Sunrise of Decentralized Data FAQ

The Sunrise of Decentralized Data is an initiative spearheaded by Edge & Node. The goal is to enable subgraph developers to seamlessly upgrade to The Graph’s decentralized network.

This plan draws on many previous developments from The Graph ecosystem, including an upgrade Indexer to serve queries on newly published subgraphs, and the ability to integrate new blockchain networks to The Graph.

Sunray: Enable support for hosted service chains, introduce a seamless upgrade flow, offer a free plan on The Graph Network as well as simple payment options.
Sunbeam: The upgrade window that subgraph developers will have to upgrade their hosted service subgraphs to The Graph Network. This window will end on June 12th 2024.
Sunrise: Hosted service endpoints will be deprecated on June 12th 2024.

Hosted service subgraph endpoints will be deprecated on June 12th, 2024 (the cutoff date).

Yes, the upgrade Indexer will automatically support all hosted service subgraphs published to The Graph Network for a seamless upgrade experience.

To upgrade a hosted service subgraph, you can visit the subgraph dashboard on the hosted service.

1. Select the subgraph(s) you want to upgrade.
2. Select the receiving wallet (the wallet that will become the owner of the subgraph).
3. Click the "Upgrade" button.

Once your subgraph is published, the upgrade Indexer will begin serving queries on it, so you can begin making queries immediately, once you have generated an API key (learn more).

The Graph community is here to support developers as they move to The Graph Network. Join The Graph's Discord server and request help in the #upgrade-decentralized-network channel.

All subgraphs will be supported by the upgrade indexer. Developers can add GRT signal to Subgraphs eligible for indexing rewards in order to attract additional Indexers, for redundancy and improved quality of service (learn more about adding signal to your subgraph)

Subgraphs which are not eligible for indexing rewards may have difficulty attracting further Indexers. For example, indexing rewards may not be available for subgraphs on certain chains (check support here).

Members from these blockchain communities are encouraged to integrate their chain through the Chain Integration Process.

You can deploy new versions of your subgraph directly to Subgraph Studio, which provides a testing environment, before publishing to the network for production usage. Subgraph Studio has a different deployment command to the , and requires a version-label for each new deployment.

1. Upgrade to the latest version of graph-cli
2. Update your deploy command

# Authorize with Subgraph Studio, available on your subgraph page
## Alternativel pass this into the deploy command as --access-token (see below)
graph auth --studio <deploy-key>

# Deploy to Subgraph studio
## Unlike the hosted service, the name is just the subgraph name (no github id)
## If using `--node` directly, you can pass in https://api.studio.thegraph.com/deploy/
graph deploy --studio --version <version> --access-token <deploy-key> <subgraph-name>

This new version will then sync on the subgraph studio, a testing and sandbox environment. When you are ready to move a new version to production, you can publish the subgraph version.

Subgraphs will be queryable on the hosted service until the cutoff date, after which they will be rate limited. Owners will still be able to simply upgrade their subgraphs at any time, even after the cutoff date.

When the owner has upgraded their subgraph, you will be able to easily go from the subgraph's Hosted Service page to the corresponding subgraph on The Graph Network, and update your application to use the new subgraph's query URL (learn more).

Around the start of June, Edge & Node will automatically upgrade actively queried subgraphs. This will give any third party data consumers an opportunity to move to the new Network subgraph endpoints before the cutoff date. The subgraph owners will still be able to “claim” these subgraphs on the network using the Hosted Service upgrade flow.

You can explore available subgraphs on Graph Explorer. Learn more about querying subgraphs on The Graph.

The upgrade Indexer is designed to improve the experience of upgrading subgraphs from the hosted service to The Graph Network and supporting new versions of existing subgraphs that have not yet been indexed.

The upgrade Indexer is aimed at bootstrapping chains that do not yet have indexing rewards on the network, as well as a fallback for new subgraph versions. The goal is to ensure that an Indexer is available to serve queries as quickly as possible after a subgraph is published.

The upgrade Indexer supports chains that were previously only available on the hosted service.

Find a comprehensive list of supported chains here.

Edge and Node has historically maintained the hosted service and, as a result, has already synced data for hosted service subgraphs.

Any and all Indexers are encouraged to become upgrade Indexers as well. However, note that operating an upgrade Indexer is largely provided as a public service to support new subgraphs and additional chains due to the lack of indexing rewards before they are approved by The Graph Council.

