> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.hiero.org/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.hiero.org/block-node-home.md).

# Hiero Block Node

Hiero Block Nodes form the decentralised data layer of a Hiero network — receiving, verifying, storing, and serving the block stream produced by Consensus Nodes.

<table data-view="cards"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th data-hidden data-card-target data-type="content-ref"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Block Node Overview</strong></td><td>What a Block Node is, how it fits in the Hiero network, tiers, deployment profiles, and operator responsibilities.</td><td><a href="/pages/f6fxpDA1JooPxqVTojwd">/pages/f6fxpDA1JooPxqVTojwd</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Block Node Types and Tiers</strong></td><td>Full taxonomy of Block Node types: Rolling-History, Full Node, Light Node, Private-Cloud, Archive Server, and Community Node.</td><td><a href="/pages/gx016pw5B9C0nnEqXX0M">/pages/gx016pw5B9C0nnEqXX0M</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Deployment</strong></td><td>Hardware requirements, Solo Provisioner setup, Kubernetes deployment, and local development quickstart.</td><td><a href="/pages/qtfVkQpU5ADpj5ymVwDA">/pages/qtfVkQpU5ADpj5ymVwDA</a></td></tr></tbody></table>


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