37 posts.
Axelar is a Cosmos SDK network for cross-chain interoperability — token bridging and General Message Passing across dozens of blockchains. Its RPC is CometBFT (Tendermint) RPC, not eth_*. Here's what Axelar actually does, the RPC you connect to, how GMP works under the hood, and how to read the chain.
Read →Boba Network mainnet RPC endpoint and chain ID 288 — the EVM optimistic rollup where smart contracts can call off-chain compute and APIs. Live fee numbers, block cadence, what carries over from Ethereum, and what to verify.
Read →PulseChain mainnet RPC endpoint and chain ID 369 — the EVM-compatible full-state fork of Ethereum. Gas in PLS, ~10-second blocks, what carries over from Ethereum, what doesn't, and live fee numbers.
Read →Optimism (chain ID 10) is both a mature optimistic rollup — 2-second blocks, ETH gas, fault proofs live since 2024 — and the origin of the OP Stack, the codebase behind Base, Zora, opBNB, Unichain, and Soneium. The developer map: what the two-layer fee model means for gas estimation, why traces are uneven there, and how everything you learn on OP Mainnet carries across the family.
Read →Scroll is a bytecode-equivalent zkEVM rollup (chain ID 534352) — it targets opcode-level equality with Ethereum, so your existing contracts, audits, and tooling work with zero changes, while ZK validity proofs give ~1-hour hard finality instead of the 7-day optimistic window. Standard eth_* (viem/ethers/foundry). Here's the developer map, including how it differs from zkSync Era.
Read →Berachain is an EVM-identical L1 (chain ID 80094) on a Proof-of-Liquidity consensus with a tri-token model: BERA for gas, HONEY as a native stablecoin, and BGT — a governance token you earn but cannot transfer. The RPC is standard eth_* (viem/ethers/foundry work), but treating BGT like a normal ERC-20 breaks. Here's the developer map.
Read →Monad is a high-performance EVM Layer 1 (chain ID 143) that hits 10,000 TPS via parallel execution and pipelined MonadBFT consensus — while staying fully EVM bytecode-compatible, so viem/ethers/foundry work unchanged. The parallelism is under the hood and serial-equivalent, so the RPC is standard eth_*. Here's the developer map, including the two things that actually change.
Read →Sonic is the high-performance L1 successor to Fantom Opera (chain ID 146, not 250) with sub-second finality and a 90%-fees-to-developers model. It's standard EVM (viem/ethers/foundry work), but if you're migrating from Fantom the new chain ID and S token are the first things to get right. Here's the developer map.
Read →Polkadot's RPC is JSON-RPC over HTTP — but it's the Substrate namespace (system_*, chain_*, state_*), not eth_*, so viem/ethers don't connect. The relay chain runs no smart contracts, DOT has 10 decimals (not 18), and storage is SCALE-encoded, not ABI. Here's the developer map for querying Polkadot (and Kusama / Asset Hub) over Substrate RPC.
Read →Manta Pacific is an EVM OP Stack L2 (chain ID 169) that posts its data availability to Celestia instead of Ethereum — making it a validium, and making it cheap. It's standard EVM (viem/ethers/foundry work), with ETH gas and a ~7-day optimistic withdrawal window. Here's the developer map, including what modular DA changes about how you reason on security.
Read →Metis is an EVM-equivalent optimistic rollup (chain ID 1088) notable for moving from a single sequencer to a sequencer pool — reducing the single-operator risk most L2s still carry. It's standard EVM (viem/ethers/foundry work), with METIS (not ETH) as gas. Here's the developer map, including what sequencer decentralization does and doesn't change for you.
Read →Injective is a Cosmos-SDK finance L1 (injective-1) whose defining feature is a native, chain-level central-limit order book — a protocol module, not a smart contract. The RPC is CometBFT/Tendermint JSON-RPC (not eth_*), with sub-second blocks and instant single-block finality. Here's the developer map, including how you query the exchange module and place orders.
Read →Starknet is a non-EVM validity (ZK) rollup where contracts are Cairo, not Solidity. The RPC is JSON-RPC over HTTP — but it's the starknet_* namespace, not eth_*, so viem/ethers/foundry don't connect. Accounts are contracts (native AA, no EOAs), values are felts, and finality comes from STARK proofs with no challenge window. Here's the developer map, including the eth_* → starknet_* method translation.
Read →Blast is an Ethereum L2 (chain ID 81457) with native yield — bridged ETH and USDB rebase into accounts automatically, no action required. It's standard EVM (viem/ethers work), but the rebasing changes balances with no Transfer event and contracts default to Void yield mode. Here's the developer map, including how native yield reshapes indexing and contract design.
Read →Fraxtal is Frax Finance's OP Stack L2 (chain ID 252) with two twists most Superchain L2s don't have: gas is paid in FRAX, not ETH, and its Flox system pays contract developers FXTL points for the gas their users spend. It's standard EVM (viem/ethers/foundry work), with ~2s blocks and the usual ~7-day OP Stack withdrawal window. Here's the developer map.
Read →ZetaChain is an omnichain L1 (chain ID 7000) where a single Solidity contract can read and write across connected chains — including native Bitcoin, no wrapping, no centralized bridge. The ZetaEVM is standard eth_* (viem/ethers work), but it sits on a Cosmos-SDK base with a TSS validator set. Here's the developer map.
Read →Plasma is a stablecoin-focused EVM L1 (chain ID 9745) with a protocol paymaster that makes basic USDT transfers zero-fee — users don't even need the native token. It's standard EVM (viem/ethers work), with sub-second PlasmaBFT finality and Bitcoin anchoring. Here's the developer map, including how the gasless-stablecoin model changes payment flows.
