After spending some time exploring and attempting to develop prototype applications using Hydra, we have found certain limitations in existing tools that hinder developers from easily deploying Hydra-based applications. That’s why we would like to introduce a tool we’re currently developing, called Hydra Hexcore. We are eager to hear your feedback and contributions, especially from members actively involved in developing Hydra at IOHK and CF, so that we can quickly bring our Hydra-based applications to end users within the Cardano ecosystem.
Overview
Hydra Hexcore is a convenient management and operation system designed to address the challenges developers face when deploying Hydra nodes. Rather than performing complex command-line operations or building your own tools, you only need a few basic steps to set up and manage the entire Hydra environment via a user-friendly graphical interface.
For Application Developers:
Easily integrate Hydra nodes into your solution, without wasting time on manual infrastructure setup and operations.
For Infrastructure Providers:
Expand your services from conventional hosting to specialized Hydra-based solutions, boosting your revenue and competitive edge.
We plan to continually improve Hydra Hexcore to keep pace with new updates from Cardano and Hydra; currently, it is compatible with versions 0.19 and 0.20. We also aim to provide support channels soon, to gather feedback, facilitate technical discussions, and implement upgrades based on community needs.
Let’s work together to simplify and accelerate Hydra adoption, laying a solid foundation for robust DApps on Cardano. We welcome your thoughts and feedback; every comment you share will inspire us to further refine the system!
The project isn’t quite ready to be shared publicly yet, but if you’re attending the Cardano Builder Fest in Da Nang, Vietnam, we’d be really happy to connect and share more with you there
Great solution. I am not a technical expert but I see the potential of this solution to expand. However, I am working with some teams who are planning to develop web3 games on Cardano. And this solution is exactly what we need, It not only helps us reduce the time and manpower for setting up and operating nodes but also allows us to focus all our efforts on developing gameplay, front-end, UX/UI.
This is an open source project? And how will you solve the problem of node operating costs? Is there any funding source to support you?
Thank you! The project we are developing is intended to be an open-source initiative for the DEV community to use. However, it will require more time and resources to complete before we can officially launch it.
If you’re planning to develop games or applications using Hydra, you can check out a small demo showcasing a real-world use case we’ve implemented. https://youtu.be/kJwEehR7je4?si=PN2xzvAmmuG5VWDa
We hope it will inspire more ideas for how to leverage Hydra’s technology.
We’re always open to connecting and sharing more of what we’ve discovered
Thanks for showing me this last week and the Hexcore management dashboard / tool looks very interesting! It seems to tick many boxes of the “Managed Hydra Head” topology which we envisioned to be useful eventually: Managed Hydra head | Hydra Head protocol documentation
One thing I’d like to point out here, as I also told you in the call we had: It would be very important that Hydra heads can span multiple providers, such that the Hydra keys (for snapshot signing) are not in control of a single party.
Note that the Managed Hydra Head topology linked above would avoid that by externalizing snapshot signing to the client, while your Hexcore concept seems to be having dedicated (single party?) heads per provider.
I’d like to offer some additional clarification and share supporting documentation with you. Due to language limitations during our previous exchange, we were unable to clearly articulate the full scope of our concept.
Hydra Hexcore is not intended as a direct implementation of the Managed Hydra Head topology.
Its primary objective is to streamline the operation of Hydra Heads for developers — allowing them to independently run and manage their own Hydra Nodes. Additionally, Hexcore can enable infrastructure providers to participate as part of a broader Managed Hydra Head setup.
Hexcore serves as a foundational tool designed to support a larger architecture we call Hydra Hub. This solution is meant to realize the Managed Hydra Head model in a more modular, flexible, and scalable way.
Below is the detailed design for Hydra Hub that we plan to implement.
You can find the full documentation at the following link:
We would highly appreciate any feedback or suggestions you may have regarding this solution.
