Summary
We’re continuing to work towards launch and to get alignment from core devs on where we need to go. Now that we’ve successfully hit the Sunrise, I think there needs to be alignment on what the next point of success is for The Graph. I would like to offer a few goals I think we should hold ecosystem wide, in priority order.
- Make The Graph and GRT something that 1B people can care about and use
- Enable next generation Consumer Apps on The Graph
- Empower more ecosystem participants to build developer focused products on The Graph
I don’t want to dive into #1 in detail yet, but I do think it’s important that we start asking ourselves questions about this. I think it’s important that The Graph and GRT is something that everyday people care about and use. Today the primary uses of GRT is for Delegation and to pay for query fees. Do we expect 1B people to evaluate and stake on Indexers based on their knowledge of Indexers? I think it’s time to open up conversations about the protocol economics and what the objective function of The Graph should be. I would like for more people to be part of these conversations.
For #2, I think we need to recognize that web3 has not yet materialized as a platform for composable consumer apps. Most of the success that we’ve had is with DeFi apps, and the tools that we need for web3 will look a little different. In our next phase, I think The Graph needs to step into its role as a protocol that enables web3. This isn’t simply a matter of enabling more data services. It’s a matter of having a cohesive view of how to enable a new web that is verifiable, open and composable. And then creating the tools to make it easy to build such applications and to incentivize the work that needs to be done.
Looking back (what was delivered)
We published a blog post called Knowledge Graphs are web3 which got a lot of attention. I had some really great engineers reach out to me to ask how they can integrate knowledge graphs into their apps.
We’ve started sharing examples of the content the Geo Explorers have been creating. The content is looking much more ready for prime time now with List and Gallery views.
We showed an example of how knowledge graphs can be used to structure consequential political issues and combat misinformation. I think it’s interesting to note that Polymarket has broken out as maybe the top consumer web3 app. This success is coming from helping to find truth as it relates to the US election. We’ve been focused on this vertical and believe The Graph can do a lot in this area if we build the right tools. This post seemed to resonate.
Looking ahead (upcoming priorities)
We need more help from Core Devs. Last month I mentioned that we were starting to get help from core devs but it’s not enough for us to be able to move the needle on enabling Consumer Apps on The Graph. I’d like to thank Pinax and Semiotic for their continued help. I believe E&N will be helping as well. We need more help if we’re going to succeed.
There are a few big workstreams for enabling consumer apps on The Graph:
- Knowledge graph data service - A graph database data service that ingests data from the knowledge graph and provides a typed graph API per space.
- Web3 app framework - With the web3 app framework, developers will be able to easily build custom apps that read and write private, shared, and public data using the knowledge graph as the interoperability layer.
Our biggest need right now is help with the Knowledge graph data service. We’re also still putting together the team for the web3 app framework and need help with that. Once we get this stuff working, we’re going to see that there are a lot of places that we can make the experience better to enable more powerful web3 applications. It will be a very unifying endeavor. All of this work will enable powerful new web3 applications and create strong network effects for The Graph.
I hope we can dedicate more resources to enabling a new generation of consumer apps on The Graph. Looking forward to working with everyone.