Hive Hangouts

Twitter Spaces-style audio rooms for the Hive blockchain.

What is this?

Live audio rooms where anyone with a Hive account can host or join conversations. Authentication is done via Hive Keychain — no new accounts, no passwords. Your Hive identity is your hangout identity.

Architecture

React SPA  ──────────────── LiveKit SFU (self-hosted)
   │       WebRTC audio          │
   │       + signaling           │
   │                             │
   └──── Fastify API ───────────┘
         (auth + tokens)    server SDK calls

Hive Blockchain ← signature verification

Three components:

• LiveKit SFU — open-source WebRTC server handling real-time audio routing, room state, and participant management. Self-hosted on a VPS.
• Fastify API (server/) — thin auth gateway. Verifies Hive signatures, issues LiveKit tokens, enforces host-only permissions. ~250 lines.
• React SPA (client/) — the UI. Connects directly to LiveKit for audio. Custom Spaces-like layout with speaker stage and audience grid. (coming soon)

Features (MVP)

• Hive Keychain login — challenge-response auth using your posting key
• Create rooms — host starts a room, others join via lobby or link
• Audio — real-time voice via LiveKit (WebRTC)
• Hand raising — listeners request to speak via data channel
• Speaker management — host promotes/demotes participants
• Moderation — host can mute, kick, or end the room
• Hive avatars — profile pictures pulled from on-chain metadata

Project Structure

hangouts/
  server/           Fastify API (Hive auth + LiveKit tokens)
  client/           React SPA (coming soon)
  docs/             LiveKit deployment guide
  room-api/         Legacy prototype (to be removed)

Server API

Endpoint	Auth	Purpose
POST /auth/challenge	No	Get a nonce to sign with Hive Keychain
POST /auth/verify	No	Verify signature → session JWT
GET /rooms	No	List active rooms
POST /rooms	Yes	Create a room (caller becomes host)
POST /rooms/:name/join	Yes	Join a room as listener
PATCH /rooms/:name/participants/:id/permissions	Host	Promote/demote speaker
DELETE /rooms/:name/participants/:id	Host	Kick participant

Setup

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• A running LiveKit server (see docs/livekit-server-setup.md)

Server

cd server
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your LiveKit credentials and a session secret
npm install
npm run dev

LiveKit

Follow the deployment guide in docs/livekit-server-setup.md — it uses Docker Compose + Caddy for automatic TLS.

Tech Stack

• Runtime: Node.js + TypeScript
• Server: Fastify 5
• Auth: @hiveio/dhive (signature verification) + jose (session JWTs)
• Real-time audio: LiveKit (self-hosted SFU)
• Client: React + @livekit/components-react (coming soon)

License

MIT