Full-history indexing services like The Graph's hosted service or SubQuery provide a complete, verifiable ledger of all on-chain events. This is critical for applications requiring deep historical analysis, such as on-chain analytics dashboards (e.g., Dune Analytics), compliance tools, or protocols performing complex state reconciliations. Access to genesis-block data ensures audit trails are complete and analytical models are built on a full dataset, not a sample.
LABS
Comparisons
Data Completeness: Full History vs Recent Events Only
A technical analysis comparing full-history indexing solutions with services providing only recent data. We evaluate The Graph, Substreams, and other services on performance, cost, and suitability for NFT marketplaces.
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introduction
THE ANALYSIS
Introduction: The Data Completeness Dilemma
Choosing between full historical data and recent event indexing is a foundational architectural decision for any Web3 application.
Recent-events-only providers like Chainlink Functions or POKT Network's selective RPC endpoints take a different approach by focusing on low-latency access to the most recent blocks. This strategy results in significantly lower infrastructure costs and faster query response times for real-time applications. The trade-off is the inability to query data older than a short, configurable window (e.g., 128 blocks on Ethereum), which is a non-starter for many DeFi and NFT analytics use cases.
The key trade-off: If your priority is comprehensive data analysis, auditability, or building on a complete state machine, choose a full-history solution. If you prioritize cost-efficiency, speed for real-time triggers (like oracle updates or liquidation engines), and your logic only needs the last few blocks, a recent-events architecture is superior. The decision fundamentally hinges on whether your application's core value is derived from the past or the present state of the chain.
tldr-summary
Data Completeness: Full History vs Recent Events Only
TL;DR: Core Differentiators
The foundational trade-off between historical depth and operational simplicity for on-chain data access.
01
Full History (e.g., Archive Nodes, The Graph, Subsquid)
Complete Data Sovereignty: Access every transaction, log, and state change since genesis. This is critical for historical analytics (e.g., Nansen, Dune Analytics), compliance audits, and arbitrage analysis requiring deep chain history.
Genesis
Data Start
02
Full History Trade-off
High Operational Cost: Running an archive node requires ~12+ TB of storage (Ethereum) and significant indexing resources. Services like Alchemy Archive API charge premium rates. This matters for teams with constrained infrastructure budgets.
03
Recent Events Only (e.g., Standard RPC, QuickNode Core, Moralis Streams)
Low Latency & Cost: Optimized for real-time data (last 128 blocks). Enables high-frequency dApps like perpetual DEXs (GMX, Aevo) and wallet activity feeds with sub-2s finality and lower infrastructure spend.
< 2s
Typical Latency
04
Recent Events Trade-off
Limited Historical Context: Cannot query events older than a few hundred blocks natively. Forces reliance on centralized indexers for past data, creating a vendor dependency risk for protocols like Compound or Aave needing historical interest rates.
DATA COMPLETENESS
Head-to-Head Feature Comparison
Direct comparison of historical data availability and access.
| Metric | Full History (e.g., Archive Node) | Recent Events Only (e.g., Standard Node) |
|---|---|---|
Historical Data Access | From genesis block | Last 128 blocks (configurable) |
Storage Requirement | ~12 TB (Ethereum) | ~1 TB (Ethereum) |
Typical Sync Time | Weeks | Hours to days |
Query Capability for Past Events | ||
Infrastructure Cost (Monthly) | $1,000 - $5,000+ | $100 - $500 |
Use Case Fit | Analytics, Audits, Indexers | Live dApps, Validators |
pros-cons-a
Data Completeness: Full History vs Recent Events Only
Full History Indexing: Pros and Cons
Key architectural trade-offs for protocol analytics, compliance, and application development.
01
Full History Indexing: Pros
Complete Data Integrity: Enables deep historical analysis of every transaction, state change, and event since genesis block. This is critical for on-chain analytics (e.g., Dune Analytics, Nansen), compliance audits, and protocols requiring immutable provenance (e.g., NFT provenance tracking, DAO governance history).
02
Full History Indexing: Cons
Exponential Storage & Sync Costs: Requires petabytes of archival node storage and weeks to sync from scratch (e.g., Ethereum archive node > 12TB). This leads to higher infrastructure costs and slower query performance for recent data unless paired with specialized indexing layers like The Graph or Subsquid.
03
Recent Events Only: Pros
High-Performance for Live Data: Optimized for low-latency queries on current state and recent blocks (e.g., last 30 days). Services like Alchemy's Enhanced APIs and QuickNode use this model to deliver sub-second response times for dApp frontends, wallet balances, and real-time dashboards.
