Infrastructure

Server Topology

PressChain runs on two production servers with strict service separation. Nothing protocol-critical and nothing outlet-facing share a server with each other by accident - the split is deliberate.

38.83.53.142 - Chain Host

EVM node, indexer, bridge middleware, Postgres, Redis, MinIO. The static marketing site (Vite/cPanel) also deploys here.

38.83.53.58 - App Host

All Next.js dApps via systemd. Portal, outlet, court, proposals, ads, status, docs, faucet. Apache proxy front-end.

Chain Host (38.83.53.142) - Service Map

38.83.53.142
│
├── EVM Node (geth-compatible)
│   ├── Mainnet JSON-RPC  → 127.0.0.1:8545
│   ├── Mainnet WS        → 127.0.0.1:8546
│   ├── Testnet JSON-RPC  → 127.0.0.1:9545
│   ├── Testnet WS        → 127.0.0.1:9546
│   ├── Mainnet P2P       → :40303 (public)
│   └── Testnet P2P       → :40304 (public)
│
├── PostgreSQL            → 127.0.0.1:5432 (internal only)
├── Redis                 → 127.0.0.1:6379 (internal only)
├── MinIO                 → 127.0.0.1:9000 (internal only)
│
├── Internal Services (all 127.0.0.1, high ports)
│   ├── API Gateway       → :46100
│   ├── Protocol API      → :46101
│   ├── Indexer           → :46102
│   ├── Court Engine      → :46103
│   ├── Media Engine      → :46104
│   ├── Burn Engine       → :46105
│   ├── Node Sales        → :46106
│   ├── Vault Coordinator → :46107
│   ├── Notify            → :46108
│   └── Scheduler         → :46109
│
├── Bridge API            → proxied to bridge.presschain.io
│
└── Static site           → /home/pcpressroot/public_html/
                            (cPanel Apache → presschain.io)

App Host (38.83.53.58) - Service Map

38.83.53.58
│
├── presschain-next@portal     → 127.0.0.1:3010 → portal.presschain.io
├── presschain-next@outlet     → 127.0.0.1:3011 → outlet.presschain.io
├── presschain-next@court      → 127.0.0.1:3012 → court.presschain.io
├── presschain-next@proposals  → 127.0.0.1:3013 → proposals.presschain.io
├── presschain-next@ads        → 127.0.0.1:3014 → ads.presschain.io
├── presschain-next@status     → 127.0.0.1:3015 → status.presschain.io
├── presschain-next@docs       → 127.0.0.1:3016 → docs.presschain.io
├── presschain-next@faucet     → 127.0.0.1:3017 → faucet.presschain.io
│
└── Apache (cPanel)
    Proxy configs per subdomain:
    /etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/ssl/2_4/pcpressroot/<domain>/proxy.conf

Security Model

Only ports 80 and 443 are publicly exposed. Everything else is internal. P2P ports (40303, 40304) are also open but only for chain consensus - not for application traffic.

Layer	Rule
Firewall	Drop all inbound except 80, 443, 40303, 40304, 22 (SSH restricted)
Application layer	WordPress and outlet apps never touch RPC
API Gateway	Rate limiting, nonce verification, replay protection, session checks
PressChain ↔ PressHash	Isolated processes with resource caps
TLS	All public endpoints - Let’s Encrypt, auto-renewal

# UFW rules
ufw allow 22/tcp    # SSH - restrict to known IPs in production
ufw allow 80/tcp    # HTTP (→ HTTPS redirect)
ufw allow 443/tcp   # HTTPS
ufw allow 40303     # Mainnet P2P
ufw allow 40304     # Testnet P2P
ufw default deny incoming
ufw default allow outgoing

MinIO (Vault Staging)

MinIO serves as the local S3-compatible object store for evidence staging before Vault proofs are committed on-chain.

MinIO bucket layout (internal, port 9000)
├── capsule-evidence/    Evidence objects pending vault proof
├── capsule-content/     Article content blobs
└── vault-proofs/        Availability proof records

Vault operators are challenged for availability proofs. Failure triggers bond penalties via the Vault Coordinator service.

Chain Data Paths

# EVM node chain data (mainnet)
/var/lib/presschain/mainnet/

# EVM node chain data (testnet)
/var/lib/presschain/testnet/

# PostgreSQL data (indexer)
/var/lib/postgres/presschain/

# Backups
/var/backups/presschain/   # daily DB dumps

Service Startup Order

When recovering from a full restart, services must come up in dependency order:

# 1. Storage layer
systemctl start postgres redis minio
sleep 15  # allow Postgres to fully initialize

# 2. Chain node
systemctl start presschain-node-mainnet
# Wait for sync before starting indexer

# 3. Indexer (needs chain to be responsive)
systemctl start presschain-indexer

# 4. Internal protocol services
systemctl start presschain-gateway
systemctl start presschain-protocol-api
systemctl start presschain-court-engine
systemctl start presschain-burn-engine
systemctl start presschain-media-engine

# 5. Bridge API (depends on protocol API + indexer)
systemctl start presschain-bridge
# or: pm2 restart presschain-bridge

# 6. App services (on .58 server)
for s in portal outlet court proposals ads status docs faucet; do
  sudo systemctl start presschain-next@$s
done

# 7. Rebuild Apache proxy and restart
/scripts/rebuildhttpdconf && /scripts/restartsrv_httpd

cPanel Deploy Model

The app host uses cPanel-managed Apache for SSL termination and reverse proxy. The key quirk:

# Always use \cp (backslash) - bypasses interactive cp alias
\cp -rf dist/. /home/pcpressroot/public_html/

# Fix ownership after any copy as root
chown -R pcpressroot:pcpressroot /home/pcpressroot/public_html/

# Rebuild Apache config from cPanel template and restart
/scripts/rebuildhttpdconf && /scripts/restartsrv_httpd

Do not use service apache2 or systemctl apache2 directly on cPanel servers - use the cPanel scripts only.

Decentralization Roadmap

Phase	State	Notes
Now	Single-operator RPC, PoA consensus	Architecture supports community validators
Phase 2	Community RPC operators join `rpc.presschain.io` load balancer	URLs unchanged
Phase 3	Multi-validator consensus activated	Council authority narrows to emergency-only
Phase 4	Protocol fully autonomous	PressLabs is one participant among many

Get Started

Architecture

Chain & Network

The Capsule

Integrations

Operators

Server Topology

38.83.53.142 - Chain Host

38.83.53.58 - App Host

Chain Host (38.83.53.142) - Service Map

App Host (38.83.53.58) - Service Map

Security Model

MinIO (Vault Staging)

Chain Data Paths

Service Startup Order

cPanel Deploy Model

Decentralization Roadmap

​Server Topology

38.83.53.142 - Chain Host

38.83.53.58 - App Host

​Chain Host (38.83.53.142) - Service Map

​App Host (38.83.53.58) - Service Map

​Security Model

​MinIO (Vault Staging)

​Chain Data Paths

​Service Startup Order

​cPanel Deploy Model

​Decentralization Roadmap

Server Topology

Chain Host (38.83.53.142) - Service Map

App Host (38.83.53.58) - Service Map

Security Model

MinIO (Vault Staging)

Chain Data Paths

Service Startup Order

cPanel Deploy Model

Decentralization Roadmap