This month in curation #14 | April

[Slimchance]

This month

• The Graph R&D Roadmap is announced

• Multiple subgraph migration programs are underway

• Boba Network support is added

• Several Graph Improvement Proposals are being discussed. Two of the GIPs would have direct and significant impact on curation.

The Graph R&D Roadmap

• The Graph Foundation is excited to share The Graph R&D Roadmap - a collaborative plan being executed by contributors from around the world.

  • Multiple independent teams are driving research and development, constantly advancing the vision of The Graph and the mission of web3 forward. This includes Edge & Node, StreamingFast, Figment, The Guild, Semiotic AI, GraphOps, LimeChain, BlockScience, Prysm Group and other independent researchers.
  • This roadmap is constructed from years of research and design across multiple teams to enhance The Graph Network, to fulfill the data needs of dapp developers and consumers.

• The developments detailed in this roadmap include:

  • Significant improvements to indexing performance and streaming architecture with Firehose
  • New data sources and chain support
  • Work towards a SNARK proof for scalable state channels and verifiable querying
  • Upgrades to Delegator and Curator mechanisms
  • Layer 2 scaling
  • More gateways
  • Improvements to the subgraph developer experience
  • Indexer tooling optimizations

• Some of the milestones in this roadmap will also enable Ethereum dapp developers to access historical data after the implementation of Ethereum client upgrade EIP-4444

The Graph Network: Subgraph Migration Is in Full Swing

• Subgraph developers are encouraged to migrate their Ethereum mainnet subgraphs to the Decentralized Network.

  • With 160 indexers competing to serve queries, the network provides unparalleled uptime, security, load balancing and data freshness to Ethereum dApps.

• The Graph Foundation and the Core Developers at The Graph recognize the minor points of friction that may exist throughout the migration process, and have a number of programs underway to make the process as seamless and effortless as possible

  • Migration Grants : Migration grants are offered to help bootstrap curation signal and mitigate initial query costs. Apply Here.
  • Assisted Migration : Solutions engineers from the community help projects migrate to the Decentralized Network. This saves time and gas costs.
  • Marketing Support : Successfully migrated subgraphs are highlighted to the community - example.

• For more information about migrating to the Decentralized Network, read the full blog post.

The Graph’s hosted service has completed a beta integration with Boba Network

• Boba is an Ethereum Layer 2 Optimistic Rollup scaling solution which supports both web2 & web3 data.

• Boba Network aims to support Ethereum devs by

  • Reducing gas fees
  • Improving transaction throughput
  • Integrating VRF (verifiable random function) features
  • Enabling smart contract calls to off-chain RPCs

• Read more about the integration in this announcement.

Graph Improvement Proposals

GIP-0025: DataEdge | Forum | Radicle

• This GIP wasproposed by Zac Burns. It introduces DataEdge: a gas-efficient method to bridge data into subgraphs.

• As L1s become increasingly costly, developers seek to minimize those costs. Rising costs are not just a hypothetical concern but an existential threat to the feasibility of blockchain for many use-cases. DataEdge solves this problem by reducing L1 gas costs to their theoretical lower limit.

• GIP-0025 propose to use an instantiation of DataEdge to improve The Graph Protocol. Flagship use cases within the protocol would include the Cross-Chain Epoch Oracle and the Query Version Registry.

• Note: This GIP currently has the same GIP number as the proposal below. It can also be found on Radicle under GRC-0001

GIP-0025: Principal-Protected Bonding Curves | Forum | Radicle

• This GIP introduce principal-protected bonding curves , a new bonding curve construction in which shares are minted proportional to reserves deposited, using the Bancor formula, but when burning shares, a user is guaranteed to be able to withdraw the amount they had deposited for those shares. In other words, the user of such a bonding curve incurs no principal risk.

• The proposal would replace the bonding curves currently used for subgraph deployments with principal-protected bonding curves. The proposal would also modify the bonding curves in the Graph Name Service (GNS) , to compose with principial-protected bonding curves in a nested bonding curve design, without introducing adverse incentives. Minting shares at the GNS-level would continue to carry principal-risk.

• Curation royalties would continue to be distributed proportional to ownership of curation shares, preserving the dynamic where being earlier to mint shares on a bonding curve, either at the GNS or subgraph deployment level, would still be rewarded relative to minting later.

GIP-0026: Decaying Curation Tax | Forum | Radicle | Observable

• This proposal modifies the existing curation tax on a subgraph deployment bonding curves to decay linearly over time.

  • The Graph currently has a curation tax aimed at discouraging too frequent upgrades of subgraphs.

  • Indexing a subgraph from genesis implies a large upfront cost to Indexers before they have the opportunity to collect indexing rewards or serve queries. If subgraphs are upgraded too frequently or unpredictably, then one might expect Indexer profitability, and by extension participation, to decline.

  • With the principal-protected bonding curve design proposed in GIP-0025, it would be possible to move the curation tax from being applied on deposit (signal) to instead be applied on withdrawal (unsignal). In turn, this would allow a decaying curation tax.

• Reducing or eliminating the curation tax for infrequent upgrades makes the curation market more economically efficient and reduces the costs of using the network to subgraph developers.