August 10, 2026 · 5 min read
Is Your RPC Node Actually at the Chain Tip? How to Catch a Stale Endpoint
eth_syncing returns false when a node is fully synced — and also when it hasn't started syncing. That trap, plus how to really tell if an RPC node (your own or a provider's) is at the chain tip: compare block height to a reference, check block-timestamp freshness, and the Solana equivalents (getHealth, catchup). A liveness check is not a freshness check.
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