Evaluating a Blockchain Node as a Service Providers
What is a Blockchain Node?
Blockchain networks such as Bitcoin, Ethereum are peer to peer networks connecting thousands of nodes. A node is a server that runs a piece of software allowing the connection to the network. It verifies all transactions in each block, keeping the network secure and the data accurate. Main blockchains have huge requirements in terms of server capacity and storage space, because there is still no general solution for blockchain scaling and all nodes need to keep the full history. To alleviate that, some networks have developed light nodes that don’t verify the data integrity of the whole chain and require less resources to run. In general, there are three types of nodes:
- Light Node: A light node enables users to participate in the network without the powerful hardware or high bandwidth required to run full nodes. We can even run them on mobile phones.
- Full node: A full node stores blockchain data and participates in block validation. The responsibility of full is to verify all blocks and states.
- Archive node: An archive node stores everything present in the full node and builds an archive of historical states. The data comes in handy for services like block explorers, wallet vendors, and chain analytics.
What is a Node as a Service
Running a node was the original Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision (A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System). However, for now, blockchain nodes are hard to maintain. There are requirements in terms of hardware, engineering, security and support. This was an opportunity for a few companies to provide blockchain node infrastructure as a service.
Node as a Service (NaaS) providers offer dedicated or shared nodes accessible via an API on a SaaS model. They take care of all the system administration and support.
What are the pros of using a Blockchain Node Service?
The main benefit of using a node service is not having to spend engineering time maintaining and managing nodes yourself. This allows you to focus on building your product rather than having to worry about infrastructure maintenance.
What are the cons of using a Blockchain Node Service?
By using a node service you are centralizing the infrastructure aspect of your product. You become dependent on a third party vendor. Also, if everyone uses NaaS, there are serious centraisation risks for the whole network. For this reason, projects that hold decentralization to the utmost importance might prefer self-hosting nodes rather than outsourcing to a third party.
Evaluating a NaaS
Evaluating a blockchain node as a service (NaaS) provider requires examining several key aspects (technical, business, legal and regulatory).
Technical factors
- Network coverage: Do they offer nodes for multiple popular blockchains? Do they cover the specific chains you need?
- Performance and uptime: Are their nodes reliable and high-performing? What’s their average uptime guarantee?
- Security: Do they have robust security measures and infrastructure in place? Are they audited regularly?
- Scalability: Can they cater to your growing needs as your project or business scales?
- APIs and developer tools: Do they offer easy-to-use APIs and developer tools for integration with your applications?
- Additional services such as staking
- Integrations with third party vendors such as wallet and custody providers
- Dedicated or shared infrastructure
Non Technical factors
- Reputation and experience: Do they have a good track record and experience in the NaaS space?
- Retail vs Entreprise focus
- Usability of the admin interface
- Customer support: How responsive and helpful is their customer support?
- Pricing and billing: Is their pricing model transparent and competitive? Do they offer flexible plans?
- Compliance: are they compliant with cyber security regulations(eg ISO 27001, SOC 2, NIS) or financial regulations in terms of operations and security
- Financial stability
Selection of NaaS providers
You need to start with the requirements listed above, for your specific use case and then chose the provider that can fulfil those requirements. Here is a list of some of the more well known providers.
Infura
Infura is maybe the most famous provider. It offers shared, scalable blockchain node and decentralised storage (IPFS) infrastructure. It come with an API access to be used by developers and DApps.
Alchemy
Alchemy is a key competitor of Infura. It has a more developer and entrepreise focus with ruch APIs and support for the Graph protocol. Its entreprise offer provides everything an entreprise will require in terms of support, security, availability and compliance. Alchemy also supports Solana, while Infura does not.
Quicknode
Quicknode offers access to multiple chains (Infura and Alchemy are EVM centric) and it also has an entreprise offer.
Chainstack
Chainstack has access to even more networks than Quicknode, and provodes access to the Graph protocol and IPFS. It offfers API based, elastic services like the other providers, but it also provides dedicated nodes. It is trusted by large financial institutions.
Ankr
Ankr is very interesting because it is a decentralised network of blockchain node providers. It offers access to a large number of networks. Additionally Ankr providers staking as a service and infrastrcture to create app specific chains.
Blockdaemon
Blockdaemon is a provider that is focusing on security (ISO 27001 certified) and risk management, is developer friendly with a high quality multi chain API. It offers access to multiple networks. This provider also offer a wallet as a service and staking services.
Wallets as Service
Many custody infrastructure providers and wallets as a service providers also have their own nodes. They offer secure key management, typically using MPC technology, but they come with their own API and they can process transactions as well. Examples: