Crypto Mining Simulation with Docker

This project simulates a crypto mining environment using Docker-based microservices. It transitions from a traditional multithreaded architecture to a multiprocess containerized setup, offering modular deployment and better process isolation.

✨ Key Features

• Dockerized Architecture: Server and miner are isolated in separate containers.
• IPC via Named Pipes: Communication is implemented using named pipes (FIFOs), enabling non-blocking data exchange between processes.
• Dynamic Miner Deployment: While the server is running, you can deploy and take down miners at will.
• Automated Deployment: A custom launcher.sh script handles setup, configuration, and launch of containers.
• Syslog Integration: Logs are routed to system logs for monitoring and debugging.

🛠 Components

Server Container

• Handles:
  • Miner subscriptions
  • Block validation
• Reads mining configuration (difficulty) from a mounted config file.
• Publishes current block info via named pipes.
• Uses syslog for all server activity logging.

📦 Docker Image:
coin_server_img on Docker Hub

Miner Containers

• Subscribes to the server.
• Listens for block data via non-blocking named pipes.
• Mines blocks and submits results to the server.
• Logs activity using syslog.

📦 Docker Image:
coin_miner_img on Docker Hub

🚀 Getting Started

1. Launch the Simulation

From the scripts/ directory, run:

sudo ./launcher.sh

This will:

• Create or overwrite /tmp/mtacoin
• Write DIFFICULTY=20 into mtacoin.conf
• Pull the server and miner Docker images
• Launch one server container and three miner containers

⚠️ Important:

• Script must be run with sudo to access /tmp and execute Docker commands
• The directory /tmp/mtacoin will be created (or reset)
• Make sure Docker is installed and running

2. Reset the Environment

To clean everything:

sudo ./cleanup.sh

You can inspect logs by entering a container's shell:

docker exec -it <container_name_or_id> bash
cat /var/log/mtacoin.log

✅ Requirements

• Docker
• Bash
• Root permissions (for script and Docker execution)

Feel free to clone, run, and modify the system to experiment with distributed crypto mining simulations.