The Evolution of Data Access in Web3: Overview of Indexers and Related Projects

The core of blockchain technology lies in data, which is the foundation for developing decentralized applications ( dApp ). While most discussions currently focus on data availability ( DA ), which ensures that all network participants can access the latest transaction data for verification, there is another equally important but often overlooked aspect: data accessibility.

In the era of modular blockchain, DA solutions have become an indispensable part. These solutions ensure that all participants can access transaction data, enabling real-time verification and maintaining the integrity of the network. However, the functionality of the DA layer is more like a temporary bulletin board rather than a permanent database. This means that data will not be stored indefinitely but will be deleted over time, just as posters on a bulletin board will eventually be replaced by new ones.

In contrast, data accessibility focuses on the ability to retrieve historical data, which is crucial for developing dApps and conducting blockchain analysis. This aspect is particularly important for tasks that require access to past data to ensure accurate representation and execution. Although data accessibility is rarely discussed, it is equally important as data availability. The two play different but complementary roles in the blockchain ecosystem, and a comprehensive data management approach must address both issues simultaneously to support robust and efficient blockchain applications.

Traditional Methods of Blockchain Data Retrieval

Since its inception, blockchain has fundamentally changed the infrastructure, driving the creation of decentralized applications (dApps) in various fields such as gaming, finance, and social networks. However, building these dApps requires access to vast amounts of blockchain data, which is both difficult and expensive.

For dApp developers, one option is to host and run their own archive RPC nodes. These nodes store all historical blockchain data from the beginning, allowing for complete access to the data. However, maintaining archive nodes is costly, and their query capabilities are limited, making it impossible to query data in the format required by developers. While running cheaper nodes is an option, these nodes have limited data retrieval capabilities, which may affect the operation of the dApp.

Another method is to use commercial RPC node providers. These providers are responsible for the costs and management of the nodes and provide data through RPC endpoints. Public RPC endpoints are free but have rate limits, which can negatively affect the user experience of dApps. Private RPC endpoints offer better performance by reducing congestion, but even simple data retrieval requires a lot of back-and-forth communication. This makes them request-heavy and inefficient for complex data queries. Additionally, private RPC endpoints are often difficult to scale and lack compatibility across different networks.

Better Choice: Blockchain Indexer

Blockchain indexers play a critical role in organizing on-chain data and sending it to databases for easier querying, which is why they are often referred to as "the Google of blockchain." They work by indexing blockchain data and making it available at any time through APIs like GraphQL using a SQL-like query language (. By providing a unified interface for querying data, indexers allow developers to quickly and accurately retrieve the information they need using standardized query languages, significantly simplifying the process.

Different types of indexers optimize data retrieval in various ways:

1. Full Node Indexer: Extracts data directly from the complete blockchain nodes, ensuring data integrity and accuracy, but requires a large amount of storage and processing power.

2. Lightweight Indexer: Relies on full nodes to retrieve specific data on demand, reducing storage requirements but potentially increasing query time.

3. Specialized Indexer: Optimized for specific types of data or specific blockchains, such as NFT data or DeFi transactions.

4. Aggregated Indexer: Extracts data from multiple blockchains and sources ) including off-chain information (, providing a unified query interface, particularly useful for multi-chain dApps.

Ethereum alone requires 3TB of storage space. As the blockchain continues to grow, the data storage capacity of Erigon archive nodes is also steadily increasing. The indexer protocol deploys multiple indexers, which can efficiently index and quickly query large amounts of data, something that RPC cannot achieve.

Indexers also support complex queries, easily filter data based on different criteria, and extract data for subsequent analysis. Some indexers allow for the aggregation of data from multiple sources, avoiding the need to deploy multiple APIs in multi-chain dApps. By being distributed across multiple nodes, indexers provide enhanced security and performance, whereas RPC providers may experience interruptions and downtime due to their centralized nature.

Overall, compared to RPC node providers, indexers improve the efficiency and reliability of data retrieval while reducing the cost of deploying a single node. This makes blockchain indexer protocols the preferred choice for dApp developers.

![The Development of Web3 Data Access: Introduction to Indexers and Related Projects])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-16396b955382c2c74010c264affdca46.webp(

Indexer Use Cases

As mentioned earlier, building a dApp requires retrieving and reading blockchain data to operate its services. This includes any type of dApp, such as DeFi, NFT platforms, games, and even social networks, as these platforms need to read data first before executing other transactions.

) DeFi

DeFi protocols require different information to quote specific prices, rates, fees, etc., for users. Automated Market Maker (AMM) needs price and liquidity information from certain liquidity pools to calculate swap rates, while lending protocols need utilization rates to determine borrowing rates and the liquidation debt ratio. It is essential to input this information into the dApp before calculating the rates executed by users.

Game

GameFi needs to quickly index and access data to ensure users can play games smoothly. Only through rapid data retrieval and execution can Web3 games compete in performance with Web2 games, thereby attracting more users. These games require data such as land ownership, in-game token balances, and in-game operations. By using indexers, they can better ensure stable data flow and stable uptime to provide a perfect gaming experience.

( NFT

NFT markets and lending platforms need to index data to access various information, such as NFT metadata, ownership and transfer data, royalty information, etc. Quickly indexing such data can avoid browsing each NFT one by one to find ownership or NFT attribute data.

