The Graph’s Community Talk #31 was held on Tuesday, January 16th @8am pst.
The Graph’s Community Talk covers a wide range of subjects and provides attendees with a comprehensive recap of the latest happenings within The Graph community. The meetings are held in The Graph Stage channel of the Discord Server.
Tip: Go to the events channel at the top of the Discord server and set yourself a reminder for The Graph’s Community Talk.
Detailed notes regarding each topic with timestamps can be found below.
The Graph’s Community Talk is geared towards a broad audience regardless of background. Active participation and engagement from the community is encouraged!
You can find this and all other community events on the ecosystem calendar. Subscribe to the calendar to stay up to date on future events!
Community Updates (00:00)
Community Talk #31 took place on Tuesday, January 16th, 2024, featuring a diverse agenda. This included updates on Geo and Subgraph Radio, the launch of Tenderize V2, and The Graph advocates mentorship initiative. In celebration of The Graph’s new era, The Graph AdvocatesDAO announced a meme competition, offering exclusive Graph swag and stickers as prizes for participants who create and post memes with designated hashtags. Additionally, an ongoing discussion initiated by a Graph Advocate is taking place on The Graph forum, focusing on the future of curation. The Graph AdvocatesDAO is also set to sponsor the Eth Cinco de Mayo hackathon in Puebla, Mexico, from February 2nd to 4th, where members of The Graph ecosystem will serve as judges.
GRTiQ New Releases
GRTiQ Podcast: 148 Zac Burns
This episode features a return visit from Zac Burns, Principal System Architect at Edge & Node, focusing on Graph Horizon, a key initiative in The Graph’s “New Era” roadmap. It delves into Horizon’s origins, its visionary purpose, and its potential impact on The Graph protocol and its community.
GRTiQ Podcast: 149 The Best of 2023 (Part 1) & 150 The Best of 2023 (Part 2)
These episodes feature highlights from the GRTiQ Podcast’s remarkable 2023 season, showcasing insights and stories from episodes 98 to 148.
GRTiQ Podcast: 151 Maarten Henskens
This episode features Maarten Henskens, Head at the Astar Foundation, discussing Astar’s journey towards integration with The Graph Network and its unique position in Japan’s blockchain ecosystem. It explores Maarten’s transition from education to web3, his passions, and Astar’s distinct qualities and community, highlighting their anticipated partnership with The Graph.
Core Developer Updates
Semiotic Labs
Pinax
The Guild
Graph Ops
Messari
Geo
Edge & Node
StreamingFast
LATAM Upates & Initiatives (02:10)
During the community talk, significant updates were shared about the contributions of advocates in The Graph’s Spanish-speaking community, particularly in the LATAM region. Key among these contributors is Zuni, an active member in the global community known for her presence on Telegram. She has launched a project to interview various Indexers and present their insights, aiming to report on community activities with a focus on making them understandable for the Spanish-speaking audience.
In Venezuela, another advocate is exerting considerable efforts to grow the local community. This includes the translation of English presentations into Spanish, ensuring that the Spanish-speaking community is as informed and involved in the ecosystem as their English-speaking counterparts, receiving updates simultaneously.
From Bolivia, Emmi has taken the initiative to create an Instagram account dedicated to teaching the fundamentals of blockchain in Spanish. This effort addresses the gap in blockchain understanding within the Spanish-speaking community. Her objective is to educate about blockchain and The Graph, and the broader opportunities in the blockchain ecosystem. She emphasizes making the content user-friendly and clear, utilizing UX principles to avoid overwhelming her audience with information.
Geo Updates (08:10)
In November 2022, during the 17th community talk, the first update on Geo revealed it as mainly a conceptual project with limited development in its product and engineering aspects. By June 2023, at the 24th community talk, a noticeable advancement in the project was evident, as described by a Graph explorer who shared her firsthand experiences with Geo. By the time of Community Talk #31, Geo has achieved considerable progress, marking a clear advancement from its initial conceptual stages.
This includes launching a new website that effectively communicates Geo’s vision and purpose. Geo’s primary goal is to decentralize information organization, empowering experts while allowing everyone to have a voice. This is realized through “Geo Genesis,” the initial step in creating a global decentralized Knowledge Graph, organized into independent communities or spaces. These spaces encompass a variety of subjects such as philosophy, artificial intelligence, history, politics, and health. Community members actively contribute by adding credible data, claims, arguments, and lists to enhance understanding and encourage action.
The platform incorporates a ranking system, enabling communities to identify and prioritize critical issues and valuable information. This fosters a more nuanced and participative mode of information sharing and discussion. While certain features of Geo are currently operational, others are under development, with the full launch expected soon. The aim is to go public and permissionless once all features are fully developed and refined.
