Lately ConsenSys announced that they will be logging each user’s IP addresses who use Infura as their default RPC on Metamask. RPC or remote procedure call is the “backend” server you use for communicating with blockchain networks for both inbound (loading transactions) and outbound (submitting transactions) interactions.

Since ConsenSys is a company that’s located in the US, their move is not surprising given the constant regulatory uncertainty, and Infura has made promises to decentralize its services. Before that happens, it’s announcements like these that guide users towards decentralized options, which do already exist.

One of those options is POKT or Pocket Network, which is a decentralized blockchain node network / RPC provider supporting multiple blockchains. You can create an account for free and get RPC access through Pocket Network quite easily and change your used RPC provider in Metamask to bypass ConsenSys IP logging.

I wanted to go all-in though. Gone are the days of yore when using an Ethereum node locally meant staring up a photo of a skyscraper and waiting for Ethereum node to sync, gobbling up space on the hard drive.

Nowadays running your own node is pretty easy with helios, which is a light client for Ethereum that can even be embedded into websites and dApps, freeing them of RPC-related shackles.

Currently I run Helios manually whenever I need to do something on Ethereum, but it could be easily automated to run each time you turn on your computer. Take the RPC URL you got from POKT or any other RPC provider, and run helios --execution-rpc $ETH_RPC_URL. Boom. You’re off to the races :)