This month in curation #15 | May

This month:

  • The Graph AdvocatesDAO has been formed. It is overseeing the Graph Advocates Program and community grants.

  • The Graph Foundation Allocates $1.25M in Wave 5 of Grants

  • Graph Hack will be held in San Francisco on June 3-5

  • Several new GIPs have been proposed to increase the network health and quality of service



The Graph AdvocatesDAO has been formed.

  • Graph AdvocatesDAO is the community governing body that oversees the Graph Advocates Program and community grants.

    • Graph AdvocatesDAO is the first DAO in The Graph Ecosystem.
    • The DAO launched with 20 members who were part of the initial cohort of Advocates, and has since inaugurated several new members.
    • Read the full blogpost here.
  • The DAO received a grant from The Graph Council for $250,000 worth of GRT to seed the treasury. The Treasury is to be used for:

    • Community Grants valued at $20,000 or under. The Foundation will still oversee higher-value grants until the DAO is more mature.
    • Compensating DAO members who contribute to the DAO itself.
    • Reimbursements for Advocate activities.
  • Since launching the initial cohort of the Advocates Program, more than 4,000 individuals have applied from over 70 countries - including Argentina, Nigeria, Germany, China, Canada and India.

    • Active Advocates who successfully contribute in the Advocates Program can apply to join the DAO.
    • Apply now to become an Advocate.



The Graph Foundation Allocates $1.25M in Wave 5 of Grants

  • A year after launching the grants program, with nearly $12 million already allocated, Wave 5 is now complete. Read the blogpost here.

  • Grant applications included submissions from Colombia, Brazil, Korea, Poland, Portugal, Japan, the US and more. Each applicant was assessed based on the project’s expected impact, community feedback, relative significance and urgency in the ecosystem

  • Here are several focus areas that have been identified as high-priority for more contributions in The Graph:

    • Firehose instrumentation
    • Subgraph standards and best practice
    • Multi-blockchain docs and tooling (eg. subgraphs across chains)
    • Indexer allocation tooling (eg. allocation management UI, notification bots)
    • Contributions to GIPs (protocol development and economics)
    • Contributions to the R&D Roadmap
    • Zero-knowledge proof Peer Review - SNARK Force research
    • Educational content & curriculums for subgraphs & web3 development
    • Community grants at the Graph AdvocatesDAO
  • If you have ideas for Wave 6 make sure to apply for a grant - the application portal is always open!



Graph Hack - San Francisco June 3-5

  • On June 2nd, the world’s brightest dreamers & doers will gather for Graph Day at The historic Palace Of Fine Arts, San Francisco.

  • Following Graph Day, developers, innovators and creatives are invited to join Graph Hack. This 3 day hackathon will be held at the same location June 3-5.



Graph Improvement Proposals


GIP-0027: Create altruistic allocations and close stale allocations | Forum | Github

  • Earlier this year, it was proposed to implement a Rewarded force-close mechanism to eliminate stale allocations.

  • GIP-0027 arose from the least contentious ideas of the discussion above.

  • GIP-0027 provides a way for the public to close allocations that are expired, while also carving out an exception for Indexers that want to serve queries “altruistically”.

    • It is already possible for anyone to close a stale allocation by first delegating any amount of GRT. After which they can force-close the stale allocation. GIP-0027 would allow anyone to force-close a stale allocation without first having to delegate, making the process simpler and cheaper. Read more about the motivation for doing so in the Forum post.
    • Today, indexers must allocate more than zero tokens. However, indexers might want to index and serve queries on a particular subgraph “altruistically” by opting out of rewards. GIP-0027 would allow Indexers to open an allocation with 0 GRT. The public would not be able to close 0 GRT/”altruistic” allocations.




GIP-0028: Subsidized Query Settlement | Forum | Radicle

  • Indexers on the network have two revenue streams: Indexing Rewards and Query Fees.

    • Indexing Rewards allows the network to bootstrap the supply side (Indexing) before a subgraph sees significant production traffic.
    • Query Fees are paid when subgraph consumers query the network
  • The decentralized network is nascent, and Indexing Rewards account for the vast majority of an Indexer’s revenue. Collecting query fee rebates is quite often economically unfeasible. The gas cost of claiming the rebates would outweigh the rebates the Indexer stand to collect.

  • GIP-0028 propose to move the distribution of Indexing Rewards to the end of an allocation lifecycle:

    • Current:

      1. Create Allocation
      2. Close Allocation → distribute indexing rewards
      3. Collect query fees through payment vouchers
      4. Claim Allocation Rebate → distribute query rewards
    • Proposed in GIP-0028:

      1. Create Allocation
      2. Close Allocation
      3. Collect query fees through payment vouchers
      4. Claim Allocation Rebate → distribute both indexing and query rewards
  • With GIP-0028, any token distribution, both for query (from rebate pool) and indexing rewards, would happen when claiming an Allocation. If query rewards are zero the indexer would forfeit their indexing rewards.(!)




GIP-0029: Signal Renting | Forum | Radicle

  • This proposal is dependent on GIP-0025: Principal Protected Bonding Curves You can find GIP-0025 in the Forum and on Radicle. You can find a short summary of GIP-0025 in This Month in Curation #14

  • GIP-0029 propose the creation of an automated market maker (AMM) that enables Curators/ developers to rent signal from a liquidity pool. This may improve their user experience in a number of ways:

    • A capital constrained developer may rent additional signal to increase the QoS (Quality of Service) on their subgraph. (Short- or long-term)
    • A developer may rent signal to bootstrap the initial Indexing of a subgraph. Once the subgraph is indexed and used in production, the query fees may attract independent, financially motivated curators to boost the signal on the subgraph.
    • A developer may rent their signal instead of taking on the upfront cost of buying GRT. This would improve the User Experience for developers that prefer having a service closer to a traditional SaaS (Software as a service).
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