SDF introduces RPC archive node, extending Stellar RPC to serve full historical data from 2015 on a single node. The 6.4TB footprint (vs 50+TB for Horizon) ingests in under a day, with query latency at 16-20ms even on 10+ billion historical transactions. Same API, zero code changes needed.
Stellar RPC was built for real-time data, but developers need historical records to build non-custodial wallets, recover lost indexer data, and query old transactions by hash. SDF's RPC archive node solves this with a two-tier architecture: hot path for recent ledgers in RocksDB, cold path for historical ledgers in compressed immutable files. The efficiency gains are dramatic. All of Stellar's history from 2015 fits in 6.4TB versus 50+TB for Horizon, and ingests in less than a day versus months. Query latency stays at 16-20 milliseconds even when searching across 10+ billion historical transactions. The magic: it's the same RPC API, so applications need no code changes. RPC archive node is in beta now with infrastructure partners already running it.
