Basic Hydra head

This document outlines the deployment architecture of a basic Hydra head. It serves as a foundational reference for other topologies discussed in this chapter and is illustrated below:

The basic setup of a Hydra head involves several hydra-nodes, each connected to the Cardano network via a cardano-node (not depicted in the diagram). A Hydra client, such as hydra-tui, typically connects locally to a hydra-node to initiate a Hydra head using an off-chain network. The diagram displays two Hydra heads (colored blue and green) established between two distinct sets of hydra-nodes. The lines in the diagram represent Hydra network connections, and the circles symbolize the Hydra head state and credentials, collectively referred to as a Hydra head party.

Each head, whether blue or green, progresses independently and requires the endorsement of all respective Hydra parties within each head. For instance, the green head requires two signatures, while the blue head requires four.