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noun
An archival node is a type of full node that stores the complete history of a blockchain, including all previous states, transactions, and balances—not just the latest version of the ledger. This makes archival nodes essential for developers, explorers, data analysis, and auditing.
While standard full nodes validate transactions and maintain the current state, archival nodes preserve the entire chain of data from genesis block onward. As a result, they require significantly more storage and computing resources.
Networks like Ethereum offer archival node options for accessing past smart contract states, debugging, and historical querying, though most end-users and validators operate non-archival full nodes.