Archive nodes are particular nodes on the Ethereum Network that store historical blockchain data. Because they offer this historical information, they are helpful when you need to audit past transaction history or gather data. Services like Etherscan and Dune Analytics use archive nodes, but anyone can run one themselves.
In this article, we will review the different types of Ethereum nodes, dive deeper into archive nodes, and introduce the new archive node capabilities of Infura. We’ll then walk through a real-world project to show how to connect the Infura API and web3.js to a pre-built react frontend. Once complete, the user will be able to query an Archive Node for some statistics for a given Ethereum wallet address.