Changes to “The explorer and archival nodes”
#26 (zoobc.how, 2026-10-26 20:39 UTC) → #838 (zoobc.how, 2026-10-26 22:31 UTC): Seed article updated
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## Not the only way to read the past
+ An archival service is a convenience, not the chain's memory.
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+ > [!design] **Planned design.** The chain is to keep every snapshot since block 0 in its decentralised storage, so that anyone can follow the spine chain back to the snapshot of a given time and rebuild the state as it was, without relying on any archival node ([[the-archive]]).
− An archival service is a convenience, not the chain's memory. The chain keeps every snapshot since block 0 in its decentralised storage, and anyone can follow the spine chain back to the snapshot of a given time and rebuild the state as it was, without relying on any archival node ([[the-archive]]).
What archival services do not do: they do not make blocks, which only registered nodes do, and there is no central ZooBC Foundation database that nodes report to. Relays carry calls between wallets, not transactions ([[relays]]).
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