Guides
Running the infrastructure, not just calling it
11 articles on getting, choosing, running, scaling and watching a node — general where the problem is general, and per chain where it is not. Written for the decisions that come before picking a provider from the rankings, and the ones that come after deciding not to.
Ethereum
BSC
Solana11 articles · page 1 of 2
- Choosing· All three chains
Getting a dedicated node
“The free endpoint is not enough any more. What now?”
What a public endpoint actually gives you, what changes when you pay for a dedicated one, and how to tell which of the two your application needs — using the limits providers publish and the behaviour measured here.
- Clients· All three chains
Why the client mix matters
“Does it matter which client everybody else is running?”
What a supermajority client bug costs at 33% and at 66%, why the published diversity figures disagree with each other by more than they agree, and what any of it changes for an application rather than a validator.
- ClientsEthereum
Ethereum clients
“Which Ethereum client should I run, and why are there two of them?”
The five execution clients and six consensus clients, why an Ethereum node is two processes joined by a shared secret, and which clients the Ethereum endpoints measured here report running.
- ClientsBSC
BNB Smart Chain clients
“What can I actually run on BNB Smart Chain?”
Two supported clients since Erigon was retired, why both answer to their parents' names, and what the version number in a BSC banner does and does not mean.
- ClientsSolana
Solana clients
“Agave, Firedancer, Frankendancer, Jito — which is which?”
Three implementations and a fourth thing people call a client, why an RPC node is a different job from a validator, and why getVersion cannot tell you which one you are talking to.
- Running a nodeEthereum
Running an Ethereum node
“What does it take to run an Ethereum node myself?”
Hardware quoted from ethereum.org, the JWT secret between the two halves, checkpoint sync, and which of the three port groups must be reachable and which must never be.