14 January 2026
101. HydraPool, HashDash, and the Telehash Playbook: Open-Sourcing Bitcoin Mining - E101
In this episode, the 256 Foundation crew and developer d++ go deep on HydraPool, our open‑source Bitcoin mining pool stack, and the new HashDash and upcoming TeleDash dashboards powering the Telehash fundraiser stream. We unpack how HydraPool fits into the broader plan to open‑source the entire mining stack (hashboard, control board, firmware, and pool), its Rust-based design inspired by CKPool and P2Pool v2, and flexible payout models (solo, PPLNS, and multi-address coinbase). We also talk user experience tweaks for Telehash, like smoothing hash rate visualization, displaying best shares, units for difficulty, leaderboard ideas, and integrating Nostr npubs for social profiles. D++ walks through the HashDash visualizer and plans for TeleDash: real-time overlays for stream viewers and a separate jumbotron view showing total hash rate, active workers, funds raised (on-chain and Lightning), block height, BTC price, donation messages, odds, leaderboards, and instructions to point hash rate. We discuss stress-testing the pool to 10,000 workers, Prometheus data, and potential features like miner-type fingerprinting via user agents. We also touch on industry rumors around Bitmain’s S23 air-cooled units, shifting manufacturer focus to hydro/data-center gear, hand‑me‑down hardware implications, and why open source is crucial as proprietary vendors change course. Finally, we preview Telehash (join at pool.256foundation.org:33303 with a valid BTC address), celebrate contributions to Samourai dev families, and tease hardware progress on Ember One, Mujina firmware, water-cooled blocks, Heat Punk Summit plans, and more; all with an open-source-first ethos to dismantle the closed mining monopoly.
