Ankr Contributing to BNB Chain, Implements Erigon Performance Upgrade

Introducing the Erigon Solution

BNB Chain originated as a fork of go-ethereum, designed to provide interoperability and programmability while maintaining compatibility with existing Ethereum Smart Contracts. However, the exponential growth of BNB Chain has exposed significant scalability challenges inherited from its Geth foundation. A critical bottleneck for Archive Node operators has been the massive storage requirements, with Archive Nodes storing approximately 17TB of data. This enormous data volume necessitates extended indexing and compaction processes, significantly degrading the performance of the Geth client during data retrieval operations.

To address these limitations, Ankr has implemented an Erigon-based solution for BNB Chain infrastructure. Originally evolved from turbo-geth as a distinct improvement over Geth, Erigon represents a fundamentally redesigned client architecture. The Erigon implementation for BNB Chain will be open-source and accessible to all network participants. This new client achieves substantial improvements through several key mechanisms: a modular design enabling parallelized development, reduced Read/Write database operations, preprocessing of data outside the storage engine for enhanced efficiency, and staged synchronization processes enabling rapid blockchain sync.

Why Erigon?

Erigon delivers transformative improvements over existing Ethereum clients like Geth, with measurable benefits across multiple dimensions. The solution dramatically reduces disk storage requirements, requiring only 1.2TB for Archive Nodes (compared to 17TB with traditional clients) and 430GB for Pruned Nodes. Synchronization speeds exceed 10 blocks per second, allowing fully bootstrapped archive nodes to complete in less than 3 days. The client demonstrates exceptional crash resilience, with its database architecture capable of withstanding power failures without corruption. Additionally, Erigon's modular architecture enables P2P and web3 RPC services to run as independent components, providing unprecedented flexibility for node operators.

This implementation creates mutual benefits for both BNB Chain and Ankr. By open-sourcing the Erigon implementation, BNB Chain node operators can deploy the enhanced client freely and contribute their computing resources to the Ankr Protocol and multi-chain RPC network. This robust RPC infrastructure enables Ankr to provide reliable services to blockchain and dApp developers dependent on BNB Chain communications.

Challenges and Improvements With Ankr's Implementation

While Erigon offers substantial advantages, BNB Chain's unique consensus mechanism and block processing methodology presented significant integration challenges. BNB Chain uses its proprietary Parlia consensus engine, distinct from Geth's standard implementation, requiring interface modifications to ensure compatibility without compromising block processing integrity. Additionally, BNB Chain's system calls differ fundamentally from Erigon's standard implementation, particularly in callee specifications and gas limit calculations. Each BNB Chain system transaction requires intermediary block finalization not natively supported by Erigon, potentially causing gas calculation discrepancies when multiple system calls modify identical state objects.

Ankr's implementation successfully addressed these challenges by migrating critical BNB Chain features into Erigon. Genesis blocks and chain configurations were adapted to store all information within source code rather than JSON files, eliminating pre-initialization requirements. The Parlia consensus engine was integrated through interface modifications maintaining compatibility with both systems. BNB Chain's system call architecture was fully supported with a transport layer facilitating cross-chain communication. All BNB Chain forks—including Ramanujan, Niels, MirrorSync, and Bruno—were incorporated. Most significantly, the block processing methodology was redesigned to accommodate BNB Chain's requirement of appending system transactions and receipts to block execution, with corresponding adjustments to transaction and state roots. All system contracts received full support through the implementation of a dedicated transport layer.

Key Milestones

Ankr's deployment strategy prioritizes sequential validation of Erigon's functionality within the BNB Chain ecosystem. The initial release operates as a full blockchain node without Validator Mode, allowing the team to eliminate implementation errors before enabling advanced features. The first critical milestone involves verifying that Erigon executes flawlessly with BNB Chain full nodes on both Mainnet and Testnet environments. Subsequent phases will validate compatibility with BNB Chain validator nodes and enable validator functionality once full node capabilities are thoroughly validated.