04
Recent Events Only: Cons
Limited Analytical Scope: Impossible to analyze trends, calculate Total Value Locked (TVL) over full lifecycle, or audit historical smart contract interactions. A deal-breaker for financial reporting, tax compliance tools (e.g., TokenTax), and research requiring longitudinal data.
pros-cons-b
Data Completeness: Full History vs Recent Events Only
Recent Events Only: Pros and Cons
Choosing between full historical data and recent event streams is a fundamental architectural decision impacting cost, performance, and capability. Evaluate the key trade-offs for your specific use case.
01
Full History: Unmatched Analytical Depth
Complete audit trail: Access every transaction, state change, and event from genesis block. This is critical for on-chain analytics, compliance reporting, and historical arbitrage analysis. Services like The Graph's historical indexing or Google BigQuery's public datasets rely on this completeness.
02
Full History: High Infrastructure Cost
Exponential storage growth: Storing the entire history of chains like Ethereum (>20TB) requires significant managed database costs (e.g., AWS RDS, Google Cloud SQL). Slower query performance for recent data due to table bloat, impacting real-time applications.
03
Recent Events: Real-Time Performance & Low Cost
Sub-second latency: Processing only new blocks (e.g., via Chainscore's real-time streams or Alchemy's WebSockets) enables high-frequency trading bots, live dashboards, and instant notifications. ~90% lower storage costs by avoiding historical data bloat.
04
Recent Events: Limited Analytical Scope
No historical context: Cannot calculate TVL trends, user cohort analysis, or protocol revenue over time without integrating separate historical services. Forces dependency on external data providers like Dune Analytics for any look-back period.
CHOOSE YOUR PRIORITY
When to Choose Which: A Use Case Breakdown
Full History for DeFi
Verdict: Essential for risk management and compliance. Strengths: Enables comprehensive audit trails for protocols like Aave and Uniswap V3. Critical for on-chain analytics (e.g., calculating impermanent loss over a pool's entire lifespan), regulatory reporting, and forensic analysis of exploits. Services like The Graph (with its historical indexing) or archival nodes are non-negotiable for building robust risk dashboards or interest rate models that rely on long-term trend analysis.
Recent Events for DeFi
Verdict: Sufficient for core application logic and real-time data. Strengths: Drastically reduces infrastructure cost and complexity. Perfect for live oracle price feeds, liquidation engines, and DEX aggregators (e.g., 1inch) that only need the latest state. Using an RPC provider with a 128-block window (like Alchemy's Standard tier) or a light client can handle 95% of smart contract interactions, from swaps to loan repayments, at a fraction of the cost.
DATA COMPLETENESS
Technical Deep Dive: Architecture and Implementation
A core architectural choice for blockchain data providers is the historical scope of their index. This section compares the trade-offs between full historical data and recent events-only indexing, analyzing the impact on development, cost, and performance.
Full history indexing processes every event from a blockchain's genesis block, while recent events indexing only processes data from a recent point in time. Full history providers like The Graph (with a subgraph synced from genesis) or a self-hosted archival node offer complete data lineage. Recent-events providers like Alchemy's Supernode or QuickNode's Enhanced APIs start indexing from a recent block, offering faster setup and lower storage costs but lacking older data. The choice fundamentally dictates the types of queries and historical analysis your application can perform.
verdict
THE ANALYSIS
Final Verdict and Decision Framework
Choosing between full historical data and recent events is a fundamental architectural decision impacting cost, performance, and capability.
Full History excels at providing a complete, auditable ledger for applications requiring deep historical analysis. This is critical for on-chain compliance, forensic accounting, and protocols like Compound or Aave that need to reconstruct user positions and interest accrual from genesis. The trade-off is significant storage overhead; for example, a full Ethereum archive node requires over 12 TB of storage, leading to higher infrastructure costs and slower query times for recent data.
Recent Events Only takes a different approach by indexing only the most recent blocks or a rolling window (e.g., last 30 days). This strategy, used by services like The Graph's hosted service for performance or Alchemy's Enhanced APIs, results in dramatically lower storage costs and sub-second latency for real-time queries. The trade-off is the inability to answer questions about historical state without relying on a separate archival source.
The key trade-off is between depth and agility. If your priority is auditability, complex DeFi analytics, or regulatory compliance, choose a Full History provider like Chainstack Archive Nodes or QuickNode's Archive Plan. If you prioritize cost-efficiency, real-time user interactions (e.g., NFT minting dashboards, live trading interfaces), and rapid prototyping, choose a Recent Events solution like Pocket Network for recent RPC calls or a tailored Subgraph.
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