DataStax clones decentralized blockchains to centralized AstraDB database – blocks and files

Cassandra NoSQL database provider DataStax has announced an Astra Block service to clone and store Ethereum blockchains in its Astra DB cloud database.

A blockchain is a decentralized distributed ledger that records transactions in a shared, immutable manner in a peer-to-peer network with no central authority. Cryptographically protected chain links allow ledgers to be updated and displayed. An entire Ethereum blockchain can be cloned and stored in AstraDB, then updated in real-time as new blocks are mined. DataStax claims this streamlines and transforms the process of building and scaling Web3 applications. It plans to expand this Astra Block service to other blockchains in the future, based on user needs.

Ed Anuff, chief product officer at DataStax, said: “These distributed ledgers open up a whole new world of innovation similar to what we saw with digital content 20 years ago or social media 15 years ago – meaning the possibilities are just limited of our imaginations Cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens and smart contracts have drawn a lot of attention, but there are many other areas that will benefit from blockchain innovation: healthcare, real estate, IoT, cyber security, music, identity management and logistics, to name a few Some.”

DataStax says the new service allows advanced querying and real-time analytics to run at sub-second speeds, enabling developers to build blockchain-based capabilities into their applications. For example, developers can build applications with the ability to analyze any transaction from the entire blockchain history, including crypto or NFTs, for instant, accurate insights.

Blockchain calculations are data intensive and it can take seconds to access blockchain data. The ability to analyze and track blockchain transactions is difficult, making many use cases untenable – especially real-time. DataStax says that according to Gartner’s 2022 Hype Cycle for Blockchain and Web3, “By 2024, 25 percent of enterprises will interact with their customers or partners using decentralized Web3 applications.” But developers have struggled to access this data, having to resort to hundreds of API connections, building their own indexers and manually managing the data infrastructure.

Astra Block removes these problems by, ironically, providing a centralized copy of the decentralized blockchain – thereby undermining blockchain’s design philosophy.

Centralized vs decentralized

Peter Greiff, Data Architect Lead, DataStaxl, said in response to this point: “Astra Block is not about centralizing blockchain data, but addressing some of the dilemmas that developers of Web3 distributed applications, or dApps, have with using the distributed ledgers – to accessing that data is difficult, slow and expensive.”

Grief reckons that “Astra Block provides a solid base for a hybrid architecture for your dApp, using Astra Block for very low latency reading to access data and then writing information and data back to the distributed blockchain ledger directly. Astra Block manages the cloning of the chain into an operational database for dApp reads to be performed. Then you only write back the absolute minimum necessary to the chain. These transactions can be slow and expensive compared to the transactions that take place in the Astra Block, but you use still the distributed approach where you need it.”

So: “DataStax runs blockchain nodes for its clients, and every time a new block is mined, Astra Block detects that event, processes it and does all the enrichment. Your Astra account is kept up to date with this data via built-in CDC synchronization (change data capture) . Block is able to use CDC for Astra DB to propagate any additional change events to your Astra Block database.”

He claimed that: “You get all the features you expect from a cloud-managed database, like a multi-tenant system, globally distributed, push-button cloud clusters, intelligent auto-scaling and Data API gateways, and then you can combine that with the fully distributed and trusted approach that blockchain or distributed ledger deployment can offer.”

Customer Elie Hamouche, founder of Clearhash, says: “AstraDB with Astra Block removes much of the complexity involved in collecting and storing unlimited blockchain datasets to power real-time analytics workloads.”

The free tier of AstraDB offers a 20GB partial blockchain dataset to get you started. The paid tier allows developers to clone the entire blockchain, which is then updated in real-time as new blocks are mined.

Microsoft and Ankr

Separately, Ankr and Microsoft have partnered to offer a reliable, user-friendly blockchain node hosting service. The Enterprise node deployment service will provide low-latency global blockchain connections for any Web3 project or developer. Ankr and Microsoft intend to make this service available soon through Microsoft’s Azure marketplace, providing an easily accessible gateway to blockchain infrastructure.

Customers will be able to llaunches enterprise-class blockchain nodes with custom specifications for global location, memory, and bandwidth. Once launched, customers will be able to optimize data querying for high levels of speed and reliability by choosing from dozens of different blockchains with serverless functionality using GeoIP, failovers, caching rules and monitoring. They can track the performance of their nodes anytime, anywhere. Enterprise RPC clients can access usage data and advanced telemetry across 38+ blockchains.