Learn: What is The Graph, and how does it work?

What is The Graph (GRT) cryptocurrency?

The Graph is a decentralized indexing system that allows users to query data from blockchain networks, making DApp development easier.

The Graph is an open-source protocol hosted on the Ethereum blockchain, designed for indexing and querying, much like Google. It collects, organizes and stores data from other blockchains, making it searchable by users.

Using The Graph enables developers to quickly access and analyze data from blockchain networks, making decentralized applications (DApps) easier to build. GRT is The Graph’s native currency, which users pay to make queries.

The Graph’s decentralized indexing protocol uses open-source application programming interfaces (APIs) known as subgraphs, indexes that organize data within a global blockchain graph according to a user’s query.

The subgraphs are transferable, allowing developers to use GraphQL (the language used by The Graph) to query data quickly and efficiently. The Graph’s decentralized network is powered by blockchain technology, a distributed ledger system that enables secure and transparent transactions.

By providing a streamlined interface for developers to access and query data stored on decentralized networks that are not easy to query directly, The Graph is helping to speed up the creation of DApps on that network.

One of The Graph’s use cases is in the growing field of decentralized finance (DeFi). It improves developers’ access to the blockchain network data used in DeFi applications.

Users can also utilize the GRT to create nonfungible tokens (NFTs), one-of-a-kind digital assets maintained in blockchain systems. By streamlining developer access to this data, The Graph promotes the development of NFT marketplaces and other NFT-related apps.

How does The Graph (GRT) crypto work?

The Graph (GRT) is a decentralized cryptocurrency with multiple use cases and a community-driven, open ecosystem that provides indexing and query options to developers building DApps.

The Graph utilizes blockchain technology and a sophisticated indexing protocol to facilitate more efficient blockchain data querying. It first enables DApps to augment Ethereum with data via smart contract transactions. The Graph uses GraphQL technology, in particular, to describe each API’s data in detail.

Graph Nodes perform the initial stage of data aggregation. They are the network’s backbone and scan smart contracts. The Graph uses GraphQL technology to describe each API’s data in greater detail.

Ethereum will only allow you to retrieve basic data from projects involving complex NFTs, such as CryptoPunks, and smart contracts, such as Uniswap, if you try to read them directly.

One can use the Graph’s API or indexed subgraphs to query blockchains and retrieve more complex data faster, more efficiently and without compromising security properties for decentralization.

The Graph protocol analyzes and stores data requested from The Graph Network in subgraphs and then promptly returns the results to the requesting application. Users can browse the platform’s subgraphs using The Graph Explorer portal since The Graph is built on open-source software.

What problem does The Graph solve?

The Graph provides a decentralized indexing protocol that automates the indexing and querying of blockchain data, as well as a community-driven governance model, security and transparency.

By providing a decentralized indexing protocol that automates the process, The Graph addresses the issue of centralized blockchain data indexing and querying. It makes indexing and querying blockchain data more efficient, saving time and money for developers.

GRT holders can participate in the governance of The Graph Network through a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). That ensures developers and contributors make decisions affecting the network using The Graph’s indexing and query solutions, keeping the network decentralized and community-driven.

Additionally, because it is distributed across nodes, The Graph offers security and transparency that centralized indexes cannot match. Since blockchain data is indexed and searched on a decentralized network, cybercriminals have little opportunity to compromise the system.

This article first published in Cointelegraph, written by Tanuj Surve