Don't get me wrong its good that the option is there, but short of coding and operating your own full node Metamask will still be trusting a centralized third party

You can enter the rpc endpoint for your own self hosted node too

I'm not sure I understand, running a full node requires some consumer hardware and a few days. And most infura usage doesn't even need a full node, so it's easier to run.

The API is the same, swapping out for another node is just a config change

> running a full node requires some consumer hardware and a few days

There are monthly utilities and regular maintenance as well. Networking could also be a problem, you'd really want a static IP and an unlimited high-speed network which isn't always supported by many home ISPs

> And most infura usage doesn't even need a full node, so it's easier to run

I don't know as much about the protocol details of infura. Have they found a way to verify transactions with a partial node? That'd be huge if they have, regardless of what happens to the current NFT platforms!

Many projects have chased pruning, but it always seems to get stuck when people realize that means adding trust into Tue system since you can't trace back to the genesis block

Perhaps I'm mixing up terminology but by full node I mean an archive node as that has larger hardware requirements.

You don't need to code a full node. It's software than you run via a cli interface

If the goal is to remove trust in a third party you would either need to code or verify the software before running it. Short of that and you still have to trust whoever coded it and all the distribution infrastructure that let you download it.

There's more than one codebase though, and having more is something commonly talked about.

More options is good for sure, but doesn't solve centralization or trust concerns

The level of centralization is a spectrum and I don't mean to fall into the trap of describing it as all or nothing. The question is how close to decentralization web3 is or can be, and my concern with regards to picking your own API endpoint is just how similarly it is to the original point Moxie was making with regards to there only really being two API hosts in use