We're migrating away from rest.bitcoin.com

@Read.Cash 4 January 2020 edited

When this post is about 10 minutes old, your browser will start sending **some** of the requests to `bchd.fountainhead.cash`, instead of `rest.bitcoin.com`. **EDIT:** It is live. Seems to be working. **EDIT2:** All of the browser functions are migrated away. **EDIT3:** Our backend is now also using bchd.fountainhead.cash This is a first experimental step, we want to see how well (or poorly) it works. The problem is that about 80% of our support requests are somehow related to rest.bitcoin.com. You can see it here, here, in our mailbox and there are also problems with Tor browser. https://old.reddit.com/r/readcash/comments/egmueq/unable_to_send_money_upvote_articles/ https://old.reddit.com/r/readcash/comments/ej8pva/keep_getting_error_when_withdrawing/ https://read.cash/@Read.Cash/why-readcash-doesnt-work-in-tor-browser-bc02347b We're trying to respond to all of the requests, but we're just not fast enough!

The bigger problem is that we can't do much about it. We don't know why rest.bitcoin.com blocks some of these requests and trying to debug it using three-way communications (we ↔ user ↔ bitcoin.com) isn't really a productive use of our time. So, we'll do a two-step migration, as a first first we'll use `bchd.fountainhead.cash` for some functions, slowly replacing all of the `rest.bitcoin.com` calls with calls to `bchd` , then we'll start our own node at `read.cash`, thereby (hopefully) getting rid of all of `CORS`-related problems (CORS is a call that your browser makes before trying to access `rest.bitcoin.com`, like "Am I allowed to connect to you?", to which occasionally rest.bitcoin.com answers: "No") However, bchd uses a very different technology for connections (grpc), which wasn't really created for the web use. It was mostly created for use in "server-to-server" communications. We've never used it in browsers, so we don't know how well it is supported. There's only one way to find out: Deploy it and see if anyone complains! :)

If you are having problems using the site (especially, if you see your balance as $0.00), please let us know in the comment section. Kudos to bchd.fountainhead.cash for providing this service! https://bchd.fountainhead.cash/ Kudos to BCDH team for the development of BCHD! https://bchd.cash/ Kudos to bitcoin.com for providing rest.bitcoin.com for free! It is still immensely helpful (especially due to the great integration with the BITBOX library), it's still great for the first iteration of any project. https://rest.bitcoin.com/ https://read.cash/@Read.Cash/how-to-use-bitcoin-cash-with-javascript-including-bitcoin-cash-contracts-08fdc194

15 comments

@JonathanSilverblood 4 January 2020

Well, all I can say is... GREAT JOB. I mean, uhm, "so this is why my wallet started working again?"
- @Read.Cash 4 January 2020
  
  👍 Great to hear that.
@Geri 4 January 2020

,,then we'll start our own node '' I dont want to sound like an irritating smartass, but i have told you its inevitable to massacre all the thirdparty services to ensure realibility.
- @Read.Cash 4 January 2020
  
  The problem is that it adds complexity and things to keep alive. I'm not sure we'll have a better uptime after this. BTW currently we have only replaced one third-party with another one :)
  - @sploit 5 January 2020
    
    It's pretty easy to configure a high available gRPC setup with nginx. At the cost of additional nodes.
    - @Read.Cash 5 January 2020
      
      Yeah and you still need to monitor two nodes, nginx, disk space, memory, etc.. etc.. etc... We KNOW how to do it, the problem is that we don't WANT the additional load as read.cash is not our full-time job (we have regular full-time jobs where we have hundreds of servers to monitor already :) )
      - @sploit 5 January 2020
        
        Ait, gotcha!
@sploit 5 January 2020

Great to hear! If you guys run into any problems, have questions or want feedback, then shoot me a DM on twitter with an email address. Then I can invite you to the BCHD slack.
- @Read.Cash 5 January 2020
  
  Thanks! Hopefully we won't need it, bchd seems to be syncing ok and fountainhead node seems pretty stable.
@merc1er 5 January 2020

Does bchd.fountainhead.cash work over Tor?
- @Read.Cash 5 January 2020
  
  Seems like it, yes. The site doesn't work in Tor Browser yet.
- @Read.Cash 5 January 2020
  
  Yep, read.cash now works in Tor Browser. (Writing this using it, having imported the seed and upvoted somebody)
@BigBlockIfTrue 6 January 2020

Thanks, upvoting finally works for me since EDIT2!
@Arshad1214 6 January 2020

Thanks for updates..
@Samloko 7 May 2020

Thanks a lot for this information, I really gain a lot from it. Sky is your limit. ✈