Project Name: The Graph
Ticker: GRT
Website: thegraph.com
Twitter: twitter.com/graphprotocol
Whitepaper: thegraph.com/docs/en/
What Is The Graph (GRT)?
The Graph (GRT) is a protocol like IPFS and Ethereum that provides a decentralized service for indexing and querying blockchain data. Users can create an open API called SubGraph or Alt Graph. The native token of the platform is GRT.
What Does The Graph (GRT) Offer?
The Graph is a data analysis protocol for networks like Ethereum and IPFS. Anyone can create and publish subgraphs, which are open APIs that applications can query using GraphQL to retrieve blockchain data. It provides a service that makes it easy for developers to start their projects on The Graph. The Graph currently supports data indexing from Ethereum, IPFS and POA, with more networks planned to be added to its ecosystem soon. The Graph makes it possible to query data that is difficult to query directly.
The Graph is a project that aims to solve the challenges faced by decentralized applications (DApps) in accessing data. The project achieves this goal by breaking query data into smaller chunks called “subgraphs” instead of scanning data across entire blockchains. Moreover, these subgraphs provide an API that facilitates data querying and offers faster response times.
Currently, The Graph allows users to create decentralized subgraphs instead of providing a centralized service. These subgraphs allow users to access their blockchain data in their own applications. The Graph also uses GraphQL queries that allow users to create customized queries.
Being decentralized, The Graph adopts a set of security protocols to protect user privacy. In addition, the project can be connected to distributed storage systems such as IPFS to provide users with access to their blockchain data.
The Graph's Technology
The Graph learns how to index Ethereum data based on subgraph annotations, known as subgraph notification. The subgraph description defines the relevant smart contracts for a subgraph, the events to watch out for in those contracts, and how the event data will be mapped to the data that the Graph will store in its database. While doing this, it takes into account the data request definitions called SubGraph and learns which data should be classified and how. SubGraph presents what smart contracts should pay attention to while indexing data and the rules that should be followed as a roadmap.
We have mentioned that The Graph functions as an indexing protocol that enables efficient and decentralized data querying for blockchain networks such as Ethereum and IPFS. The Graph has 4 different architectural components in the network, and they are as follows:
Indexing: The node operators on The Graph Network that stake Graph Tokens (GRT) to provide indexing and query processing services. Indexers earn query fees and indexing rewards for their work. Leveraging queries in SubGraphs, indexers perform indexing and search operations on IPFS and blockchain.
Delegating: When running nodes on the network, there is a structure that supports indexers and decentralization. By sending existing GRT assets to indexers, it increases efficiency. In return for this contribution, delegators receive a part of the indexers’ inquiry fees.
Curating: Curators are critical to a decentralized economy. They use their knowledge of the Web3 ecosystem to evaluate the sub-graphs that need to be indexed by The Graph network and give signals about them. Curators can view network data to make signaling decisions through the Explorer. The Graph network rewards curators who signal on quality sub-graphs by giving them a share of the query fees generated by the sub-graphs.
Developing: They are the demand side of the The Graph ecosystem. Developers create sub-graphs and publish them on the network. They then query the live sub-graphs with GraphQL to power their applications.
The Graph Team & Company
The Graph was founded in 2020 by engineers Yaniv Tal, Brandon Ramirez and Jannis Pohlmann who have worked together for many years. Funds were raised for the project in October 2020 and it was launched on 17 December 2020.
Yaniv Tal is the co-founder and Project Lead of The Graph. He is also the founder of Workflo, a UI building company, and TapSavvy, a mobile payments company.
Brandon Ramirez is the co-founder of The Graph and former Research Lead of the protocol. He is also the co-founder and CEO of Edge & Node, the team behind The Graph.
Jannis Pohlmann is the co-founder and Tech Lead of The Graph. He is also the co-founder and Engineering Lead and CTO of Edge & Node, the team behind The Graph.
The Graph's Digital Asset Economy
The Graph (GRT)'s circulating supply is currently 9,073,707,153 GRT and its total supply is 10,000,000,000 GRT.
The GRT distribution is as follows:
Early Team and Advisors: 23.24%
Foundation: 20%
Backers: 17.32%
Early Backers: 16.52%
Edge & Node: 8.25%
GRT Sales: 6.01%
Testnet Indexer Rewards: 3%
Curator Grants: 2.99%
Educational Programs and Bug Bounties: 2.67%
Evaluation of The Graph
The Graph was introduced with the goal of eliminating the data pulling issues between blockchain networks and applications while providing an environment for APIs that are both economical and easy-to-use. DeFi projects such as AAVE, Aragon, Uniswap, Balancer, and Synthetix take advantage of The Graph’s solutions. The Graph, which offers decentralized data indexing and querying solutions, keeps on improving. With each passing day, developers will be able to use this technology more easily to build applications that are faster, more reliable, and more scalable. The Graph protocol continues to be adopted by projects in a variety of sectors and DeFi platforms, playing a key role in terms of sustainability. It is also predicted that in the future, The Graph will be a key component of the decentralized structures of the Web3 ecosystem, making data integration more effective.
