Diving Into The Graph Decentralized Index System Trough Coinbase

I remember when The Graph launched back in 2018, and how the decentralized indexing system improved the way DApps worked. Developers could query data from blockchain networks and therefore simplify DApp development.

The users were able to create better applications without needing to run your own data server, build indexing infrastructure, or parse through raw data.

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 whole ecosystem is powered by $GRT, the native currency of the protocol with multiple use cases.

Users have to stake $GRT to be able to access and organize data using subgraphs. They can earn payments from the network in exchange for their contributions.

Using The Graph reduced the costs and time spent running expensive infrastructure by up to 90%, and increased uptime by 99.99. The DAPPs uptime and data flowing reached a globally distributed network of contributors.

Why The Graph was groundbreaking? The open-source protocol was deployed on Ethereum mainnet, being designed for indexing and querying. The data is collected automatically, organized and stored in such way that it is easy searchable by users.

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.

The Graph addresses the issue of centralized blockchain data indexing and querying, and it took me 5 years to give it a try! Had a small stash of $GRT from previous Learn2Earn quests on Coinbase, and the new tasks on Coinbase Wallet made my stash grow even more.

GRT holders are able to participate in the governance through the DAO. The developers and contributors make decisions affecting the network, using staked tokens for decision making. I was ready to embrace a new challenge, and delegate on The Graph. Coinbase wanted the users to reinforce the secure the network by delegating $GRT to an Indexer, using the Arbitrum network for the task.

I mastered the art of delegating to an Indexer, and explored the earning opportunities that a Delegator has. I received both knowledge and rewards, with 115 $GRT being sent in my wallet. This was just the first part of the quest, and more rewards were ready to be claimed.

Searched for an Indexer with a smaller reward cut, and the one I found looked ok. Maybe it wasn't and I will just give all my rewards to a random guy. Not sure why I choose this one, but back then it looked like the best option. The 16.67% effective reward cut was probably the lowest in there!

I delegated 115 GRT to the Indexer, paying a delegator tax at 0.5% of the delegated amount. I completed the quest and received another batch of GRT tokens as reward.

Received $5 worth of GRT and waited for the reward to be credited. I decided to add the reward to the previous delegation, and I topped up the same Indexer as before.

Added the prize and rounded up my delegation to 380 GRT tokens. Remembered about this while writing this article and went to Coinbase to check. The delegation rewards after two months summed 10.21 GRT, marked as unrealized. I had no idea what it meant so I had to google it!

The unrealized reward shows the final amount of GRT that has been assigned to a delegator, and the network automatically adds the unrealized rewards to the existing delegation. It becomes "Realized" when the delegator exited the rewards, subject to a 28 day thawing period, and it is available for withdrawal. It is important to note that the realized rewards are no longer delegated and do no longer earn rewards.