L2 Blockscout
Launching Blockscout Explorer for Superchain on Kubernetes from scratch
L2 Blockscout
Created At
Winner of
Blockscout - Blockscout Explorer Big Pool Prize
Prize Pool
Project Description
This project involves setting up our own Blockscout explorer for Optimism Superchain.
Recently, we launched a new Superchain for contract testing purpose, and we are now configuring the explorer to interact with chain data.
To ensure reliable operation of the explorer, Kubernetes has been set up to support high availability and enable scaling of explorer instances
The explorer is organized into four main components as follows:
- Indexer: Handles chain data indexing by querying the JSON RPC from the replica node.
- Backend API: Serves the Blockscout API for the frontend.
- Stats: Computes and stores statistical data.
- Frontend: The web interface for Blockscout.
How it's Made
We have launched a new chain based on Superchain. Currently, a single sequencer is producing new blocks and a full node is also running to provide RPC endpoints for chain data indexing.
All blockchain clients are hosted on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) within a private VPC network to ensure security by isolating them from the public network.
To support the Blockscout stack, a Kubernetes cluster has also been set up on GCP. This cluster is created within the same VPC network to securely access the JSON-RPC endpoints.
For storing indexed data, two PostgreSQL instances have been deployed on GCP: • The primary instance handles both read and write operations. • The replica instance provides real-time synchronization for backup purposes and supports scaling by splitting read and write requests between the two instances.
Like the other infrastructures, access to the PostgreSQL instances is restricted to the VPC network for enhancing security.
The Kubernetes configuration for the Blockscout stack has been implemented from the bottom to enable fine-grained control. The configuration files are available at the following paths:
- https://github.com/dsrvlabs/blockscout-ethglobal/tree/main/1.backend
- https://github.com/dsrvlabs/blockscout-ethglobal/tree/main/2.frontend
To run the YAML files correctly, a secret named "postgres" is required for database access. However, the configuration for this secret is not included in the GitHub repository for security reasons.
