# A Look At Crypto Node Infrastructure Providers

By [flyingpotato](https://paragraph.com/@flyingpotato) · 2022-01-26

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Node infrastructure is a service provider layer for businesses that hold and operate cryptocurrencies assets. The platform-as-a-service provides customers a rich interface to interact with nodes in various crypto networks. 

The investment opportunity here should consider:

*   The quality of the full node and feature set provided: This is the driving factor for customer acquisition. Areas a prospective customer may evaluate include: supported protocols, availability, security and observability. 
    
*   The ability to multiply revenue generation opportunities from the acquired customers. Areas to consider include staking, DeFi activities to generate yield, etc.
    

  

### Enterprise-Grade Full Node Capacity

*   Supported protocols and latest upgrades: In the future multi-chain world, the velocity to support new networks and the ability to scale to new assets that are “early” can accelerate customer acquisition. 
    
    *   Blockdaemon around [25 protocols](https://blockdaemon.com/docs/ubiquity-api/the-protocols-ubiquity-supports/) via an unified API
        
    *   Alchemy is heavily invested in Ethereum and its layer 2 network supports (Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon). For institutional clients, the ability to access layer 2 protocols can be extremely attractive since it helps fee saving.
        
    *   QuickNode: Supports 11 protocols with some Layer 2s. A differentiating feature is the unified searchable NFT API that is indexed across different NFT smart contracts.
        
    
      
    
*   Developer Experience: The ability to integrate with the client’s platform via HTTP, web socket, SDKs in supported languages can be critical for customer to onboard to a node provider and evolve with its architecture.
    
    *   For some protocols Blockdaemon offers are provided with SDKs in many languages and some of them have JSON-RPC.
        
    *   The experience in Alchemy feels more seamless with the Web Playground and SDKs, with dedicated Ethereum support to explore contract calls and execution steps with more granularity .
        
    
      
    
*   Availability and scalability: Having a sounding strategy with diverse environments (data centers, cloud) can quickly win customer trust. The configurable node with horizontal scaling can serve more concurrent requests. 
    
    *   QuickNode is available in 8+ regions.
        
    *   Blockdaemon is located across 70 data centers.
        
    *   Alchemy shared details on its scalable infrastructure to achieve this:
        

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/13b12dcb6f4eedc2300c4088db6dae383c5a9b4a539d465bddf73ae49648d2ce.png)

*   Security: Connecting to a node provider poses firm risks for institutional clients since it transmits transaction data. Customers care about the ability to upgrade nodes to the latest version on time.
    
*   Observability: Providing insights and analytics on node traffic with reliable tooling. 
    
    *   Both Blockdaemon and [Alchemy](https://www.alchemy.com/monitor) built an extensive dashboard, reaching feature parity.
        

  

### Revenue Generating Features

*   While Blockdaemon’s main line of business is a node provider, it also offers staking service for additional return. This product line may be worth a parallel analysis with validator-as-a-service competitors such as [stakefish](https://stake.fish/en/) (See more in notes).
    
    *   Area to consider: easiness to integrate, attractiveness of staking revenue.
        
*   Would a customer choose a packaged solution for node and staking service or would choose the best-of-class from other staking providers?
    
*   Would custody service provider also be considered as part of service layer (provided in a form of [marketplace](https://blockdaemon.com/marketplace/))?
    

Notes:

*   Additional Ethereum node providers: [Nodes as a service | ethereum.org](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/nodes-and-clients/nodes-as-a-service/)
    
*   Staking Service Providers: [Staking-as-a-Service - Best staking pools and Staking service providers](https://defiprime.com/staking)

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*Originally published on [flyingpotato](https://paragraph.com/@flyingpotato/a-look-at-crypto-node-infrastructure-providers)*