An archive node is a full node that stores the entire historical state of a blockchain at every single block since its genesis. Unlike a standard full node, which only keeps recent state data to validate new transactions, an archive node retains all past account balances, contract storage, and transaction receipts. This makes it an indispensable resource for services requiring deep historical lookups, such as block explorers, advanced analytics platforms, and certain developer tools that need to query the state of the network at any point in its history.
LABS
Glossary
Archive Node
An archive node is a type of blockchain node that stores the complete historical state and transaction data, enabling deep historical queries and analysis.
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definition
BLOCKCHAIN INFRASTRUCTURE
What is an Archive Node?
An archive node is a specialized type of blockchain node that maintains the complete historical state of a network, enabling deep historical data queries and analysis.
The primary function of an archive node is to serve historical data queries via its JSON-RPC API, such as eth_getBalance for a specific block number in the distant past. Running an archive node requires significantly more storage than a pruned full node; for example, an Ethereum archive node can require multiple terabytes of disk space. Due to this resource intensity, they are less common than regular nodes and are often operated by infrastructure providers, research institutions, and organizations that provide public data services.
Key use cases for archive nodes include forensic analysis for security audits, generating comprehensive reports for tax or compliance purposes, and powering decentralized applications (dApps) that need to access historical user activity. For developers, tools like Erigon and Nethermind offer "archive mode" to sync a node with this complete historical data. While essential for specific functions, most network participants operate pruned full nodes or light clients, which rely on these specialized archive nodes to answer queries about the blockchain's complete history.
how-it-works
BLOCKCHAIN INFRASTRUCTURE
How an Archive Node Works
An archive node is a specialized type of blockchain node that maintains the complete historical state of a network, enabling deep historical data queries and analysis.
An archive node is a full node that retains the entire historical state of a blockchain at every single block since genesis. Unlike a standard full node, which only stores recent state data to validate new transactions, an archive node preserves a complete, queryable record of all account balances, smart contract storage, and transaction receipts for the network's entire history. This makes it an indispensable tool for services requiring deep historical analysis, such as block explorers, advanced analytics platforms, and certain decentralized applications (dApps).
The core technical function of an archive node is to store and serve state trie data. A state trie is a Merkle Patricia Trie data structure that cryptographically maps account addresses to their state (balance, nonce, code, storage). While a pruning full node discards old state trie nodes after they are no longer needed for validation, an archive node retains every node, allowing it to reconstruct the exact state of the blockchain at any historical block height. This requires significantly more storage—often tens of terabytes for mature networks like Ethereum—and substantial computational resources to index and serve queries efficiently.
Archive nodes are critical infrastructure for the blockchain ecosystem. They enable services like Etherscan to display historical token balances, allow auditors to verify the state of a protocol at a specific past block, and provide the data backbone for on-chain analytics and research. Developers interact with archive nodes via JSON-RPC calls such as eth_getBalance or eth_getStorageAt with a specific block number parameter. Without archive nodes, accessing anything beyond recent blockchain state would be impossible, as the data would be permanently pruned from the network's commonly running nodes.
key-features
ARCHITECTURE
Key Features of an Archive Node
An archive node is a type of blockchain node that stores the complete historical state of the network, enabling deep historical data queries and analysis that are impossible with standard full nodes.
01
Complete Historical State
Unlike a standard full node, which only stores recent state to validate new blocks, an archive node retains the entire historical state of the blockchain. This includes the balance and storage of every account at every single block height since genesis. It is essential for services requiring deep historical lookups, such as block explorers, analytics platforms, and certain decentralized applications (dApps).
02
Pruned vs. Archival Modes
Node software often runs in different modes. Pruned nodes delete old state data to save disk space, typically keeping only the last 128 blocks of state. Archive nodes disable this pruning, preserving all data. The key operational difference is the --pruning flag (or equivalent) in client software like Geth (--gcmode=archive) or Erigon (--prune=hrtc).
03
Resource Intensive Operation
Running an archive node demands significant and growing resources:
- Storage: Requires terabytes of fast SSD storage (e.g., >2TB for Ethereum, growing ~15GB/day).
- Memory: Needs high RAM (32GB+) for efficient state trie access.
- Bandwidth & Compute: Sustains the same initial sync and processing load as a full node, plus the overhead of maintaining historical indices.
04
Essential for Indexers & Analysts
Archive nodes are the backbone for data services that query the past. They enable:
- Block explorers to show transaction history and old smart contract states.
- On-chain analysts to perform complex historical queries (e.g., "total DEX volume on a specific date").
- Indexing protocols like The Graph to process entire blockchain histories for subgraph creation.
