Zurich – September 10th, 2020: Since it was founded in 2017, Web3 Foundation has firmly believed in an internet where individuals own their own data, not corporations. With this goal in mind, the Zug-based foundation has nurtured cutting-edge applications for decentralized web software protocols using modern cryptographic methods.
To support the research and the foundation’s mission, Swisscom Blockchain AG has received a grant from Web3 Foundation during their fifth wave to develop a Kubernetes Operator for sentry nodes and validators for both Kusama and Polkadot.
This initiative, and the technology behind it, will contribute to both networks’ robustness, making Polkadot and Kusama less prone to attacks on individuals and, in turn, increasing their trustworthiness.
Running nodes on Proof-of-Stake networks can be challenging and a hard task to accomplish. The process becomes even more complicated when the risk of slashing is introduced. Slashing happens when a validator misbehaves: it can occur for instance when the validator goes offline, when the network is attacked or if the software is modified without common approval. The consequences of slashing have a direct impact on validators and nominators as they will lose all their staked tokens. A strong and experienced IT team along with DevOps modern tools are both required to reach high availability and prevent such problems from happening.
Polkadot Kubernetes Operator by Swisscom Blockchain is a set of tools created to seamlessly deploy and monitor validators for high availability. The Operator smooths the process for anyone willing to set up their own sophisticated Polkadot validator including a highly secured network of sentry nodes.
Swisscom Blockchain AG provides solutions allowing companies to interact easily with public Blockchain networks. Polkadot has been identified as a key technology to further enrich the crypto infrastructure services offered to our customers.
Dieter Fishbein, Head of Ecosystem Development at Web3 Foundation, says:
“Providing Kusama and Polkadot with a Kubernetes Operator contributes to a more robust network, helping validators ensure high availability in their operations, and reducing the chances of validators getting slashed for unresponsiveness. We look forward to working with Swisscom Blockchain on their contributions to both the Polkadot and Kusama networks.”
Swisscom Blockchain AG – Müllerstrasse 16, CH-8004 Zurich – [email protected]
Jorge Alvarado Flores, Head of Technology at Swisscom Blockchain, says:
“It was a great experience to work with the Web3 Foundation on the realization of this project. We’ve come to realize how important it is to combine efforts between the enterprise and the open-source world, in order to increase the adoption of blockchain technologies to solve real-world problems. Looking ahead we are hopeful that our contributions to Web3 Foundation on the automated deployment of sentry and validator nodes will be useful for other enterprises to engage in the Polkadot ecosystem.”
Find out more about this project:
https://github.com/swisscom-blockchain
About Swisscom Blockchain
Swisscom Blockchain is a Swiss Startup belonging to the #1 telecommunication company in Switzerland. As experts in Blockchain, Swisscom Blockchain is developing innovative products to help its clients to exploit the full potential offered by this technology. The company is offering Node as a Service and Self-Sovereign Identity based solutions.
https://www.blockchain.swisscom.com/
About Web3 Foundation
Web3 Foundation funds research and development teams building the technology stack of the decentralized web. It was established in Zug, Switzerland by Ethereum co-founder and former chief technology officer Dr. Gavin Wood. Polkadot is the Foundation’s flagship project.
