\ The Graph Network, a decentralized protocol for indexing and querying data from blockchains, has reported an all-time high of 1.95 billion monthly queries in July 2024. This figure represents an 11x increase compared to July 2023, signaling significant adoption following the network's complete transition to decentralization.
\ The remarkable growth aligns with The Graph's strategic shift from a hosted service to a fully decentralized network. This transition was part of the "Sunrise of Decentralized Data" initiative launched in October 2023, led by Tegan Kline, CEO of Edge & Node—the initial team behind The Graph. On June 12, 2024, The Graph officially deprecated its free hosted service for subgraphs, encouraging developers to migrate their applications to the decentralized network.
\ The move aimed to eliminate dependencies on centralized infrastructure, thereby enhancing data autonomy and aligning with the foundational principles of Web3. By decentralizing, The Graph enables developers to build decentralized applications (dapps) that are more resilient, censorship-resistant, and secure.
\ Expansion of Subgraphs and Network Usage
Subgraphs, which are open APIs that organize and make blockchain data accessible, have seen substantial growth. The number of subgraphs on the decentralized network has surpassed 9,000, marking a 361% increase since the end of Q1 2024. This surge reflects the developer community's rapid adoption of decentralized indexing services.
\ The technical migration involved significant coordination and tooling. The Graph's core developers provided infrastructure support to facilitate seamless upgrades of existing subgraphs. This included enhancing indexing capabilities, optimizing query performance, and ensuring cross-chain compatibility.
\ Multi-Blockchain Support and Technical Enhancements
The Graph Network has extended its indexing and querying services to over 60 blockchains, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Polygon, Celo, Fantom, Gnosis, and Avalanche. This broad support allows developers across various ecosystems to leverage The Graph's decentralized services, reducing operational costs and improving data synchronization times.
\ Looking forward, the network plans to enhance subgraph functionalities continually. These enhancements aim to deliver improved querying experiences through increased efficiencies, faster syncing speeds, and support for new data sources.
\ Implications for the Web3 Ecosystem
The successful transition to a decentralized network has significant implications for the Web3 ecosystem. In an environment of increasing regulatory scrutiny on centralized crypto projects, decentralization offers a pathway to greater resilience and adherence to the ethos of blockchain technology.
\ "The surge in growth of queries on the decentralized network indicates that developers and consumers of blockchain demand data that is secure, reliable, and censorship-resistant from a decentralized source," said Tegan Kline, CEO of Edge & Node. "Empowering the team to fully upgrade The Graph's hosted service to the decentralized network has set in motion a worldwide data autonomy movement."
\ Beyond Subgraphs: Building a Global Knowledge Graph
The Graph is expanding its vision beyond subgraphs to build a global brain of data—a unified knowledge graph. This infrastructure aims to serve as a foundation from which humans and AI agents can source decentralized, verifiable data. By doing so, The Graph seeks to meet broader user data needs and support more complex querying capabilities.
\ Final Thoughts
The Graph Network's milestone of reaching 1.95 billion monthly queries underscores the growing demand for decentralized data solutions in the blockchain space. By providing efficient, secure, and decentralized access to blockchain data across multiple networks, The Graph is playing a pivotal role in advancing decentralized applications and the broader Web3 ecosystem.
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:::tip Vested Interest Disclosure: This author is an independent contributor publishing via our business blogging program. HackerNoon has reviewed the report for quality, but the claims herein belong to the author. #DYOR
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