Solana stays strong, and Everstake helps developers simplify the creation and support of new products. Today, we are excited to release extrnode's public load balancer, a solution for the automated rerouting of requests between RPC nodes.
The public version is different from the open-source one and can be used for production purposes. Try it, and don’t forget to leave feedback on our Discord and Twitter.
What Is extrnode’s Public Load Balancer?
The RPC layer is centralized. Many dApps are connected to RPC nodes run by a handful of major providers and hosted on the same servers. If something happens to the hosting providers or the nodes, the dApps will lose their connection to the blockchain and stop working.
Sergey Vasylchuk, Everstake CEO and Сo-founder:
"We started working on extrnode long before Hetzner shut down Solana nodes in November. Some of our friends' dApps stopped working, and some didn't realize at first that the reason was the RPC nodes going down. The Hetzner situation has only reinforced our motivation to launch extrnode’s public load balancer as soon as possible and provide Solana developers with a universal and reliable solution for communication with the blockchain."
Solana's developers needed a tool to switch their application to a spare RPC node automatically in case of problems with the node in use. So we developed extrnode’s public load balancer, a solution that automatically reroutes application requests to one of the working RPC nodes from a vast cluster.
How extrnode’s Open-Source and Public Load Balancers Are Different
extrnode open-source load balancer was intended for testing only. You had to run it in Docker on your machine, and users could only connect to public RPC nodes. It works perfectly well, but public nodes have never been suitable for production.
extrnode’s public load balancer is way better:
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It is easy to use: connect to extrnode’s public load balancer just like you do with a regular RPC node by simply pasting https://solana-mainnet.rpc.extrnode.com instead of the RPC endpoint URL you are using now.
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It is more reliable: the RPC cluster includes 30+ Solana public RPC endpoints. It is also backed by battle-tested RPC nodes hosted by Everstake, 01node, Chainstack, and Stakin.
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It is free to use: the only thing we ask for is feedback so that we know how to improve extrnode.
If you need an industrial-grade solution, extrnode Premium scaled up to the requirements of your dApps is on the way. In the meantime, why not give our extrnode’s public load balancer a test?
What extrnode Partners Say
Edouard Lavidalle, Co-founder of Stakin.com:
“At Stakin, we are proud to support extrnode among other node operators. Decentralized RPCs offer enhanced resilience and improved scalability compared to traditional centralized systems. extrnode is already available for Solana RPC and offers a reliable and performant solution for this network. I encourage anyone interested in decentralized solutions to give extrnode a try and experience the benefits firsthand.”
Staking provider 01node:
“We are excited about extrnode’s public load balancer’s launch. The focus remains to improve the principles of decentralization and autonomy, which is the keyword of blockchain tech.
We see how impactful the vulnerability in RPCs within the blockchain ecosystem can be, ranging from DoS attacks, improper authorization vulnerability, unsafe deserialization, etc. We are confident that this public load balancer is the missing solution to the entire puzzle.
Indeed, we are happy to partner with our friends at Everstake on it. This product launch is a feat as it will boost how effective devs build decentralized dApps.”
Try extrnode’s Public Load Balancer Now
Here’s a short guide on how to use it:
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Copy extrnode’s endpoint URL – https://solana-mainnet.rpc.extrnode.com.
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Paste it into your dApp config.
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Done.
Your dApp is now connected to an RPC from a cluster of 30+ Solana public RPC nodes. If the node you are connected to stops responding, extrnode’s public load balancer will automatically reroute requests to another node from the cluster. And it will do this so quickly that users won't even notice.
As a regular user, you can use extrnode’s public load balancer, too. Here’s the Solflare wallet working with its endpoint set as a custom network:
Try it now and give us feedback on Discord and Twitter. This way, you can help extrnode improve and become even more useful.