As Web3 infrastructure matures, more teams are questioning a default assumption:
“should RPC always be managed by a third party?”
Managed RPC platforms undeniably lower the barrier to entry. They abstract away node operations, scaling, and routing so teams can ship faster. But as applications grow, or when infrastructure becomes mission-critical, those same abstractions often turn into constraints.
This is where self-hosted RPC infrastructure comes back into focus.
In this article, we’ll explore what self-hosted RPC stacks offer that managed platforms don’t, why more teams are revisiting this model, and how NodeCore, dRPC’s open-source RPC stack, fits into that shift.
Managed RPC vs Self-Hosted RPC: Where the Tradeoffs Begin
Managed RPC services are optimized for convenience:
One endpoint
Minimal setup
No node maintenance
Usage-based pricing
For many teams, especially early on, this is the right choice.
However, as traffic grows and system requirements become more specific, teams often encounter recurring limitations:
Opaque routing logic
You don’t control how requests are balanced, retried, or failed over.
Limited observability
Metrics are often coarse-grained, delayed, or abstracted behind dashboards you can’t extend.
Vendor-defined constraints
Rate limits, method restrictions, or pricing tiers that don’t map cleanly to real workloads.
Reduced sovereignty
Infrastructure decisions, from geography to redundancy models, are made externally.
At this stage, infrastructure stops being “plumbing” and becomes part of the product itself.
What a Self-Hosted RPC Stack Actually Gives You
A self-hosted RPC stack flips the model.
Instead of adapting your system to a provider’s architecture, you adapt the infrastructure to your needs.
Key advantages include:
Full Control Over Routing Logic
Self-hosting means you decide:
How requests are distributed across nodes
How failover works
Which nodes serve which methods
How latency, sync state, or block height affect routing
This is especially valuable for teams running:
Latency-sensitive applications
Read-heavy workloads
Region-specific traffic
Internal tools with strict guarantees
First-Class Observability
With a self-hosted stack, observability isn’t an add-on, it’s part of the architecture.
You can:
Instrument at the RPC method level
Trace requests end-to-end
Correlate infra metrics with application behavior
Feed data directly into your own monitoring and alerting systems
This level of visibility is hard to achieve with black-box managed services.
Infrastructure Sovereignty
Self-hosting allows you to:
Choose node providers
Control geographic distribution
Mix your own nodes with third-party ones
Avoid hard dependencies on a single vendor
For teams operating in regulated environments, or those building critical financial infrastructure, this sovereignty isn’t a “nice to have”. It is a requirement.
Introducing NodeCore: dRPC’s Open-Source Self-Hosted RPC Stack
NodeCore is dRPC’s answer to teams that want the benefits of self-hosted RPC infrastructure without rebuilding everything from scratch.
NodeCore is:
Open source
Self-hosted
Designed specifically for RPC routing and proxying
Focused on EVM JSON-RPC workloads
Rather than being a general-purpose node manager, NodeCore is intentionally scoped to do one thing well, and that’s to act as a smart, transparent RPC layer you fully control.
👉 Github repository: https://github.com/drpcorg/nodecore
👉 Documentation: https://drpc.org/docs/nodecore
A Focused Design Philosophy (and Why That Matters)
One of the most common failures in infrastructure tooling is overreach. Projects try to solve every possible problem and end up difficult to operate, reason about, or extend.
NodeCore takes the opposite approach.
As the team at Nethermind noted after testing the project:
“At Nethermind, we enjoyed testing the NodeCore open source project and appreciate its simplicity from the beginning. It addresses common EVM JSON RPC smart proxying challenges in small environments with just the right set of features, nothing more and nothing less. We hope it maintains this focused approach as it grows, and we’re excited to see where the project goes.”
— Team Angkor, Nethermind
That “nothing more and nothing less” philosophy is deliberate.
NodeCore focuses on:
Smart RPC proxying
Deterministic routing behavior
Operational clarity
Minimal moving parts
This makes it particularly attractive for:
Teams building internal platforms
Foundations or infra teams that want control without complexity
Where NodeCore Fits Best Today
NodeCore is not a replacement for every managed RPC use case, and it’s not meant to be.
It shines when:
You want control without vendor lock-in
You need predictable RPC behavior
You care about how requests are routed, not just that they succeed
You’re building infrastructure as part of your product, not just consuming it
Common scenarios include:
Internal RPC gateways for engineering teams
Custom routing in front of multiple node providers
Testnet or staging environments with production-like behavior
Early foundations of larger, sovereign infra stacks
Open Source as a Strategic Choice
NodeCore being open source isn’t just a licensing decision. It is an architectural one.
Open source enables:
Auditable behavior (critical for infra)
Community feedback and extensions
Internal forks and customization
Long-term confidence that the stack won’t disappear behind a pricing change
It also aligns with a broader shift we’re seeing across Web3, and that’s that teams increasingly want composable, inspectable infrastructure, not opaque APIs.
How NodeCore Relates to dRPC’s Broader Stack
It’s worth being explicit: NodeCore doesn’t replace dRPC’s managed offerings.
Instead, it complements them.
Many teams:
Start with managed RPC to move fast
Adopt NodeCore when infra becomes strategic
Combine self-hosted and decentralized RPC approaches over time
This flexibility is intentional. dRPC isn’t pushing a single “right” model, but it’s supporting the full spectrum from convenience to sovereignty.
Getting Started with NodeCore
If you’re curious to explore NodeCore:
📘 Documentation: https://drpc.org/docs/nodecore
🧩 Source code: https://github.com/drpcorg/nodecore
And if you’re evaluating whether a self-hosted RPC stack makes sense for your team or ecosystem:
👉 Get in touch with the dRPC team for deeper technical discussions, architecture reviews, or guidance on hybrid setups.
Final Thoughts
Managed RPC platforms are excellent at solving common problems.
Self-hosted RPC stacks are about solving your problems.
NodeCore exists for teams that have reached the point where routing logic, observability, and infrastructure choices are no longer abstract concerns, but core product decisions.
If that sounds familiar, it’s probably time to look under the hood.
