Jan 15, 2021
Democratizing access to crypto: Idena is now in your web browser
Among numerous cryptocurrencies, Idena mining has always been one of the most accessible for a wide range of people. To start mining, you just need to download the application to your computer and go through the validation ceremony proving the uniqueness of your account.
Validation as a bottleneck
Despite its simplicity, for many users the validation procedure turns out to be a technically complex event. As a rule, problems at the stage of the validation ceremony are associated with either a slow Internet channel or a weak home Internet router. The Idena node is really demanding on a good connection (due to the background IPFS work), and during the validation procedure, the load on the network becomes maximal.
The situation is also complicated by the fact that before the validation procedure, a lot of “sleeping” users start their nodes and begin synchronizing data with other nodes. This puts additional strain on the network. The users who turn on their nodes just before validation do not have time to synchronize them.
VPS as a possible solution
To solve these problems, many users place their nodes on a VPS. This allows keeping the node constantly in sync and receiving continuous mining income. Also, to pass the validation ceremony, it is enough to establish a connection to the node on the VPS from your computer.
In order to run your node on VPS, check the materials collected by active members of the Idena community.
However, for most non-tech users, hosting an Idena node on a VPS is too complicated. Therefore, faced with technical problems, they either choose to stop mining actively, or join pools that provide them with access to their nodes during validation and pay them only validation rewards.
Web as a more democratic way
Over the past months, we have been working on a web version of the Idena client, which can provide access to validation without having to maintain your own node.
Any shared node hosted on a VPS by any member of the Idena community can be used by any other Idena user. One separate shared Idena node can serve several hundred users at the same time.
Currently, there are 4 shared nodes provided by our community members and the Idena core team. You can send a private message to one of the shared node operators in the Telegram chat. A shared node operator may provide you with an API key to connect to their node for a small fee in iDNA.
We plan to implement automatic billing for using shared nodes. This will allow anyone to easily provide their shared node for validation to many users and receive rewards for the service, among other things — to cover the cost of VPS hosting.
At the same time, we are to provide free access for newcomers who have no iDNA yet to pay for the shared node access.
Please follow the instructions written by Idena community members if you want to share your Idena node with other users.
A beta version of the Idena web client
We have released a public beta version of the web client. It’s available at https://app.idena.io
The Idena web client provides all the basic functions necessary for passing validation in a browser:
- Creating a new account (for new users)
- Migrating a private key (for users with an Idena desktop app )
- Invitation activation
- Validation ceremony
- Creating flips
The listed functions of the web client are equivalent to the desktop version. The web client has a beta status, however the validation ceremony has been successfully tested by many contributors in the past few epochs.
We recommend using the web client to those users who have problems with synchronization or do not have access to their computer during the validation ceremony.
In order to have web access to the account on your desktop, you need to export the private key. The private key should be imported into the web client. It will be stored in the browser encrypted with a password. The private key never leaves your browser and is used to sign transactions that are sent to the shared node.
Further plans
Although many users have informed us about successful validation from mobile phones, there is a plan to adapt the Idena web client for mobile devices.
In the mid term, we have scheduled to add the Wallet, Contacts, Oracle voting pages and multilingualism to the web client, similar to the desktop version.
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We see the launch of the Idena web client as an important step towards democratizing access to crypto and fair mining for non-tech people. A simpler validation in a web browser could encourage those Idena participants, who joined mining pools due to technical difficulties they encountered at validation, to validate their own accounts and mine independently. For such users, pools might remain an important link in the chain and act as iDNA exchangers to local currencies.
The Idena team would like to thank all the community testers of the web client and the pioneers who shared their nodes for the testing. We sincerely appreciate your input!
