RPCs not compliant with the JSON-RPC spec

[josepot]

Dear Invarch Team,

I hope this message finds you well. My name is Josep, and I'm the technical lead of the Polkadot-API (PAPI) team.

In case you're not familiar with Polkadot-API, it's a modern library designed to replace PolkadotJS, built on top of a properly specified and standardized JSON-RPC API for Polkadot-based networks. The modern JSON-RPC APIs offer many advantages over the legacy ones; you can read more about it here and here.

We've noticed that there are no available public Invarch RPCs that expose the modern JSON-RPC API. At least, the only one that we are aware of (wss://invarch-rpc.dwellir.com) doesn't expose it. Thankfully, it's still possible to use PAPI with Invarch thanks to the light-client provider, using the following chainspec with smoldot:

{
  "name": "InvArch Network",
  "id": "invarch_polkadot",
  "chainType": "Live",
  "bootNodes": [
    "/dns/invarch-boot.dwellir.com/tcp/443/wss/p2p/12D3KooWHWLn81PF8T29cxeeq12hpJoaPNbJbuvtZ6pJxJ8asnTY",
    "/dns/invarch-boot.dwellir.com/tcp/30363/p2p/12D3KooWHWLn81PF8T29cxeeq12hpJoaPNbJbuvtZ6pJxJ8asnTY",
    "/dns/invarch.boot.stake.plus/tcp/30332/wss/p2p/12D3KooWJ7dgREmmhiA5skqEf1C7N43ex9uawaXuyQumhxg66Zoa",
    "/dns/invarch.boot.stake.plus/tcp/31332/wss/p2p/12D3KooWLLHBRKvbRgWA5eD2DSFEeEz7i5V9zPVCkCeMdyT966Ui"
  ],
  "properties": {
    "ss58Format": 117,
    "tokenDecimals": 12,
    "tokenSymbol": "VARCH"
  },
  "relay_chain": "polkadot",
  "para_id": 3340,
  "codeSubstitutes": {},
  "genesis": {
    "stateRootHash": "0x64d77bb0ea342ea5b053fba4fd29248b1c3a5b20a8a9ef0cfc14cf45b0c5a4fb"
  }
}

However, not all consumers can utilize the light-client.

Our team has developed a middleware solution to ensure that Polkadot-API can function seamlessly with chains running older versions of the Polkadot-SDK node. Unfortunately, it appears that the RPC providers for Invarch are using an even older version, which the middleware does not support.

I suspect that this may be due to issues with the latest node releases (e.g., issue 1, issue 2). We kindly request that you consider working with your RPC providers to upgrade the PolkadotSDK node to a more modern version that supports the new JSON-RPC API. This upgrade would enable DApp developers to easily interact with your chain using PAPI, unlocking benefits such as improved performance, reduced resource usage, out-of-the-box strong type generation for your chain, and the ability for developers to handle runtime upgrades on the fly.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best regards,

Josep

[Anny0nn]

Thanks for taking the time to write this issue. It should be resolved as soon as we upgrade the InvArch chain and nodes. We are still finalizing our internal schedule, but two upgrades are planned: first to SDK 1.6.0 with enabled metadata hash, and then to stable2407.