Tokenize Builds A Scalable, Cost-Effective Digital Exchange Platform On AWS

Tokenize is a digital exchange platform that facilitates the trading of over 100 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and its own token, Tokenize Emblem (TKX). As a startup, Tokenize sought a scalable, cost-effective IT infrastructure to support the performance and storage for cryptocurrency trading, and keep initial costs low.

Tokenize decided against an on-premises infrastructure because it would cost US$12,800 upfront, require up to four DevOps engineers to monitor and operate its platform, which adds to manpower costs, and delay its digital exchange platform by 12 months as it needed to comply with local laws and regulations.

Tokenize was able to save up to 80 percent in hardware cost by deploying its platform entirely on the AWS Cloud. The startup has redirected these savings towards marketing, hiring, and customer acquisition.

Tokenize uses Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) to automatically scale and handle an average of 13.1 transactions per second (TPS) and 10,280 active concurrent users. During peak periods, such as 2021, it was able to easily scale up within minutes to handle 18.1 TPS and 16,800 active concurrent users. Tokenize also deployed Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) to automate provisioning, patching, and backups of its database on the cloud. As a managed service, Amazon RDS allows the company to operate with just one DevOps engineer, thereby reducing the overall manpower cost.

Tokenize uses Amazon Route 53 in conjunction with Amazon EC2 across multiple Regions to ensure single-digit millisecond latencies for high-speed transactions on the platform. It also uses Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) to store and retrieve 8 TB of data, such as Know Your Customer (KYC) documents and financial reports.

With the AWS Cloud, Tokenize reduced the time it takes for the platform to be to set up in a production-ready environment from up to 5 days to 24 hours.

AWS also helps Tokenize meet security and compliance requirements globally. Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) secures the company’s virtual networking environment, including resource placement, connectivity, and security. Amazon CloudWatch monitors all of Tokenize’s applications, making sure that the platform achieves 99.99 percent uptime as required by regulatory compliance. Furthermore, since AWS is responsible for protecting the infrastructure that runs all of the services offered on the AWS Cloud, Tokenize is able to meet regulatory compliance in multiple countries without engaging in additional administrative and approval processes, such as Malaysia and Singapore.

The scalability and cost-efficiency of the AWS Cloud has helped Tokenize with a secure hosting environment without hefty upfront capital investments. AWS’s global reach has also helped Tokenize grow the number of users on its digital exchange platform. As of September 2022, the platform grew to over 250,000 users within 48 months, which was 12 months faster than it had planned.

“As a startup, we are particularly cost sensitive. AWS has a comprehensive suite of end-to-end services that not only allows Tokenize to grow its digital exchange platform, but they also help us achieve the desired performance while keeping cost firmly in check,” shares Hong Qi Yu, founder and CEO of Tokenize.

Looking ahead, Tokenize plans to integrate Amazon CloudWatch with Slack, its primary messaging platform. Once integrated, Amazon CloudWatch will be able to monitor its entire blockchain infrastructure, and automatically notify engineers when issues arise.