The Graph, a blockchain data indexing and query protocol, has fully transitioned to a decentralized data layer with the completion of its Sunrise initiative. This marks the end of a three-phase decentralization plan, moving subgraphs from centralized hosting to a global network of independent data indexers incentivized by GRT tokens. The network now supports over 55 blockchain chains and hosts more than 6,000 subgraphs, significantly increasing query volumes and data service fees year-over-year. The decentralization allows developers to offload data needs to The Graph, promoting a more reliable and decentralized infrastructure for web3 applications.

The Graph, an indexing and query protocol for organizing blockchain data, has transitioned to a fully decentralized data layer following the completion of The Graph Foundation’s Sunrise initiative.Sunrise concludes a three-phase decentralization plan, with subgraphs upgraded from centralized hosting services to The Graph’s globally distributed network of token-incentivized individuals and independent companies that operate as data indexers.Unlike web2 applications, no one company exclusively serves data on the network. Instead, each indexer chooses which application they want to sync and serve queries for on The Graph and is paid by users in native GRT tokens for their contribution to the network.“With the completion of The Graph's Sunrise of decentralized data, we have removed the 'training wheels,' as Vitalik Buterin described them,” Tegan Kline, CEO of Edge & Node, one of the development teams behind The Graph protocol, said in a statement. “The Graph’s Network of data Indexers is now fully decentralized and token-incentivized. There is no longer any reliance on interim crutches or centralized hosting providers.”The Graph introduced subgraphs as a technology in 2018 to index Ethereum but now indexes over 55 chains, including Optimism, Base, Arbitrum, Avalanche, NEAR and Cosmos.Subgraphs allow developers to efficiently extract and organize data from blockchain networks for use in decentralized applications and can also access data from decentralized filesystems like IPFS and Arweave.More than 6,000 subgraphs are now live on The Graph network, Kline told The Block, generating over 900 million queries in the last 30 days — up more than tenfold year-over-year, with data service fees up 369% year-over-year. These include projects such as AAVE, Balancer, Snapshot, Decentraland, ENS, Lido, PancakeSwap and SushiSwap, enabling users to access blockchain data quickly and easily, The Graph Foundation said.Developers publish subgraphs to The Graph Network, which is deployed on Arbitrum, Kline explained. Once published, subgraphs can be indexed by a network of more than 100 globally distributed indexing nodes. Multiple indexers compete to serve queries to ensure redundancy and scalability. If one indexer goes down, others are available to serve queries as needed.Indexers are incentivized via query fees — paid with each query sent by dapps and data consumers — and indexing rewards — issued by the protocol to pay for upfront data indexing, Kline said. Indexers must self-stake at least 100,000 GRT tokens and meet the minimum hardware specification requirements of 16 CPUs, 1TB storage and 32GB of RAM, she added.As a result, dapps can decentralize their data pipelines by offloading their data needs, such as the cost of running physical infrastructure or overhead in maintaining databases, to The Graph network, Kline said. “In other words, developers use The Graph to get the onchain data they need for their dapps in an easy to use, reliable and decentralized way.”“It’s no secret that web3 builders often have to reach for centralized utilities as a sort of ‘training wheels,’” Kline concluded. “While making transactions on the blockchain was open to anyone, reading that data often required reliance on centralized SaaS services. The Graph’s decentralization of this key function is just one of many long needed steps forward for the entire web3 space.”

The Graph Completes Decentralization with Sunrise Initiative, Enhancing Blockchain Data Access