Summary
This post announces the first step of DeServe, a progressively decentralized infrastructure services network coming to Polkadot, with the launch of a global RPC network for Polkadot Asset Hub. It covers the motivations, locations, hardware and network specs, costs, and latency benchmarks against major providers. Free endpoints are available at the bottom.
Background
Having provided infrastructure services as an independent validator on Polkadot and Kusama since 2021, and as an RPC provider under IBP since 2023, we have developed a deep familiarity with the infrastructure needs of the Polkadot ecosystem.
RPC needs of the Polkadot ecosystem are currently met by major providers such as IBP, Dwellir, LuckyFriday, OnFinality, and Stakeworld. Among them, IBP, of which Helikon is a highest-rank member, currently has the widest coverage with 12 locations across the globe. IBPās current service offering is focused on archive RPC services, alongside GitHub Actions runners and private validators for the Bulletin Chain, leaving broader general-purpose infrastructure needs largely unmet.
The costs of the RPC services are covered by the treasury, typically through bounty top-ups, rather than on a pay-as-you-go basis, which is the standard pricing model in the broader infrastructure industry.
Therefore, the launch of DeServe is motivated by three major factors:
- The unmet demand for general-purpose infrastructure in the ecosystem such as web hosting, VMs, and CPU/GPU compute services.
- The lack of pay-as-you-go, cost-competitive alternatives for these services.
- The absence of a Polkadot-based DePIN capable of both meeting these needs, exporting services to other blockchain ecosystems and to institutional and individual end-users.
As a first step to realizing DeServe at scale, we launched a global archive RPC network for Polkadot Asset Hub on cloud infrastructure at 14 locations across the globe. Our goals are to:
- Explore competitive pricing.
- Establish an initial operational baseline for performant infrastructure.
- Deliver immediate value to the ecosystem.
Our plan is to gradually replace cloud providers with native independent providers, as detailed in the Roadmap section.
Locations, Providers, Hardware & Costs
The initial deployment of DeServe consists of a Polkadot Asset Hub archive RPC service across 14 locations, with geo-steered load balancing, giving DeServe the widest global coverage among Asset Hub RPC providers, with 2 more locations than IBP. The requests are served by the nearest server based on the clientās IP address.
The providers, hardware specs, and monthly costs are listed below.
| # | Location | Provider | Instance | CPU | RAM | NVMe Size | Uplink | Traffic | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Atlanta, GA, US | Vultr | EPYC 4354 | 6C/12T | 128GB | 1920GB | 25G | 10TB/mo | $295.00 |
| 2. | Gravelines, FR | OVH | RISE-S | 8C/16T | 64GB | 1024GB | 1G | Unmetered | $73.00 |
| 3. | Ä°stanbul, TR | Helikon | VM | 6C | 32GB | 1024GB | 3G | Unmetered | $75.00 |
| 4. | Johannesburg, ZA | Rackzar | Nano Grande | 10C/20T | 128GB | 1920GB | 1G | Unmetered | $150.98 |
| 5. | Limburg, DE | OVH | RISE-S | 8C/16T | 64GB | 1024GB | 1G | Unmetered | $73.00 |
| 6. | London, UK | OVH | SYS-2 | 8C/16T | 32GB | 1024GB | 1G | Unmetered | $84.20 |
| 7. | Miami, FL, US | Latitude | s2.small.x86 | 6C/12T | 32GB | 1920GB | 2x1G | 20TB | $150.00 |
| 8. | Montreal, CA | OVH | RISE-S | 8C/16T | 64GB | 1024GB | 1G | Unmetered | $73.00 |
| 9. | Mumbai, IN | OVH | RISE-1 | 6C/12T | 32GB | 1024GB | 1G | 25TB | $67.00 |
| 10. | Seattle, WA, USA | OneProvider | so1.2xlarge | 8C | 16GB | 2048GB | 10G | Unmetered | $85.00 |
| 11. | Sao Paulo, BR | AWS | i3.xlarge | 4C | 30.5GB | 950GB | 10G | Unmetered | $360.00 |
| 12. | Singapore, SG | OVH | SYS-1 | 6C/12T | 32GB | 1024GB | 1G | 10TB | $66.40 |
| 13. | Sydney, AU | OVH | SYS-1 | 6C/12T | 32GB | 1024GB | 1G | 10TB | $66.40 |
| 14. | Warsaw, PL | OVH | SYS-2 | 8C/16T | 32GB | 1024GB | 1G | Unmetered | $42.10 |
| TOTAL | $1,661.08 |
DeServe currently utilizes Cloudflare for geo-steered load balancing, at $120.00/month for 20 load balancers, 20 endpoint pools, and 17 endpoints, sufficient for the initial rollout. Our plan is to replace Cloudflare with open-source DNS solutions over time.
The monthly cost of DeServeās global Polkadot Asset Hub RPC network, including geo-steered load balancing, is $1,781.08/month. This excludes operator labour costs, but we think it provides a good cost baseline for the evaluation of RPC service offerings in general. Please see the Cost Analysis & Comparison section for more details.
RPC Configuration
We apply rate limits on public-facing endpoints in this initial rollout, as is standard practice across major RPC providers, both as a security measure and a natural consequence of resource constraints. RPC request size is currently limited to 2MB, response size to 7MB, with a rate limit of 256 subscriptions per connection and 100 requests per second without an API key, which should be sufficient for general-purpose usage, compared to, for instance, OnFinalityās public limit of 5 req/s on Asset Hub. As DeServe evolves, providers will be able to offer private endpoints with higher or no rate limits.
Cost Analysis & Comparison
Wide global RPC coverage in the Polkadot ecosystem is currently only provided by IBP with 12 locations. Therefore, we find it appropriate to make a cost comparison with IBP, rather than the Public RPC Providers Bounty, which currently covers 4 locations.
