The Graph Builders Newsletter #6

June 2023

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gm web3 devs!

Thanks for joining The Graph Builders Newsletter (formerly The Graph Developer Newsletter), where you’ll get important monthly developer-focused news and updates that rolled-out in The Graph ecosystem 🙌

There are so many small yet exciting updates in this June edition!

Cheers to you builders!

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Topics

• New features for graph-node and graph-cli
• Previewing The Graph Subscriptions
• The Graph Builders Blog Inaugural Post
• Previewing Paris - Zero To Dapp, EthCC and EthGlobal Paris
• Reviewing Eth Seoul and EthGlobal Waterloo hackathon and project winners
• Reviewing The Graph’s L2 Scaling Journey Day

💻 Graph Node 0.31.0 New Features 💻

Substreams-Powered Subgraphs

Substreams-powered subgraphs are now officially supported by graph-node 0.31.0! 🎆 🎉

The roll-out of Substreams-powered subgraphs has been intentionally slow and is considered to be in a testing phase. In this phase, indexing rewards for substream powered subgraphs are currently not active.

While the roll-out is ongoing, The Graph needs The Graph Builders (you!) to hop in and try building with Substreams-powered subgraphs!

Check out the links below ⬇️to get started.

For docs, StreamingFast’s Substreams documentation. For video, watch a great presentation by Sahra Karakoç and check out her detailed Substreams repo. Explore some examples of Substreams-powered subgraphs and watch some super-helpful Substreams quickstart tutorial videos from Pinax.

Full-Text Search + Where Filtering

Full-text searches can now be combined with where filtering, further narrowing down query results.

Here’s an example query that provides pin-point accuracy to an NFT that has “Love” anywhere in the entity’s metadata (as defined by full-text-search) as well as specifically looks in the description metadata entity for the word “fire”.

Derived Field Loaders

One feature of using subgraphs is that they provide reverse lookups through the @derivedFrom directive. This creates virtual relationships between entities so relevant information can be linked between entities.

Currently, the only way to access the data associated with these virtual relationships is by loading the data into an indexers’ database, performing a query to access the id of the linked relationship, then send another query to get the values associated with that id.

With Derived Field Loaders, these virtual relationships and associated data are able to be accessed in the mappings, resulting in smaller databases and fewer queries  👏

This leads to a more cost-effective and efficient subgraph that puts less load on indexers 😀

Here’s a quick example of how you can load the data from these virtual relationships from the docs:

1. We want to find all the Tokens a Holder has. We create a reverse lookup virtual relationship using the @derivedFrom(field: “holder”) directive:

   

1. Now, Holder.tokens creates a virtual relationship that populates the tokens: [Token!]! array by linking to the entity Token.holder through the @derivedFrom(field “holder”) directive.
2. To access the Token.holder entity data that virtually linked the two together, we can now perform the following pattern in our mappings:

   

Check out the docs to learn how to load data from the virtual relationship provided by the @derivedFrom directive.

Read the full changelog of graph-node 0.31.0 to see the full list of updates.

💻 Graph CLI New Features 💻

Graph-cli version 0.51.1 has arrived with a few new features in tow. Check out the graph-cli 0.51.1 changelog and give these a try next time you’re working with your subgraphs!

1. graph deploy --ipfs-hash QmAb2x… will now deploy a subgraph based on an IPFS hash 🤯 This is a helpful feature to have if you only have the IPFS hash on hand and do not have the subgraph built locally.
2. graph clean deletes all generated artifacts which helps lighten the load of your local subgraph source code.

➕ Previewing The Graph Subscriptions and Subscriptions Beta Program ➕

We are excited to share a preview of The Graph Subscriptions!

The Graph’s Subscriptions is an alternative to The Graph’s existing Pay As You Go billing system.

Subscribers will be able to set up an active subscription to lock-in a fixed number of queries at a flat rate on a per month basis. Subscriptions provide a more predictable billing experience while also streamlining the user experience for query payments.

What is the Subscriptions Beta Program?

The Subscriptions Beta Program allows a small group of users the opportunity to use the Subscriptions MVP before this feature is released to a broader audience. Access to Subscriptions will be based on whitelisting wallets. After a user has gained access, they will be able to setup an active subscription to lock-in their fixed monthly queries.

What are the requirements to use The Graph’s subscriptions?

• Payments must be paid in USDC on Arbitrum (for MVP)
• Prospective users must estimate the number of monthly queries they plan to use

Who should you contact to get involved in the program?

Brandon Kramer - [email protected]

Kyle Rojas - @kyleArojas on Telegram

Marcus Rein - [email protected]

🏗️ The Inaugural Builders Blog Post 🏗️

“Event-Driven Development: Unlocking Optimized Dapps and Subgraphs” By Denver Baumgartner

In this inaugural contribution to The Graph Builders Blog from Denver Baumgartner of Rubicon, Denver introduces Event-Driven Development and how it can improve the development, design, and functionality of your dapp and subgraphs.

Thank you Denver for your contribution to The Graph Builders Blog! We hope that other devs building on The Graph will appreciate your knowledge and experience as much as we do!

If you’d like to contribute to The Graph Builders Blog, fill out this form to propose your article!

🥐 Zero to Dapp Day in Paris - July 18th 2023 🥐

Register HERE

Learn and build alongside the top teams in crypto at 'Zero to Dapp' Day at the Encode Club Hacker House!

@chainlink @graphprotocol @safe @ScaffoldETH @ConnextNetwork & @pushprotocol will all be sharing live-demo workshops to truly get you from zero to a fully-built dapp ASAP.

