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Show HN: A Living Ledger – Visualization of the Ripple Network in Real-Time

free-trampolin 9y ago
Creator here. I created this app to visualize what is going on on the Ripple Network (kind of a blockchain, called 'ledger') in real-time. The application is written in Elixir/JavaScript, the client uses SVG (d3.js) and mostly css-transitions for visualization. Data is fetched from a public ripple validator using web-sockets, pre-processed server-side and finally broadcasted to the clients. What you see, are validated transactions (TXs) between addresses. A TX always contains at least one address but can contain multiple (e.g. payment targets, but many more). These TX are not necessarily connected the XRP crypto-asset. The Ripple Network can be used without an asset as a messaging platform. Check it out and enjoy. You can btw click on nodes to explore them. If you have any feedback or suggestions feel free to comment!
- nowarninglabel 9y ago
  Neat. What were some reasons why you chose Elixir to write it in?
  - free-trampolin 9y ago
    Thank you very much. The first reason is that I program exclusively using functional programming. That said, the choice is somehow limited. I have very good experiences with Elixir. Statelessly streaming uncritical data to a client is a perfect fit for Erlang's/Elixir's "let-it-fail"-paradigm. If the web-socket crashes server-side just let the supervisor respawn it one-for-one, there is no permanent state. I hope that makes sense.
pollyannas 9y ago
Some time ago I had to look for details on a transaction I did on Ripple and couldn't find a simple website that took a transaction id and showed me details on that transaction. Why is that? I see you're linking to Bithomp here, and that's what I found, the only one, but still it wasn't sufficient. Bithomp is confusing and doesn't show all information, just a quick (and confusing) summary.
- free-trampolin 9y ago
  Yes bithomp has not necessarily the best interface. Another transaction explorer you can find here: https://xrpcharts.ripple.com/#/transactions/41B3042C4D76136F52751AA7ED491B9DAF54C32DE419ADA091A793C91F98B33A https://xrpcharts.ripple.com/#/transactions/41B3042C4D76136F...

Creator here. I created this app to visualize what is going on on the Ripple Network (kind of a blockchain, called 'ledger') in real-time. The application is written in Elixir/JavaScript, the client uses SVG (d3.js) and mostly css-transitions for visualization. Data is fetched from a public ripple validator using web-sockets, pre-processed server-side and finally broadcasted to the clients. What you see, are validated transactions (TXs) between addresses. A TX always contains at least one address but can contain multiple (e.g. payment targets, but many more). These TX are not necessarily connected the XRP crypto-asset. The Ripple Network can be used without an asset as a messaging platform. Check it out and enjoy. You can btw click on nodes to explore them. If you have any feedback or suggestions feel free to comment!

nowarninglabel 9y ago
Neat. What were some reasons why you chose Elixir to write it in?
- free-trampolin 9y ago
  Thank you very much. The first reason is that I program exclusively using functional programming. That said, the choice is somehow limited. I have very good experiences with Elixir. Statelessly streaming uncritical data to a client is a perfect fit for Erlang's/Elixir's "let-it-fail"-paradigm. If the web-socket crashes server-side just let the supervisor respawn it one-for-one, there is no permanent state. I hope that makes sense.

pollyannas 9y ago

Some time ago I had to look for details on a transaction I did on Ripple and couldn't find a simple website that took a transaction id and showed me details on that transaction. Why is that? I see you're linking to Bithomp here, and that's what I found, the only one, but still it wasn't sufficient. Bithomp is confusing and doesn't show all information, just a quick (and confusing) summary.

free-trampolin 9y ago
Yes bithomp has not necessarily the best interface. Another transaction explorer you can find here: https://xrpcharts.ripple.com/#/transactions/41B3042C4D76136F52751AA7ED491B9DAF54C32DE419ADA091A793C91F98B33A https://xrpcharts.ripple.com/#/transactions/41B3042C4D76136F...