Persistent Peer IDs in libp2p JavaScript
9 months ago
- #libp2p
- #peer-identity
- #networking
- Libp2p generates a new peer ID on each application restart, causing inconsistent network identity.
- Solution: Persist and reuse the private key to maintain a consistent peer ID.
- Outdated documentation and API changes make finding the correct approach difficult.
- Modern solution involves using `privateKeyToProtobuf` and `privateKeyFromProtobuf` from `@libp2p/crypto/keys`.
- Pass the private key to `createLibp2p` to ensure the same peer ID on restarts.
- Avoid persisting the peer ID directly or using deprecated functions like `marshalPrivateKey`.
- The solution includes automatic fallback to generate a new key if loading fails.
- Compatible with latest libp2p versions and uses standard protobuf serialization.
- Requires Node.js 18+ and specific versions of `@libp2p/crypto`, `@libp2p/peer-id`, and `libp2p`.