Erigon's architecture introduces multiple performance enhancements specifically optimized for BNB Chain. The implementation leverages the MDBX storage library—one of the fastest and most lightweight embedded databases—replacing the traditional LevelDB implementation. MDBX delivers 30% performance improvements compared to alternative databases like RocksDB or LevelDB, though database size is theoretically limited to 8TB through page addressing constraints (modifiable via filesystem page size adjustments). Current implementations require approximately 2.5TB for complete archive node data. The RPC daemon architecture decouples RPC functionality from node operations, enabling independent scaling through remote database connectivity and cluster formation. The staged synchronization process divides synchronization into 15 distinct phases—including header/body downloading, block execution, and state verification—allowing comprehensive resource utilization through batch processing and shared caches. Each phase drops intermediary caches after completion, conserving disk space and minimizing IO operations.

Benchmark Testing and Results

Ankr conducted comprehensive performance testing using below-average commodity hardware to demonstrate Erigon's efficiency. Test infrastructure included 4 vCPU, 8GB memory, 160GB OS disk, and 1TB data storage. Testnet synchronization completed within 25 hours and 10 minutes upon reaching block 14,778,509. Notably, the implementation utilized only one processor core, suggesting substantial optimization potential through multi-core utilization, with preliminary estimates indicating 4-5x speed improvements through code refactoring—nonetheless substantially faster than current Go-Ethereum clients.

Performance benchmarking employed ethspam and versus testing frameworks, evaluating concurrent request handling at 100, 200, and 300 simultaneous requests. Erigon demonstrated flawless performance with 0% error rates across all test scenarios. Comparative analysis against an identical server executing Geth on Goerli testnet with 100 concurrent requests revealed 6.75% connection error rates, highlighting Erigon's superior reliability and performance characteristics.

Benefits for the BNB Chain Ecosystem

Ankr's Erigon implementation provides transformative benefits for the entire BNB Chain ecosystem. BNB Chain continues to experience significant transaction volume growth as emerging markets accelerate DeFi, NFT, and gaming adoption. While low gas fees and EVM compatibility drive this adoption, node infrastructure must maintain performance under sustained demand. By open-sourcing Ankr's custom Erigon implementation, the ecosystem gains access to significantly more efficient node infrastructure, enabling node providers to maintain network synchronization and supporting the BNB Chain community's continued expansion.

Ankr's complementary public RPC service provides additional ecosystem value, offering free, unrestricted access for developers to make request calls to BNB Chain with identical functionality to operating full nodes independently. This RPC infrastructure democratizes access to blockchain capabilities, enabling broader developer participation and accelerating ecosystem innovation.

Conclusion

Ankr's implementation of Erigon for BNB Chain represents a significant infrastructure advancement addressing critical scalability limitations while maintaining complete EVM compatibility. Through systematic resolution of technical integration challenges and comprehensive performance optimization, Erigon reduces storage requirements by 93% while dramatically improving synchronization speed and reliability. The open-source implementation empowers the broader BNB Chain community with production-grade infrastructure, enabling node operators to contribute computing resources to the Ankr Protocol while supporting emerging market adoption of blockchain technology. As BNB Chain continues its evolution, Erigon provides the foundational performance improvements necessary to sustain ecosystem growth and accommodate ever-increasing transaction volumes. Future optimization through multi-core utilization, validator mode enablement, and continued collaboration with the BNB Chain core team will further enhance network efficiency and reliability.

FAQ

What is ANKR RPC?

ANKR RPC is a high-performance blockchain connection service provided by Ankr that enables developers to build and power Web3 applications across 30+ blockchains with reliable, fast infrastructure.

How to use ANKR RPC?

Visit ankr.com/rpc, select your desired blockchain from the chains list, obtain your API endpoint, and integrate it into your application for blockchain transactions and data queries.

What is an RPC in crypto?

An RPC (Remote Procedure Call) is a protocol enabling programs to execute functions on remote blockchain servers. It allows applications to interact with blockchain networks, query data, send transactions, and retrieve information. RPCs are fundamental infrastructure for accessing decentralized networks.