The Cardano Community is full of individuals who go above and beyond to bring a little something extra to the table. We want to celebrate these individuals and the projects they are fostering, so please read on to hear the story of “Cardano on the Rocks” and the man behind it all!
We met up with Cardano Ambassador Markus Gufler (@werkof ) in London earlier this year where he gave us a quick preview into his “Cardano on the Rocks” project. Rock Pi’s are a Single Board Computer (SBC) in an ultra-small form and Markus has revisioned them into energy-efficient, reliable stake pools for the Cardano network.
Packaged in Cardano-branded casing, these portable devices can run a node for 24 hours as a low-cost, energy-efficient option for setting up a stake pool. Besides constructing these devices that have gone through many iterations, Markus has also created a step-by-step guide for other users like yourself to set one up with the Cardano Jormungandr code.
This has been an arduous journey for Markus who devoted to this project and in making Cardano better for its community. Read about how ‘Cardano on the Rocks’ came to be and the ups and downs of his adventure, in the 'Short Historical Recap’ forum post.
What an achevment for the community! I had the pleasure of meeting @werkof in London, at which I got a little peak at the little Rocks, and they are fantastic! It staggered me to see how such a little device could be engineered to run the Cardano protocol!
Seeing these little Rocks run and produce blocks (during that time, now they can function as full stake pools ) was amazing, truly opens doors for amazing applications.
A huge well done to Markus, I’m sure the time and effort was enormous but I thank you for giving this wonderful tool to the Cardano ecosystem!
Can you imagine how decentralized Cardano would be with many households having a Rock Pi as they do an Amazon echo? That’s what the Rock Pi brings to my mind.
Thanks for all the kind words.
Indeed, decentralisation is one of the ideas. @DAPP360_MIKE
And also to provide a more complete initial setup. @Josseh80 … it is only important to not make it a centralising element. The device owner can use tools and automated processes, but it must always remain under his control and authority. This is only possible with some knowledge. This is why I see also educational elements in this project. I myself have learned a lot in the last few months.
Not just Rock Pi rocks. As I love the idea of running the node with low hardware, energy and cost requirements, my node is built on mini PC Beelink M1 (Size: 115 x 115 x 25mm (W x D x H). This is single board computer as well, with passive vent. No noise and up to 12W power consumption. Works on a 100Mbps fiber link and is doing quite well so far
I’ll try to educate myself some more… Maybe in the meantime you’ll be able to make it easier to setup… I’m sure we’ll meet somewhere in the middle…
Would love to have one running, just for decentralisation purposes. Internet is stable enough to have it running 24/7… Cost isn’t really an issue…
Thinking about it: It might be a good idea to setup a non-profit pool and donate the ADA’s earned to some charity.
I bought the “staking node advanced kit” from the shop.allnetchina.cn website and I chose DHL Express to get a fast delivery by paying a surcharge of $ 28.80, they shipped immediatly and it was all ok, but when the package arrived in Italy things start to go wrong, the parcel was blocked it seems… perhaps… maybe due to customs problems. I don’t know because talk with DHL Express it’s not so easy so I hope to be able to receive it soon, try it and then say how it goes, but if I can give you an advice it’s better do not use DHL, they are the worst of the worst.
There is also a section describing the Custom Armbian Ubuntu Image.
This image does not contain a Jormungandr release and config, as it is still under continuous development. But it’s ready to use, has some optimizations related to the used hardware, and you can start it up without a keyboard and display connected. The DHCP-Address is shown on the small OLED display.
The tricky but important thing is: at a certain point the device must become independent. In absolute no case, it should become a centralized update service.
You keep coming back to this point (decentralisation!) and I couldn’t agree with you more. You’ve not just talked about it, you’ve actually done something about it - and for that i commend your efforts.
My Rock Cardano box has finally arrived, I have assembled everything and started and, for the moment, I can say that everything works. Now it’s just a matter of installing jormungandr, hoping to do the things right since I’m an absolute beginner. Anyway, go ADA go.
I was running one on ITN and it was working surprisingly well. More important then CPU is stable network connection and proximity to other nodes, so your blocks can propagate quickly. The only problem I had was the 4GB RAM. Jormungandr has memory leaks, so I had to restart it every few days because of that. I don’t know how Haskel cardano node behaves on Rock PI yet, but I’ll hopefully find out soon. I also recommend to have several Rock PIs for testing purposes as it happened to me I accidently killed it more then once.
Is there a possibility to run a pool in sort of switch mode?
Where nodes can “take-over” the job of an other node?
Up running when the sun’s out, down when it’s night.
) was amazing, truly opens doors for amazing applications.
