Michael Wutzke ⚡️ Helping to build the digital rails of tomorrow
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Node operations and a cloud migration with failover

In January 2022 I joined the Frankfurt-based company Blocksize Capital as Head of DeFi and Node Operations. From that day I was responsible for the operation of its blockchain infrastructure in several data centers. The company is a node operator in an oracle network and runs a large number of blockchain nodes for protocols such as Ethereum and Avalanche.

What the nodes are for

An oracle network supplies smart contracts with market data from outside the chain. Decentralized exchanges are the main users of these prices. The task of my team was that the contracts receive reliable market data.

Taking over the operation

I took over the operation of the oracle price-data network and its internal documentation. I managed the servers hands-on, built up the node operations team and improved the performance of the nodes.

From Azure to another cloud

Later I migrated the IT infrastructure from Azure to another cloud provider and set up a failover infrastructure, so that a second site takes over when the first one fails.

As Chief Information Officer from January 2023 to October 2024 I coordinated the infrastructure team together with the development, product and sales teams. The product these teams shipped is on the page Real-time market data for digital assets, and the role is under Background.

Servers and clouds I have worked with

  • Azure at Blocksize Capital, 2022 to October 2024.
  • Docker containers since 2019.
  • AWS since 2018, with the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate certificate. The AWS work is on the page A digital insurance manager on AWS.
  • Debian and Ubuntu servers, set up and supported since 2007.

I have worked with cryptocurrencies since 2015. Before I operated nodes for a company, I ran my own miners and a Bitcoin full node.

What a company gets from this

A company whose product stops when its infrastructure stops gets someone who has run such servers with his own hands, built the team for them and moved them to a new cloud provider with a failover setup.