dLicense

A decentralised license-issuer registry to provide license-keys to WASM-based binaries

Introduction

dLicense is born out of the need for developers to publish and distribute applications to their users using an open store that does not take a huge cut out of creators, yet ensures their solutions come from the right developer, and can be used only after a successful payment using the Arweave UDL.

Worflow

dLicense
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                        │
│    ┌───────┐                                           │
│    │       ├─┐                          ┌──────────┐   │
│ ┌──┤ WASM  │ │         ┌─────────┐      │          │   │
│ │  │       │ │         │         │      │  client  │   │
│ │  │       │ ├───┬───► │ arweave │ ◄────┤          │   │
│ │  └┬──────┘ │   │     │         │      │          │   │
│ │   │ UDL    │   │     ├─────────┤      └───────┬──┘   │
│ │   └────────┘   │     ├─────────┤              │      │
│ │                │     │         │              │      │
│ │                └───► │ kwil db │ ◄── web 3  ◄─┘      │
│ │                      │         │     signature       │
│ └────────────────────► └─────────┘                     │
│                                                        │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

dLicense works by wrapping a Go library targetting the WASM runtime with a Kwil-consumer client able to talk to a particular licensing DB. Write access to this database is given only after a successful payment to the UDL address + amount defined by dLicense upload processs. When executed, the WASM will communicate with Kwil and verificate the client with a web3 signature to ensure the payee is the same runner of the client.

Purpose

Right now the distribution of binaries and other applications are gated by major distribution channels in most operating systems. Without having a decentralized way to purchase applications or submit licenses, devs have no recourse to charge for their software outside of these ecosystems.

dLicense aims to solve that by providing not only a entire licensing and payment workflow, but also does it in a decentralized fashion ensuring developers can not be censored nor their payments chipped away by existing financial rails such as credit cards.

Technology

• Arweave - For uploading the WASM binaries
• Arweave's UDL - For defining the licensing terms of the binaries.
• Bundlr - For interacting with the Arweave network using EVM-compatible wallets.
• Kwil - For managing the state of the WASM licenses
• NextJs - For developing the APIs and front-end of the app.

Tooling

• dlicense-web - TypeScript/Node.js front-end and backend API for dLicense.
• dlicense-wrapper - Golang wrapper for interacting with Kwil via Go.
• key-extractor - Utility to fetch and process mnemonic based wallets.