster	Times Faster
Asynchronous HTTP	2.698928	2.381501	15.485504	23.867573
Asynchronous WebSocket	2.507113	22.689466	1.740879	1.908162

5.2. Details

Ran on Test Runner Machine using NodeJs - v8.7.0.

Smart Contract property requests: 2000

• Ethereum Node Software Versions
  • Ganache-cli/6.1.8
  • Infura - unknown
  • Parity-Ethereum/v2.2.2-beta-78ceec6-20181129/x86_64-linux-gnu/rustc1.30.1
  • Geth/v1.8.19-stable-dae82f09/linux-amd64/go1.10.4

Call Type / Node	Ganache	Infura	Parity	Geth
Synchronous WebSocket Provider	0.008926	0.186434	0.002070	0.001839
Asynchronous WebSocket Provider	0.007018	0.024754	0.000207	0.000147
Asynchronous HTTP Provider	0.007555	0.002598	0.001842	0.001848
Zoom Provider	0.002799	0.001090	0.000118	0.000077

• Notes:
  • Infura times are increased due to network latency ( ~ 320ms round trip, EU <-> US ) and seem to suggest Async HTTP to be better even thou you should never open 2k connections from your client to their load balancer.
  • Ganache tests are run on the same machine using newly deployed data
  • Parity and Geth tests are run in the local network on Ropsten

5.3. Test Machines

5.3.1. Ethereum Nodes

• Type: VirtualBox Guest Machine
• OS: Ubuntu-16.04.4-server-amd64
• Uname: Linux 4.15.0-42-generic #45-Ubuntu SMP Thu Nov 15 19:32:57 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
• CPU: 2 x Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-4160 CPU @ 3.60GHz
• RAM: 4 GB RAM
• Storage: 60 GB SSD

5.3.2. Test Runner

• Type: Bare metal
• OS: MacOS Sierra - 10.12.6 (16G29)
• Uname: Darwin 16.7.0 Darwin Kernel Version 16.7.0: Thu Jun 15 17:36:27 PDT 2017; root:xnu-3789.70.16~2/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64
• CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700K CPU @ 4.20GHz
• RAM: 16 GB 2133 MHz DDR4
• Storage: 500 GB SSD

6. Technical Details

6.1. ZoomQuery Buffer Specifications

7. Usage examples

Wallets, Drizzle, Metamask could start loading every single property like account balances / smart contract properties in ONE call instead of doing multiple calls.

8. Running tests

Edit configuration.json and set number of TestDummyRecords: default 100

• npm run test:local

• npm run test:infura

• npm run test:nowlive.geth

• npm run test:nowlive.parity

9. The Future

9.1. Custom View Builder

Think about a "product page" or a "crypto kitty page" that loads a specific set of properties / variables each time it loads a different id.

Instead of first loading the item's address, then iterating through contracts that hold additional data, why not combine all these calls into one ?

A ZoomQuery would be composed of:

• One type 1 call, "indexContract.items( N )" which returns the "item's address"
• Any number of type 2 calls, that reference the "resulting address in call 1"

Note: this is possible today, but not very friendly to use as it needs a dummy profiling run in order to generate the ZoomQuery.

License

MIT