balq — BAL query

Local, verified history of any contract's storage — on a full node, no archive node, no indexer schema. Built on EIP-7928 Block-Level Access Lists (Glamsterdam).

balq watch 0x3582… --from 114563          # start following a contract
balq sync  --rpc http://localhost:8545 --follow
balq get   0x3582… --layout Playground.json --field "balances[0x61Cc…]" --block 114591
→ balances[0x61Cc…] = 37585   (slot 0xc0e2…, set @ 114590, bal)

const view = archive.view(proxy, layout).at(114591);   // @balq/node
view.balances[addr]   // 37585n  — reads like the contract, at any block

Why this could not exist before Glamsterdam

Before EIP-7928, "which storage slots changed in this block" lived only inside the node while it executed the block. To get it you either replayed blocks with a debug tracer (expensive, client-specific, unverifiable), trusted the contract's events (only what the author chose to log), or ran an archive node and asked slot by slot (15 TB, and you must already know which slots to ask for).

EIP-7928 puts the complete list of changed slots and their post-values into the block, and its hash into the header, under consensus. That turns "what changed" from a node's opinion into a fact of the block — complete by rule, verifiable with one keccak. balq is the tool that accumulates that fact, verifies it, and answers by variable name.

Three promises

1. Completeness. If a slot is not in the BAL, it did not change. Not "probably": a block with an incomplete BAL is invalid.
2. Verifiability. Every stored value is checked — the BAL against the header hash, bootstrap values by Merkle proof against state_root. Every record carries its provenance.
3. Definite boundaries. A read returns a value or a typed reason it is unavailable. Never a silent zero.

The node is trusted for exactly one thing: which block is canonical.

Compared with the alternatives

Indexers are the layer above balq, not a competitor: their handlers can read historical state from balq instead of an archive node.

Measured (Platåberget, 2026-08-29)

balq bench --rpc https://rpc.plataberget.ethpandaops.io --blocks 300 --top 20 — catch-up sync of the 300 latest blocks for the 20 most-written addresses on the network, release build, laptop, public gateway over HTTPS. Full tables and method: docs/BENCH.md.

The last line is the honest one: the design estimate was ~90 B/record. Reducing it is tracked, not hidden.

How it works

flowchart LR
    N[full node] -- "eth_getBlockAccessList" --> C[bal-codec<br/>decode · order check<br/>keccak == header]
    C --> A[bal-archive<br/>redb · reorgs · bootstrap]
    N -- "eth_getProof (pre-values)" --> A
    B[backup archive RPC<br/>optional] -. "only what the primary<br/>cannot serve, verified" .-> A
    A --> L[bal-layout<br/>solc storageLayout → names]
    L --> CLI[balq CLI]
    L --> JS["@balq/node<br/>view.balances[addr]"]

• Keys addr ‖ slot ‖ block ‖ index — a historical read is one ordered seek and a step back. A block index makes diff and rollback O(changed).
• Bootstrap. BALs carry post-values only. The value before a slot's first change comes from eth_getProof at C-1, verified against state_root; a slot that never changed is proven at the head. Both distinguish "zero" from "absent".
• Reorgs. Parent hashes are checked per block; a fork rolls back through the block index. Proofs taken on an orphaned branch are dropped.
• Provenance. Every value is tagged bal, proof, or (opt-in only) unverified / imported.

Install

cargo install --path crates/bal-cli           # balq
npm i @balq/node                              # Node bindings (prebuilt for 5 platforms)

Rust crates: bal-codec, bal-source, bal-archive, bal-layout.

Use

balq probe   --rpc <url>                                   # does this node serve BALs? proof window?
balq watch   <addr> --from <head+1>                        # storage lives at the proxy, layout at the impl
balq sync    --rpc <url> --follow [--backup-rpc <archive>] [--proof-window N]
balq get     <addr> --slot 0 --block N [--rpc <url>]       # raw; --rpc proves a never-changed slot
balq get     <addr> --layout C.json --field totals.index --block N
balq diff    <addr> --from A --to B [--layout C.json]      # names where possible, [raw] where not
balq history <addr> --slot 0 --range A..B
balq verify  --journal rows.jsonl                          # archive vs. rows you know are true
balq typegen C.json --name CView > C.d.ts                  # TypeScript for the Node view
balq bench   [--rpc <url>] [--out docs/bench]              # the numbers above

The layout is the storageLayout from your compiler (forge inspect C storageLayout, or a forge/hardhat artifact) — not the ABI.

Node

const { Archive, Layout, NotAvailableError } = require("@balq/node");
const ar = Archive.open("./balq.redb", { proofWindow: 0 });
ar.watch(proxy, 114563);
await ar.sync(rpcUrl, true, backupRpc);              // reads keep working meanwhile

const layout = Layout.fromFile("out/Playground.sol/Playground.json");
const v = ar.view(proxy, layout).at(114591);
v.counter; v.balances[addr]; v.totals.index; v.items[3]; v.items.length;   // bigint / boolean / string
try { ar.view(proxy, layout).at(1).counter } catch (e) { e.code }          // "BeforeStart", never undefined

What a read can say instead of a value

Limits, stated

• Forward-only. No history before watch; backfill is a separate, unbuilt mechanism.
• Proof window. A public gateway serves proofs only at the head; the value before a slot's first change then needs --backup-rpc or an own node with --rpc.eth-proof-window N. Post-values are never affected.
• Mappings cannot be enumerated (keccak is one-way); reading a known key works, "list all holders" does not.
• Not yet: header self-hash check, subscribe() stream, ERC-7201 / Diamond layouts, long bytes/string.
• EIP-7928 is in Review. The wire format lives in one crate and is pinned by a known-answer test against a real block; a spec change touches one file and fails that test first.

Repository

crates/            bal-codec · bal-source · bal-archive · bal-layout · bal-cli · bal-node
docs/              SPEC.md · DECISIONS.md · BENCH.md · SECURITY-AUDIT.md · bench/
testbed/           own contract on Platåberget + journal = ground truth for `verify` (96/96)
.github/           ci: fmt · clippy · rustdoc · tests on 3 OSes · MSRV · live probe; npm prebuilds

MSRV 1.90. Workspace lints: missing_docs, unwrap_used, unsafe_code = deny. CHANGELOG.md · CONTRIBUTING.md · SECURITY.md · MIT OR Apache-2.0.