In a groundbreaking announcement at Breakpoint 2024, Tencent Cloud and B-Well Apps have joined forces to unveil a suite of innovative solutions tailored specifically for Solana developers. This partnership promises to revolutionize the way blockchain applications are built and deployed on the Solana network, offering unprecedented access to historical data and high-performance infrastructure at a fraction of the current cost.

Summary

Tencent Cloud, a global leader in cloud computing services, has partnered with B-Well Apps to introduce cutting-edge solutions for the Solana ecosystem. David Chen from Tencent Cloud presented the company's extensive reach and capabilities, highlighting their experience in serving major players in the crypto and gaming industries.

The collaboration aims to address two critical challenges faced by Solana developers: data availability and infrastructure costs. B-Well Apps, represented by Cosmin Gamanusi, detailed their innovative approach to providing cost-effective access to Solana's historical data, which currently amounts to a staggering 1.5 petabytes.

This partnership introduces an archive data service and plans for an RPC cloud service, both designed to empower Solana builders with high-performance, low-cost infrastructure. The solutions promise to significantly reduce the barriers to entry for developers looking to build on Solana, potentially catalyzing a new wave of innovation in the ecosystem.

Key Points:

Tencent Cloud's Global Reach and Expertise

Tencent Cloud, an arm of the largest public-listed company in China, brings a wealth of experience to the Solana ecosystem. With a user base of over 1.2 billion in international markets alone, Tencent Cloud has established itself as a powerhouse in cloud computing services.

The company's expertise spans across various industries, including gaming, social media, and finance. Notably, Tencent Cloud has been working with leading crypto exchanges, GameFi projects, wallet solutions, and staking providers. This diverse experience positions them uniquely to understand and address the needs of the Solana developer community.

B-Well Apps' Innovative Data Solution

B-Well Apps has developed a groundbreaking solution to one of the most pressing issues in the Solana ecosystem: access to historical data. Currently, Solana's historical data, amounting to 1.5 petabytes, is stored in a Google BigTable instance, which is expensive and cumbersome to access and migrate.

The new solution by B-Well Apps dramatically reduces the cost of accessing and storing this data. By leveraging Tencent Cloud's infrastructure and developing custom "sinkers" (data synchronization programs), they've managed to cut the cost by more than $30,000 compared to existing solutions. This makes it feasible for a wider range of developers and projects to work with Solana's full historical dataset.

Archive Data Service and RPC Cloud Service

The partnership between Tencent Cloud and B-Well Apps is introducing two key services to the Solana ecosystem:

1. Archive Data Service: This service provides developers with easy access to Solana's historical data. It includes a data sync mechanism to keep the data up-to-date and infrastructure automation tools for easy deployment.

2. RPC Cloud Service: While still in development, this service promises to offer tailored solutions for Solana builders, potentially revolutionizing how developers interact with the Solana blockchain.

These services are designed to be easy to deploy, cost-effective, and 100% tailored for Solana builders. They have the potential to significantly lower the barrier to entry for developers looking to build on Solana, which could lead to a surge in new projects and innovations within the ecosystem.

Technical Architecture and Implementation

B-Well Apps has developed a sophisticated technical architecture to make their solution possible. They use Tencent Cloud's object storage for cost-effective long-term storage of the historical data. To make this data queryable, they've implemented an HBase cluster, which is an open-source distributed system similar to BigTable.

The solution includes a custom adapter that mimics Google BigTable's interface, allowing Solana nodes to communicate with the HBase cluster as if it were BigTable. This clever approach enables seamless integration with existing Solana infrastructure while significantly reducing costs.

The entire system is designed with flexibility in mind. Developers can choose to use the whole 1.5 petabytes of data or just specific block ranges, depending on their needs. The solution also includes deployment automation tools, making it easy for developers to spin up their own nodes and clusters.

