Stacks is a powerful Layer 2 blockchain solution built on Bitcoin, designed to unlock Bitcoin's potential by enabling smart contracts and fast, secure transactions. By leveraging Bitcoin's robust security model, Stacks allows developers to build decentralized applications (dApps) without altering the original Bitcoin protocol.
One of the key advantages of Stacks is its unique consensus mechanism, Proof of Transfer (PoX), which connects Stacks nodes directly to Bitcoin. Miners bid Bitcoin to produce blocks and earn rewards in STX tokens, while signers validate these blocks by locking STX tokens, receiving Bitcoin rewards in return. This elegant system ensures security and decentralization.
For developers and enterprises looking to deploy their own Stacks nodes, Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a streamlined solution through the Blockchain Node Runners blueprint. This open-source initiative simplifies the process of setting up both consensus and RPC nodes, reducing operational overhead while improving reliability.
Overview of Stacks Blockchain Architecture
The Stacks ecosystem comprises three primary node types:
- Miners: Responsible for creating new blocks and bidding Bitcoin to participate in the block production process.
- Signers (Validators): Lock STX tokens to validate transactions and blocks, ensuring protocol compliance and network integrity.
- Followers: Download and verify the entire blockchain, enabling independent transaction validation without relying on centralized services.
This multi-layered architecture ensures that the network remains secure, decentralized, and efficient. By running your own node, you contribute to the network's health and gain direct, trustless access to blockchain data.
Solution Overview: AWS Blockchain Node Runners
The AWS Blockchain Node Runners blueprint provides a standardized, automated way to deploy Stacks nodes on AWS infrastructure. It supports two primary deployment configurations, catering to different use cases and requirements.
The blueprint handles core operational tasks such as node synchronization, secret management, monitoring, and backup, allowing developers to focus on building their dApps rather than managing infrastructure.
Single-Node Deployment for Development and Testing
The single-node deployment is ideal for development, testing, or non-production environments where high availability is not a critical requirement. This setup offers a cost-effective way to run a personal RPC node for interacting with the Stacks blockchain.
Key architecture components include:
- The node is deployed within a default VPC and synchronizes with the Stacks network through an internet gateway.
- Access to the JSON RPC API is restricted to resources within the VPC, enhancing security by not exposing the endpoint directly to the public internet.
- Sensitive information, such as keys and credentials, is stored locally on the node and automatically backed up to AWS Secrets Manager for secure recovery.
- Comprehensive monitoring is achieved by sending metrics from both the underlying EC2 instance and the Stacks node software to Amazon CloudWatch.
This setup provides a solid foundation for developers who need a personal node for building and testing their applications. For a deeper dive into configuration details and automation scripts, 👉 explore the deployment guide.
Highly Available (HA) Deployment for Production Applications
For production-grade dApps that require reliability, scalability, and uptime, the highly available node deployment is the recommended choice. This configuration uses an Auto Scaling group to manage multiple follower nodes behind an Application Load Balancer.
The HA architecture ensures continuous operation:
- Multiple Stacks RPC nodes are deployed across different Availability Zones within an Auto Scaling group, ensuring fault tolerance.
- The nodes synchronize with the blockchain through the VPC's internet gateway.
- Client applications and dApps connect to the nodes through the internal Application Load Balancer, which distributes traffic evenly and checks node health. The JSON RPC API remains private within the VPC.
- Each node manages its secrets with backups in Secrets Manager, and all operational metrics are streamed to CloudWatch for centralized observability.
This architecture is designed to handle traffic spikes and instance failures gracefully, making it suitable for mission-critical applications serving a large user base.
Recommended Infrastructure Specifications
To ensure optimal performance and synchronization with the Stacks mainnet, the community recommends specific infrastructure guidelines:
- Storage: A minimum of 512 GB of disk space is required to store the growing blockchain data.
Compute: Two instance types are commonly recommended:
- c4.4xlarge: Offers high computational power for faster and more efficient block processing.
- m5.large: Meets the minimum vCPU requirements and provides a balance of compute and memory for standard node operations.
Selecting the right instance type depends on your specific performance needs and budget constraints.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Stacks blockchain?
Stacks is a Layer 2 blockchain that brings smart contracts and decentralized applications to Bitcoin. It uses the Proof of Transfer (PoX) consensus mechanism, which leverages Bitcoin's security to settle transactions and enable new functionalities without changing Bitcoin itself.
Why should I run my own Stacks node on AWS?
Running your own node increases the decentralization and resilience of the Stacks network. It provides you with private, reliable, and uncensored access to blockchain data for your dApps, reduces dependency on third-party providers, and can enhance application performance through local data access.
What is the difference between a miner and a follower node?
A miner node participates in the consensus process by bidding Bitcoin to write new blocks to the chain. A follower node, which is what the current AWS blueprint deploys, is a non-consensus node that fully validates transactions and blocks, serving data to dApps via its RPC API.
How does the HA setup improve reliability?
The highly available setup deploys multiple nodes behind a load balancer within an Auto Scaling group. If one node fails or becomes unhealthy, traffic is automatically routed to healthy instances, and the Auto Scaling group can replace failed nodes, ensuring your dApp has continuous access to the blockchain.
Is the JSON RPC endpoint exposed to the internet in these blueprints?
No, for security reasons, the blueprints are designed to keep the RPC endpoint private within your Amazon VPC. Access is controlled through VPC security groups, allowing you to specify exactly which resources (like your application servers) can communicate with your node.
What kind of monitoring is available?
The blueprint integrates with Amazon CloudWatch to provide metrics on both the EC2 instance's health (CPU, memory, disk I/O) and the Stacks node itself (sync status, peer connections, memory usage). This allows for proactive monitoring and alerting.
Conclusion
Deploying a Stacks node on AWS using the Blockchain Node Runners blueprint is a straightforward process that brings significant benefits. Whether you choose a single-node setup for development or a highly available cluster for production, you gain a robust, secure, and scalable connection to the Stacks blockchain.
This approach empowers developers and enterprises to build and scale their dApps with confidence, contributing to a more decentralized and resilient Web3 ecosystem. By following the blueprint, you can quickly launch your infrastructure and focus on innovation. To begin your deployment journey, 👉 access the step-by-step guide.