How dRPC’s Unique Model Is Empowering Small and Medium RPC Providers Worldwide to Take on the Giants

Web3 has long passed the critical hurdle of showing the larger world what it can truly accomplish. There is a list of use cases, growing daily, that show where Web3 technology is uniquely capable of solving problems that were considered impossible just a few years ago. Whether it is transparency, secure communications, distributed systems, or a community-driven governance, Web3 can accomplish more and more as the sea of developers and creatives uncover new uses and bring them to market.

All of this is very optimistic and exciting, but it only happens if the Web3 infrastructure is solid. And one of the more critical areas to make or break the Web3 infrastructure is RPC functionality. RPC (Remote Procedure Call) nodes are a specialized asset within the Web3 ecosystem, acting as a server that takes in client requests and successfully executes them on a blockchain. They handle that crucial connection between dApps and the underlying blockchain, and the RPC infrastructure quality is an indication of the entire system‘s quality. Unless you are in the RPC industry it’s not something you focus on, except when the system breaks down, can‘t scale, or creates unacceptable errors/delays. Think of it like your neighborhood water or electricity. If you aren’t thinking about it, things are probably working well. If things are broken, its probably all you can think about.

Within the industry are many different node providers, but because it is infrastructure focused, the larger players have traditionally had an edge as they can gain efficiencies that small and mid-sized node providers can‘t. Web3 continues to upend traditional models, however, and by developing incredibly scalable and efficient digital infrastructure, the dominant advantage doesn’t always have to be which competitor has the most capital or reach. dRPC has gained more and more attention among Web3 players with its PAYG RPC platform, which is now considered an industry benchmark and is being replicated by some of the major blockchain players. The reason this model is so potent is that it creates scalability advantages for node providers no matter their size or reach, and based on the current roadmap has plans to unveil even more capabilities that providers will be able to use to level the playing field. Lets focus on a few of these features from the perspective of small to mid-sized node providers to see just how much leverage the “little guy” can gain through these Web3 infrastructure innovations.

Visibility and “Time to Correct Action”

For any business, Web3 or otherwise, there is one metric that should be focused on as much as profit, speed, or quality. Summed up, this metric is “time to correct action.” This means that a given business, whether a single person operation or a global leader, should be working to reduce the time it takes to identify a needed action, bring that issue to the attention of the person who needs to know, interprets what the issue is into the action needed to solve it, and communicates that action to the person who can accomplish it. This is both a simple and obvious thing to do, but it often gets lost in the thousands of details happening within a business. Successful businesses seek to have an almost god-like awareness of their operations, know if anything goes wrong (ideally, they can predict before something goes wrong), and understand which action, lever, button, knob, etc. to adjust to solve the problem.

For both physical businesses and digital platforms, the ability to have this god-like knowledge is more efficiently presented in dashboard format. The term “dashboard” is incredibly broad because it can represent a whiteboard that is manually updated once a day, or it can represent the innermost workings of a complex system, leading users efficiently to that minimum “time to correct action” metric that is so crucial for success. On the Web3 side, dRPC‘s success with clients big and small focuses on leveling the playing field by understanding what information is needed and how clients can interact with it. Effectively, it allows a small team with this god-like knowledge of their node service to understand exactly what is happening, what might happen, and what to do about it. Called NodeHaus, the comprehensive dashboard provides in-depth visibility, control, and scalability for multi-provider RPC infrastructure. What maximizes the “time to correct action”, however, is an intuitive UX, actionable insights, and the robust analytics that can lead a user from problem to solution in minimum time. dRPC clients have had very positive reactions to the dashboard and are clamoring for more. This type of leverage represents the new standard, where those who are successful make the most of it, and those who fail didn’t adopt it quickly enough. It wont be long before competitors are working to imitate the dashboard the way they have attempted to replicate the larger PAYG RPC model.

Leveraging the Power of AI

Along with visibility, insight, and “time to correct action”, is the ability to move from reactive to preventative measures. Monitoring your processes and acting quickly is important, and with unexpected issues this is the ideal strategy. However, the natural progression from process monitoring is process control. In other words, those god-like powers of observing what is happening start to extend outward to the near future. By having a clear picture of what is likely to happen, you can effectively change the future and prevent issues before they begin.

While likely not the only player doing this, dRPC is also working to empower the small and mid-size providers through this type of “crystal ball” prediction. Instead of mystic powers, however, the best practice is employing AI predictive capabilities, combined with intelligent responses. This is upcoming for dRPC and will very probably see imitations as well from other players in the market. However, the ability to pull the right data and understand it makes a huge difference, and the architecture needed for a strong dashboard is undoubtedly going to be used here as well. The AI platform will act as an intuitive load balancer, preventing many of the issues before they have a chance to cause issues. dRPC has announced that the balancer will be open-source, and will allow users to scale their RPC infrastructure autonomously, on their infrastructure, for free. The ability to eliminate a single point of failure that would occur on a third-party is huge, especially for those small and mid-size providers.

Looking Ahead

While technology continues to barrel forward, Web3 seems to have a unique ability to move fast and innovate with incredible results. Using very efficient development and service infrastructure, Web3‘s leading platforms like dRPC have not just created new products, they have effectively supercharged players big and small across the industry. It’s these types of innovations that will continue to accelerate Web3s progress faster than any other industry before it. At this rate, it should be very exciting to see what Web3 is capable of even a year or two from now.