The Remote Procedure Call (RPC) recently caught the attention of investors, sparked by an issue on Solana’s network with abandoned transactions. As reported by Crypto Briefing, one of the reasons behind this problem is that RPC nodes become overloaded with transactions.
Modular Infrastructure Lava Network core contributor Yair Cleper shared his insights with Crypto Briefing on the importance of RPC integrity and interoperability
Crypto Briefing – What are RPCs and why are they important to the success of a blockchain?
Yair Cleper – In general, I can start by asking what languages you speak. RPC is like the language of blockchains. The way it works is that anyone using the blockchain must submit RPC requests every time he or she interacts with the blockchain.
So for example, if you buy an NFT, if you interact with a contract: you exchange a token, you open your MetaMask, then MetaMask interrogates the blockchain. This is RPC. It’s called a Remote Procedure Call and you use this language to communicate with the blockchain. There are generally different RPC and API requests for each blockchain. There are tens of hundreds of APIs.
Ultimately, each blockchain has a specific way of communicating with the end users or requires the user to interact with the blockchain themselves. The way end users use this data is that they have to use the RPC. But to do that, they can run a node. They can use a decentralized provider, Alchemy or Infura, or they can use a public RPC offered by the chains themselves. So this is basically what RPC is.
When you rely on a single provider to bring you RPC, suddenly you’re overloaded. There is a congestion. And suddenly there is a recession. And as an intermediary it is a very, very difficult job.
At Lava we realized from the beginning that there are many problems, but that is what we want to address. The gap of how neglected, I would say, is this space with the communication protocol, access and values of Web3.
Crypto Briefing – Cross-chain interoperability has been a topic that has been discussed since the last bull run, and has recently become topical again with the deployment of various blockchains. Can you describe some of the issues new chains are experiencing regarding RPC?
Yair Cleper – That’s the point that led us to develop Lava. And I’ll divide that into two main problems. The first problem concerns the chains themselves, for all apps, the blockchain. And the second problem is for the users and dApps.
When I started Web3, it was three years ago. And a year later the bear market started and everyone was talking to me about consolidating all these chains into one chain, or two, or up to five. But the reality is that it happened the other way around, right? We’re seeing an explosion of different blockchain rollups and you have different doctrines in the field.
You have the monolithic, like Solana and Ethereum, you have the roll-up center, and you have the modular. Ultimately, we can see that there won’t be just one, not 10, not 100, but there will be thousands of different chains that probably won’t be revealed until this year. This is the trend, right?
The new chains are launching, and they need a fast way to launch and also have a scalable and reliable infrastructure. So the first thing they do is outsource that to community RPC node runners. If they want to invite developers to come build, they need scalable RPC and node runners.
However, there is no good way to ensure high service quality and optimized trend, because these community node runners are not professional node runners. So it’s kind of a favor for the ecosystem.
Those new projects then go to the centralized providers, which I mentioned earlier, but the centralized providers are not able to quickly scale and adapt to today’s fast-paced ecosystem. Still, chains should go ahead and use these RPC nodes in this way. What they end up doing is just running the RPC node, which is a waste of time and resources.
They don’t need this DevOps to run that infrastructure. And instead of focusing on the core product, they focus on DevOps and information. That, in a nutshell, is the various problems for the blockchain and rollups.
The second problem is for the users. If you think about today and find user-centralized providers, they have a single point of failure. So if they have access and Infura is not available, they cannot reach MetaMask. They cannot bring the information and data back to the users.
Imagine you are in a supermarket and you want to charge your credit card. And the cashier says, “Sorry, you can’t charge for the next four hours.” It is not scalable. We believe this is one of the reasons why you don’t see killer apps today, because the infrastructure is not resilient, it is not scalable and it does not provide security for dApps [decentralized applications] to build.
What we’re seeing at the end of the day is that the dApps are starting to implement load balancers, backups, disaster recovery and all that stuff that they don’t have to do either. So they waste a lot of resources and there are usually small teams that don’t have that.
There are actually three problems; the third is censorship. For example, the Venezuelan government is asking Infura to stop using MetaMask. You see problems like Web2 going back to selling data, collecting the data from the dApps and selling it to other third parties.
And privacy, you have no privacy when you use them. These are the biggest problems, both for blockchains and for end users.
Crypto Briefing – How is Lava helping to address this lack of scalability in RPCs?
Yair Cleper – Absolutely. If you want to scale, you need different layers, and different options for developers to build. I think what we’re going to see in the coming years is similar to the community vision, where each chain is unique in a special way, so there won’t be one community.
Modularity has really reinforced that vision, you have different layers that help you serve. You have the execution layer, the settlement layer, the consensus and the data availability. And what we think is missing is the access layer for each blockchain combination. And this is exactly what we think Lava is.
We design one data access layer, one network, that anyone building a blockchain or a package can connect to and enable the best data access infrastructure. We’re talking about low latency and developing a peer-to-peer communication protocol, SDK [software development kit]you can access top providers directly from the browser.
Other features include double caching and constant availability, which doesn’t matter, even if the Lava network is down, the dApps still have service. We also talk about cost efficiency, because the providers themselves are not paid based on their reputation, but on the quality of the service.
If there is a provider that is just setting up nodes in rural areas in East Africa because there was an NFT decline and it has done a very good job, then it should be paid and it should be paid based on demand. So if he’s the only supplier, he’s obviously getting a lot of money. The last thing that is unique to the Lava is its decentralization.
So Lava is a decentralized network of high-profile nodes that must leverage Lava for accountability and receive rewards based on their performance.
Crypto Briefing – Lava is doing an incentive program with Magma points. A question that arises is: “wen token?”
Yair Cleper – Everyone asks. I know the Foundation is dropping the audit, and will be coming out with Mainnet in the coming weeks. So hopefully we’ll see an announcement about offering the token around then.
Crypto Briefing – What Role Does Lava Play in Promoting Blockchain Growth?
Yair Cleper – You know, I think if you want to understand that, we’d like to have some analogies that will help understand it. I think Lava is building a kind of door for all blockchains. And it is very unique because no matter which person has to go through the door, the door is flexible depending on the person. So that’s one analogy.
Another analogy is thinking of Amazon. Lava is the permissionless Amazon for any Web3 service. Imagine if Amazon offered consumers the ability to buy from any merchant and any type of item.
Likewise, Lava allows data consumers, the dApp users, to purchase and access any type of data through providers, which is a bit like the vendors there. And because Lava is permissionless and open source, any ecosystem can spin up the pools, set incentives in them, and invite providers to serve.
It’s the same way when Amazon wants to go to a new country they’ve never been to before. Imagine Amazon calling all suppliers, from furniture to cars to pens, it doesn’t matter which items. And they say, “We now have a pool of a few million dollars.” Anyone who becomes a member first and provides good service receives the incentive.