ArchiveNode.io, Ethereum mainnet archive node service, has announced that it will cease operations, citing the project’s success after three years of providing blockchain node data services.
ArchiveNode.io announced on April 4 that it was “sunsetting” its services after providing free Ethereum mainnet archive node services to developers, students, and researchers for more than three years.
An Ethereum Archive Node is a client instance set to create an archive of all past states. This sort of node is important for querying blockchain data from the past that is inaccessible on full nodes.
In addition, Archive Nodes are not required to participate in block validation, so they can be constructed from scratch; nevertheless, they require significantly more storage space.
The announcement was made by “DeFi Dude,” who stated the project was being discontinued since “we succeeded” and added:
“Our service is no longer necessary and other alternatives exist today that did not exist when we got started.”
He said that nobody was utilizing Archive Nodes at the onset of the project. To access archive data, the Ethereum infrastructure provider Infura required a monthly payment of $250.
The objective of the project was to “provide archive data to developers, students, and researchers who wanted to make exciting stuff but had the time, money, or resources to host their archive node.”
He confirmed that the objective of the project was never to “make money or profit.”
He stated that there is a thriving market for remote procedure call (RPC) providers who offer access to archive data, rendering the initiative outdated.
ArchiveNode.io thanked the Ethereum Foundation for providing a first gift of $10,000 in Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits to launch the project.
According to a study from August, more than two-thirds of Ethereum nodes are hosted by just three centralized cloud providers. AWS hosted more than fifty percent of all nodes at the time, according to available data.
