Edge & Node’s August/September 2024 Update

Research & Development Core Team Updates
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:woman_astronaut: Executive Summary

August saw continued robust growth of The Graph Network’s daily utility to web3. The Graph Network now powers 9,000+ published subgraphs, representing an impressive 23% increase over the last month. With all our focus now on improving the network, we’re proud to share a host of accomplishments toward expanded decentralization at scale. In a significant milestone for scalability, all network activity, including distribution of GRT indexing rewards, now occurs on Layer 2, making data more cost effective to serve and consume. And with great excitement, The Graph is collaborating with Sony and Startale Labs to launch the new L2 Soneium, driving mainstream adoption of web3 in gaming, finance and entertainment! See below for a summarized view into our continuing efforts:

Notable August Accomplishments:

Studio and Explorer

  • Along with a new Studio tab (labeled Endpoints) that surfaces all information related to querying a subgraph, we also released a new subgraph card design to enhance helpful content and overall aesthetics
  • Studio-hosted subgraphs were published to the Network, now available to query
  • Billing: if you missed being able to deposit the max amount of GRT into your billing account, that feature has made a comeback!
  • In Explorer, you can now find Soneium, Gravity, and Etherlink subgraphs by filtering subgraphs for those chains.
    • Try out new Category filters! Choose from Identity, NFTs, and DeFi to name a few
  • In Explorer, within each subgraph page, you’ll now see better GraphQL query examples in any subgraph’s details page in order to facilitate a quicker journey from zero to query

Indexer Software

  • The Graph Node team has closed PRs to enable:
    • blockstream changes for subgraph composition
    • storing timestamps when marking subgraphs as synced
  • The Network Engineering team has merged PRs to enable:
    • closing of allocations on unsupported networks
    • improved collision resistance of allocation IDs
    • configuring the polling interval for data collection
  • Stay tuned for more releases making use of the above features and more

Protocol

  • The Subgraph Availability Oracle (SAO) just got further decentralized! 5 different entities are now running an instance, with a voting mechanism in place. Additionally, a deployed change in the SAO code has drastically reduced its IPFS usage
  • The first audit for Graph Horizon continues to make progress: we received the initial report and delivered fixes that are being reviewed by the auditors
  • There is ongoing work on the evolution of protocol incentives and how it can generate network effects

The Graph expands integration, outreach, participation, and technical education

  • We announced our collaboration with Sony, in support of the new Soneium chain developed in conjunction with Startale Labs. The amount of data that can be published on-chain is boundless, as the Soneium ecosystem aims to disrupt entertainment, gaming, finance and more
  • In addition to Soneium, new integrations with Galxe and Arbitrum Nova broaden The Graph’s compatibility across the multichain world
  • At House of Web3, we hosted a full-day AI conference and a brunch with Base.AI
    • House of Web3 also brought blockchain builders and incubators together for an event full of inspiring connections
  • The brand-new GraphDevs X account saw tremendous reach for a starter account, reaching 100k impressions and publishing an article that outperformed more traditional forms of media. Follow @GraphDevs and let’s make sure devs across web3 and the overall Graph ecosystem get the best resources for creating the best subgraphs
  • We continue to promote content captured at EthCC and adjacent Brussels events

What’s Next:

  • Complete integration of 6 new chains in Subgraph Studio
  • Continue to grow the new GraphDevs X account
  • Finalize animating videos for an upcoming Delegation page update, along with publishing a new Delegation onboarding page for non-technical users
  • Give talks and workshops at Korea Blockchain Week and Token 2049 Singapore
  • Continue working towards an MVP of Direct Indexing Payments
  • Progress towards an MVP of a multi-data-service registry to support the launch of new data services and facilitate their integration within Graph Explorer
  • Continue the Horizon smart contracts PR to prepare for a second audit in October
  • Publish a batch of initial GIPs for new protocol incentive mechanisms