UnitedBloc - RPC Service Provider Treasury Proposal for Q3/Q4 2023
Abstract - UnitedBloc, soon to become a DAO, is a group of community collators who have been actively involved with Moonbeam since the early testnet phase. In early 2023, we introduced our public RPC service for Moonbeam, Moonriver, and Moonbase Alpha. This initiative rapidly gained traction within the user and developer community, with the RPC now serving ~1.5bln requests per month across all three chains. By submitting this proposal to the Moonbeam treasury, we anticipate the opportunity to secure a grant that will enable us to continue delivering exceptional RPC services to the Moonbeam ecosystem.
Motivation - Our first objective is to foster Moonbeam’s growth, it’s crucial for developers to have seamless access to top-tier RPC services. Our free public RPC service serves as a stepping stone, supporting new developers as they launch and expand their projects. No signup. No accounts or accounting, just point the app to a UB endpoint and go. If at any point the project RPC requirements exceed our capacity, we’ll guide them toward commercial service providers. Our second objective is to facilitate the RPC needs of non-profit endeavors. If community focused non-profits ever need more RPC than our general public service provides, we will work with them to meet the need.
Project Overview and Team Experience - UnitedBloc members excel in Linux administration, allowing us to deploy robust servers. Each member organization takes responsibility for deploying and maintaining their individual RPC servers. This approach leverages our collective expertise for a decentralized network architecture.
Overall Cost - This proposal encompasses combined operational costs for Moonbeam, Moonriver, and Moonbase Alpha. The total requested amount per quarter is $10,800, equivalent to currently GLMR 44,535.7152.
Use of Treasury Funds - As community collators reliant on community delegations, we have launched the RPC service to give back, operating with a non-profit focus. This grant covers our infrastructure costs for the RPC service across Moonbeam, Moonriver, and Moonbase Alpha. It excludes any margin or profit for UnitedBloc.
Specifications - The UnitedBloc RPC service encompasses four regions: North and South America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The service has grown to nearly 1.5bln requests per month across all three networks. We employ global DNS load balancing to efficiently route users to UnitedBloc servers in their respective regions. Within each region, OpenResty enhances RPC requests with additional load balancing and optimization. When demand surges, we promptly adjust by adding more servers or specific services. Our design is thus scalable, flexible, and cost effective.
We provide our endpoints at the following addresses:
https://moonbase.unitedbloc.com
wss://moonbase.unitedbloc.com
https://moonriver.unitedbloc.com
wss://moonriver.unitedbloc.com
https://moonbeam.unitedbloc.com
wss://moonbeam.unitedbloc.com
Steps to Implement - Our public RPC service has been fully operational, serving the community since early 2023.