What is Happening?
The Web3 infrastructure provider, Ankr, has joined Optimism, an Ethereum blockchain-based Layer-2 scaling solution, as an RPC (Remote Procedure Call). Upwards of 50 networks use Ankr Protocol to handle six billion blockchain queries per day. Using RPCs, numerous apps can communicate with the blockchain simultaneously. Ankr currently serves as an RPC provider for 17 blockchains, including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Solana, and Avalanche.
Ankr provides Optimism's public RPC resources with time-tested and high-performance RPC node architecture that can manage any request demand. To make Ethereum more scalable, Optimism employs the use of optimistic rollups.
Optimism dramatically lowers costs and enhances throughput while retaining Ethereum's security features by sending transaction details to Ethereum while processing transactions off-chain.
Since its start, Optimism has saved consumers more than $1 billion in gas expenses.
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Matthew Slipper, Head of Engineering at OP Labs, says
Apps and integrations choose to build in the Optimism ecosystem because they feel aligned with our values and culture and appreciate the tooling and technical options available to them.
What is Ankr?
In order to provide the greatest Web3 experience possible, blockchain firms employ Ankr to operate their blockchains more efficiently. The Ankr Protocol was launched in 2021 and supported 200 billion RPC queries a month over 50 blockchains. Web3 gaming SDK and multi-chain liquid staking capabilities were introduced to the Ankr developer product portfolio in 2022.
Ankr's nodes are located in a variety of data centres throughout the globe. It's been a long time since Ankr has set up physical hardware servers in 24 different cloud regions across 24 different continents and oceans: North and South America; Europe; the Middle East; Asia; Oceania; Africa.
Why Should We Care About Remote Procedure Calls in Web3?
An RPC is a method of requesting a service from another computer across a network without disclosing the specifics of that network to the other programme. A procedure call is also referred to as a function call or a subroutine call. The JSON-RPC API serves as a conduit for dApps to communicate with nodes. This specification is primarily concerned with defining several data structures and the rules governing their processing. The principles may be applied in various message transmission settings and across a wide range of transport protocols, including sockets, HTTP, and many more. The data is formatted as JSON (RFC 4627).
Web 3.0 clients implement a JSON-RPC standard with a consistent set of methods so that decentralised apps may connect with a blockchain to receive blockchain data and/or transmit transactions to the network ~ RPC standard is the foundation for web3 applications. Helping applications communicate with the blockchain!
A client-server model is used to implement this system where both the client and the server are programmes that receive requests for service. The synchronous nature of an RPC, like that of a local procedure call, necessitates stopping the asking programme until the remote process provides its results. Using lightweight processes or threads that share the same address space allows the execution of several RPCs simultaneously, increasing the throughput for web3 applications.
The benefit of RPC for web3 is that programmers can leverage procedure call semantics, and creating distributed applications is easy since RPC conceals all the network functionality in stub functions. Additionally, application programmes don't have to worry about the nitty-gritty such as sockets, port numbers, byte ordering.
Understanding the Application of Remote Procedure Call in Web3
An Ethereum network is a state of interaction between its participants where such transactions are based on smart contracts. Furthermore, these agreements or transactions are carried out on the blockchain. Without JSON-RPC, such contracts cannot be made!
The majority of blockchain users use web3 JSON-RPC to communicate with clients. The different data formats of Ethereum may be defined using Web3 JSON-RPC and Ethereum EVM. Such data structures must be processed in accordance with the network's regulations. One may utilise it in many settings, such as sockets or the HTTP protocol and ANKR RPC Model to communicate with an ETH node. A client uses the JSON-RPC API to request smart contract data. Additionally, it transmits this information to a network node. The client uses WebSockets or HTTP endpoints from an ETH node to connect and send API requests. The node endpoints are found using node information from numerous Ethereum or blockchain sites.
JSON-RPC has a number of advantages over other RPC protocols. Aside from the fact that it's a basic RPC, it's also light and small. TCP/IP and HTTP/HTTPS are both supported, as are Unix domain sockets and avian carriers, among other transports. Its widespread usage in blockchain and Web3 applications may be attributed to these evident benefits concerning smart contract development and supporting communication between decentralized applications.
Final Thoughts on Ankr RPC Model and Web3 Development Solution
Ankr RPC Model is critical for scaling web3 applications and acts as the underlying infrastructure allowing for scaling of decentralized applications through the RPC communication model. Technological solutions such as Ankr and Optimism are a novel approach to scaling ethereum applications through off-chain settlement with blockchain nodes that provide low-latency and reliable connections for web3 applications. This makes the integration between Ankr and Optimism a critical development as it allows programmers to build scalable web3 applications.
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Image credits: Marc-Olivier Jodoin, Javier Miranda, Shubham Dhage and Siednji Leon.