Facts + Figures

• Tencent is the largest public-listed company in China
• WeChat, owned by Tencent, has 1.3 billion monthly active users
• QQ, another Tencent platform, has about 500 million users
• Tencent Cloud has 1.2 billion users in international markets
• Tencent Cloud operates in 21 regions with 58 availability zones worldwide
• Tencent Cloud offers over 200 products and services in international markets
• Solana's historical data amounts to 1.5 petabytes
• Traditional methods of migrating Solana's historical data can cost around $120,000
• B-Well Apps' solution reduces data migration and storage costs by more than $30,000
• The new solution uses Tencent Cloud's object storage and a custom HBase cluster
• B-Well Apps developed custom "sinkers" for efficient data synchronization
• The solution includes Terraform scripts for easy deployment of Solana nodes and infrastructure

Top quotes

1. "Tencent Cloud is a worldwide cloud computing services provider." - David Chen
2. "We are based in China and our international team is headquartered in Hong Kong." - David Chen
3. "We provide cloud computing services and infrastructure to empower different blockchain applications." - David Chen
4. "We are working with one of the top three staking providers worldwide." - David Chen
5. "We are building some RPC cloud service only tailored for the Solana builder ecosystems." - David Chen
6. "We are focused on providing one of the best, one of the highest performance infrastructure for web3 services while also having one of the best prices on the market." - Cosmin Gamanusi
7. "We managed to lower the cost with a lot more than 30k by using Tencent Cloud infrastructure." - Cosmin Gamanusi
8. "You can deploy your own cluster to serve data from it in house. You can build RPC services, you can build indexes or anything you like." - Cosmin Gamanusi

Questions Answered

What is Tencent Cloud offering to the Solana ecosystem?

Tencent Cloud is partnering with B-Well Apps to offer two key services to the Solana ecosystem: an Archive Data Service and an RPC Cloud Service. The Archive Data Service provides easy and cost-effective access to Solana's historical data, while the RPC Cloud Service (still in development) aims to offer tailored solutions for Solana builders. These services are designed to be easily deployable, cost-effective, and specifically tailored for the Solana ecosystem.

How does B-Well Apps' solution address the issue of Solana's historical data storage?

B-Well Apps has developed an innovative solution to store and access Solana's 1.5 petabytes of historical data more efficiently and cost-effectively. They use Tencent Cloud's object storage for long-term storage and implement an HBase cluster to make the data queryable. This approach, combined with custom-built data synchronization tools ("sinkers"), significantly reduces the cost of storing and accessing Solana's historical data compared to traditional methods using Google BigTable.

What are the potential benefits of this new infrastructure for Solana developers?

This new infrastructure offers several benefits for Solana developers. Firstly, it provides more affordable access to Solana's full historical dataset, which was previously prohibitively expensive for many developers. Secondly, it offers high-performance infrastructure tailored specifically for Solana, potentially improving the speed and efficiency of Solana-based applications. Lastly, the easy deployment and management tools included in the solution lower the barrier to entry for new developers, potentially fostering more innovation in the Solana ecosystem.

How does Tencent Cloud's experience in other industries benefit the Solana ecosystem?

Tencent Cloud brings a wealth of experience from serving major players in various industries, including gaming, social media, and finance. Their work with leading crypto exchanges, GameFi projects, wallet solutions, and staking providers gives them unique insights into the needs of blockchain developers. This cross-industry expertise allows Tencent Cloud to bring innovative solutions and best practices from other sectors to the Solana ecosystem, potentially driving improvements in performance, scalability, and user experience.

What makes the technical architecture of B-Well Apps' solution unique?

The technical architecture of B-Well Apps' solution is unique in several ways. It uses a combination of Tencent Cloud's object storage and an open-source HBase cluster to provide a cost-effective and queryable data storage solution. The system includes a custom adapter that mimics Google BigTable's interface, allowing seamless integration with existing Solana infrastructure. Additionally, the solution is highly flexible, allowing developers to use all or part of the historical data as needed, and includes automation tools for easy deployment and management.

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