Question 1

What does OnFinality do?

Accepted Answer

OnFinality is a blockchain infrastructure and node-as-a-service platform specializing in Polkadot, Kusama, and Substrate-based blockchain networks, as well as a growing catalog of EVM-compatible chains. It provides developers with reliable, globally distributed RPC node endpoints and advanced APIs that enable interaction with these blockchain networks without the cost and complexity of running and maintaining nodes independently.

The Polkadot and Substrate ecosystem is one of the most technically sophisticated in Web3, with a multi-chain architecture where Polkadot serves as a relay chain connecting many specialized parachains. Building on this ecosystem requires reliable access to node infrastructure for each chain — submitting transactions, querying chain state, reading events, and subscribing to block updates. OnFinality provides these endpoints for Polkadot, Kusama, and dozens of Substrate-based parachains (Acala, Moonbeam, Astar, Phala, and many others) through a unified platform.

The API endpoints support both HTTPS (for request-response RPC calls) and WebSocket (for subscriptions and persistent connections). WebSocket connections are essential for applications that need to subscribe to real-time blockchain events — new blocks, transaction confirmations, and state changes — without polling. This is particularly important for DApps that display live blockchain data to users.

Beyond basic node access, OnFinality provides Enhanced APIs that offer higher-level, more developer-friendly query capabilities over raw RPC. These enhanced endpoints simplify complex data retrieval tasks that would otherwise require multiple RPC calls and custom parsing logic. SubQuery indexer hosting is also available — allowing developers to deploy SubQuery indexing projects that transform raw blockchain data into a structured GraphQL API, which is the standard pattern for building data-rich DApps on Substrate.

For Nigerian blockchain developers and Web3 startups working in the Polkadot ecosystem, OnFinality provides the infrastructure layer that makes building feasible. Running Substrate nodes requires significant server resources, technical expertise, and ongoing maintenance. OnFinality abstracts this entirely, letting Nigerian developers focus on application logic and user experience rather than node operations.

Nigerian Web3 projects building in the Polkadot ecosystem — DeFi protocols, NFT platforms, cross-chain bridges, and governance tools — can use OnFinality to access all the chains they need through a single provider and API key, simplifying their infrastructure stack and reducing operational overhead.

The free tier provides 500,000 API calls per day, which is sufficient for active development, testing, and early production deployments. Paid tiers scale to tens of millions of calls per day for production DApps with significant user bases. Pricing is predictable and billed monthly, making budget planning straightforward for Nigerian startup teams.

OnFinality's SubQuery indexer hosting service is a significant value-add beyond basic node access. SubQuery is the leading data indexing framework for Substrate and Polkadot chains, enabling developers to define custom indexing logic and deploy it as a managed GraphQL API. Nigerian Web3 teams building data-heavy applications — portfolio trackers, DEX analytics, governance dashboards — can deploy their SubQuery projects on OnFinality's infrastructure rather than managing indexer servers independently.

The OnFinality monitoring dashboard provides visibility into API usage, request rates, error rates, and latency metrics across all endpoints. Nigerian development teams can monitor their blockchain API consumption to stay within plan limits, identify performance bottlenecks, and diagnose connectivity issues from a single operations console.

OnFinality's developer support covers Substrate and Polkadot-specific questions that general cloud support teams cannot answer — providing ecosystem-specific expertise that reduces debugging time for Nigerian developers who are newer to the Polkadot ecosystem.

Question 2

How much does OnFinality cost?

Accepted Answer

OnFinality is free to start, with paid tiers for higher usage (freemium). Free: 500K API calls/day. Growth $59/mo: 3M/day. Scale $199/mo: 10M/day. Enterprise custom.

Question 3

How do I authenticate with the OnFinality API?

Accepted Answer

API Key

Question 4

Is there a rate limit on OnFinality?

Accepted Answer

500K API calls/day on free tier

Question 5

Does OnFinality offer a sandbox or test mode?

Accepted Answer

No public sandbox is documented for OnFinality. Check the official docs for the recommended way to test integrations safely before going live.

Question 6

What is OnFinality best suited for?

Accepted Answer

Nigerian blockchain developers needing reliable node API endpoints for Polkadot, Substrate, and EVM-compatible chains without running their own infrastructure.

Question 7

Is there anything else I should know before integrating OnFinality?

Accepted Answer

OnFinality provides hosted node API endpoints for Polkadot, Kusama, Substrate-based chains, and EVM networks. Blockchain indexing, enhanced APIs, and SubQuery indexer hosting also available.

Question 8

Where can I find OnFinality's documentation?

Accepted Answer

The official API documentation is at https://documentation.onfinality.io. The provider's website is https://onfinality.io.

Question 9

Does OnFinality support Nigerian developers?

Accepted Answer

Yes — OnFinality explicitly supports Nigerian developers/use cases.

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