Hello everyone! Long time no see. Recently, I shared my opinion about the Graph Protocol somewhere in Cyrator and why I believe it's the market leader in data indexing. While I acknowledge that the Graph is facing some challenges, such as constant selling pressure because of a questionable decision on the airdrop. Data processing market is one of the largest markets. Whenever a sector is formalized, such as finance in the 80s with Bloomberg or the internet with Google and Yahoo, the data layer becomes one of the most profitable and easy to monetize. The Graph is well-positioned in this regard, with many gaps and opportunities still at an early stage. It's also worth noting that the Graph Protocol has a centralized payment portal in its decentralized subgraph network. What is directly a disadvantage, let's try to explain the GRT in more detail:
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The current web architecture is client-server-based, granting immense power to whoever controls the server. This leads to centralization, which is not ideal. However, Web 3 offers a new layer that enables mass decentralization. Blockchains like Ethereum will play a crucial role in this movement.
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Ethereum provides access to all transaction data, but there is still a large amount of raw data that needs to be stored in a format that can be easily and efficiently queried. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and teams are building centralized indexing servers to fill this gap, which goes against the decentralization notion that we are striving for.
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GRT serves as an open information layer for open blockchains, such as Ethereum, and storage systems (IPFS and Filecoin). This makes it simpler for developers to extricate data and provide it to their users in a quick and effective way.
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But how is Graph Protocol decentralized? Well, it involves many different roles in The Graph Network, such as Indexing, Curating, Delegating, and Consuming. Indexers are node operators who stake Graph Tokens to provide indexing and query processing services. Curators are subgraph developers or community members who signal to Indexers which APIs should be indexed by The Graph Network. They deposit GRT to signal on a specific subgraph and earn a portion of query fees for the subgraphs they signal on.
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Subgraphs define what data is indexed from Ethereum and how it is stored. Once a subgraph is deployed, it becomes part of a global graph of blockchain data. Delegators contribute to securing the network by delegating GRT to existing Indexers and earn a portion of query fees and indexing rewards in return. Consumers are end-users who query subgraphs and pay query fees to the Indexers, Curators, and Delegators. They are often developers or projects themselves who cover query fees for their applications, just like they would for AWS or any other cloud service.
Source: The Graph Blog; The Graphs Docs; Show Less
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