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In an exclusive session with crypto.news, Yair Cleper, CEO and founder of the Lava network, discussed the complexities of remote procedure call (RPC) protocols and their role in the evolution of blockchain technology.
RPCs are protocols that allow applications to communicate with a blockchain and, as such, are essential for the development of decentralized applications (dApps). Recent challenges with RPC reliability have been a major topic of discussion in the crypto industry.
Lately, RPC outages have affected the operation of important networks such as x.com/martypartymusic/status/1776357293078221043″ target=”_blank” rel=””>solarium and Manta, sparking industry-wide calls for better RPC infrastructure.
Cleper's Lava Network has created a platform that connects dapps with top RPC providers in an effort to address the challenges facing blockchain networks, uniquely positioning it to offer insights on the topic.
What are some of the key factors contributing to RPC unreliability in various blockchain ecosystems?
The reasons for RPC unreliability depend on the ecosystem you are looking at. In ethereum, it all comes down to centralization, where a couple of major providers support most of the traffic and if they are not available, dapp users cannot connect to ethereum. However, on most other chains, especially recently launched chains, the lack of reliability is due to the fact that RPC support comes primarily from community members who voluntarily spin up nodes.
Is there a way to address them?
Some basic measures to improve reliability would be to make it easy and obvious for users to switch to another provider if one becomes unavailable. Another option is to promote a diversity of suppliers so that the ecosystem is not overly dependent on a small handful.
And from your perspective, what are the broader consequences of RPC downtime for dApp developers and their users across the blockchain ecosystem?
If RPC goes down, for a user, this is the same as the blockchain itself going down. We have already seen many outages or congestion issues that have caused users to be unable to connect to the chains. This was particularly obvious on ethereum during the DeFi and nft summer, where one huge nft coin would be enough to take down multiple RPC providers.
Can developers mitigate such risks?
Developers can mitigate these risks by using a highly redundant, decentralized service like Lava, which aggregates multiple RPC providers into a network and has automatic backups in case of provider downtime. Some developers are already using solutions like load balancers, which can also help.
Recent high-profile RPC outages have highlighted vulnerabilities in current dapp infrastructure. How does Lava plan to mitigate such risks, ensuring reliability and continuity for users and developers?
Lava is building a network for chains and rollups to easily launch their RPC and API infrastructure through a mechanism called Incentivized Public RPC. We are building Lava with many considerations in mind. The network must be agnostic to support any chains and APIs. It is permissionless and can quickly support any chain and API on demand. It should offer low latency and geolocation-based routing, with requests sent to the servers closest to the user. It must be super reliable and highly available. Finally, it should be decentralized, with no single point of control that could prevent anyone from accessing the blockchain. This would defeat the purpose of web3.
Are any chains already implementing this?
Lava is already actively working with different chains, including NEAR, Evmos and Axelar, to launch, optimize and decentralize their infrastructure.
How did you envision the evolution of decentralized data access layers in terms of technology and adoption?
Lava was designed to be highly flexible as a data access layer, and RPC is just the beginning of many potential use cases for the network. As blockchain adoption increases, Lava will support more complex and specialized APIs that can retrieve indexed data specific to a dapp or set of smart contracts. Additionally, today, data access layers are primarily designed for chains to incorporate more dapps. However, in the future, dapps will become app-specific rollups; they themselves will become blockchains. This means that Lava's ability to dynamically and permissionlessly support new chains, faster than centralized providers, will become increasingly important.
So will RPC providers play a key role in the evolution of blockchain technology?
Whether you're a dapp or a rollup developer, RPC is the fundamental infrastructure you need and only Lava has solutions for both.