Live-demo workshops, building sessions, and learning will be had by all ❣️

EthCC and EthGlobal Paris

The Graph will be at EthCC and EthGlobal Paris as well! We’ll be assisting hackers, helping devs at The Graph booth, and doing our best to ensure web3 devs have all the support they need to succeed 💯

Stop by, say hi, grab a POAP, and lets us know how we can improve your developer experience ♥️

🇰🇷 Eth Seoul 2023 🇰🇷

Workshop for Fullstack Web3 Development

Pranav Maheshwari’s workshop: “Full Stack Web3 Development With The Graph” was a hit at Eth Seoul with over 100 buidlers 🏗️ in the audience. Check out the livestream recording and see how both entertaining and helpful Pranav is while sharing his building skills.

Hackathon Rollup

Congratulations to all the hackers who participated at @ETHSeoul!

The Graph Foundation awarded $5,000 in bounties to talented hackers from around the world who utilized subgraphs to develop innovative dapps.

We are so happy that 23% of the hackathon participants built using The Graph 🤯

Winners for Best New Subgraph

🥇HumanDrop 🥇

🥈Chain Feed  🥈

🥉Safura 🥉

Winners for Best Use of Existing Subgraph

🥇 Linkkrypto  🥇

🥈WiFi 🥈

🥉GAS 🥉

🇨🇦 EthGlobal Waterloo 2023 🇨🇦

What an incredible turnout to EthGlobal Waterloo 2023! 💑

650 hackers from 29 different countries showed up to Waterloo to tuck into web3 building for three days straight.

47% of the hackers were new to web3 (welcome new frens!).

Members from Pinax, Edge & Node, The Guild, and The Graph Foundation all showed up to support the hackers and share how they are teaming up to work on The Graph.

Even Vitalik made a showing and gave an impressive talk during Opening Ceremonies that managed to be motivational, fairly critical, and humorous all at once 👍

Scaffold-Eth 2.0 + The Graph Workshop

New Developer Relations Engineer on the Edge & Node team (as well as BuidlGuidl veteran) Kevin Jones gave a great live-coding workshop of the newly-released Scaffold-Eth 2.0 as well as shares how well The Graph easily integrates with Scaffold-Eth.

👀For a full tutorial on how to use Scaffold-Eth 2.0 and The Graph on a Docker image, check out Kevin’s incredible blog entry titled 👨‍🚀 Build a dApp quick with The Graph and Scaffold-ETH 2 🏗️

👀

Quickstart To Subgraph Development and Querying Workshop

Getting started with subgraphs? Lucky for you I gave a live-coding workshop on how to get started with subgraphs! Check it out if you’d like to get started developing The Graph in your stack 🏗️

“Literally before your session I didn’t understand the technical details of how subgraphs ran. I watched your session, and now I understand how subgraphs run, when to use them, how the Studio works… I got it done in the first 45 min of the hackathon, something I thought would take me 10 or 12 hours, I’m now done and ready to move on to the next thing.”

5pence.eth - Hacker at EthGlobal Waterloo

Hackathon Rollup

The Graph Foundation awarded $7,500 in bounties to hackers from around the world who built using subgraphs.

19% of the hackathon submissions submitted using The Graph, a great turnout for such a new web3 development cohort.

Winners for Best New Subgraph

🥇 Roll a Mate  🥇

🥈Scaling Crypto Social Media  🥈

🥉V-lance  🥉

Winners for Best Use of Existing Subgraph

🥇 Goose.ai  🥇

🥈zBay  🥈

🥉Autonomous World ID 🥉

Pool Prizes

Fukuro, PROOF!, WiserRiser, Yama Liquidation Checker, Discova, D-Risk, AltTransfer,Blockmind AI, Spltit, Assiterr, Piglet, Evy

🌌 The Graphs L2 Scaling Journey at The House of Web3 🌌

The Graphs L2 Scaling Journey “Launch and Learn” event was a huge success at The House of Web3!👏

Devs and team members from Arbitrum, Rubicon Finance, Banxa, Livepeer, and Edge & Node all shared presentations on how they are helping to scale web3 beyond current limitations.

We were so lucky that we have the chance to learn from teams sharing their projects for the world to see.

📹 If you missed it, check out the livestream recording to take part in this “Launch and Learn” day 📹

Speaker Highlights

• Arbitrum’s AJ Warner dove into differentiating Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova as well shared their story of how Arbitrum incorporates a flexible approach towards scaling. The bottom line is they want to build whatever will help scale crypto.
• Rubicon Finance’s Denver Baumgartner shared Rubicon’s attitudes and values surrounding their decentralized exchange and how Rubicon’s order-book removes middlemen as well as provides a transparent way for finance to operate.
• Banxa’s Matt Potter presented on how they are pushing towards a scaled future with their crypto fiat on and off-ramp.
• Livepeer’s Suhail Kakar shared how powerful video is in the modern world and how builders can start participating in their ecosystem using their tooling
• Edge & Node’s Pablo Carranza Vélez gave an exciting preview of the L2 Transfer Tools that will improve the migration experience of The Graph participants to Arbitrum

Stay tuned for more updates on L2 scaling in The Graph ecosystem!

Developer Survey

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Thanks for reading!. We hope you enjoyed this edition. Feedback and suggestions are always welcome, just reply directly to this email. We read every reply 💌

Happy hacking!

Marcus from Edge & Node, working on The Graph