Overview

Hydra Hub is a technological solution designed to connect clients (Consumer Clients) with Hydra Nodes through a proxy (HydraHUB) provided by various Providers.

Developers requiring Hydra Nodes to deploy applications can simply register as Consumer Clients and utilize Hydra services from Providers in a straightforward and rapid manner. This approach offers significantly lower costs compared to self-hosting, while eliminating the challenges associated with:

1. Complex synchronization with Cardano Nodes.

2. Manual key management and security.

3. Monitoring and error handling.

4. Managing unstable communication between Hydra Nodes.

Figure 01: Diagram illustrating the deployment architecture of the Hydra HUB system, a solution for connecting clients (Consumer Clients) with Hydra Nodes via a proxy.

Description:

1. Consumer Client:

   • DApps (UI): Decentralized applications (DApps) utilized by Consumers.

   • Communicates with the Hydra HUB Service via WebSocket (WS) or HTTP using an API key.

   • Example: Sending a GET request to https://api-key-cb3ec.hydranode.io/commits.

2. Hydra HUB:

   • Hydra HUB Service: Central service managing:

     1. API Keys Manager: Manages API keys.

     2. Consumer Portal (UI): User interface for managing client information.

     3. Provider Info: Information about Providers.

     4. Proxy Mappers: Maps requests to Hydra Nodes.

   • Hydra Node Proxy: Intermediate proxy facilitating communication with Hydra Nodes via WS/HTTP.

   • Communicates with Consumer Clients using Socket.io or HTTP.

3. Providers:

   • Provider 1 (123.2.12.3) and Provider 2 (345.2.12.3): Clusters of servers or service providers.

   • Each Provider includes:

     1. Hexcore Dashboard UI: Administrative interface.

     2. Cardano Node: A node of the Cardano blockchain.

     3. Hydra Nodes: Individual Hydra Nodes (e.g., 10001, 10002), which may run on Docker or Kubernetes (K8s).

   • Communicates with Hydra HUB via WS/HTTP.

4. Hydra Nodes:

   • Sub-nodes (e.g., 10001, 10002) that process requests from the Hydra HUB Proxy.

   • Can operate on Docker or Kubernetes, handling blockchain-related tasks (Cardano).

5. Communication Flow:

   • Consumer Client sends a request to the Hydra HUB Service (via API key).

   • Hydra HUB Service forwards the request through the Proxy to Hydra Nodes.

   • Hydra Nodes process the request and return results via the Proxy.

Figure 02: Sequence diagram illustrating the interaction between the Client, Hydra Hub, and Hydra Node.