Compared to DeServeās single-instance-per-location model, IBP provides 2N redundancy per location, meaning two instances per blockchain per location. This is a strong reliability feature, but given the current cost constraints of the Polkadot ecosystem, we find that single instance per location with backup mechanisms in place should be sufficient under a highly responsive load-balancing system. DeServeās current setup monitors endpoints every 15 seconds, immediately removing any unreachable endpoint from the pool.
IBP currently charges $10,161.00/month for Polkadot Asset Hub (source), and $1,200.00/month for GeoDNS services. Since IBPās GeoDNS is a flat charge regardless of the number of chains covered, we include the full $1,200.00/month in the comparison, carrying the total to $11,361.00/month.
With the single-instance model at $1,781.08/month, DeServe is 84% cheaper than IBP before labour costs. Applying 2N redundancy to DeServe brings the cost to $3,442.16/month, still 70% cheaper than IBP before labour costs.
| DeServe (N) | DeServe (2N) | IBP (2N) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure | $1,661.08 | $3,322.16 | $10,161.00 |
| Load Balancing / GeoDNS | $120.00 | $120.00 | $1,200.00 |
| Labour | Excluded | Excluded | Included |
| Total | $1,781.08 | $3,442.16 | $11,361.00 |
| vs. IBP | 84% cheaper | 70% cheaper | - |
| Locations | 14 | 14 | 12 |
| Redundancy | 1N | 2N | 2N |
It should be emphasized that these figures exclude labour costs for DeServe, which are expected to be standardized through protocol governance as DeServe matures.
Latency Comparison
Utilizing Compare Nodes, a global RPC performance inspector for Web3, DeServe outperforms all major providers in the Polkadot ecosystem in latency.
The measurement results are as follows:
- DeServe vs. IBP
- DeServe vs. OnFinality
- Run #1 - DeServe faster from 6/6 continents, 25/26 regions
- DeServe vs. LuckyFriday
- Run #1 - DeServe faster from 6/6 continents, 24/26 regions
- DeServe vs. Stakeworld
- Run #1 - DeServe faster from 6/6 continents, 24/26 regions
- DeServe vs. Dwellir
- Run #1 - DeServe faster from 6/6 continents, 24/26 regions
Against all providers except IBP, DeServe has lower latency from all 6 continents and at least 24 of 26 measured regions. Against IBP, the closest competitor, DeServe consistently gives lower latency from at least 18 of 26 regions across three independent runs.
Roadmap
DeServeās initial roadmap includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Launch as a parachain on Paseo. Completed, para id 5150.
- Establish and expand the initial provider set.
- Establish the initial committee for the alpha phase of network governance.
- Devise cost models.
- Begin replacing cloud providers with native infrastructure providers.
- Expand RPC services to blockchains other than Polkadot Asset Hub.
- Diversify, productize, and export services.
Become a Provider
If you are an infrastructure provider in the Polkadot ecosystem, please feel free to reply to this thread or send a DM to signal interest. We look forward to feedback from both the community and fellow providers.
Try It Out
The geo-steered endpoint for the Polkadot Asset Hub archive RPC service is:
wss://asset-hub.polkadot.rpc.deserve.network
Regional endpoints are as follows:
| Location | URL |
|---|---|
| Atlanta, GA, US | wss://atlanta-01.asset-hub.polkadot.rpc.deserve.network |
| Gravelines, FR | wss://gravelines-01.asset-hub.polkadot.rpc.deserve.network |
| Ä°stanbul, TR | wss://istanbul-01.asset-hub.polkadot.rpc.deserve.network |
| Johannesburg, ZA | wss://johannesburg-01.asset-hub.polkadot.rpc.deserve.network |
| Limburg, DE | wss://limburg-01.asset-hub.polkadot.rpc.deserve.network |
| London, UK | wss://london-01.asset-hub.polkadot.rpc.deserve.network |
| Miami, FL, US | wss://miami-01.asset-hub.polkadot.rpc.deserve.network |
| Montreal, CA | wss://montreal-01.asset-hub.polkadot.rpc.deserve.network |
| Mumbai, IN | wss://mumbai-01.asset-hub.polkadot.rpc.deserve.network |
| Seattle, WA, USA | wss://seattle-01.asset-hub.polkadot.rpc.deserve.network |
| Sao Paulo, BR | wss://sao-paulo-01.asset-hub.polkadot.rpc.deserve.network |
| Singapore, SG | wss://singapore-01.asset-hub.polkadot.rpc.deserve.network |
| Sydney, AU | wss://sydney-01.asset-hub.polkadot.rpc.deserve.network |
| Warsaw, PL | wss://warsaw-01.asset-hub.polkadot.rpc.deserve.network |
Give it a try and let us know how it performs from your region. For issues or feedback, please reply to this thread or send a DM.
About Helikon
We are a Polkadot-native infrastructure and software development team based in Ä°stanbul. A regular contributor to the Polkadot ecosystem at both the development and governance levels, our current work includes operating 5 active Kusama and Polkadot validators, former members of the Thousand Validators and Decentralized Nodes programs, providing infrastructure services for 26 blockchains as a Rank-6 IBP member, and maintaining SubVT (iOS, Telegram Polkadot & Kusama), Multix, Chain Console, Chainviz/alpha, and followthedot. We are currently developing Submerge, a data and compliance platform for the Polkadot ecosystem. We are a two-time Decentralized Voices (DV) delegate, once as the founder of Permanence DAO, and previously built dv.report, an analysis dashboard for the DV program.
DeServe is our next step, building the decentralized infrastructure layer for the Polkadot ecosystem.