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What Is Subnet Avalanche and How to Access It via RPC

In the Avalanche ecosystem, scalability is not just about faster block times – it’s about customization and flexibility. Avalanche introduces a novel architecture called Subnets that enables developers and enterprises to create isolated blockchain environments tailored to their needs. If you’ve been wondering what is Subnet Avalanche, this guide is for you.

In this article, we’ll explain the core idea behind Avalanche Subnets, and how to interact with them using RPC (Remote Procedure Calls). We’ll focus on the platform.getSubnets method and show how to use it with NOWNodes, a hosted RPC provider that offers access to Avalanche Mainnet RPC endpoints without requiring your own infrastructure.

What Is Subnet in AVAX?

A Subnet in Avalanche is a dynamic set of validators responsible for securing one or more blockchains. Think of a Subnet as a permission layer or logical partition of the network. While most networks validate all activity globally, Avalanche allows the creation of independent sub-networks – or Subnets – where each one operates under its own rules.

Key Characteristics of AVAX Subnets:

  • Each blockchain belongs to exactly one Subnet.
  • A Subnet may validate multiple blockchains.
  • Validators in a Subnet may differ from those in others.
  • Subnets can be public or private, customizable in terms of consensus rules, token economics, and governance.

This makes Avalanche one of the most modular blockchain platforms available today, ideal for building enterprise applications, DeFi ecosystems, and high-throughput systems – all in parallel.

Avalanche RPC Endpoints and Subnet Access

To communicate with Avalanche nodes, developers use Avalanche RPC endpoints. These are HTTP-based interfaces that accept JSON requests for interacting with different chains in the network.

Avalanche has three core chains:

  • X-Chain: for asset transfers.
  • C-Chain: for smart contracts (EVM).
  • P-Chain: for Subnet and validator management.

All Subnet-related operations, including discovery and metadata queries, are handled through the P-Chain RPC interface.

Accessing Subnets via RPC Using NOWNodes

Instead of managing your own AVAX node, you can use a third-party RPC provider like NOWNodes, which exposes public endpoints to the Avalanche Mainnet RPC. This allows you to query network information without setup or maintenance costs.

The key method we’ll use is platform.getSubnets, which returns data about one or more Subnets based on their unique IDs.

Method Overview

  • Purpose: Get information about specific Avalanche Subnets.
  • Endpoint: https://avax.nownodes.io/ext/bc/P
  • Method: POST
  • Parameters:
    • Optional ids (array of Subnet IDs)
  • Returns: Metadata such as Subnet ID, control keys, and threshold.

Example Request to Avalanche RPC Node

Let’s say you want to get information about a specific Subnet using NOWNodes. You would send the following POST request:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "platform.getSubnets",
  "params": {
    "ids": ["hW8Ma7dLMA7o4xmJf3AXBbo17bXzE7xnThUd3ypM4VAWo1sNJ"]
  },
  "id": 1
}

If the Subnet is found and accessible, you’ll receive metadata about it. If it’s private or invalid, the result will return null.

Example Response

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "result": {
    "subnets": null
  },
  "id": 1
}

This response indicates that the specified Subnet either does not exist or is not publicly available.

Optional: Get All Subnets

You can also omit the ids field to retrieve all available Subnets:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "platform.getSubnets",
  "params": {},
  "id": 1
}

This is useful when exploring the Avalanche network or building tools that monitor Subnet activity.

Benefits of Using Avalanche RPC via NOWNodes

By using NOWNodes’ Avalanche RPC URL, you avoid the complexity of deploying your own infrastructure. This means:

  • No need to sync or maintain an Avalanche RPC node.
  • Quick access to Avalanche Mainnet RPC via NOWNodes API key.
  • Scalable and reliable endpoints for apps and scripts.
  • Easy interaction with P-Chain for Subnet-related data.

Whether you’re building a dApp, indexing Subnet metadata, or analyzing validator behavior, NOWNodes offers a lightweight and scalable solution.

Final Thoughts

Avalanche Subnets are a core part of what makes the platform powerful. They offer flexibility for developers, isolation for applications, and control for enterprises. Using the platform.getSubnets method, you can easily interact with this architecture via RPC.

If you’re working on a product that needs access to Subnet information or you’re simply exploring what is Subnet AVAX, this RPC method is a great place to start. Paired with services like NOWNodes, the process becomes accessible, reliable, and developer-friendly.

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