Crypto glossary
RPC node (RPC endpoint)
An RPC node is an endpoint that wallets and dApps query to read blockchain data and broadcast transactions, usually run by a provider rather than the user.
RPC stands for remote procedure call. A node exposes an interface, such as Ethereum's JSON-RPC API, where software can ask for a balance, simulate a contract call, estimate gas or submit a signed transaction. When a wallet shows your balance or a dApp loads your positions, it is almost always talking to an RPC endpoint behind the scenes.
Running a reliable node is costly, so most applications rely on RPC providers that operate fleets of nodes and sell access by request volume. Wallets ship with a default endpoint, and users can usually switch to another provider or point the wallet at their own node.
This convenience creates a quiet point of centralisation. If a major provider goes down, many wallets and apps stop working even though the blockchain is fine, as happened in a 2020 outage that hit popular Ethereum services. Providers can also see users' IP addresses and wallet queries, and could in principle censor or return wrong data.
Example
A user worried about privacy changes MetaMask's network settings to send requests to an RPC endpoint on their own Ethereum node instead of the default provider.