trace_block on Ethereum

Measured 2026-10-04 by our weekly probe, which calls trace_block through the same Ethereum endpoint customers use.

What trace_block does

Returns Parity-style traces for every transaction in a block: internal calls, contract creations and value transfers. Indexers use it to reconstruct internal ETH movements that receipts do not show.

trace_block on Ethereum: what we measured

• Default Ethereum routing keeps state for roughly the last 1,000,000 blocks (about 139.2 days of Ethereum history). Tracing a block older than that needs historical state. Add &archive=1 to send the request to archive upstreams (paid plans).

Example request

curl -s https://rpc.swiftnodes.io/rpc/eth?key=YOUR_API_KEY \
  -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"trace_block","params":["latest"]}'

import { createPublicClient, http } from "viem";

const client = createPublicClient({ transport: http("https://rpc.swiftnodes.io/rpc/eth?key=YOUR_API_KEY") });

// Any JSON-RPC method, typed loosely: trace_block on Ethereum
const result = await client.request({
  method: "trace_block",
  params: ["latest"],
});

Other methods on Ethereum

• eth_getLogsSupported
• eth_getBlockReceiptsSupported
• eth_feeHistorySupported
• eth_getProofSupported
• eth_createAccessListSupported
• debug_traceCallSupported
• trace_transactionSupported

trace_block on other chains

Support differs by chain; the full measured table is on the trace_block reference.

• Base
• Arbitrum
• Optimism
• Polygon
• BNB Smart Chain
• Avalanche
• Sonic
• Linea
• Scroll
• zkSync Era
• Blast
• Mantle
• Gnosis
• Celo
• Berachain
• Monad
• Unichain
• Kaia
• PulseChain

Frequently asked questions