Advanced Search, Enhanced APIs & Cluster Boosts

On Aug 28, 2024

BlockDAG’s latest Dev Release 105 is here, bringing a bunch of improvements that make it easier for users to interact with blockchain data. This release enhances the explorer with features like Address History Search, making transaction tracking more intuitive. Meanwhile, the X1 app sees major improvements in load balancing, optimizing performance across the system.

With these updates, BlockDAG is enhancing the usability and efficiency of the platform, making it simpler for users to navigate and interact with blockchain data. This reflects BlockDAG’s commitment to improving user experience and system performance.

BlockDAG Explorer’s Recent Upgrades

BlockDAG’s latest Dev Release 105 has rolled out significant updates to the BlockDAGScan Explorer, enhancing users’ interactions with blockchain data. These enhancements include new features that streamline the process of searching for addresses and transaction histories while also providing more detailed information.

A key addition is the Address History Search. This feature allows users to enter either a wallet or contract address to access a comprehensive view of all associated transactions. Furthermore, this feature includes options to filter and sort results by date, transaction type, and value. It even allows exporting the address history to a CSV file for offline analysis.

Another significant update is the Transaction History Search feature, which enables users to explore details of specific transactions across the blockchain. By entering a transaction hash, users can retrieve full transaction details, including sender and receiver addresses, block number, value, and status (confirmed or pending).

This functionality makes it easier to follow linked transactions, helping users better understand the flow of funds and the broader context of transactions within the blockchain.

Upgraded APIs for Better Data Efficiency

BlockDAG’s Dev Release 105 also brings more than just new search features. It enhances the existing APIs to improve the data’s accuracy, consistency, and richness. Starting with API responses, there’s been a comprehensive upgrade. They now include additional fields like transaction fees, gas used, and details about the input/output scripts.

Alongside these technical improvements, there’s also better error handling with more detailed error messages, making troubleshooting a breeze for developers. To handle large datasets more efficiently, pagination has been added to the API responses. This change ensures smoother and quicker data retrieval, significantly reducing load times.

Despite these advancements, backward compatibility has been maintained for all existing APIs. This ensures that developers who rely on previous versions can transition smoothly. However, updating integrations to take advantage of these new features and enhancements is recommended, optimizing performance and utility.

Updates for the X1 Mining App

Furthermore, the Dev Release 105 also successfully tackled a significant challenge in the BlockDAG X1 Mining app: the Load—Balancing Taint Problem. This issue impacted the app’s performance and stability by incorrectly excluding certain nodes from workload distribution due to unintended taints within the Kubernetes cluster.

Dynamic Taint Detection & Workload Management

BlockDAG tackled the Load-Balancing Taint Problem that emerged when nodes were mistakenly tainted due to temporary conditions, misconfigurations, or internal issues in the cluster. This issue caused an imbalance, leaving affected nodes without workload requests and overloading others, reducing efficiency and system reliability.

To solve this, BlockDAG introduced a dynamic monitoring tool that continuously scans for and removes incorrect taints. This ensures all nodes stay operational and evenly share the workload. Additionally, a taint reconciliation mechanism was implemented, regularly updating and correcting node statuses based on their current health and operational capacity. This proactive approach helps maintain balance and reliability across the system.

Refined Toleration Strategies & Cluster Monitoring

To further improve the system, BlockDAG has refined the toleration strategies for managing distributed workloads across the cluster. These strategies are now more specific and adaptable, adjusting in real-time to the cluster’s conditions to optimize node utilization and performance.

Additionally, the updated monitoring and alerting systems provide real-time notifications of any taint-related issues, allowing for quick resolution before performance is impacted. New dashboards enhance visibility into taints, tolerations, and workload distribution, promoting proactive management and ensuring a balanced and healthy infrastructure.

By resolving the taint issue, BlockDAG has enhanced the performance and reliability of the X1 Mining app and ensured optimal utilization of all system resources. This improvement has created a more resilient infrastructure, capable of handling high-demand scenarios efficiently.

Closing Insights

All in all, the updates from Dev Release 105 show that BlockDAG has introduced useful enhancements across the board. The new Address History Search feature streamlines how users track transactions, and API improvements support more efficient data handling.

Load balancing in the X1 miner app has been refined for better performance. As the presale hits over $68.3 million in batch 22, BlockDAG continues to innovate and enhance the platform, ensuring it meets the needs of its growing community.