Quicknode

May 21, 2024 — 6 min read

In the ever-evolving world of blockchain technology, data is a critical asset for developers, enterprises, and analysts alike. Our first solution, Streams, has made blockchain data seamlessly available for conventional tools used for data, embodying our vision to streamline, simplify, and secure web3 data integration.

Today, we're excited to announce the addition of two powerful new features to Streams: Traces and Filters.

These enhancements further solidify Streams as the go-to solution for high-performance, reliable, and customizable blockchain data delivery. Let's dig in.

What is Streams?

Before discussing the specifics of these new features, let's revisit why Streams is the preferred choice for developers and enterprises working with blockchain data.

Streams by Quicknode offers a seamless, efficient, and reliable way to access blockchain data. It addresses common pain points such as performance, scalability, and maintenance costs, while also ensuring data consistency and reliability. Streams delivers continuous, real-time blockchain data, eliminating the need for manual querying and allowing for effortless integration into projects.

Exactly-Once, Guaranteed Delivery

Streams revolutionize web3 data infrastructure by acting as an exactly-once guaranteed delivery service. This means you can seamlessly integrate Streams with your data lake in a few clicks, ensuring reliable data extraction and loading without the hassle and significant engineering time to manage retries, corrupt data, or missing blocks.

Streams eliminates common obstacles and developer pain points with endpoint infrastructure. Forget the cumbersome process of provisioning workers to pull data from blockchain endpoints and having to monitor their progress.

Real-Time Data Consistency

Navigating the complexities of real-time blockchain data—such as varying finality times across different datasets (like blocks, receipts, traces) or navigating through blockchain reorganizations—often results in data inconsistency. Streams guarantee the delivery of consistent, real-time data, empowering you to create live dashboards without reliability concerns.

Efficient Historical Data Handling

For historical data analysis or backfills, Streams allows configuring large data batches, setting precise data ranges, and fine-tuning your destination. This capability enables you to select the most optimal setup and throughput for your chosen destination, significantly simplifying your data pipelines.

Introducing Traces:
Gain Deeper Blockchain Insights

Adding to its robust historical data capabilities, Streams now supports Traces, offering granular, step-by-step execution details for blockchain transactions. This feature provides unparalleled transparency and visibility into smart contract behavior, unlocking new possibilities for debugging, auditing, optimizing, and monitoring decentralized applications.

Key Features of Traces:

• Detailed Execution Traces: Access a comprehensive record of every step in a transaction's execution, including internal calls, code execution, and state changes.

• Real-time and Historical Data: Receive both live and historical trace data through Quicknode's robust Streams infrastructure.

• Unified Dataset: Traces are seamlessly integrated into the Streams payload, combining blocks, receipts, and trace data into a single, cohesive dataset.

• Scalable and Efficient: Leverage increased RPS limits, data compression, and flexible delivery options like webhooks and S3 for optimal performance.

Traditional methods often provide limited visibility into transaction execution, making it difficult to troubleshoot issues or optimize performance. Traces solve this by offering a complete record of every step in a transaction’s execution, including internal calls, code execution, and state changes. This level of detail is invaluable for developers and enterprises aiming to build robust and efficient blockchain applications.

Visit our documentation to learn more about using Traces with Streams, including which chains support trace methods.

Announcing Filters:
Data Precision and Cost Efficiency

Streams now feature Filters, enabling users to customize and refine their Streams payload using JavaScript (ECMAScript) code. Filters allow for simple pattern and rule matching without dependencies or external network access, helping customers to charge only for the data they need and making data handling more efficient and cost-effective.

Key Features of Filters:

• Customizable Filtering: Apply JavaScript-based filters to Stream payloads to match specific patterns or rules.

• Cost Efficiency: Only pay for the filtered data sent to the destination, reducing unnecessary data transmission costs.

• Effortless Integration: Seamlessly integrate Filters with existing Streams setups for enhanced data management.

• Advanced Filtering Capabilities: Support complex filtering logic, including conditional data handling and custom transformations.

Filters can be configured within the Quicknode developer portal and through the Streams REST API, and will enable you to precisely control the data you receive, ensuring you only pay for the exact data you need to use.

Transform Your Blockchain Data Streams

Adding Filters and Traces makes Streams an even more powerful tool for developers and enterprises. Whether you are debugging smart contracts, optimizing performance, or managing large datasets, Streams offers the flexibility, efficiency, and reliability you need to succeed.

Why Switch from RPC or Subgraphs to Streams?

If you haven’t tried Streams yet or are currently using another method, such as RPC or Subgraphs, Streams with Traces and Filters will give you plenty of reasons to consider switching to a superior solution. While other methods can be complex and costly, Streams handles data integration and management, ensuring you receive exactly the data you need in real-time without the hassle of manual queries or high costs.

• Continuous Data Flow: Unlike traditional RPC methods that require manual querying, Streams provide a continuous flow of real-time data.

• Simplified Integration: Streams eliminate the complexity of setting up and managing blockchain data interfaces, making it easy to start.

• Cost Efficiency: With features like Filters, you only pay for the data you need, reducing your overall costs.

• Robust Data Delivery: Streams ensure gapless and consistent data delivery, even during chain reorganizations, offering unmatched reliability.

See the full list of Stream's features and chains on our docs website.

Start Using Streams With Traces and Filters Now

Streams, now enhanced with Traces and Filters, provide a robust and efficient solution for accessing and managing blockchain data. Whether you're a developer, analyst, or enterprise, these new features will help you overcome the challenges of blockchain data integration and utilization.

Functions, also launching soon, can be combined with Streams to radically solve any blockchain data need. Common programming languages—including Javascript, Python, Go, or Ruby—can efficiently transform payloads from Streams, enrich them with contract data, and much more, ensuring Quicknode is the trusted solution provider for all your ETL needs.

Streams, now with Traces and Filters, will change the way you use blockchain data.

Ready to see for yourself?

Visit your Quicknode dashboard to start using Streams, Traces, and Filters today, and discover the impact they can have on your projects. Streams are available for Build plan accounts and higher.

For guidance and more information, our team is just a click away.