05
State Trie vs. Block Data
An archive node stores two primary data types. Block data (headers, transactions, receipts) is stored by all full nodes. The archive node's defining feature is its persistent storage of the state trie—a cryptographic data structure (Merkle Patricia Trie) that maps accounts to their storage, code, and balance at every block. This allows for instant historical state queries via RPC methods like eth_getBalance for any past block.
06
Comparison to Light & Full Nodes
Light Node: Downloads only block headers, relying on full nodes for data; minimal resource use. Full Node: Stores recent state to validate new blocks and serve network data; moderate resource use. Archive Node: Stores the complete historical state and all block data; high resource use. It is the only node type that can authoritatively answer arbitrary queries about the chain's past without recalculating state from genesis.
BLOCKCHAIN NODE TYPES
Archive Node vs. Full Node vs. Light Node
A comparison of the three primary node types based on their data storage, validation capabilities, and resource requirements.
| Feature / Metric | Archive Node | Full Node | Light Node |
|---|---|---|---|
Stores Full Blockchain History | |||
Stores Recent State (Pruned) | |||
Storage Requirement | ~10+ TB (Ethereum) | ~1 TB (Ethereum) | < 1 GB |
Validates All Transactions & Blocks | |||
Serves Historical Data (e.g., balance at block #1) | |||
Resource Intensity (CPU/RAM) | Very High | High | Very Low |
Bootstrapping/Sync Time | Weeks | Days | < 1 hour |
Primary Use Case | Analytics, Indexing, Auditing | Network Security, dApp Backend | Mobile Wallets, Quick Queries |
ecosystem-usage
PRIMARY USE CASES
Who Uses Archive Nodes?
Archive nodes are specialized infrastructure providing a complete, unpruned history of a blockchain. They are essential for applications and services that require deep historical data analysis and verification.
02
DeFi & Lending Protocols
Protocols use archive nodes for risk management and dispute resolution. For example, a lending platform may need to verify a user's collateralization ratio from several thousand blocks ago during a liquidation event. This ensures the correctness of oracle price feeds and settlement logic.
03
Auditors & Security Firms
Smart contract auditors and forensic analysts require the complete state history to investigate hacks, trace fund flows, and verify the behavior of contracts over time. They perform historical state queries to reconstruct events and identify vulnerabilities or malicious activity.
05
Institutional Research & Compliance
Financial institutions, tax authorities, and regulatory bodies use archive nodes for transactional audits, provenance tracking (e.g., for NFTs), and compliance reporting. They enable the reconstruction of complete financial histories for regulatory submissions like Travel Rule compliance.
06
dApp Developers
Developers building applications that require historical context—such as governance voting power snapshots, airdrop eligibility checks, or time-locked features—must query an archive node. They are critical for any feature relying on historical state proofs or blockchain time travel.
examples
ARCHIVE NODE
Examples and Implementations
Archive nodes are implemented to serve specific, data-intensive use cases that require access to the complete historical state of a blockchain. These are the primary applications and services that rely on them.
03
Regulatory Compliance & Auditing
Financial institutions, auditors, and regulatory bodies use archive nodes for immutable record-keeping and compliance verification. Key uses include:
- Proving asset provenance and transaction history for audits.
- Generating reports for tax or regulatory requirements (e.g., FATF Travel Rule).
- Conducting forensic investigations into hacks or fraudulent activities.
04
Historical Data Feeds & Oracles
Oracles like Chainlink can utilize archive nodes to provide verifiable historical price data or other off-chain information recorded on-chain. This supports:
- Time-weighted average price (TWAP) calculations that require past price points.
- Resolving smart contract conditions based on historical states.
- Providing proof of historical events to other blockchain networks.
ARCHIVE NODE
Technical Details & Considerations
An archive node is a specialized type of blockchain node that maintains a complete, unpruned historical record of all transactions and state changes from the genesis block. This section details its technical operation, use cases, and trade-offs compared to other node types.
An archive node is a full node that retains the complete historical state of a blockchain, meaning it stores every single transaction, receipt, and the state (account balances, contract storage) for every block since genesis, without any pruning. This contrasts with a standard full node, which typically prunes older state data to save disk space. Archive nodes are essential for services requiring deep historical data queries, such as block explorers, analytics platforms, and certain developer tools that need to verify or analyze past states without replaying the entire chain. They are the most resource-intensive node type to run.
ARCHIVE NODE
Frequently Asked Questions
Essential questions and answers about blockchain archive nodes, the complete historical ledgers of a network.
An archive node is a type of full node that stores the complete historical state of a blockchain, including the state (account balances, contract storage, etc.) for every single block since genesis. Unlike a standard full node, which may prune old state data to save space, an archive node retains all historical information, making it essential for deep historical queries, complex analytics, and services that require access to arbitrary past states. It serves as the definitive source for reconstructing the blockchain's entire history on-demand.
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