Today, reliable access to blockchain data remains a bottleneck for both developers and institutions alike.
Traditionally, blockchain developers relied on RPC (Remote Procedure Call) methods to retrieve blockchain data. These traditional paths serve well for direct, straightforward interactions with blockchain nodes. However, as the breadth and technical depth of protocols has grown, these methods began to show their limits with a specific example being the compute power to perform a Debug Trace query directly on a node.
Indexed data has emerged as an efficient, protocol-agnostic way to access data across various protocols. This offering front load allows for the outsourcing of direct interaction with each blockchain's unique data structure and provides access to a more efficient, scalable solution for developers.
What are the challenges of RPC in accessing blockchain data?
RPC methods require that each request travels to and from a blockchain node. This process, while direct, introduces latency and requires significant processing power, especially as the number of requests scales.
RPC, though efficient in making direct calls, still faces hurdles in translating complex blockchain data into a form that applications can readily use.
RPC struggles with scalability. As blockchain networks grow in size and complexity, the volume of data to manage escalates. Traditional methods require more resources to maintain performance, leading to increased costs and decreased efficiency. In comparison to indexed data, adopting new protocols can be 20x slower and retrieving data 10x longer using standard nodes with traditional RPC methods.
Simplicity also takes a hit. Each method processes data differently, requiring bespoke solutions for decoding and transformation. This complicates integration across multiple blockchain protocols, increasing the engineering overhead and slowing down the deployment of blockchain applications.
While RPC has served as a foundational access method, its limitations are clear.
What is indexed data?
Indexed data organizes blockchain information for quick and efficient access, enabling streamlined queries and data retrieval across various protocols.
This approach improves how developers access blockchain information. It simplifies the process across various protocols without the need for intricate decoding. This allows developers to query data with ease, enhancing application performance and user experience.
What are the benefits of building with indexed data?
The key advantages include:
1. Protocol Agnosticism: Indexed data enables access to blockchain data regardless of the underlying protocol. This universality ensures applications can seamlessly interact with multiple blockchains.
2. Efficiency: Without the need for direct node access or decoding, indexed data reduces latency. Applications can retrieve data faster, improving response times and user satisfaction.
3. Scalability: Indexed data supports scalable applications. As demand grows, systems can maintain performance without the exponential increase in resource requirements typically seen with RPC.
4. Simplicity: Developers avoid the complexities of blockchain-specific data structures. This simplicity accelerates development cycles and lowers the barrier to blockchain application development.
Indexed data use cases
Blockdaemon’s API caters to the following use cases, amongst many others.
Custodians: Wallet Management
Custodians can use the Blockdaemon API to optimize digital asset management, enhancing oversight and control over assets. This includes seamless access to indexed data for presenting customers accurate asset prices, scaling support to new protocols, accurate asset reconciliation, and ensuring compliance.
Financial Institutions: Security & Risk Management
Financial institutions can leverage Blockdaemon's API for enhanced risk management. By accessing real-time blockchain activity data, institutions can set up alerts for unusual wallet activities or significant transaction updates, enabling proactive measures against fraud and sudden market volatility.
Data Quality Assurance
Blockdaemon stands out in its handling of indexed data, making integration into new protocols simpler for developers. By standardizing data into a unified format, we eliminate the need for dedicated teams to manage protocol-specific integrations. This efficiency means a small team can manage data retrieval from a singular source, streamlining development processes.
Ensuring Data Quality
We ensure the quality and availability of data through systematic monitoring and rectifying data gaps. Our engineering team consistently pulls the tip of the chain, indexing new information while actively managing potential blockchain reorganizations. Our team's expertise allows us to navigate these complexities, ensuring reliable data delivery.
Scaling to Meet Demand
Blockdaemon has scaled its infrastructure to support growing demand while maintaining 99.9% uptime. Our service hosting allows us to scale automatically based on load. Databases employ load-balanced setups with read-only replicas, enabling us to scale both vertically and horizontally. This scalability ensures we can accommodate high demand seamlessly, a testament to our robust infrastructure.
As we launch our new offering, we set out to continuously refine our approach to ensure the data's quality, availability, and ease of access. Blockdaemon's commitment to simplifying blockchain data integration supports developers and institutions in creating efficient, reliable applications.
Get Started
By providing a streamlined, scalable, and secure platform, we enable our partners to focus on creating value-added services and applications, knowing that the underlying data is accurate, timely, and accessible.
To get started with Blockdaemon’s API, get in touch with us today, or visit app.blockdaemon.com.
