Customer Success Story : Smart-Chain

Smart-Chain, an innovative company founded in 2019, offers consulting and development services as well as Web3 services based on several blockchains (EVM-compatible, Tezos, Cardano).

This startup offers:

• The provision of services (consulting and development) targeting Decentralized Applications (DApps) and NFT collections in production phase
• Product bricks: certification, NFT Factory and marketplace NFT
  

Through its subsidiaries, Smart-Chain:

• Funds high impact projects, like Cardashift, an infrastructure that helps fund projects on the Cardano blockchain
• Provides infrastructure available 24/7, to allow cryptocurrencies to be delegated
  

An efficient design thanks to a 100% Scaleway-made infrastructure

From the very beginning, Smart-Chain was looking for a local partner to create a scalable and highly available architecture that would meet their needs.

Sovereignty was not always a prerequisite for Web3’s ecosystem in the early days, however it was still important to Smart-Chain’s teams. This is why they narrowed their choice down to Scaleway, OVH, and Outscale.

“Being able to join Scaleway’s Startup Programs was a deciding factor.” Sébastien Massart, COO

Scaleway’s financial and technical support enabled Smart-Chain to create a scalable architecture, geared to their needs.


Two years later, the SmartNode infrastructure was founded. This subsidiary of Smart-Chain is entirely built on Scaleway’s Instances, storage, and managed Kubernetes clusters with Kapsule. These clusters are divided into three categories:

• One to manage the admin side (Kubernetes, Prometheus, Thanos)
• One that is dedicated to the UI (approvers, RPCs, etc.)
• And the last one supports the different projects
  
  

Decentralizing data – an ethical challenge

Hosting data in Europe has not always been a prerequisite for Smart-Chain. However, the current blockchain ecosystem has led the startup to approach the subject differently.

Even though blockchain uses a decentralized system, most developers use gateways hosted by AWS. For instance, 60% of all transactions on the Tezos blockchain are conducted via nodes hosted by the same cloud provider.

By choosing a European, or even better, a French cloud provider, the startup has become part of the joint effort to free blockchain from the monopoly of the GAFAM.

Smart-Chain began its adventure three years ago, and Scaleway has been there every step of the way. From Day 1, to the creation of its four subsidiaries that offer additional services and products, Smart-Chain was able to scale its infrastructure as needed thanks to Scaleway’s flexibility, high availability, and performance.