Pocket Network's Full Archival relays provide deterministic access to any historical state, including logs, traces, and receipts. This is critical for applications like on-chain analytics (e.g., Dune Analytics, The Graph), complex DeFi audits, and NFT provenance tracking. The guarantee of complete data integrity eliminates the risk of relying on a centralized provider's pruning schedule, ensuring your dApp never encounters a "state not found" error during critical operations.
LABS
Comparisons
Pocket Network's Full Archival vs Standard Relays
A technical analysis comparing the performance, cost, and architectural trade-offs between Pocket Network's Full Archival and Standard Relay tiers for decentralized RPC access.
Chainscore © 2026
introduction
THE ANALYSIS
Introduction: The State Access Dilemma
Choosing between full archival and standard relays is a fundamental infrastructure decision impacting data reliability, cost, and performance.
Standard relays (serving only the latest 128 blocks) take a cost-optimized approach by serving the vast majority of common RPC calls—eth_getBalance, eth_sendRawTransaction. This strategy results in significantly lower operational costs and higher throughput for real-time interactions. The trade-off is clear: you gain efficiency for present-state operations but sacrifice the ability to query deep history, outsourcing that need to specialized archival services.
The key trade-off: If your priority is uncompromising data completeness and self-sovereignty for historical queries, choose Full Archival relays. If you prioritize cost-efficiency and high performance for real-time transactions and current state data, Standard relays are the optimal default, with the option to route specific archival calls as needed.
tldr-summary
Pocket Network Full Archival vs. Standard Relays
TL;DR: Key Differentiators at a Glance
A direct comparison of the two primary data service tiers, highlighting their core architectural and economic trade-offs.
01
Full Archival: Data Completeness
Full historical state access: Serves the entire blockchain history, including all historical states and receipts. This is critical for on-chain analytics platforms like Dune Analytics, advanced indexers, and compliance tools that require traceability.
100%
Historical Coverage
02
Full Archival: Higher Cost & Latency
Resource-intensive operation: Requires nodes to store and serve terabytes of data, leading to higher relay costs (typically 5-10x a standard relay) and potentially higher latency for complex queries. This matters for cost-sensitive applications where only recent data is needed.
03
Standard Relays: Cost Efficiency
Optimized for recent state: Nodes serve data from the last 128 blocks, minimizing storage overhead and maximizing performance. This results in significantly lower POKT costs per relay (often < $0.000001). Ideal for dApps, wallets, and DeFi protocols like Uniswap or Aave that primarily need current chain state.
< $0.000001
Avg. Cost/Relay
04
Standard Relays: Limited Historical Scope
No deep history: Cannot query block data, transaction receipts, or logs beyond the recent window (typically 128 blocks). This is a deal-breaker for block explorers, audit services, or any application requiring historical analysis or event replay.
POCKET NETWORK RELAY TIERS
Feature Matrix: Head-to-Head Specifications
Direct comparison of archival and standard relay tiers for blockchain data access.
| Metric / Feature | Full Archival Relay | Standard Relay |
|---|---|---|
Data Depth (Block History) | Genesis to latest block | Last 128 blocks only |
Relay Cost (POKT) | ~0.20 POKT | ~0.01 POKT |
Supported Chains | Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche C-Chain | 50+ chains (incl. Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche C-Chain) |
Use Case | Historical analysis, indexers, explorers | Real-time dApp queries, wallet balances |
Data Completeness | ||
Typical Latency | < 2 seconds | < 1 second |
Service Level (Uptime) | 99.9% | 99.9% |
pros-cons-a
Pocket Network's Full Archival vs. Standard Relays
Standard Relays: Pros and Cons
Key architectural and economic trade-offs for high-throughput dApps and data-intensive services.
01
Pocket Network: Unmatched Data Depth
Full archival node access: Serves data from any historical block height without indexing layers. This matters for on-chain analytics platforms (e.g., Dune, Nansen), DeFi risk engines, and arbitrage bots that require deep historical state queries.
02
Pocket Network: Censorship-Resistant Redundancy
Decentralized node network: 40,000+ nodes across 50+ blockchains prevent single-point failures and provider-level censorship. This matters for permissionless protocols and applications in regulated jurisdictions that require guaranteed uptime and neutrality.
03
Standard Relays: Predictable, Low Latency
Optimized infrastructure: Centralized providers (Alchemy, Infura) offer sub-100ms global latency via managed clusters. This matters for consumer-facing dApps (wallets, NFT marketplaces) and high-frequency trading where user experience is critical.
