What is Yellowstone gRPC?

Yellowstone gRPC is a high-performance streaming interface for Solana blockchain data, built on the Geyser plugin architecture. It provides real-time access to accounts, transactions, blocks, and slots through efficient gRPC streaming connections.

Why Yellowstone gRPC?

Yellowstone gRPC offers significant advantages over traditional REST and WebSocket APIs:

• Real-time streaming: Receive blockchain data as it happens with minimal latency
• Efficient filtering: Subscribe only to the specific data you need with powerful filter options
• High throughput: Handle large volumes of blockchain data efficiently
• Persistent connections: Maintain long-lived streaming connections for continuous data flow
• Type safety: Leverage Protocol Buffers for strongly-typed data structures

Alchemy’s Yellowstone gRPC Enhancements

Alchemy’s implementation of Yellowstone gRPC provides enterprise-grade reliability and features beyond standard implementations:

High Availability Architecture

Our multi-producer and multi-consumer architecture ensures minimal downtime for your applications:

• Multiple Solana nodes feed data to the gRPC service simultaneously
• If one producer node goes down, others seamlessly continue providing data
• Client connections are automatically load-balanced across multiple consumer endpoints
• No single point of failure in the data pipeline

Historical Data Replay (6000 Slots)

Access historical blockchain data with our 6000-slot replayability capacity:

• Use the from_slot field in SubscribeRequest to replay data from any slot within the last 6000 slots
• Perfect for recovering from application restarts or processing historical events
• Test and validate your application logic against real historical data
• Fill data gaps if your application experienced temporary downtime

Block Lag Mitigation

Our multi-producer architecture eliminates single-node block lag issues:

• Data is sourced from multiple Solana nodes simultaneously
• If one node falls behind, data continues flowing from healthy nodes
• Consensus mechanism ensures data consistency across producers
• Provides the freshest possible blockchain data to your applications

Common Use Cases

Yellowstone gRPC is ideal for:

• DeFi applications: Monitor liquidity pools, token accounts, and price feeds in real-time
• NFT platforms: Track mints, transfers, and marketplace activities
• Wallets: Monitor account balances and transaction confirmations
• Analytics platforms: Collect comprehensive blockchain data for analysis
• Trading bots: React to market conditions with minimal latency
• Indexers: Build custom blockchain indexing solutions

Getting Started

Ready to start streaming Solana data? Check out our Quickstart Guide to make your first connection.