lbryio/lbry-sdk

★ 7,175PythonAudience · developerComplexity · 4/5LicenseSetup · hard

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((LBRY SDK))
    What it does
      Decentralized content
      Peer-to-peer sharing
    Components
      JSON-RPC daemon
      Wallet manager
      DHT peer discovery
      Blockchain index
    Use cases
      Publish content
      Download content
      Manage wallet
    Tech stack
      Python
      Blockchain
      JSON-RPC

mindmap root((LBRY SDK)) What it does Decentralized content Peer-to-peer sharing Components JSON-RPC daemon Wallet manager DHT peer discovery Blockchain index Use cases Publish content Download content Manage wallet Tech stack Python Blockchain JSON-RPC

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Build a decentralized content publishing app where creators upload files without relying on a central server

USE CASE 2

Search and download content from the LBRY peer-to-peer network using the JSON-RPC HTTP API from any programming language

USE CASE 3

Manage a LBRY blockchain wallet and sign transactions programmatically inside a Python application

Tech stack

PythonJSON-RPCBlockchain

Getting it running

Difficulty · hard Time to first run · 1h+

Requires running a local daemon process that connects to a live blockchain network before any API calls work.

Use freely for any purpose including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

The LBRY SDK is a Python library for building apps on top of the LBRY network, a decentralized peer-to-peer system for publishing and accessing digital content. Instead of storing content on a central server that a company controls, LBRY spreads it across many computers, similar to how BitTorrent works for file sharing. A blockchain (a public, tamper-resistant ledger) acts as the global index where content metadata, creator identities, and access rules are recorded and can be searched. The SDK bundles several components that developers use to interact with this network. A distributed hash table helps peers find each other to exchange content. A blob exchange layer handles transferring encrypted chunks of data between peers and negotiating payments. A wallet component manages LBRY blockchain transactions. A schema layer encodes and decodes the metadata stored on the blockchain. The most accessible part of the SDK for most developers is a background daemon process that exposes a JSON-RPC API over HTTP. You start it by running lbrynet start, after which it listens on localhost port 5279. Any programming language that can make HTTP requests can call this API to search for content, publish files, download files, manage a wallet, and perform other operations. The full API is documented separately on the LBRY developer site. Pre-built binaries are available for macOS, Linux, and Windows so you do not have to install Python and build from source to try it. Source installation instructions are in a separate INSTALL.md file in the repository. The project is MIT licensed. It was the primary reference implementation of the LBRY network protocols and underlies applications built on the LBRY ecosystem.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

I have the LBRY daemon running on localhost. Show me how to call its JSON-RPC API from Python to search for videos and download one to my machine.

Prompt 2

How do I publish a file to the LBRY network using the lbry-sdk, including setting the title, description, and price metadata?

Prompt 3

Walk me through starting the lbrynet daemon and making my first API call to list available content from the LBRY network.

Prompt 4

Explain how the LBRY blob exchange layer works and how peers find each other to transfer encrypted content chunks.

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