04
Standard Relays: Simplified Cost Structure
Fixed-rate pricing: Pay-as-you-go models with clear monthly caps (e.g., $250 for 50M requests). This matters for startups with predictable traffic and enterprise budgeting where variable, usage-based costs (like POKT burns) introduce financial uncertainty.
pros-cons-b
Pocket Network's Full Archival vs Standard Relays
Full Archival Relays: Pros and Cons
Key strengths and trade-offs at a glance for CTOs evaluating high-fidelity data access.
01
Full Archival Relays: Pro
Complete Historical Data Access: Direct queries to full archival nodes (e.g., Geth, Erigon) for any block height. This is critical for on-chain analytics, compliance reporting, and advanced DeFi protocols like Aave or Compound that require historical state verification.
Full History
Data Scope
02
Full Archival Relays: Con
Higher Infrastructure Cost & Latency: Running archival nodes requires significant storage (>10TB for Ethereum) and resources, leading to ~30-50% higher relay costs and potentially slower response times versus standard nodes. This impacts applications where cost-per-request or sub-second latency is paramount.
30-50%
Cost Premium
03
Standard Relays: Pro
Optimized for Speed & Cost-Efficiency: Serves requests from pruned nodes holding only recent state. Enables sub-300ms latency and lower costs, ideal for high-frequency dApp interactions, wallet balances (MetaMask), and NFT minting platforms where only current chain state is needed.
< 300ms
Typical Latency
04
Standard Relays: Con
Limited to Recent Chain State: Cannot query historical block data or state beyond a pruning window (typically ~128 blocks). A major limitation for block explorers (Etherscan alternatives), arbitrage bots analyzing past MEV, or any service requiring proven historical data.
~128 Blocks
Pruning Window
CHOOSE YOUR PRIORITY
Decision Framework: When to Use Which Tier
Full Archival Relays for DeFi & Analytics
Verdict: Essential for historical analysis and compliance. Strengths: Provides complete historical state access, enabling complex analytics, tax reporting, and MEV analysis. Crucial for protocols like Aave or Compound that need to audit historical positions or for tools like Dune Analytics and Nansen to reconstruct on-chain activity. Trade-offs: Higher latency and cost per relay. Not necessary for simple balance checks or live price feeds.
Standard Relays for DeFi & Analytics
Verdict: Optimal for live applications and user interactions. Strengths: Low-latency access to the latest 128 blocks. Perfect for front-ends querying live APYs on Uniswap, checking wallet balances via MetaMask, or executing swaps. Offers the best cost-efficiency for high-volume, real-time operations. Trade-offs: Cannot query historical state or events beyond the archival window.
POCKET NETWORK RELAYS
Technical Deep Dive: Architecture and Implications
Choosing between Pocket Network's Full Archival and Standard relays is a critical infrastructure decision that impacts data integrity, cost, and performance. This comparison breaks down the technical trade-offs for CTOs and architects.
The core difference is the completeness of blockchain data served. Full Archival relays provide access to the entire historical state of a chain, enabling queries for any past block or transaction. Standard relays serve data from recent, pruned nodes, typically covering only the last 128 blocks. This makes Full Archival essential for historical analysis, audits, and complex DeFi applications, while Standard relays are optimized for real-time dApp operations like wallet balances and recent transaction submissions.
verdict
THE ANALYSIS
Final Verdict and Strategic Recommendation
Choosing between Full Archival and Standard relays depends on your application's data depth requirements versus cost and latency sensitivity.
Full Archival relays excel at providing deep historical data access because they serve requests from a complete, non-pruned node archive. For example, a DeFi protocol like Aave or Compound performing complex historical analytics on user positions or calculating time-weighted average prices for governance needs this data granularity. The trade-off is higher operational cost for node runners, which translates to higher per-relay costs and potentially higher latency for end-users querying vast datasets.
Standard relays take a different approach by serving requests from nodes that typically only maintain recent state (e.g., the last 128 blocks). This results in significantly lower operational overhead and cost, making them the default for high-throughput, real-time applications. The trade-off is the inability to query historical block data, transaction receipts, or event logs beyond the node's pruning window, limiting use cases to current-state interactions like token swaps on Uniswap or balance checks.
The key trade-off: If your priority is deep historical data analysis, compliance reporting, or advanced indexing, choose Full Archival relays. This is critical for protocols like The Graph for subgraph filling or on-chain analytics platforms like Dune Analytics. If you prioritize cost-efficiency, low-latency responses, and real-time blockchain interactions, choose Standard relays. This is ideal for consumer-facing dApps, wallets like MetaMask, and high-frequency DeFi operations where current state is paramount.
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