Geo’s methodology allows users to access and browse information in an organized, high-quality format, underpinned by blockchain technology. The platform curates in-depth and verified information on various global issues, including conflicts. The overarching goal of Geo is to elevate community engagement and dialogue, moving beyond typical comment sections to more comprehensive and constructive discussions.
Once launched, The Graph advocates are encouraged to join and participate in Geo. The platform represents an evolution in the way information is curated and edited within a decentralized framework, offering a new paradigm for community-driven information sharing.
Try Geo here!
Subgraph Radio Updates (17:40)
Subgraph Radio, initially introduced alongside the initial GRC and the concept of Graphcast, has achieved a significant milestone with release 1.0. This release brings notable improvements, including database persistence, which enhances scalability and data efficiency by replacing the older JSON file system. The update has also streamlined configuration validation, crucial for verifying Indexer addresses against on-chain data. The Graphcast network has been scaled up through a switch to a more efficient relay protocol, ensuring more stable and reliable message propagation.
Further developments include the integration of Subgraph Radio into the Squids Docker compose stack and Launchpad, facilitating easier access for beginners and Kubernetes users. For network participants, Subgraph Radio offers multiple benefits. It enables efficient data exchange among Indexers, featuring POI crosschecking to identify discrepancies and a Grafana dashboard for aggregated network intelligence. A standout feature is the subgraphs upgrade pre-syncing, which allows subgraph developers to inform Indexers about new versions in advance, thus minimizing downtime.
Additionally, the platform provides configurable notifications for divergences and a GraphQL API for detailed analysis. Educational resources such as documentation and a YouTube playlist with workshops are made available, catering especially to subgraph developers. Community engagement is encouraged through the Graphcast channel on The Graph Discord, inviting discussions and feedback.
In summary, Subgraph Radio’s development marks a significant step forward in data exchange and network intelligence within The Graph ecosystem, enhancing the tools and features available to Indexers and other network participants.
The Graph Advocates Mentorship Initiative (31:03)
The Graph Advocates Mentorship program, led by Juliana from the Graph AdvocatesDAO, is a new initiative designed to support and guide advocates in their journey within The Graph community. This mentorship is primarily aimed at two groups: new advocates who are uncertain about how to start contributing after their onboarding, and existing advocates who have joined earlier but have not yet contributed.
The importance of submitting a contribution form for all activities undertaken in the advocate role was emphasized. This submission is crucial as it serves as proof of contribution, helping to build credibility and reputation within the community. It’s important for advocates to understand that even if they don’t seek rewards, submitting these forms is vital for acknowledgment and tracking of their contributions. This practice could also enhance their chances of receiving community grants or becoming part of the DAO, especially with ongoing high-quality contributions.
The mentorship program has set specific goals. It begins with advocates filling out a feedback form to express their initial motivations for joining the program, their aspirations, and any obstacles they might have encountered in starting their contributions. This feedback is essential for understanding the advocates’ perspectives and guiding them towards achieving their long-term goals. The primary objective is to assist inactive advocates in making their first contribution, thereby making the mentorship program beneficial and effective for all members involved.
Launch and Demo of Tenderize V2 (36:15)
During The Graph’s community talk, the upcoming launch of Tenderize V2, a novel liquid staking protocol for GRT (and others), was a focal point, featuring significant contributions from the Tenderize team.
Scheduled to launch on January 29th, Tenderize V2 is a thorough reimagining of liquid staking architecture, designed to better embrace decentralization and the cypherpunk ethos. The protocol introduces Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) which are obtained by delegating GRT and are liquid on a newly established Automated Market Maker called Tender Swap. These LSTs can serve various purposes including collateral in DeFi, building custom indexes, or as a white-label solution for Indexers.
The team behind Tenderize V2 shared their diverse backgrounds, spanning roles in DeFi and other major industries. A live demonstration of the Tenderize V2 user interface was provided, showcasing the straightforward process of staking and unstaking GRT, along with the capability to instantly swap liquid staked tokens for GRT, highlighting the app’s user-friendly and mobile-compatible design.
Tenderize V2 has garnered significant support, with several launch partners from The Graph network onboard and a target Total Value Locked (TVL) exceeding $10 million. Feedback from users who tested the app during its testnet phase was overwhelmingly positive, particularly appreciating the flexibility it offers in transitioning between different Indexers without the usual unstaking waiting period. Looking ahead, post-launch plans include introducing features like borrowing against staked GRT, akin to over-collateralized loans seen in platforms such as MakerDAO.
In terms of incentives and governance, the team announced an AirDrop for Tenderize V1 users and the chance to earn exclusive hats through quests, which will be convertible to Tenderize’s governance token, with further details available at:
Stay Tuned!
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