Whether it's the DeFi automated market maker )AMM### that requires price and liquidity information, or the SocialFi applications that need to update new user posts, the ability to quickly retrieve data is crucial for the normal operation of dApps. With the help of indexers, they can efficiently and accurately retrieve data, providing a smooth user experience.

analysis

The indexer provides a method to extract specific data from the raw blockchain data (, including smart contract events within each block ). This offers opportunities for more specific data analysis, thereby providing comprehensive insights.

For example, perpetual trading protocols can identify which tokens have high trading volumes and generate high fees, thus deciding whether to list these tokens as perpetual contracts on their platform. DEX developers can create dashboards for their products to gain insights into which liquidity pools have the highest returns or strongest liquidity. They can also create public dashboards that allow developers to freely and flexibly query any type of data to be displayed on the charts.

With multiple blockchain indexers available, identifying the differences between indexing protocols is crucial for ensuring that developers choose the indexer that best meets their needs.

![The development of Web3 data access: Introduction to indexers and related projects]###https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-53dbb4fd659cf6a7184990c886901658.webp(

Overview of Blockchain Indexers

) The Graph

The Graph is the first indexing protocol launched on Ethereum, which allows for easy querying of previously hard-to-access transaction data. It uses subgraph definitions and filters to collect subsets of data from the blockchain, for example, all transactions related to a certain DEX USDC/ETH pool.

Using index proof, indexers stake the native token GRT for indexing and query services, and delegators can choose to stake their tokens here. Curators can access high-quality subgraphs to assist indexers in determining which subgraphs to curate data for in order to earn the best query fees. During the transition to greater decentralization, The Graph will eventually stop its hosting services and require subgraphs to upgrade to its network while providing upgraded indexers.

Its infrastructure brings the average cost per million queries to $40, which is much lower than the cost of self-hosted nodes. By using file data sources, it also supports parallel indexing of both on-chain and off-chain data for efficient data retrieval.

The indexing rewards of The Graph have been steadily increasing over the past few quarters. This is partly due to the increase in query volume, but also attributed to the rise in token prices, as they plan to integrate AI-assisted queries in the future.

( Subsquid

Subsquid is a peer-to-peer, horizontally scalable decentralized data lake that efficiently aggregates large amounts of on-chain and off-chain data while providing protection through zero-knowledge proofs. As a decentralized worker network, each node is responsible for storing data from a specific subset of blocks, speeding up the data retrieval process by quickly identifying nodes that hold the required data.

Subsquid also supports real-time indexing, allowing it to be indexed before the block is finalized. It also supports storing data in formats chosen by developers, making it easier to analyze using tools like BigQuery, Parquet, or CSV. Additionally, subgraphs can be deployed on the Subsquid network without migrating to the Squid SDK, enabling no-code deployment.

Despite still being in the testnet phase, Subsquid has achieved impressive statistics, with over 80,000 testnet users, more than 60,000 Squid indexers deployed, and over 20,000 verified developers on the network. Recently, on June 3rd, Subsquid launched the mainnet of its data lake.

In addition to indexing, the Subsquid Network data lake can also replace RPC in use cases such as analytics, ZK/TEE co-processors, AI agents, and Oracles.

) SubQuery

SubQuery is a decentralized middleware infrastructure network that provides RPC and indexing data services. It initially supported the Polkadot and Substrate networks, and has now expanded to include over 200 chains. Its operation is similar to The Graph, which uses indexing proofs; indexers index data and provide query requests, while delegators stake their shares to the indexers. However, it introduces consumers to submit purchase orders, indicating that the indexer's revenue is guaranteed, rather than managed.

It will introduce SubQuery data nodes that support sharding to prevent constant synchronization of new data between each node, thereby optimizing query efficiency, while moving towards greater decentralization. Users can choose to pay a computing fee of approximately 1 SQT token for every 1000 requests, or set custom fees for indexers through the protocol.

Although SubQuery launched its token earlier this year, the issuance rewards for nodes and delegators have also increased in USD value month-on-month, which represents a continuous increase in the number of query services offered on its platform. Since the TGE, the total amount of staked SQT has increased from 6 million to 125 million, highlighting the growth of network participation.

Covalent

Covalent is a decentralized indexing network, created by block sample producers ###BSP### network nodes through bulk export to create copies of blockchain data, and publishes proofs on the Covalent L1 blockchain. This data is then refined by block result producers ###BRP( nodes according to set rules to filter out the data that meets the requirements.

Through a unified API, developers can easily extract relevant blockchain data in a consistent request and response format, without the need to write custom complex queries to access the data. The CQT token, settled on Moonbeam, can be used as a means of payment to extract these pre-configured datasets from network operators.

The rewards for Covalent seem to be on an overall upward trend from the first quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024, partly due to the increase in the price of the Covalent token CQT.

![The Development of Web3 Data Access: Introduction to Indexers and Related Projects])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-52ee29205aa307720198994a5f3de61f.webp(

Considerations for Choosing an Indexer

) Customizability of data

Some indexers (, such as Covalent ), are general-purpose indexers that provide standard pre-configured datasets solely through APIs. While they may be fast, they cannot provide