Spring is arriving in Northern Hemisphere. It is the time of the year @whalefountain in the harbour of Harlingen, The Netherlands, comes out of winter hibernation.
With the recent centralisation of its former home Steem, the @whalefountain has decided to move to the Hive chain instead and continue making it rain in the Hive instead. Along with its physical digital move from central to decentral the @whalefountain took on some new colors, and features a gallery of recent "hive sprays" now on it's new home @ hivewhale.com
Who/What is the HiveWhale?
The "Hive" Whale is a 18 meter (60ft) life size sperm whale fountain. It is part of the 11fountains project in the province of Friesland in the North of the Netherlands and is deployed semi-permanent in the harbour of Harlingen, the Netherlands.
The beast is fixed in concrete on poles, anchored on the bottom of the harbour. The whale partly submerges with rising tide but continues to spray during the day. At night the whale is sleeping :) The whale has become a tourist attraction on its own. Many people go there for a stroll and wait for a spray :)
With help of a local livestream provider I can show the @whalefountain in near realtime. The livestream has an approximate delay of 20 seconds.
I've hooked up the @whalefountain to the Hive blockchain to demonstrate the power and speed of the decentralised platform. Now anyone can donate some Hive or Hive Based Dollar (minimum donation: 1 coin) and get an almost instant fountain spray burst in return.
Pay for a spray - get a digital photo souvenir!
After your spray you will also get a memo containing the recording of the webcam with your spray, overlaid with your username and blocknumber your transaction occured in.
Minimum donation is 1 HIVE or 1 HBD. Your memo will be displayed on the HiveWhale.com site together with your digital GIF photo souvenir. The HiveWhale operates during CE(S)T daytime. No cure, no pay. If the whale is out of order, unresponsive or sleeping, you will get your donation refunded instantly.
Instructions:
- Send 1 HIVE / 1 HBD to @whalefountain
- Wait & watch your spray get executed via https://hivewhale.com
- Receive your digital souvenir recording of your spray
Next to manual transferring the donation amount, you can use HiveSigner, Keychain for Hive or the hive://-protocol via the Hivewhale website to broadcast your donation to the Hive chain.
Tell me more --- How it works exactly?
Basically the @whalefountain is being controlled by a microcomputer which in its turn controls several relays. Inside the belly of the whale is a pressurised canister and a water tank. By controlling the valves via the electronic relays through hydraulic switches a spray occurs.
The Hive blockchain integration is being controlled from a third party server which continuously monitors the '@whalefountain'-account on the Hive-chain and processes new donations in near real time as they appear in blocks.
For this I have made a small rest interface which is pretty powerful and fun, as it can trigger a spray of this giant beast. If there are no sprays ordered via the Hive chain, the whale randomly sprays. Additionally... If one of the fast ferries departing from Harlingen harbour to the nearby islands arrive or depart, and sail through a "hotzone" in the harbour, the fountain gets triggered as well.
What will you do with the donations?
The donations will go to an ocean preservation cause. For now I try to maximize those donation revenues by collecting low, selling high. I am amidst selling the Steem donations for Hive actually :)
