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I am pretty much a noob on this topic, so please bear with me. Do i need a node to read out a method that has been deployed to an Ethereum network? I'd very much appreciate your help!

BigHead
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You need to provide more info. You would need node libs / utilities to create, test & deploy smart contracts. As per your question, assuming it is already deployed in local / remote network and you have the contract address, you do not need node to invoke methods on smart contract. But You might need library like web3js. Or simply you could use Remix to interact with the smart contract.

vins
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You will need to interact with a node somehow, but that doesn't necessarily mean running your own.

You could use a hosted node, although using a hosted node comes with the caveat that you lose many of the trust properties that a blockchain usually provides. You have no way of knowing if the hosted node is lying to you about the reply it sends. Even if you trust the host to be 100% benevolent, they might have a bug, or their software might get compromised by a malicious actor.

I highly recommend running your own node for any information that is important to you. If you evaluate the risk to be minimal (say you run a coffee shop, and the worst thing that invalid information gives you is that someone can walk out without paying), then a hosted node might be okay for the situation. Infura is one example.

carver
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  • If you're running a coffee shop and it's possible for people to walk out without paying due to lack of a trust-worthy Ethereum node, then I'd argue that that's a pretty big deal. – wolfson109 Jun 28 '18 at 08:42
  • I'm certainly not going to argue with someone who wants to use a local node for all scenarios. Someone might choose to take the risk in the coffee shop scenario if they think that the cost of attacking or bribing Infura is higher than the benefit of being able to get one or two free coffees. (Assuming that it doesn't take long for you to identify the attack, and that your attacker isn't interested in griefing you by interrupting all your customers' payments). If I were setting up a system, I'd always set up a local node, because it's not that hard and I don't have to calculate the risks. – carver Jun 28 '18 at 12:45