How to create a personal RPC via Alchemy
1. An RPC?
An RPC (Remote Procedure Call) is an interface between a client (Metamask, Frame, Rabbit, …) and a blockchain, allowing the client to exchange data with the blockchain.
It is easily understood that the third party chosen to perform this role must be trusted. A “home-made” RPC found on the internet can mask a “Man-in-the-middle” attack, i.e. position itself between the user and the blockchain to modify the request sent by the user… Which we all strongly wish to avoid!
2. Choice of the provider
We have several choices, but for this tutorial I focus on Alchemy. The free offer is perfectly adapted for a personal use:
With this offer, our client will be able to access the blockchain 300M times (transactions, authentications, price queries, NFT displays, …) which is more than enough. As an example, I spend 1/3 of my day on web3 and I do not exceed 100M interactions.
The direct competitor to Alchemy is Infura, linked not so long ago to a case of “involuntary exclusion” of users living in Venezuela. Naturally, I did not choose Infura…
3. Creating the RPC
Prerequisite: You will need a valid email address.
- Go to www.alchemy.com
- On the main page, click on “LOGIN
3. We will create an account, click on “Signup”
4. Fill in your information then click on “Sign up”
5. A verification email has been sent to you. Open it and click on “VERIFY EMAIL”
6. Choose your ecosystem. In my case, I want to create an RPC for use on Polygon (EVM / Ethereum compatible), so I will select Ethereum. Click on “Get Started”
7. Fill in and create your first app. In our case, we want to create an RPC for personal use on the Polygon blockchain. Click on “Create App”
8. Choose your offer. In our case, as we have seen before, we will start with the free offer. It is sufficient for personal use. Select the offer “FREE FOREVER” and click on “Continue”
9. You don’t need to add a payment method, I suggest you click on “Skip for now”. As mentioned, adding a payment method adds 1M interactions per month with the blockchain. We already have 300M…
10. To tweet or not to tweet your referral link… Whatever you want. I will personally click “Skip for now”
11. We will choose “Capped Capacity” as we do not intend to pay for our personal CPP. Click on “Continue”
12. You can fill in how you heard about Alchemy and click “Let’s Go”
You should arrive on this page
Congratulations! Your personal RPC is finally created!
4. Using this RPC with Metamask
As a reminder, we have created a personal RPC to use it on the Polygon blockchain.
1- In Metamask click 1 on your network and 2 on add a network
2- Fill in the following parameters
Network Name : Polygon Alchemy
Chain ID : 137
Currency Symbol : MATIC
Block Explorer URL : https://polygonscan.com
New RPC URL : You will copy / paste the RPC URL provided by Alchemy. This URL includes your API key (identifier for Alchemy). It is available here :
3- In Metamask, choose the freshly created network
And that’s it! You are finally on your personal RPC with all the associated advantages (goodbye errors linked to overloaded public RPCs, …).
