Ankr, the main infrastructure partner for Binance, is now the leading RPC (NYSE:RES) provider with a total of 15 supported blockchains - Solana, Fantom, Ethereum, NEAR, Celo, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Polygon, BSC, IoTeX, Syscoin, Gnosis, Moonbeam, Harmony, and Nervos.
This is highly significant given that the future of Web3 is likely going to involve multichain interoperability, where developers can utilize different blockchains for maximum effect.
Ankr For Web3 ExpansionAnkr provides lucrative opportunities for developers to build in Web3. They offer 15 RPCs and have an extremely competitive Premium Plan allowing private RPC endpoints and unlimited requests. They are currently processing over 6 billion daily requests.
Ankr has also released a tool for rapid multichain analysis (Ankr Scan), and a tool for NFT querying. These kinds of applications are not available with other providers - it’s a new industry and these innovations are unprecedented. Yet this kind of functionality is badly needed so that developers can build the future of Web3.
Ankr further caters to enterprises. Large institutions like Binance and Polygon utilize Ankr for its expertise in infrastructure. Ankr has some of the best engineers in Web3, who have prior experience with tech firms such as AWS, Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and Oracle (NYSE:ORCL).
This engenders a lot of trust with the infrastructure provider; they have talented professionals from many different industries working together to build a multichain future for Web3. A diverse workforce and robust industry connections makes them a trusted partner in many different ecosystems. Speaking on this expertise, Ankr CMBDO Greg Gopman stated that:
“A lot of the best engineers in Web2 are now taking their domain expertise to Web3. Ankr has been fortunate to find some of the best software developers and network engineers from around the world. And everyone is really excited about being part of a fun new industry and solving new problems. By actively collaborating with cutting-edge tech firms, and the best talent, we expand our expertise and efficiency together.”
Ankr A Leader In DeFi Staking ProtocolsAnkr’s infrastructure allows stakers access to 7 chains. Currently, these chains are Ethereum, Polygon, Binance, Fantom, Avalanche, Polkadot, and Kusama. But the provider aims to bring DeFi to the masses with multiple innovations.
For instance, Ankr offers unique DeFi solutions with liquid staking. This allows users to keep the liquidity of staked assets so they can earn additional layers of rewards on other DeFi platforms. So users can stake their coins and get the rewards in the standard fashion, and then gain additional rewards through mechanisms like lending and yield farming.
Ankr users are given liquid staking tokens (such as aMATICb and aETHb) on a 1:1 basis, which is what makes liquid staking possible for DeFi users.
Ankr's Multichain InteroperabilityAnkr is proving to be the one-stop-shop for multiple aspects of Web3 development. While not yet fully decentralized, it is moving in that direction, at a time when Infura and Alchemy (alternative node providers) have had challenges. Developers have been hesitant to use centralized infrastructure, but there was traditionally little choice in this regard.
Ankr is unique in that it provides a large number of chains, aiming to offer an environment where developers can work on many chains, not just one. This could lead to an entirely new paradigm in terms of Web3 development. Different chains can be leveraged for distinct purposes. According to an Ankr blog:
“Amidst crypto’s warring factions, Ankr has a unique place in the Web 3.0 movement. Our purpose is to serve numerous projects and blockchains with development, staking, and earning solutions. And our end goal is to satisfy the needs of all end-users and multiply the capabilities of open-source blockchains.”
These chains can be accessed through Ankr RPC endpoints. For developers, setting up a node for each blockchain is a daunting and time consuming task. Ankr offers one-click node deployment to streamline development.
Decentralized Providers A Prerequisite For The Growth Of Web3There are few serious competitors in the same league as Ankr. Infura and Alchemy rely heavily on AWS for storage of data, in some ways defeating the purpose of Web3. These also offer little in the way of RPCs. Infura, for example, is really specific to Ethereum development, and projects that focus on a single ecosystem may find it hard to compete as the wider ecosystem develops further.
Ankr, meanwhile, is offering products and services at a pace that is difficult to keep up with. They are creating new markets, and stay busy integrating as many projects and blockchains as they can. A major point with Ankr is that they grow as the chains they support grow.
If the future of Web3 is built on the principles of collaboration and interoperability, then Ankr is the only infrastructure provider that seems to be capable of genuinely facilitating these ideals. Ankr is a very big name in Web3 and will get bigger, but without the threat of centralization common to other industries.
It simply enables projects and users to grow, without taking anything from them. More RPCs are sure to follow in the near future.