Know Your Indexer is a segment that allows you to get to know and feel closer to your favorite Indexer. As we grow, more indexers are joining our ecosystem. To thank them for helping the healthy growth of the community, we are featuring Pinax Indexer in this month’s segment.
Pinax Interview
Ghostym:
1. Team background
Pinax team: Pinax stands at the forefront of web3 innovation as a specialized service provider for blockchain data. Pinax operates its own robust infrastructure, managing bare metal hardware across multiple hosted data centers. The company boasts over three years of experience in operating a sophisticated Firehose-related tech stack, cementing its status as a core developer, indexer, and a passionate member of The Graph community.
Pinax also fosters a growing team of talented developers with a strong focus on building cutting-edge data analytics tools and products.
Proudly self-funded by seven co-founders, Pinax values resilience, independence, and decentralization. Headquartered in Canada, the company has nurtured a growing, diverse international team, now exceeding 50 members, dedicated to shaping the future of web3 technologies.
Ghostym:
2. When was the first time you heard about the graph and why did you decide to get involved in the project?
Pinax team: Our discovery of The Graph was a pivotal moment in Pinax’s journey, fueled by our deep-rooted passion for decentralized data and blockchain technology. We first encountered The Graph as we delved deeper into the world of web3 data services while researching solutions in late 2021. The Graph stood out as a clear leader on the path to offer a common protocol for accessing data in the multi-chain future we envision.
The decision to get involved with The Graph was almost instinctive.
We found a vibrant community of like-minded individuals who shared our enthusiasm for decentralized data solutions.
Our long standing collaboration with the StreamingFast team, also a core developer team for The Graph Protocol, further cemented our involvement – and our experience in operating their Firehose-based stack meant we could quickly add value to the ecosystem.
Ghostym:
3. How many indexers do you have participating in the network? Do you plan to integrate others in the future?
Pinax team: Currently we are running just one Indexer. Moving into The New Era of the World Of Data Services we might explore plans to run multiple Indexers, if there’s a demand or need for it.
Ghostym:
4. In addition to indexers, does your team have other members who participate in different roles in the network?
Pinax team: We are active participants in the network in multiple different roles:
1- Supporting the adoption and scalability of Firehose and Substreams as a new data service on The Graph.
- We collaborate with core developers to establish best practices for operating Firehose services on bare metal infrastructure for The Graph…
- We provide Firehose and Substreams APIs for indexers and developers that provide fast and reliable access to blockchain data.
- We build tools and libraries that make it easier for developers to build services on top of Firehose and Substreams
2- Supporting new chains as they onboard to The Graph as new data sources.
3- Collaborating with core developers to experiment with operating and developing additional new future data services on The Graph, such as Websockets, SQL, and LLMs.
4- Supporting indexers and developers on The Graph with educational content and documentation.
- Members of our team partner with The Graph at conferences like RustConf and DappCon and at On Campus events, helping to promote awareness and introduce the potential of The Graph and web3 technology to everyone they meet.
- Our YouTube channel has an entire video series dedicated to exploring practical applications for Substreams, as well as a series of deep dives into Firehose and Substreams by Pinax CTO Matthew Darwin.
- Our blog boasts an international team of web3 enthusiasts writing about topics relevant to The Graph Network, like Indexer Office Hours, GIP-0042: A World of Data Services, and GIP-0057: Chain Integration Process, with more to come. The Pinax blog provides another space for discovering and learning about The Graph.
- Our knowledge team is collaborating with the support working group to improve The Graph documentation. We are also involved in early requirements gathering to assess and update The Graph Academy content.
Ghostym:
5. Why should delegators choose you? How do you create bonds of communication and trust between them and you?
Pinax team: At Pinax, our guiding mantra is excellence in all we do.
Our dedication to reliability is unwavering, which is evident from our early investment in building our own robust bare-metal server infrastructure. This commitment demonstrates our “skin in the game” approach, ensuring that we provide the best service to our delegators.
Transparency is at the heart of our operations. We actively participate in public events and maintain an open, approachable stance.
For this matter we just launched our Pinax Public Discord server: discord.gg/pinax
But our commitment goes beyond just infrastructure and transparency; we’re deeply invested in the future of web3 and The Graph. We believe in the power of education to foster the next generation of users and developers. Our passion for web3 education drives us to work collaboratively with universities on long-term initiatives, paving the way for new talent in the blockchain space.
By choosing Pinax, delegators are not just selecting a reliable service provider; they are partnering with a team that values and actively contributes to the growth and sustainability of the web3 ecosystem.
