RPC Management Has Come A Long Way In Two Short Years.  Here’s Why. – Source:hackread.com

Explore RPC Management: Learn how modern decentralized RPC providers solve scalability & connectivity issues in Web3, ensuring secure, reliable blockchain communication.

One of the key goals of blockchain has always centered around connectivity. No matter where you are, what country you are in, or how much money you have, being able to connect to a global community is a cornerstone of blockchain. This is a noble goal, but one with a very difficult road. At a high level, looking at a blockchain that leverages decentralized nodes is ideal for borderless connectivity. 

In reality, however, the challenges are much more complicated. As the Web3 industry exploded in the 2021 timeframe, many separate blockchains were established, essentially creating entirely separate ecosystems. Connections within most blockchains were fairly efficient, but any time of communication between one blockchain and another required software to be written by someone experienced enough to understand both infrastructure and skilful enough to make a safe, secure, and reliable connection. 

In short, by 2022 the industry realized that connecting blockchains was not scalable and did not have easy fixes. The use of RPC nodes was commonplace in connecting chains, but it was not efficient and couldn’t keep up with the exponential growth in blockchains. 

Let’s dive into the situation in 2022, then see if things have become easier today, and if so, what caused the improvements. Let’s also look at the effect that decentralized RPC providers, such as dRPC, have had on Web3 as a whole.

Early Web3 RPC: Two Critical Failures

The Web3 industry of 2021/2022 was, to be blunt, a mess. While many factors contributed to the bear market around that time, the inability to efficiently connect various blockchains was certainly a key issue. 

During this time, chains and dApps were left with few choices. For those chains that were well funded, DevOps engineers were managing RPC nodes for dozens of chains in-house, manually setting up the connection points between chains to ensure they could pass on the critical information needed to participate in basic Web3 activities. 

Any time a transaction is initiated between chains, an RPC node must reliably connect the chains in a way that tokens can be exchanged, information can be shared, and wallet balances can be updated. While the concept of an RPC (Remote Procedure Call) has been around for decades, the ability to synchronize the information that passes between chains is especially challenging. 

For those chains and dApps not able to have a small standing army of DevOps engineers, the other option was to use multiple third-party services for RPC connections. This is because no single service met the needs of widespread chain coverage.  To be truly connected to the Web3 ecosystem, a significant portion of a dApp team’s effort was dedicated to RPC development.  

While this issue was extremely difficult on its own, especially as new blockchains were being launched at a constant rate, the other issue with RPC management was the hidden risk of centralization. This concern has grown in visibility, but as RPC connections were a necessary step in the process, the early blockchain industry accepted the connections it could find. 

As a result, firms specializing in RPC node management did arise to meet this need, but many had a centralized architecture. This design was much more significant than many people realized. Even if you were participating in a fully decentralized blockchain, to connect with another blockchain (even if it too was decentralized), the RPC third-party service was often kept centralized to keep up with demand.

The hope was that a smaller, centralized organization could have better control over the growth of chains needing connections. This architecture is still in place in the industry today, even though several spectacular crashes showed just how much damage can be done by a single point of failure.

Today’s RPCs: Reliable, Scalable, Decentralized?

Fast forward to today, and the question is: Can blockchains be more easily and reliably connected?  The short answer is a resounding YES. The leading RPC providers have made significant progress in solving the scalability and centralization challenges of several years ago. The longer answer is that although there are some leaders in the industry, there are still RPC node providers that have not been able to overcome scalability and others that despite all the downsides, are still centralized.

In 2024, there are now over 1,000 distinct blockchains recorded. This level of growth in a few years is massive and will continue to expand in the years ahead. That said, do all these blockchains need to be connected? No. Among this number are private chains, industry-specific chains, or just poorly designed chains that you would not want a connection with.  However, even the fraction of major, reliable chains out there is likely nearing 100, and that amount of software development needed to connect to each would be impossible for nearly any dApp dev team. 

Third-party providers, however, are gaining ground on scalability. dRPC, mentioned above, might be the leader with efficient and reliable connections to data from >60 blockchains, spread across 100+ networks. This type of provider is specifically designed for Web3 developers, and like many of its modern counterparts, has a structured Freemium model that benefits many of its customers with basic requirements. 

Many of the providers have a subscription service, but dRPC and a few others feature a pay-as-you-go model. For an industry like Web3, where the difference in chain of dApp size can be drastic, this is by far the most reasonable approach.

So, scalability is moving steadily forward with the leading RPC node providers. How about centralization?  With some RPC providers, this is still an issue, and centralization is still represented by certain large players. However, many of the leading players (including dRPC), have moved to the decentralized model and are already reaping the benefits with more stability, a global network, censorship resistance, and no single point of failure. 

In addition, this prevents internal corruption which, if abused in a centralized RPC provider, could create massive fraud and untold amounts of damage. A decentralized RPC market for Web3 is a must, and it is optimistic to see the industry moving steadily in that direction.

Final Thoughts

The RPC service has come a long way in just a few short years. While it was a bottleneck in 2022, it has seen breakthroughs and as of 2024, there is a group of leading providers that are solving scalability issues and holding to the fundamental values of blockchain by maintaining a decentralized structure. As the industry continues to grow we will need both of these attributes to connect a rapidly expanding ecosystem, paving the way for an efficient, global, and well-connected Web3.

Image Source: Midjourney

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