Infura (by ConsenSys) and Alchemy are the two largest RPC (Remote Procedure Call) providers for Ethereum and EVM chains. RPCs are the API layer that connects applications to blockchains — every time MetaMask checks your balance, every time a dApp reads a smart contract, every time a DEX quotes a price, an RPC call is made. Infura and Alchemy process billions of these calls daily, making them some of the most critical (and least visible) infrastructure in crypto.
Infura launched in 2016 and became the default RPC provider for most Ethereum developers. MetaMask used Infura as its default RPC endpoint, which meant that most Ethereum users were routing their transactions through Infura without knowing it. This centralization concern was highlighted in November 2020 when an Infura outage caused MetaMask and dozens of dApps to stop functioning — demonstrating that “decentralized” Ethereum had a single point of failure at the infrastructure layer.
Alchemy launched in 2017 and positioned itself as the “developer platform” for Web3 — not just RPCs but enriched APIs, webhooks, NFT data, and developer tools that made building on Ethereum dramatically easier. Alchemy raised $350 million at a $10.2 billion valuation in 2022, making it one of the most valuable private companies in crypto. Major protocols including Opensea, Aave, and Dapper Labs used Alchemy’s infrastructure.
The RPC centralization problem remains partially unsolved. While alternatives exist (QuickNode, Ankr, public RPCs, and running your own node), the majority of Ethereum traffic still flows through a small number of providers. This creates censorship risk (a provider could theoretically block certain transactions), reliability risk (an outage affects thousands of applications), and privacy risk (the provider sees every request). Decentralized RPC networks like Pocket Network attempt to address this, but adoption remains limited. For now, most of “decentralized” crypto runs on centralized infrastructure — and that’s a contradiction the industry hasn’t fully reckoned with.
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