Beyond the RPC: Scaling Historical Blockchain Data with Walrus

If you have ever tried to build a data heavy application like a portfolio tracker or an analytics engine, you have likely hit the RPC wall. Standard nodes are built for the present state of the chain. They are great for checking a balance or pushing a transaction through, but they are notoriously inefficient when you need to look backward.

Getting years of historical data out of a blockchain via traditional RPC queries is a slow and expensive process. It requires sequential requests that often lead to rate limiting or high infrastructure costs. Even if you manage to pull the data, you then have to figure out how to store it and keep it accessible for your users. At Tatum, we have been working on a better way to handle this by leveraging decentralized storage through our partnership with Walrus.

The goal is simple: move away from a world where blockchain data is trapped behind expensive queries and toward a model where it is available as structured, immutable datasets that anyone can use.

The Problem with Request Response Data

In the current ecosystem, developers often have to choose between two imperfect options for historical data. You either run your own massive indexer, which is a maintenance nightmare, or you rely on centralized data providers. While centralized solutions are fast, they introduce a single point of failure and force developers to trust a third party for the integrity of their data.

For businesses working on AI and machine learning, the challenge is even greater. Training a model on blockchain behavior or market dynamics requires high volume, machine learning friendly data delivery. You cannot feed a neural network via individual RPC calls. You need flat files, structured datasets, and the ability to ingest millions of rows of transaction history without a bottleneck.

This is where the combination of Tatum and Walrus comes in. By using Walrus, we can package raw on chain data including transaction histories, block details, and historical pricing into structured assets. Instead of querying a node, you can access these datasets directly as immutable files stored on a decentralized network.

Why Walrus for Blockchain Data

Walrus is a decentralized storage protocol that provides the scale and efficiency needed for massive datasets. Because it is built to handle large scale files, it allows us to distribute Bitcoin and Ethereum datasets in a way that is optimized for performance.

The initial scope of this partnership focuses on three primary areas. First, we are making four years of crypto price data available in one minute candles. Second, we are providing comprehensive block data that includes transaction counts and gas usage. Finally, we are offering the entire transaction history for both Bitcoin and Ethereum.

By placing this data on Walrus, we ensure it is globally and instantly accessible. Developers no longer need to reconstruct historical snapshots from scratch. Instead, you can sync or rebuild your local datasets by pulling directly from decentralized storage. This is particularly valuable for teams that need to perform high volume analysis or backfill their own systems with confidence and speed.

Building an AI Ready Data Layer

One of the most exciting aspects of this shift is how it enables the next generation of AI in Web3. Large language models and anomaly detection systems require massive amounts of clean, structured data to understand transaction flows and market behavior.

By delivering this data through Walrus, we are creating an AI ready layer for the industry. This moves us closer to a vision where developers can perform complex computations on blockchain activity without having to manage the underlying data collection infrastructure. It also opens the door for new models of data gating and monetization where high quality datasets can be shared or accessed in a controlled, decentralized environment.

The Roadmap Ahead

Our work with Walrus is rolling out in several phases. We have started with simple data storage and validation for Bitcoin and Ethereum, but the vision extends much further. One of our next steps is building a dedicated UI dashboard for Walrus to make it easier for developers to manage their files and track usage.

As we move forward, we are looking at running storage operators and exploring gateways to ensure maximum reliability for the publisher pool. Eventually, this will evolve into a full data marketplace where users can access on demand transformed layers, such as indexed news articles or stock data, all within a decentralized framework.

The ultimate goal is to provide a comprehensive analytics environment where you can query across different data sources and build analytical dashboards without ever leaving the platform. Think of it as a decentralized version of the major analytics tools you use today, but with the performance and transparency that only on chain storage can provide.

Security and Infrastructure Reliability

We understand that for any developer or enterprise, data integrity is non negotiable. This is why Tatum maintains a rigorous focus on security and compliance. Our systems are SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certified, and we consistently rank in the top tier for code and security through third party audits like CertiK.

When you access blockchain data through our integration with Walrus, you are not just getting a faster way to sync your application. You are getting a solution built on a foundation of enterprise grade security. We are taking the complexity of decentralized storage and turning it into a tool that is as simple to use as any centralized API, but without the traditional compromises.

By modernizing how we access the history of the blockchain, we are clearing the path for more sophisticated applications and a more transparent way to build in the Web3 space. The era of the RPC bottleneck is ending, and we are excited to see what developers build when the data they need is finally within reach.

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