Contributing The Graph: Open Indexing Protocol Powering the Future of the Web.

2020 has been a rather eventful year for the world at large. The COVID-19 outbreak caused a global health crisis which dealt a huge blow to the global economies. Stock markets crashed, there was widespread panic as the coronavirus spread all over the world, killing millions of people. Perhaps even worse, thousands of people lost their jobs as businesses around the world were forced to close down.

However, crypto has been a beacon of hope amid the darkness of COVID-19. Since the beginning of the year, most cryptocurrencies have been in the green. Earlier in May, it was reported that Bitcoin had considerably outperformed the traditional stocks market. At the time, it almost tripled the Nasdaq 100 in gains and outclassed the S&P 500 by 1600%.

If there’s anything this year has taught us, it’s that crypto is far from dead, as many unbelievers are usually quick to after catching even the slightest whiff of an impending market downtrend.

The blockchain industry has once again experienced a massive boom since the start of the year. Decentralization is a hot topic once again, aptly summed up in the buzzword ‘DeFi’.

Blockchain technology was touted to usher in the internet of value — Web 3.0. The Graph, a decentralized protocol for building and deploying dApps on Ethereum and IPFS, is now working to make this a possibility.

Why You Should Believe in The Graph?

The Graph works as an open indexing protocol and graph API for efficiently organizing data collated from a network of dApps and blockchain networks. The data can then be easily accessed using GraphQL.

A decentralized web has been a lifelong dream for many people. This is even truer in recent years when the internet is now becoming increasingly centralized and plagued with issues like censorship, privacy violation and breach of trust.

No doubt, the internet paved the way for an interconnected world, helping us access, share and store information at the click of a button. But, surely, even we realize it’s done its time. Now, there is a need for a trustless internet ecosystem connecting the world together.

The DeFi movement has seen the rise of decentralized applications, all pushing hard to solve some of humanity’s problems which have risen as a result of today’s closed world. Although this in itself is impressive, particularly when you consider platforms like Uniswap, Compound, Synthetic, Maker etc. and the “moves” they’re making, there’s still something missing.

What’s missing is a secure link sitting atop the internet between blockchains and dApps. And that’s exactly what The Graph is, a decentralized infrastructure for the Web3.

Why The Graph Is Critical to Web3?

Even after an excellent year in crypto, we can’t deny it’s still early days right now for a decentralized web. However, one thing is becoming clearer by the day: The Graph will be a key infrastructural piece of Web 3.0. And here’s exactly why…

You could call The Graph a trendsetter, and you wouldn’t be wrong. Before decentralized finance even became a thing, The Graph has firmly believed that the future of the web is decentralized. Keep in mind, this was a time when decentralized applications faced huge criticism from people who didn’t share this “ambitious” vision.

Querying data on blockchains is usually expensive and tedious. Even worse, smart contracts are not completely standardized between different blockchains, making it difficult for dApps to communicate seamlessly with one another.

This is where a middle-layer protocol comes into the picture.

The Graph's main aim is to create an open Web3 infrastructure powering the decentralized web of the future. The Graph achieves this by sitting in the middle layer between decentralized applications (dApps) and various blockchains, enabling them to communicate and exchange information in a faster, efficient way.

In addition, The Graph seeks to decentralize the middle API layer of the three-layer blockchain stack by introducing an open, incentivized data indexing model consisting of three key players. These key players include indexers who run nodes and process queries, delegators who stake GRT and secure the network and curators who appraise feeds and signal to indexers which queries to run.

By receiving rewards in The Graph Token (GRT), indexers, delegators and curators will be driven to build more powerful APIs.

Finally, The Graph is leveraging a community of dedicated people — developers, node operators and other key players in the ecosystem. This is definitely a smart move, and it'll play a big role in the rapid development of the protocol.

Key Subgraphs Poised to Shape the Future of Web3

Although decentralized applications in general will make up the decentralized web, there's no denying a subset of dApps is responsible for driving most of the hype around the space, namely DeFi solutions.

These DeFi protocols and platforms hold the key to driving a decentralized future for the internet mainly because of their primary use cases and target industry.

The traditional finance industry has been plagued with severe, long-standing problems, most of which catalyzed the development of blockchain technology and the explosion of the cryptocurrency market.

Even more, these DeFi solutions represent arguanly the lowest entry pint for users who are relagtivey new to the crypto space in general. Even for the complex DeFi protocols, the prospect of earning “passive” income by performing minor tasks — say, adding liquidity — is surely an enticing one for beginners.

Going by this, the current subset of dApps (i.e., DeFi protocols) will be instrumental to the future of the internet of value. If (and when) these financial solutions establish s footthold in our everyday lives, that would help push for the implementation of a decentralized web across a lot of industries.

The Graph has finally gone live on its mainnet, after the team spent a long time developing the protocol to ensure a smooth launch. And a smooth launch it had; the price has exploded after the mainnet launch, gaining more than 425% within 24 hours of the launch.

A lot of work has been put into yhe project and it’s still being supported by a dedicated community of contributors with differing roles. Clearly, the speculative value is apparent, after the news of GRT listing on major exchanges was well-received by the crypto community.

But more importantly, it would definitely be exciting to watch how the platform itself performs in the long run.