Can and Should Alchemy Power the Multi-Chain Future of Blockchain?
As blockchain technology gains more and more use cases that span a variety of industries, companies begin to develop blockchains with specific needs in mind, fueling a discussion of whether the future will be a multi-chain or single-chain one. To enable the next significant shift in technology, Alchemy, the most widely used blockchain developer platform in the world, has developed a suite of products to support global web3 development.
Similar to how Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides infrastructure services for web3, Alchemy is an infrastructure engine designed explicitly for web3, with a blockchain-native architecture. In terms of web3, Alchemy manages the Ethereum blockchain, among others, like how AWS manages cloud servers for other companies. Applications and networks on blockchains need to find ways to interact. Alchemy enables this relationship through its suite of products. By providing the fundamental building blocks for developers, developers can focus on building better products with more significant potential for scale and adoption. Alchemy has established itself as a market favorite. It is already the leading application programming interface (API) on Ethereum, Polygon, and Flow. Major developers using Alchemy include Adobe, Meta, Dapper Labs, OpenSea, and Axie Infinity.
The team at Alchemy has developed an impressive set of tools for developers to use. The most significant of which is the Alchemy Supernode. Essentially, a node is how blockchains are accessed to save and store blocks of transactions, verify their validity, and spread this information to other nodes to remain synchronized. Typically, this is a complicated process that suffers high latency and downtime. However, the Alchemy Supernode has developed a dedicated-distributed infrastructure modeled after the systems used by Meta and Amazon to achieve massive scale. Today, Alchemy Supernode has saved companies over $25 million worth of engineering hours and is 30% faster than competitors.
Beyond its incredible suite of products, Alchemy has been working on programs intended to help develop web3 companies. Alchemy Amplify is a go-to launch partner for developers and creators that lets them focus on building their products while Alchemy handles the marketing. Additionally, Alchemy recently announced a $25 million developer grant for web3 developers. Alchemy created alchemyVentures to help nascent web3 businesses accelerate their growth. alchemyVentures has invested in companies such as FTX, Genesis, and Arbitrum. Lastly, Alchemy is the project lead of web3 University with partners such as a16z, OpenSea, and Flow. Web3 University is an open educational resource for anyone looking to build their web3 development skills.
Despite all that Alchemy offers, it does so at the expense of one of the core tenets of the web3 revolution: decentralization. Alchemy has received much criticism that it will make blockchain too centralized because, at the end of the day, Alchemy is a centralized entity, just as Amazon and Meta are. Alchemy currently powers almost all of the DeFi and major NFT platforms in the crypto space, begging the question of just how decentralized the next evolution of the web will be.
Written by Andrew Hock
