The Graph expands to Layer 2 Blockchains and Brings Indexed Open Data to Polygon

The Graph expands to L2 side chains and adds Indexing and Querying Support for Polygon, formerly Matic Network, who have over 200k users and 90 applications.


Today we are excited to announce The Graph support for Polygon - Ethereum’s Internet of Blockchains (formerly Matic Network, a side chain for Ethereum) - on The Graph’s hosted service. This begins The Graph’s expansion from applications on Ethereum to Layer 2 scaling solutions that now include side chains, as well as indexing and querying to Polygon to make it easier for developers to build dApps on Polygon. Ethereum’s current record fees are highlighting the utility of second-layer scaling solutions such as Polygon. The Graph is excited to bring indexing to the Polygon ecosystem to help developers build scalable decentralized applications.

Polygon has seen widespread adoption with over 90 dApps, ~7 Million txns and ~200,000 unique users, enabling high-quality user experiences for top dApps like Polymarket, Aavegotchi, Decentral Games, and Neon District. Developers on Polygon can now build and publish open APIs, called subgraphs, that applications can query using GraphQL.

This pairs nicely with The Graph’s community of over 10,000 active developers that have built over 8,000 subgraphs for applications like Uniswap, Synthetix, Aragon, Gnosis, Balancer, Livepeer, DAOstack, AAVE, Decentraland, and many others. The Graph currently supports indexing data from Ethereum and IPFS, adding support for Polygon is the beginning of The Graph’s expansion and PoA with more Layer 1 blockchains and Layer 2 chains coming soon.

Polygon is one of the first well-structured, easy-to-use platforms for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. With the Polygon rebrand, Polygon is now a Layer 2 Aggregator for Ethereum, combining multiple L2 scaling approaches including sidechains (Standalone or Shared Security) and other approaches to scaling like zk Rollups, Optimistic Rollups and Plasma. Its core component is Polygon SDK, a modular, flexible framework that supports building and connecting Secured Chains like Plasma, Optimistic Rollups, zkRollups, Validium, and Standalone Chains like Matic POS. Experiencing a lot of demand for Polygon support from the Defi and NFT developers within the larger Ethereum community, The Graph Foundation decided to launch the hosted Graph service for Polygon’s dev community.

We are excited to unite The Graph and Polygon’s communities, furthering uniting the decentralized Internet (Web3) community.

The Graph: Building Open APIs for Web3

Indexing is a way of structuring and categorizing data so it can be easily searched for and queried by users. Google is a famous example of indexing web data, substantially decreasing the time it takes for users to find and use information on the Internet. Without data indexing, users would need to manually scroll through unorganized data stores filled with raw and unmapped data to find the information they need.

Blockchains are increasingly becoming data-rich environments, both through data generation activities on-chain like smart contract events and calls and through dApps bringing external data on-chain via oracles. All dApps that show blockchain data in their UIs require indexed data to reference the information they need and create good user experiences.

Before The Graph, developers had to write their own indexing code and maintain servers and databases on centralized infrastructure. This introduces a central point of failure; the indexed data can be maliciously or mistakenly manipulated by the dApp or the single server can go offline. Developers also have to spend extra time and money to run the infrastructure themselves. Deploying a subgraph is the most efficient way for developers to index blockchain data.

The Graph solves the problem of centralized data indexing by building a decentralized protocol for indexing blockchain data. With the decentralized network, users will no longer have to trust teams to operate servers and developers can deploy to reliable public infrastructure they don’t have to manage. The Graph uses GraphQL, an open-source query language widely used by the web developer community. It provides a powerful API to get exactly the data users need in a single request, seamlessly traversing and combining data sources. GraphQL makes it easy for Web2 developers to build in Web3.

Subgraphs on Polygon

Developers on Polygon can now build and publish subgraphs. This means that applications like Games, Decentralized Exchanges, Lending Protocols, and other DeFi applications built on Polygon can reliably find and consume organized data from Polygon directly into their dApps.

Sandeep Nailwal, Co-founder and COO of Polygon, said of the partnership,


The Graph and Polygon have a shared mission of building reliable public infrastructure for developers, validators and end users, and this partnership will further this mission and provide incredible value to the crypto and Web3 community.

Eva Beylin, Director at The Graph Foundation, remarks,


A critical component of good crypto experience is ensuring users aren’t paying exorbitant fees. As The Graph begins supporting Layer 2s like Polygon, in addition to Layer 1 blockchains, building scalable dApps will become exponentially easier and data will be accessible across chains.

About Polygon (Formerly Matic)

Polygon is the first well-structured, easy-to-use platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Its core component is Polygon SDK, a modular, flexible framework that supports building and connecting Secured Chains like Plasma, Optimistic Rollups, zkRollups, Validium etc and Standalone Chains like Matic POS, designed for flexibility and independence. Polygon’s Layer 2 Chains have seen widespread adoption with 90+ Dapps, ~7M txns and ~200K unique users.

If you’re an Ethereum Developer, you’re already a Polygon developer! Leverage Polygon’s fast and secure txns for your Dapp, get started here.

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About The Graph

The Graph is the source of data and information for the decentralized internet. As the original decentralized data marketplace that introduced and standardized subgraphs, The Graph has become web3’s method of indexing and accessing blockchain data. Since its launch in 2018, tens of thousands of developers have built subgraphs for dapps across 40+ blockchains - including  Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Polygon, Celo, Fantom, Gnosis, and Avalanche.

As demand for data in web3 continues to grow, The Graph enters a New Era with a more expansive vision including new data services and query languages, ensuring the decentralized protocol can serve any use case - now and into the future.

Discover more about how The Graph is shaping the future of decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) and stay connected with the community. Follow The Graph on X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and Medium. Join the community on The Graph’s Telegram, join technical discussions on The Graph’s Discord.

The Graph Foundation oversees The Graph Network. The Graph Foundation is overseen by the Technical Council. Edge & Node, StreamingFast, Semiotic Labs, The Guild, Messari, GraphOps, Pinax and Geo are eight of the many organizations within The Graph ecosystem.


Category
Graph Protocol
Author
The Graph Foundation
Published
February 16, 2021

The Graph Foundation

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