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These questions are coming from someone who is experienced in Bitcoin ecosystem but new to Solana development. From what I understand, connecting to a Solana cluster is similar to connecting to a node on Bitcoin. So, what does this link mean:

https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com

  1. Is it an official RPC node provided by Solana Foundation?

  2. If yes then could it be trusted blindly or running own node is better than using this api?

  3. Is there any request limit on this api or could we use it in production without limit?

  4. In Bitcoin, there are two parties - miners and node runners. Where the miners are running PoW operations, the node runners are only concerned with maintaining record of the full ledger. Is there a similar distinction on Solana as well or running validator costs as much resources as maintaining record of Solana ledger?

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Is it an official RPC node provided by Solana Foundation?

Solana Labs. Yes.

If yes then could it be trusted blindly or running own node is better than using this api?

You're essentially asking if one should trust Solana Labs blindly. I trust them but I can't say one should trust anyone blindly. Theoretically, you'd be more secure running your own node, if you were able to do so securely and correctly. However if you are not an expert, you'd probably be more secure with them doing it.

Is there any request limit on this api or could we use it in production without limit?

Yes, they have pretty stingy rate limits and many people use other providers or spin up their own nodes, to avoid these. If you search some, you'll find other options for providers.

Is there a similar distinction on Solana as well or running validator costs as much resources as maintaining record of Solana ledger?

The only difference between RPC nodes and validators is that RPC nodes do not vote. You even run the same binary but pass in a flag at start-up to become an RPC node instead. RPC nodes are normally run by dApps that want to interact with the chain without having to share bandwidth with others.

Re Solana ledger (compared to Bitcoin), only a few days' worth of history is actually kept by validators. It is usually off-loaded to cold storage afterwards.

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