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Run Cosmos nodes
with Fortanix
One-Time Signer
Using Launchnodes’ Cosmos nodes in combination with Fortanix One Time Signer provides a highly-secure environment for staking on Tendermint blockchains.
Launchnodes and Fortanix for Cosmos Nodes
The Cosmos and all Tendermint blockchains were developed to enable a network of interconnected and operable blockchains. Many of these blockchains are still centralised in terms of:
- Staking on these chains is sometimes controlled by a small number of validators and organisations
- The ownership and the infrastructure of these nodes can be extremely centralised.
A Signer with Nodes on Multiple Clouds and Bare Metal
This service provides Launchnodes’ Cosmos nodes that are configured for use with Fortanix One Time Signer. These nodes can be used for solo staking or as RPC nodes, either on premise or on public cloud (AWS), and are engineered to integrate with the Fortanix’ one time Signer solution
The service includes:
- Full set up and support for all your nodes and the Fortanix One-Time Signer
- Node synchronisation
- Node software updates and maintenance
- Uptime support
- Email support
- Zoom support
- Node resilience
Customers can use this service to distributes nodes across public cloud and bare metal to meaningfully decentralise their Tendermint blockchain, whilst securing it to a FIPS accredited standard
Value to Customers
The centralised nature of the infrastructure and capital being controlled by a small number of people are two major limitations that the Fortanix Launchnodes solution mitigates by:
Allowing keys to be managed not only through securing the keys but also the process flows associated with their use and auditability.
Giving customers the benefit of a signer with distributed deployment. The default architecture offers five independent clusters, with each cluster deployed across three data centres.
Providing state tracking signers that are specifically designed to prevent double signing.
Distributing nodes (that connect to a distributed signer) across cloud and bare metal, (vendor and geography can be chosen by the client) reducing the risk of a single point of failure for staking operations.
Systemically decentralising the blockchain by meaningful diversification of geography for the nodes
Enabling blockchains to operate at the highest speeds and lowest latencies, regardless of the location of the nodes.
Context
An existing or new blockchain (customer A) working in the Cosmos ecosystem which is looking to be part of the internet of blockchains has created a chain with:
- Specific utility
- Useful working software
- Integration with existing blockchains in the Cosmos blockchain ecosystem.
Value
Customer A would benefit from a rigorous key storage and management tool that gives credibility to their blockchain.
Customer A would further benefit from scaling their blockchain across multiple pre-configured nodes, distributed across multiple geographies and technical infrastructure to
- Provide credibility for the chain.
- Decentralise the blockchain in terms of geography and infrastructure.
Solution
Customer A can buy a solution from Fortanix and Launchnodes to achieve this value when they launch. This robust, secure architecture supports their growth by enabling key investors to use the same pattern to actively participate in the network, and stake.
Secure One-Time Signer
Fortanix DSM SaaS is a FIPS 140-2 Level 3 compliant platform for secure key management. It offers a unique security architecture where custom plugins can be developed and deployed to run inside the hardware protected secure environment. The plugin can be protected with a quorum policy that involves multiple admin users. Once deployed, a plugin code cannot be modified without explicit permissions from multiple administrators.
The Fortanix One Time Signer solution includes a plugin which validates proposals and votes, tracks the state of the protocol and signs proposals and votes while ensuring that double-signing is prevented.
