What is The Graph

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About The Graph

Key Points:

  • The Graph is an indexing protocol for querying data for networks like Ethereum and IPFS.
  • Over 3,000 subgraphs have been deployed by thousands of developers.
  • The Graph usage has been growing at over 50% MoM and hit over 7 billion queries in September 2020.
  • The Graph has a global community with over 200 Indexer Nodes and 2,000 Curators.
  • The Graph raised ~$25M in funding from community members, VCs, and influential individuals.
  • The founders have engineering backgrounds and have worked together for 5-8 years.
  • The Graph is working to bring reliable decentralized public infrastructure to

About The Graph: Unlocking the Power of Blockchain Data

Introducing The Graph (GRT): A Revolutionary Indexing Protocol

The Graph is a pioneering indexing protocol designed to facilitate efficient querying of data across networks such as Ethereum and IPFS, thereby empowering a multitude of applications within the DeFi and broader Web3 ecosystem. By enabling anyone to create and publish open APIs, dubbed subgraphs, applications can seamlessly retrieve blockchain data via GraphQL queries. A hosted service is currently available in production, providing developers with a seamless onboarding experience. Furthermore, a decentralized network is slated for launch later this year. Currently, The Graph supports data indexing from Ethereum, IPFS, and POA, with additional network integrations forthcoming.

Delve deeper into the intricacies of this project by exploring our comprehensive analysis of The Graph.

To date, a staggering 3,000-plus subgraphs have been successfully deployed by a vast community of thousands of developers, powering prominent DApps such as Uniswap, Synthetix, Aragon, AAVE, Gnosis, Balancer, Livepeer, DAOstack, Decentraland, and many more. Notably, The Graph’s usage has experienced exponential growth, surging by over 50% month-over-month, and reaching a remarkable milestone of over 7 billion queries in September 2020 alone.

The Graph boasts a thriving global community, comprising over 200 Indexer Nodes in the testnet and more than 2,000 Curators participating in the Curator Program as of October 2020. To fuel network development, The Graph has secured funding from a diverse range of sources, including community members, strategic venture capital firms, and influential individuals within the blockchain ecosystem, such as Coinbase Ventures, DCG, Framework, ParaFi Capital, CoinFund, DTC, Multicoin, Reciprocal Ventures, SPC, Tally Capital, and others. Furthermore, The Graph Foundation successfully concluded a public GRT Sale, attracting participants from 99 countries worldwide (excluding the U.S.). To date, as of November 2020, The Graph has raised approximately $25 million.

The Visionaries Behind The Graph: Meet the Founders

The Graph team boasts a diverse array of seasoned professionals hailing from esteemed organizations such as the Ethereum Foundation, OpenZeppelin, Decentraland, Orchid, MuleSoft (prior to its IPO and subsequent acquisition by Salesforce), Puppet, Redhat, and Barclays.

The pioneering co-founding team comprises Yaniv Tal, who spearheads the project, Brandon Ramirez, who drives research efforts, and Jannis Pohlmann, who oversees technical developments.

The founders, boasting engineering backgrounds, have collaborated for 5-8 years. Notably, Tal and Ramirez, both alumni of the University of Southern California (USC), where they studied electrical engineering, went on to work together at MuleSoft, a pioneering API developer tools company that successfully underwent an initial public offering (IPO) and was subsequently acquired by SalesForce.

Prior to their current venture, they co-founded a developer tools startup, where they dedicated a substantial part of their careers to refining the API stack. In their previous startup, the founders developed a custom framework on top of Datomic, an immutable database. This vision ultimately gave rise to The Graph, which seeks to create immutable APIs and data access, leveraging the GraphQL query language.

Unveiling the Unparalleled Attributes of The Graph

The Graph is dedicated to democratizing access to reliable, decentralized public infrastructure, thereby bridging the gap to the mainstream market. To guarantee the economic security of The Graph Network and the integrity of queried data, participants utilize Graph Token (GRT), a work token that is staked by Indexers, Curators, and Delegators to facilitate the provision of indexing and curating services within the network.

GRT, an ERC-20 token operating on the Ethereum blockchain, serves as a resource allocation mechanism within the network. Active participants, including Indexers, Curators, and Delegators, can generate income commensurate with their contributions and GRT stake. Specifically, Indexers receive indexing rewards (in the form of new token issuance) and query fees, while Curators earn a proportion of query fees for the subgraphs they validate. Delegators, in turn, receive a share of the income earned by the Indexer to whom they delegate.

What Is the Circulating Supply of The Graph (GRT) Coins?

The total supply of GRT at the mainnet launch will comprise 10 billion tokens, with an initial circulating supply of approximately 1,245,666,867 GRT. The introduction of new tokens through indexing rewards will commence at an annual rate of 3%, subject to future technical governance by The Graph Council. For a comprehensive overview of GRT token economics, please refer to this resource, and for distribution information, kindly visit this link.

The Security Architecture of The Graph Network

The Graph has established an open data layer atop blockchain networks, enabling Indexers to operate their own Ethereum archive nodes to power Graph Node, or alternatively, leverage node operators such as Infura or Alchemy.

Any analytics company can develop an application to seamlessly query subgraph data indexed by The Graph, leveraging open APIs that facilitate effortless and efficient data retrieval from the blockchain.

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