DataStax, the real-time AI company, today announced the launch of Astra Block, a new service delivered within the Astra DB cloud database that empowers developers to quickly build and scale Web3 applications fuelled by the entire, real-time dataset from the Ethereum blockchain. With Astra Block, developers can stream enhanced data from the industry’s dominant blockchain in a matter of minutes, then scale Web3 experiences virtually infinitely on Astra DB — the serverless cloud database built on the open source Apache Cassandra® database.
Astra Block is making the previously daunting task of cloning the entire blockchain dataset possible with the click of a button, leveraging the real-time speed, massive scale, and zero downtime provided by Cassandra. The new service allows advanced querying and real-time analytics to be run at sub-second speeds, enabling developers to build new blockchain-based functionality into their applications. For example, developers can build applications with the capability to analyze any transaction from the entire blockchain history, including crypto or NFTs, for instant, accurate insights. Astra Block uses CDC for Astra DB and Astra Streaming features to ensure that the clone of the chain is updated in real time, as new blocks are mined.
“Blockchains are changing the way information is stored and used, but their potential is largely unrealized,” said Ed Anuff, chief product officer at DataStax. “These distributed ledgers open up a whole new world of innovation similar to what we saw with digital content 20 years ago or social media 15 years ago – that is, the possibilities are only limited by our imaginations. Crypto currencies, non-fungible tokens, and smart contracts have drawn a lot of attention, but there are many other areas that will benefit from blockchain innovation—healthcare, real estate, IoT, cybersecurity, music, identity management, and logistics, to name a few. We are incredibly excited to launch the Astra Block service that will give Web3 developers the power to quickly build, experiment and scale blockchain-powered applications – and deliver on the potential of Web3.”
Enterprise adoption of blockchain technology continues to accelerate. According to Gartner, “By 2024, 25% of enterprises will interact with their customers or partners using decentralized Web3 applications.”
Yet, developers have struggled to easily access this data, having to resort to hundreds of API connections, building their own indexer, and manually managing the data infrastructure. Moreover, the ability to easily analyse and track blockchain transactions is difficult, making many use cases untenable. Astra Block is designed to streamline and transform the process of building and scaling Web3 applications using massive blockchain datasets.
“With DataStax we are able to store and analyze big data sets rapidly to meet our analytics requirements without the burden of managing infrastructure or writing in-house ETL pipelines,” said Elie Hamouche, founder, Clearhash. “Astra DB with Astra Block removes much of the complexity that comes with collecting and storing unbounded blockchain datasets to power real-time analytics workload.”
Availability
Accessing the Astra Block service is simple and available through the free tier of Astra DB, which offers a 20GB partial blockchain dataset to get started. The paid tier of Astra DB gives developers the ability to clone the entire blockchain, which is then updated in real-time as new blocks are mined. DataStax plans to expand this Astra Block to other blockchains in the future, based on user demand.
