Image Marketplace

The ImageMarketplace contract enables publishing, discovering, and monetizing VM images on the aleph-onchain network.

Overview

VM image creators can publish their images on-chain, set pricing, and earn revenue when compute providers use them. Users discover images through the marketplace, view ratings, and select the best fit for their workloads.

Publishing Images

// Publish a VM image to the marketplace
marketplace.publishImage(
    content_hash,          // Content hash of the image
    metadata_cid,          // IPFS CID with description, tags, etc.
    price_per_use,         // Price per job using this image
    revenue_share_bps,     // Revenue share with compute provider
).send().await?;

Image Discovery

The marketplace supports browsing by category, searching by tags, and sorting by ratings or usage count.

// Query available images
let images = marketplace
    .getImagesByCategory("machine-learning")
    .call().await?;

// Get image details
let details = marketplace
    .getImage(image_id)
    .call().await?;

Ratings & Reviews

Users can rate images after using them. Ratings are stored on-chain and influence marketplace ranking.

// Rate an image (1-5 stars)
marketplace.rateImage(
    image_id,
    5,                     // rating (1-5)
    "Excellent base image for web apps".into(),
).send().await?;

Revenue Sharing

When a job uses a marketplace image, the payment is split:

• Image creator receives their configured price_per_use
• Compute provider receives the job payment minus image fee
• Split is configured per-image via revenue_share_bps

Security Auditing

The aleph-audit crate provides tools for scanning and verifying image security:

• Vulnerability scanning of image contents
• Signature verification for publisher identity
• Compliance checks against security policies
• Automated security scoring