Read →Astar is a Polkadot parachain that runs both EVM and WebAssembly contracts. Chain ID 592 is its EVM endpoint — standard eth_*, so viem/ethers/foundry just work — but underneath it's Substrate with Polkadot's deterministic GRANDPA finality. Here's the developer map: what the EVM RPC gives you, and what the parachain model changes.
Read →Flare is an EVM L1 (chain ID 14) where decentralized data feeds aren't a third-party add-on — they're enshrined in the protocol. FTSO gives you price feeds and FDC verifies cross-chain and Web2 data, both read via ordinary eth_call. viem/ethers just work; here's the developer map, including how the native data layers change what you build.
Read →Celo became an OP Stack L2 in March 2025 (with EigenDA), keeping chain ID 42220. It's standard EVM, so viem/ethers work — but it has a feature almost no other chain does: pay transaction fees in stablecoins like cUSD, not just the native token. Here's the developer map, including fee currencies and the L1→L2 shift.
Read →WEMIX3.0 is a Korean gaming L1 from Wemade — EVM-compatible (chain ID 1111), ~1s blocks, WEMIX gas. viem and ethers just work, but two things shape how you build: a stake-based PoA council means instant finality and no reorgs, and the traffic is game-heavy. Here's the developer map.
Read →Sui isn't EVM and it isn't Cosmos — it's a Move chain with an object-centric model, and its RPC reflects that. You don't call contracts to read balances; you query objects by owner. Here's the developer map: the sui_* API, owned vs shared objects, sub-second finality, and how to actually read state.
Read →Taiko is a based rollup — Ethereum's own validators propose its blocks, so there's no sequencer to trust or to go down. It's also a Type-1 zkEVM, so your Ethereum tooling works bit-identically. Chain ID 167000, ETH gas, ~12s blocks. Here's what 'based' and 'Type-1' actually change for a developer.
Read →Story (chain ID 1514) is an EVM L1 purpose-built for intellectual property — registration, licensing, and royalties as protocol modules. It's CometBFT under the hood, so finality is instant, and it's standard eth_* on top, so viem just works. Here's the developer map, including how to read the IP graph.
Read →Rootstock (RSK) is an EVM sidechain merge-mined by Bitcoin — chain ID 30, RBTC gas pegged 1:1 to BTC, ~30s blocks. viem and ethers connect in one line, but two things trip up Ethereum devs: gas is denominated in Bitcoin, and addresses use an EIP-1191 checksum that standard tooling gets 'wrong'. Here's the map.
Read →Osmosis is the leading Cosmos DEX — a non-EVM Cosmos SDK chain (osmosis-1) on CometBFT. The twist for developers: the AMM isn't a smart contract you eth_call, it's a native chain module you query over Tendermint RPC, REST, or gRPC. Here's how to read pools, prices, and swaps.
Read →Celestia isn't an execution chain — it's a modular data availability layer, so its RPC works nothing like Ethereum's. No eth_*, no smart contracts. Here's what Celestia actually does, the CometBFT RPC you connect to, how blobs and data availability sampling work, and where the celestia-node API fits in.
Read →Kaia is the EVM Layer 1 formed by merging Klaytn and Finschia — chain ID 8217, ~1s blocks, immediate finality, and a huge Asian user base via LINE and Kakao. It speaks standard eth_* RPC, so viem and ethers just work. Here's what carries over and the Klaytn-heritage features worth knowing.
Read →Litecoin isn't an EVM chain, so its API works differently: no eth_getBalance, no accounts, no gas. You get Litecoin Core JSON-RPC for blocks and broadcasting, plus a Blockbook REST API for address balances, UTXOs, and xpub history that Core can't provide. Here's how to use both.
Read →Unichain is Uniswap's own L2 — an OP Stack rollup on the Optimism Superchain, purpose-built for DeFi with ~1s blocks. It speaks standard eth_* JSON-RPC, so viem and ethers just work. Here's the chain ID, what carries over from Ethereum, and the Superchain and finality details that actually matter.
Read →Sei speaks standard eth_* JSON-RPC, so viem and ethers just work — but three things surprise devs coming from Ethereum: a parallelized EVM, a dual Cosmos/EVM address world with pointer contracts, and single-block instant finality that makes reorg handling unnecessary. Here's what actually differs.
Read →zkSync Era speaks the eth_* JSON-RPC you already know — until it doesn't. Native account abstraction, a zks_ method namespace, a pubdata gas model, and non-standard deployment all trip up devs who treat it like plain Ethereum. Here's what actually differs.
Read →Avalanche isn't one chain — it's three (X, P, C) plus a growing set of L1 subnets, and that trips up everyone wiring up 'Avalanche RPC' for the first time. Here's which endpoint you actually need, why the URLs look weird, and how to connect.
Read →Zora is an OP Stack L2 built for mints, and minting traffic is bursty in a way that punishes public RPC endpoints. Here's what you need to build on Zora in 2026 — chain ID 7777777, Superchain finality, the public-node trap, and the query patterns for reading mints at scale.
Read →BNB Smart Chain is one of the busiest EVM chains on the planet, but its public RPC endpoints fold under any real load. Here's what you need to connect reliably in 2026 — chain ID, finality, the public-node trap, and the query patterns that matter at BSC's transaction volume.
Read →Connecting to Arbitrum over WebSocket the same way you connect to Ethereum mainnet will bite you. The sequencer has no public mempool, newHeads is a firehose, and reconnecting isn't enough. Here's what actually breaks and how to handle it.
Read →Eight Base RPC providers compared on current pricing, free tiers and measured limits, with the monthly cost of 30M and 100M requests on each. Pricing checked October 3, 2026.
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