Categories
General Pool status updates

Anp time synchronization troubles

Yesterday I discovered I had troubles with my main relay computer that used timesynchronization from Google as a single source of such synchronization. This caused blocks to be produced in the future and my relay failed to propegate blocks correctly. My main server computer used another undisclosed time server but given all blocks are routed through my main relay and another undisclosed relay I cannot rule out this to be the cause of 0 blocks this epoch so far. All relays and servers are 1.24.2 and all files have correct permissions (400) and all are synched correctly now. I appologize to my delegators for not discovering this problem sooner. My only excuse is it only became public knowledge yesterday google had troubles. For the future I will use multiple time synching servers across the globe to avoid this pitfall.

Categories
General

ANP REDUCING COSTS AND PLEDGE

Due to many reasons ADA North Pool will reduce its pledge to 50K and will also reduce costs by removing redundant relays that are costing us as much as we are getting in rewards. By doing these drastic moves I hope to continue supporting the Cardano network with ADA North Pool for a long time coming and the reduced cost will now mean I only have electricty bills, 1 hetzner server, 2x internets at home, web server in cloud and maintainance of 4 computers to take care of. I am also likely to put my energy into coding and look into contributing to the growth of the network through this way hopefully. I still believe having a solid hardware foundation is the way to go for more advanced pool operators and would pave the way for more interesting network operations and code in the future so I am not abandoning the bare metal home server approach anytime soon.

Categories
General

ADA NORTH POOL CLOSES DOWN ANPNL POOL TO BECOME SINGLE POOL OPERATOR

In support of the Cardano single Pool Alliance I have decided that ADA North Pool will go back to its roots and become a single pool operator like it was during the ITN. Next epoch ANPNL will be closed down and it will start a new chapter with a refocused effort on ANP. I will also soon streamline services more and reduce costs that are not needed but not at the expensive of performance. This will ensure better long term operations. ANP will remain a supporter of KIVA cardano team and folding@home cardano community effort.

Categories
General Pool status updates

ANP WEB small disruption of service

The webserver had a small interuption of service. This was due to an SSL certification change of provider not going as smoothly as planned. The problem has been fixed. The pool servers where never interupted in operation (another server and even if same server not dependant on SSL) so no blocks have been lost 🙂

Categories
General

ANP Cardano Virtual Summit presentation

IOHK published my presentation from the Cardano Virtual Summit and you can find it here https://youtu.be/t_atG6fHW7Q

I think it gives an OK overview of governance and some issues ahead we should tackle in a better way.

Categories
General

ANP not to disclose future HW going forward.

I made a concious decicion when I decided to disclose my HW for marketing reasons and with pro/con of this, and also since we all are likely to run recent Intel/AMD it is easy to guess anyhow. But going forward new HW from ANP will not be disclosed in detail for security reasons.

Categories
General

The security contest of August has now ended

So the security contest of August has now ended. One outer relay / webserver had a weaknesses that allowed hackers to learn information and a user was rewarded 500 ADA for this discovery. No user reported either files of the two core servers.

Categories
General

ANP makes first block on mainnet during the first epoch where community pools can make blocks

In an emotional moment for me as I have been waiting quite long for the pool to produce the block yesterday ADA North Pool finally made a block. This means delegtors will recieve full rewards in epoch 210 as in the first epoch your performance will be 100% if you produce any blocks.

Pooltool verification of first block from https://pooltool.io/pool/0000fc522cea692e3e714b392d90cec75e4b87542c5f9638bf9a363a/awards
Categories
General security

ADA NORTH POOL modernize server software / 2nd pass over security

In preparation to the soon first block producing epoch (granted after some delays) I have modernized software to be as up to date (for example only latest long term support distros) and had a 2nd pass with a critical eye on security. We also made several optimizations so everything is as rigged and ready as can be. Security is certainly nothing I will ever be relaxing on and I am constantly trying to evolve in this area to have as much safety as possible. While I wish I could detail all the new security enhancements I have added the fact is that another security measure is to have as much hidden information as possible when it comes to security measures. Hopefully this is understandable.

Categories
General

ANP removes public monitoring

Out of an abundance of safety measures I have withdrawn monitoring of some of the relays though the public. While I truly love to make everything as transparent as possible I also have to consider security at every step. Initially when I made the monitoring I also considered the security measures and made sure to only monitor what was safe and in a way that was safe. However I have recently got some convincing arguments that make me adjust my stance. Feel free to get in touch with me if you think the monitoring service is very important to you as a delegator and I will try to look at my options.