Ghostym:
6. For those people who are not yet participating in the network, how would you explain to them what the graph is and why they should join our community?
Pinax team: At its core, The Graph addresses a critical need in the blockchain ecosystem: scalable indexing of blockchain data. While numerous projects concentrate on efficient ways to write data, The Graph masterfully handles the “read” aspect, ensuring data accessibility and usability. It enables real transparency, a core principle of the blockchain community, which has driven people towards embracing a decentralized future.
This focus has established The Graph as a pivotal player in the web3 landscape, catering to developers who strive to make their applications not just functional but user-friendly. The Graph’s innovative approach is chain-agnostic, offering a versatile solution that benefits the entire web3 community.
As we enter the new era, The Graph has the opportunity to achieve network effects and service levels unrivaled by any centralized data service provider, serving developers and data consumers with with an ever expanding set of data services and data sources built and hosted by a thriving ecosystem of core developers, service providers, and community members collaborating to bring this mission to life.
Ghostym:
7. What do you think about the Advocates program? How would you motivate the community to participate in the Advocates program?
Pinax team: Embracing web3 is about empowering and inspiring one another.
Each of us has a unique story of how we delved into this exciting domain, often guided by the supportive hands of some that “already went down the rabbit hole.” These connections and friendships form the very essence of web3’s magic – a tapestry of collaboration and innovation, weaving a new era for the internet and a more meritocratic society at large.
The Graph Advocates program represents an extraordinary opportunity to be part of this transformative movement. It’s a welcoming gateway into the world of web3, designed to embrace every newcomer. Whether you’re a content creator, a nurturing community member, or a tech enthusiast eager to teach, the program offers a role that aligns with your skills and passions.
But it’s more than just finding your fit; it’s about growing and evolving. The educational facets of the program, such as the Advocates Learning Sessions, are not just informative – they’re empowering.
Ghostym:
8. What do you like the most about being part of this project and how do you contribute to its growth?
Pinax team: What excites us the most about being part of this project is the opportunity to enable developers to create amazing applications without the burden of managing costly infrastructure, all while upholding the principles of decentralization.
Our expertise in running Firehose plays a pivotal role in providing a scalable and unified standard, that allows all chains to store their history in the same rich format. Making it easy to extract and index across chains.
This Firehose technology is not just about efficiency; it’s a powerhouse fueling Substreams and Substream-powered Subgraphs, pushing the boundaries of what The Graph is known for to new heights.
Being at the forefront of this technological evolution and operating this advanced tech in our data centers is truly exhilarating. We are eagerly anticipating the innovative applications that will emerge from this platform. The potential is boundless, and we are proud to contribute not just through infrastructure, but also by providing comprehensive documentation and tooling.
To get a glimpse of what’s possible with this technology, check out the Substreams Unleashed series on our YouTube channel. The future is bright, and we’re thrilled to be a part of shaping it.
Ghostym:
9. Which blockchain networks are you excited to index for The Graph?
Pinax team: Short answer: All the chains!
At our company, we’re fully geared up for a multi-chain future. We believe that every blockchain with significant activity deserves to be indexed via The Graph. We’re actively in discussions with several chains about integrating them into The Graph and are ready to assist in any way we can during this process.
One particularly exciting milestone would be for The Graph to start indexing Bitcoin (BTC). Bringing the Bitcoin community into our network would be a groundbreaking development. Additionally, the prospect of onboarding chains focused on mainstream gaming or collectibles is thrilling. For instance, Flow, which recently partnered with Disney, presents an incredible opportunity. Their success would generate a vast amount of data needing indexing. We say, bring it on! The Graph is more than ready to showcase its capabilities in handling this exciting and diverse data landscape.
Ghostym:
10. What are you excited about the future of The Graph?
Pinax team: We’re really excited about where The Graph is heading with The New Era initiative. It’s amazing to finally deliver on the promise of true decentralization by moving everything from the hosted service to the decentralized network.
Besides that, there’s also this new vision of The World of Data Services, which is really inspiring to our team. We actually published a recent blog post about it. Adding all of these data services to The Graph, is really opening a whole new set of opportunities for folks to participate and grow the ecosystem.
At the same time The Graph is also reorganizing everything to make it more user-friendly, so it’s going to be a lot simpler to find what you need. With this improved UX we can expect The Graph to become a creative space where developers can experiment and come up with amazing new ideas.
So, yeah, there’s a lot to look forward to with The Graph!
INFORMATION ABOUT THE INDEXER
Social medias:
Twitter
YouTube
GitHub
LinkedIn
Ethereum address/Ethereum Name Service (ENS):
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