Overview
BCA Blockchain Applied is a data company that sells ready-to-search copies of blockchain records, so developers, analysts and AI assistants can look up on-chain activity without running blockchain software of their own1. It offers the same data three ways: a database you search with SQL, the standard language for querying databases; a live copy streamed into your own database; and an API, a connection that apps call over the internet to fetch individual records1.
BCA is run by SBC Lab AG, a company in Winkel, Switzerland, and describes its team as data scientists and data engineers2,3. Cardano on BigQuery and Cardano Stream carry the full history of Cardano mainnet, the live public network, from the first block onward4,5. The API and the stream also cover preprod and preview, the test networks developers use for trial runs5,6. BCA also offers a Bitcoin version of its API, with prices given on request7.
Key Features
- The whole chain in SQL, with no servers to run. Cardano on BigQuery holds the chain in Google BigQuery, Google's cloud database for very large datasets, and adds new blocks and transactions hourly4.
- A live copy of the chain inside your own database. Cardano Stream copies the full cardano-db-sync database, a tool that stores Cardano's records in ordinary database tables, into a customer's own PostgreSQL database over an encrypted private connection, aiming to deliver new blocks within 30 seconds5.
- Ready-made lookups for apps. The Cardano API answers requests for blocks, transactions, address history, staking rewards, tokens, stake pools, scripts and metadata on mainnet and both test networks6. It can also estimate a transaction's script costs and send signed transactions to a Cardano node8.
- Answers from AI assistants in plain language. An MCP server, a standard plug-in point that lets AI assistants such as Claude use outside tools, connects agents to the Cardano API with the user's own access key6. BCA's open-source skill set teaches Claude Code, Anthropic's coding assistant, how to use the server9.
- Copies checked against the source. After each epoch, the network's five-day accounting cycle, BCA computes a fingerprint (a hash) of the source database and the BigQuery copy, compares them table by table, and posts the results4,10.
What to Expect
Developers and analysts can try Cardano on BigQuery or the Cardano API free for five days, with full access and no payment up front, before moving to a paid monthly or yearly plan4,6. BigQuery users also need their own Google Cloud project with billing turned on, because Google bills them for the amount of data each query reads4,11.
Teams that want the data on their own machines can sign up for Cardano Stream by email. BCA sends a ready-to-run Docker package (a bundle that starts the software with one command) that opens the private connection and copies the chain from its first block5. The receiving database must run PostgreSQL 16 or a compatible cloud version5.
People who would rather ask questions than write code can follow BCA's step-by-step guide, which connects an AI agent to the API in about ten minutes12. In the guide's example, a single prompt returns a table and a chart of one address's staking rewards12.
Among API providers, BCA covers both bulk analysis and app lookups. SQL suits big questions, such as reconciling staking rewards, tax reporting or research on network activity, while the API suits wallets, explorers and portfolio trackers that fetch records one at a time4,6.
Larger plans add more access keys, higher request limits, priority support and a service-level agreement, a contract that sets uptime and response standards5,6.
The code that exports and validates the BigQuery dataset is open-source under the Apache 2.0 license13.
