Allways

Universal Transaction Layer

Trustless native transactions across independent assets — Bittensor Subnet 7 (SN7).

Overview

Allways creates a verification layer above independent systems. Assets move natively. Miners complete transactions, validators independently verify the results, and a smart contract enforces outcomes through collateral and slashing.

Currently live with BTC ↔ TAO. Designed to scale to any verifiable asset.

Getting Started

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• Bittensor wallet
• Docker & Docker Compose

Installation

Running with Docker

Miner:

docker compose -f docker-compose.miner.yml up -d

Validator:

docker compose -f docker-compose.vali.yml up -d

Both require a .env file with PORT and WALLET_PATH configured.

CLI

uv sync
# activate the uv virtual environment
source .venv/bin/activate

alw --help

Architecture

• Miners: Post exchange rate pairs and collateral, fulfill swap orders
• Validators: Monitor swaps, verify on-chain transactions, vote on outcomes
• Smart Contract: Manages collateral, swap lifecycle, and validator voting
• CLI: User interface for posting pairs, managing collateral, and executing swaps

Validator Storage Layout

Validator state lives in ~/.allways/validator/state.db (SQLite, WAL mode). Tables: pending_confirms, rate_events, swap_outcomes. Collateral / active / min_collateral state is held in memory and rebuilt from contract events each startup; only swap_outcomes (the all-time credibility ledger) needs to persist across restarts.

Miner Environment Variables

• MINER_TIMEOUT_CUSHION_BLOCKS — defaults to 5. Miner skips fulfilling a swap when fewer than this many blocks remain before its timeout, trading a skipped swap for avoided slashes on slow dest-chain inclusion.
• BTC_MODE, BTC_PRIVATE_KEY, BTC_RPC_URL, etc. — see .env.example.

Running a Local Subtensor Lite Node (Validators)

Validators read miner rate commitments every ~3 minutes AND stream contract events every block via the same connection. Pointing at the public finney entrypoint works but adds latency and RPC pressure — every validator on the network should run its own lite node for this.

# Minimal lite-node command (adjust --base-path for storage volume)
subtensor \
  --chain finney \
  --base-path /var/lib/subtensor \
  --rpc-external \
  --ws-external \
  --port 30333 \
  --rpc-port 9933 \
  --ws-port 9944 \
  --pruning 1000

Then point the validator at it via .env:

SUBTENSOR_NETWORK=ws://127.0.0.1:9944

The dev environment in alw-utils/dev-environment provisions a local chain automatically — no manual lite-node step is required there.

License

MIT License

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_{Allways is permissionless, open-source, beta software. The protocol facilitates trustless peer-to-peer transactions — the creators and contributors do not custody, control, or intermediate any funds. Use at your own risk. This software is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Nothing herein constitutes financial advice, and the creators assume no liability for losses arising from use of the protocol.}