What is a Fuel RPC Node?
Access modular execution infrastructure
A Fuel RPC node provides applications with access to a modular execution layer optimized for performance through parallel transaction processing. Fuel's innovative architecture separates concerns — execution happens on Fuel, while consensus and data availability are handled by other layers. This modular approach enables Fuel to focus purely on fast, efficient execution.
Why modularity matters
Monolithic blockchains force consensus, execution, and data availability into one system, creating bottlenecks. Modular design separates these concerns, allowing each layer to optimize independently. Fuel focuses solely on execution, achieving higher throughput while other layers handle consensus and data availability.
Fuel advantages:
- Parallel execution — true concurrent transaction processing
- FuelVM — purpose-built for performance
- Sway language — Rust-like safety and ergonomics
- Modular — separation of concerns
- UTXO model — enables parallelism
- Developer friendly — superior tooling
FuelVM and parallel execution
FuelVM is designed from scratch for parallel execution. Unlike EVM (sequential), FuelVM uses a UTXO-based model similar to Bitcoin but with smart contract capabilities. This enables transactions to execute in parallel when they don't conflict, dramatically increasing throughput.
How Fuel achieves parallelism:
- UTXO model tracks specific state pieces
- Transactions declare which UTXOs they touch
- Non-conflicting transactions execute in parallel
- FuelVM optimized for concurrent execution
- Achieves high throughput without sacrificing security
Sway programming language
Sway is Fuel's smart contract language, combining Rust's safety and ergonomics with blockchain-specific features. Sway provides strong typing, pattern matching, and compile-time guarantees while remaining easy to learn for developers familiar with Rust or modern programming languages.
This combination of FuelVM performance and Sway developer experience positions Fuel as next-generation execution infrastructure.