Concerns from a business perspective

First, cost

Operators of blockchain or Web3 businesses often encounter difficulties due to the fast-changing nature of the blockchain industry. The value of cryptocurrencies, including tokens and NFTs, is highly volatile, and the fluctuating prices of gas fees needed for processing transactions (smart contracts) on the Ethereum network make it challenging to forecast costs.

Second, regulation

Moreover, the technology and regulatory landscape of the blockchain industry is continually changing, making it challenging to predict future market trends accurately. Regulatory concerns arise in various sectors where blockchain technology is employed, including travel rules for anti-money laundering and regulations based on the security status of tokens.

High barriers to entry

The growth rate of the blockchain market is significantly higher than the number of available blockchain experts. Entering the market requires designing and building distributed systems and smart contracts and keeping up with emerging regulations, making it a challenging endeavor.

Concerns from a technical perspective

Lack of development personnel

The infrastructure for operating or preparing for blockchain businesses is also inadequate. Running blockchain nodes or networks can be costly for large-scale DApps, and small projects may face challenges due to high entry barriers. Moreover, the complex and rapidly evolving regulatory environment, particularly in areas like cryptocurrency and token securities, significantly affects blockchain technology. Ensuring compliance with relevant laws and regulations can be quite challenging for businesses without prior experience in finance or technology industries.

Lack of infrastructure

The infrastructure for operating or preparing for blockchain businesses is also inadequate. Running blockchain nodes or networks can be costly for large-scale DApps, and small projects may face challenges due to high entry barriers. Moreover, the complex and rapidly evolving regulatory environment, particularly in areas like cryptocurrency and token securities, significantly affects blockchain technology. Ensuring compliance with relevant laws and regulations can be quite challenging for businesses without prior experience in finance or technology industries.

Lack of documentation and tutorials

Blockchain is a complex industry with high entry barriers, both from business and technical perspectives. Unlike other industries, there are not many comprehensive documents or materials that can help individuals learn the industry rapidly. Developing and deploying DApps effectively takes significant time and effort.

Difficulty in data indexing

Introducing blockchain technology to businesses generates and manages enormous amounts of data, much of which is complex and challenging to utilize effectively. This problem can limit or reduce the potential value of blockchain in certain situations.

Decision makers are always worried about the above business and technical reasons, and may fall behind in a rapidly changing era.

The Most Challenging Technical Aspect: Node Setup and Scalability

Node Setup

One of the most challenging aspects of the DApp development planning phase is node setup. To operate a DApp, a node is required to manage the interaction between blockchain elements and those outside of the blockchain. Nodes play crucial roles in maintaining blockchain security and reliability, including:

• Storing a copy of the blockchain ledger
• Validating transaction validity
• Creating new blocks
• Maintaining network security of the blockchain

Scalability Issue

As the amount of data stored on the blockchain increases, so do the storage and related requirements for each node that participates in the network. If a node is operated as a single entity, catastrophic damage can occur when the node goes down. Although having multiple nodes can mitigate this risk, maintaining data integrity and operating multiple nodes require additional infrastructure and significant costs.

Mainnet Compatibility

DApps are developed based on mainnets such as Ethereum, but eventually, they must be compatible with other mainnets. Each blockchain network is a separate entity, so transactions occurring on different blockchain networks are often not recognized by each other.

Therefore, DApp operators need to develop compatibility with various blockchain networks. In the process, developers need to create smart contracts that operate on each network and access different blockchain networks using node providers’ services to deploy DApps for user adoption.

Ultimately, DApp operators inevitably face node expansion and mainnet compatibility challenges, incurring significant costs in the process. They need to hire infrastructure experts for node expansion and mainnet experts for various mainnets such as Ethereum, Polygon, and Binance.

What is a Node Service?

Although the significance of node expansion and compatibility with multiple mainnets for a successful business is well-known, it is a time-consuming and costly process for companies in the initial stages of development or with insufficient capital to hire developers and planners responsible for node and mainnet compatibility and operating nodes. However, recently, SaaS products called Node Providers or Node Services have emerged, allowing easy node operation while being compatible with various blockchain networks. Additionally, they can easily monitor the status of other blockchain networks and retrieve the data necessary to build smart contracts.

For instance, Luniverse node service, developed by Korea’s Lambda256, is a representative example, and there are also others such as Alchemy’s Super Node and Infura’s node service.

Criteria for Choosing a Node Service

Many node services are available on the market, and we can select one that suits our needs. The benefits of being able to operate a node easily in SaaS form, without the high cost of building and expanding it ourselves, are undoubtedly significant. However, as mentioned earlier, nodes play a crucial role in ensuring security and reliability in blockchain networks and DApp operations, so it is crucial to consider carefully when selecting a node service.

Reputable Traditional Blockchain Company

If a blockchain specialized company has its mainnet or has experience in building one, the likelihood is high that its node service is well developed. To build a mainnet, nodes must be operated to maintain the blockchain network and execute smart contracts based on it. Without node operation, new transactions cannot be verified, and the blockchain’s state cannot be updated. Typically, companies that have built their mainnet have operated multiple nodes simultaneously, indicating their ability to operate a node service that is secure, reliable, and efficient.

Support for Various Mainnets

Support for various mainnets is essential for expanding DApp services and increasing user entry. It is challenging to ensure compatibility with numerous mainnets like Ethereum, Polygon, Binance, and AppToS in a short time with limited personnel. Even if compatibility is achieved, ensuring stability can be difficult. Therefore, selecting a node service that supports various mainnets is recommended when choosing a node service.

Competitive Cost for Quality

The node, mainnet, and specs required for each DApp developer and operator will differ. Some DApp operators say that they struggle with the additional costs incurred due to specs that are higher than necessary when using a node service. Node services usually calculate additional charges based on API requests per cost or computing unit (CU) used. Node services are certainly operated at a much lower cost than building and operating them ourselves, but there can be a cost difference of up to 2-3 times depending on the location of operation. Therefore, we recommend using a service with a competitive and appropriate pricing for its quality.

Efficient and Diverse APIs

In the end, a node service is a product that can be developed by connecting to various mainnets such as Ethereum and Polygon through APIs. It is best to select a node service that supports diverse APIs such as wallet balance, token (FT) and NFT data, and statistics data of deployed DApps for better development environment and scalability for DApp developers.

Luniverse Node

The node service we are introducing today is Luniverse Node developed by Lambda256. Luniverse Node is a node service that meets all of the above requirements based on the following competitiveness.

Stable node service

Luniverse has been operating blockchain infrastructure for a long time since the time when blockchain technology began to receive public attention, and provides stable and robust blockchain nodes based on that experience. You can immediately start development by utilizing the Luniverse node service without the need for building an Archive node that requires a lot of resource investment.

Multi-chain Web3 API

Luniverse Node service allows you to search for data in multiple blockchain environments with a single API. Through the Multichain API, you can inquire about account balances, token and NFT information, block and transaction statuses, and statistics data of deployed DApps.

Various additional functions such as Stream & Webhook

You can build a reactive DApp by tracking real-time blockchain events. By utilizing Stream and Webhook, you can receive event notifications by account, type, and condition subscribed, and perform various logic on the DApp side, including sending notifications.

In addition, you can easily check the traffic and error situations by time zone through the dashboard. By utilizing Debugger for request/response analysis, you can track and respond to errors, thus providing a stable DApp service.

Luniverse Node currently supports Ethereum and Polygon networks, and Luniverse team is working hard to support more mainnets such as AppToS and Optimism in the future! Experience high-quality node service at a lower price.