2017 was a turning point for the crypto market.
It was then that crypto projects witnessed explosive audience growth and millions of new fans. Even then, the INC4 team had experience in developing Bitcoin mining pools. At that time, we were contacted by a new client - the Gibraltar company Minerall, which wanted to create one of the largest Ethereum mining pools in the world. We agreed without hesitation.
Background
Challenge
The client's idea was to create a new generation mining pool. At the time, mining solutions mostly involved a miner sending his address to a pool, to which the rewards were accrued. Knowing the exact address, any user could see any account transactions and, accordingly, estimate the capacity of the equipment or try to take possession of these funds in a fraudulent way.
Minerall wanted to create a private pool that would be similar to the classic SaaS, with secure login and password registration, customizable functionality and other custom features.
Solution
Our team's product is closer to a mining management system than a regular mining pool. It is a multitool solution that allows you not only to simultaneously mine several cryptocurrencies, but also to customize mining processes.
1
The first stage was the development of the mining pool itself, with the main task of creating an add-on over the main Ethereum blockchain network, which could provide the fastest possible access to the entire blockchain.
Since the time to create a block on Ether takes only 15 seconds, the system must be precisely synchronized in order to have time to receive data from the network and also transfer its own data. Our combination of hardware and server configuration allowed us to achieve a data transfer time of 15 milliseconds, both for receiving the task for the miner and for transferring their solution to the network.
Since the time to create a block on Ether takes only 15 seconds, the system must be precisely synchronized in order to have time to receive data from the network and also transfer its own data. Our combination of hardware and server configuration allowed us to achieve a data transfer time of 15 milliseconds, both for receiving the task for the miner and for transferring their solution to the network.
2
In addition, a system for distributing rewards among miners was developed. It is a blockchain-like solution that takes into account all shares in the pool, validates signatures, and checks the number of payments and their delivery to users.
3
After developing the architecture framework, the team focused on two tasks. The first challenge was the ability to integrate different blockchains into Minerall. In 2018, users could choose from a list of 15 coins to mine. As the market developed, this list was gradually reduced.
4
The second task was Minerall’s service component. The system we’ve developed allows users to fine-tune all the nuances associated with mining, from the distribution of capacities and shares for different protocols, to quickly switching between different assets and choosing wallets for payments.
As a result, the Minerall system offers the
following services:
- The pool service is responsible for finding blocks.
- The service for sending payments and validating signatures is responsible
for checking and controlling all settlements with miners. - The reward service sends payments for the blocks found.
- The internal statistics service gives the team an insight into the key
indicators of the system. - The pool statistics aggregation service is responsible for collecting and
displaying basic metrics to users.
Companion ecosystem
With the development of Minerall, the INC4 team also developed several third-party products that added value to the pool for its users. In 2018, a free miner, Moonstone, was created specifically for Minerall. We also created our own Telegram bot, which gives maximum control over the operation of equipment. The bot sends notifications if a miner’s hash rate has dropped, the processing is disabled or there were interruptions, and also reports payments.
Result
Today, our team continues to support the project, developing the system and implementing changes that are taking place in the blockchains of cryptocurrencies available in this pool.
Today Minerall is among the TOP 10 largest Ethereum pools in the world
The entire system was developed in just 6 month
The first block was found in May 2018
Over more than 1000 days of operation, the pool has not had any downtime or hacks.
Services we provided
DevOps
- Blockchain development
- Back-End
- Front-End
Technologies
- Golang
- Django
- MariaDB
- Clickhouse
- Telegram API