ArchiveNode.io, which provided archived Ethereum blockchain node data for more than three years, has announced that it is shutting down after completing its mission of making the service obsolete. On April 4, ArchiveNode.io said that it was “sunsetting” its services, which had been providing free Ethereum mainnet archive node services to developers, students and researchers.
What Is an Ethereum Archive Node?
An Ethereum Archive Node is an instance of an Ethereum client configured to build an archive of all historical states. This type of node is a useful tool for querying historical blockchain data that is not accessible on full nodes. Additionally, Archive Nodes are not required to participate in block validation so they can theoretically be built from scratch; however, they do require much greater storage capacity.
Project Goals
The project was initiated by “DeFi Dude,” with the goal of getting archive data into the hands of developers, students, and researchers who wanted to build cool things but didn’t have the time, money, or resources available to run their own archive node. He confirmed that the project was never meant to make money or profit.
When the project started, no one was running Archive Nodes, and the only option was to pay Ethereum infrastructure provider Infura $250 monthly to access archive data. The team claimed to have succeeded in its mission to make the service unnecessary, citing a robust remote procedure call (RPC) provider market that offers access to archive data, making the project obsolete.
Acknowledgements
ArchiveNode.io thanked the Ethereum Foundation for its initial grant of $10,000 in Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits to get the project off the ground. According to a Cointelegraph report from August, more than half of Ethereum nodes were hosted on AWS, with just three centralized cloud providers accounting for more than two-thirds of Ethereum nodes.
Conclusion
ArchiveNode.io has completed its mission and is now shutting down after providing its services to the Ethereum community for more than three years. With alternative options available today that didn’t exist when ArchiveNode.io got started, DeFi Dude says the project is no longer necessary.
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