Chains that were previously exclusively supported on the hosted service are available to developers on The Graph without indexing rewards at first, though this does unlock query fees for any Indexer that is interested. This is expected to lead to an increase in the number of subgraphs being published on the network, providing more opportunities for Indexers to index and serve these subgraphs in return for query fees, even before indexing rewards are enabled for a chain.

The upgrade Indexer also provides the Indexer community with information about potential demand for subgraphs and new chains on The Graph Network.

The upgrade Indexer offers a powerful opportunity for Delegators. As more subgraphs are upgraded from the hosted service to The Graph Network, Delegators stand to benefit from the increased network activity.

No, the upgrade Indexer will only allocate the minimum amount per subgraph and will not collect indexing rewards.

It operates on an “as needed” basis, and serves as a fallback until sufficient service quality is achieved by at least 3 other Indexers in the network for respective chains and subgraphs.

Subgraph developers will be able to query their subgraphs on the network almost immediately after upgrading from the hosted service or publishing from the Subgraph Studio, as no lead time will be required for indexing.

The upgrade Indexer enables chains on the network that were previously only supported on the hosted service. Therefore, it widens the scope and availability of data that can be queried on the network.

The upgrade Indexer will price queries at the market rate so as not to influence the query fee market.

The upgrade Indexer will serve a subgraph until it is sufficiently and successfully served with consistent queries served by at least 3 other Indexers.

Furthermore, the upgrade Indexer will stop supporting a subgraph if it has not been queried in the last 30 days.

Other Indexers are incentivized to support subgraphs with ongoing query volume, so the query volume to the upgrade Indexer should trend towards zero because the Indexer will have a small allocation size and other Indexers will be chosen for queries ahead of the upgrade Indexer.

No, all infrastructure is operated by independent Indexers on The Graph Network, including the upgrade Indexer (read more below).

You can use the Subgraph Studio to create, test, and publish your subgraph. All hosted service users must upgrade their subgraph to The Graph Network before the end of the upgrade window ending on June 12th 2024.

The upgrade Indexer ensures you can query your subgraph even without curation signal.

Once your subgraph has reached adequate curation signal and other Indexers begin supporting it, the upgrade Indexer will gradually taper off, allowing other Indexers to collect indexing rewards and query fees.

Running infrastructure for your own project is significantly more resource intensive when compared to using The Graph Network.

Additionally, The Graph Network is significantly more robust, reliable, and cost-efficient than anything provided by a single organization or team. Hundreds of independent Indexers around the world power The Graph Network, ensuring safety, security and redundancy.

That being said, if you’re still interested in running a Graph Node, consider joining The Graph Network as an Indexer to earn indexing rewards and query fees by serving data on your subgraph and others.

If you are building in web3, the moment you use a centralized indexing provider, you are giving them control of your dapp and data. The Graph’s decentralized network offers superior quality of service, reliability with unbeatable uptime thanks to node redundancy, as well as significantly lower costs, and you won’t be held hostage at the data layer.

With The Graph Network, your subgraph is public and anyone can query it openly, which increases the usage and network effects of your dapp. With a centralized indexing solution, the subgraph is private to the centralized provider.

Additionally, the upgrade Indexer enables 100,000 free monthly queries for your subgraph before needing to pay for queries.

Here's a detailed breakdown of the benefits of The Graph over centralized hosting:

• Resilience and Redundancy: Decentralized systems are inherently more robust and resilient due to their distributed nature. Data isn't stored on a single server or location. Instead, it's served by hundreds of independent Indexers around the globe. This reduces the risk of data loss or service interruptions if one node fails, leading to exceptional uptime (99.99%).

• Quality of Service: In addition to the impressive uptime, The Graph Network features a ~106ms median query speed (latency), and higher query success rates compared to hosted alternatives. Read more in this blog.

• Censorship Resistance: Centralized systems are targets for censorship, either through regulatory pressures or network attacks. In contrast, decentralized systems, due to their dispersed architecture, are much harder to censor, ensuring continuous data availability.

• Transparency and Trust: Decentralized systems operate openly, enabling anyone to independently verify the data. This transparency builds trust among network participants, as they can verify the system's integrity without relying on a central authority.

Just as you've chosen your blockchain network for its decentralized nature, security, and transparency, opting for The Graph Network is an extension of those same principles. By aligning your data infrastructure with these values, you ensure a cohesive, resilient, and trust-driven development environment.