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 Rickydata Indexer in this month’s segment.
Rickydata Interview
Ghostym:
- What’s your technical background? Do you have a team assisting you, or are you a solo operator?
Rickydata: My expertise is in data science and automation. I am a solo operator, but with a fully automated indexer operation which is very active. So you could say it’s me and my robots 
my automation is designed to be a good actor within the protocol, for example I never allocate on any subgraphs until I’m fully up to chainhead.
My indexer is also unique in giving away 100% of indexing rewards to delegators, where I instead keep all the query fees; this ties my financial incentives with the amount of useful work I am actually doing on the network, so if my indexer doesn’t add value to the network via query volume served, I make no money at all, but my delegators can maintain consistent and daily compounding returns. More information, metrics, data tools, are available on my website: https://www.rickydata-indexer.com/
Ghostym:
- When was the first time you heard about the graph and why did you decide to get involved in the project?
Rickydata: I heard about The Graph on December 18th, 2020 when I got a notification from coinbase about it, and did the coinbase learn campaign. At the time I was creating data science tutorials on crypto data (still available here: Predict Crypto - Tutorials), but I found the APIs very limiting for re-distributing the data. I looked into getting the raw data from the blockchain, and quickly realized this was a huge challenge. One week later I found out about The Graph, and it finally provided me with the composable building block I needed for my projects, as well as a GraphQL interface which I was already a huge fan of.
As soon as I found out about The Graph, it enabled me to do things I couldn’t do before. I figured out how to query The Graph from popular metaverses like Cryptovoxels and Decentraland, and started building interactive data driven experiences and tools. This tutorial explains how to use these tools by walking through an example that automatically displays a user’s POAP’s after they enter a room: YouTube Link
I had an aspirational project (outlined here: Predict Crypto - School of Data Science) that led me to apply for a grant. In the process I came across the data science role at Edge & Node, and decided to apply. For my interview I recreated the graph explorer in the metaverse, with some additional tools to visualize metrics over time (still available, but needs to be migrated to decentralized network endpoints: Voxels). After that, Craig and I got hired by Edge & Node to form where we have remained as the two data scientists on the team for over 3 years.
During that time, I have always wanted to understand the indexer operations better, the available data, and what data tools would help indexers provide even better services to the network.
Ghostym:
- How many indexers do you have participating in the network? Do you plan to integrate others in the future?
Rickydata: I currently have one, but I plan to add a second for riskier automation.
Ghostym:
- In addition to indexers, does your team have other members who participate in different roles in the network?
Rickydata: No, my full focus is on The Graph (but not primarily as an indexer).
Ghostym:
- Why should delegators choose you? How do you create bonds of communication and trust between them and you?
Rickydata: Because my indexer operation is automated, this translates to much more frequent rewards, which can also compound better. As a small indexer, my strategy is highly focused on the collection of query fees. I intend to give away the majority of my indexing rewards, and eventually sustain the operation via query fees entirely through the usage of advanced analytics and automation. I provide updates through my website (Indexer Build Log), and I can be reached through discord (@rickydata1), or Lens (@rickydata.lens).
Ghostym:
- 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?
Rickydata: By building on The Graph, nobody can take their data away, and their endpoint can serve as a permanent building block for themselves and others, served over a decentralized network of indexers that doesn’t exist elsewhere. Their work is valuable, and companies will extract value for themselves.
Ghostym:
- What do you like the most about being part of this project and how do you contribute to its growth?
Rickydata: The fact that a lot of important web3 dapps (i.e. ENS) are powered by The Graph. I help make data easy to access and understand, and I really enjoy that work.
Ghostym:
- What are your thoughts on initiatives like the Advocates Program and how would you motivate the community to participate in this program?
Rickydata: There are a lot of exciting things to build on The Graph, and having a global community of builders enables the decentralization and availability of data.
Ghostym:
- Which blockchain networks are you excited to index for The Graph?
Rickydata: Ethereum, base, arbitrum for now, but longer term any chain with a lot of onchain activity.
Ghostym:
- What are you excited about the future of The Graph?
Rickydata: The modularity of data services and what products will be enabled as a result of that. I am also increasingly interested in seeing the developments with Geo.
INFORMATION ABOUT THE INDEXER
Social medias:
Twitter/X
Website
Lens
Ethereum address/Ethereum Name Service (ENS):
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1 . Ask your questions in this post by leaving a comment
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