August 4, 2026 · 5 min read
Polkadot RPC: JSON-RPC, but a Whole Different Ecosystem From Ethereum
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.
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