Curating

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Curators are critical to The Graph's decentralized economy. They use their knowledge of the web3 ecosystem to assess and signal on the subgraphs that should be indexed by The Graph Network. Through Graph Explorer, Curators view network data to make signaling decisions. In turn, The Graph Network rewards Curators who signal on good quality subgraphs with a share of the query fees those subgraphs generate. The amount of GRT signaled is one of the key considerations for indexers when determining which subgraphs to index.

Before consumers can query a subgraph, it must be indexed. This is where curation comes into play. In order for Indexers to earn substantial query fees on quality subgraphs, they need to know what subgraphs to index. When Curators signal on a subgraph, it lets Indexers know that a subgraph is in demand and of sufficient quality that it should be indexed.

Indexers can trust the signal from a Curator because upon signaling, Curators mint a curation share for the subgraph, entitling Curators to a portion of future query fees that the subgraph drives.

Curators make The Graph network efficient and signaling is the process that curators use to let Indexers know that a subgraph is good to index; where GRT is added to a bonding curve for a subgraph. Indexers can trust the signal from a curator because upon signaling, curators mint a curation share for the subgraph, entitling them to a portion of future query fees that the subgraph drives.

Curator signals are represented as ERC20 tokens called Graph Curation Shares (GCS). Those that want to earn more query fees should signal their GRT to subgraphs that they predict will generate a strong flow of fees to the network. Curators cannot be slashed for bad behavior, but there is a deposit tax on Curators to disincentivize poor decision-making that could harm the integrity of the network. Curators will also earn fewer query fees if they curate on a low-quality subgraph because there will be fewer queries to process or fewer Indexers to process them.

The Sunrise Upgrade Indexer ensures the indexing of all subgraphs, signaling GRT on a particular subgraph will draw more indexers to it. This incentivization of additional Indexers through curation aims to enhance the quality of service for queries by reducing latency and enhancing network availability.

When signaling, Curators can decide to signal on a specific version of the subgraph or to signal using auto-migrate. If they signal using auto-migrate, a curator’s shares will always be updated to the latest version published by the developer. If they decide to signal on a specific version instead, shares will always stay on this specific version.

To assist teams that are transitioning subgraphs from the hosted service to the Graph Network, curation support is now available. If you require assistance with curation to enhance the quality of service, please send a request to the Edge & Node team at [email protected] and specify the subgraphs you need assistance with.

Indexers can find subgraphs to index based on curation signals they see in Graph Explorer (screenshot below).

Within the Curator tab in Graph Explorer, curators will be able to signal and unsignal on certain subgraphs based on network stats. For a step-by-step overview of how to do this in Graph Explorer, click here.

Un curator può scegliere di segnalare su una versione specifica del subgraph, oppure può scegliere di far migrare automaticamente il proprio segnale alla versione di produzione più recente di quel subgraph. Entrambe le strategie sono valide e hanno i loro pro e contro.

La segnalazione di una versione specifica è particolarmente utile quando un subgraph è utilizzato da multipli dApp. Una dApp potrebbe aver bisogno di aggiornare regolarmente il subgraph con nuove funzionalità. Un'altra dApp potrebbe preferire l'uso di una versione più vecchia e ben testata del subgraph. Al momento della curation iniziale, viene applicata una tassa standard del 1%.

La migrazione automatica del segnale alla più recente versione di produzione può essere utile per garantire l'accumulo di tariffe di query. Ogni volta che si effettua una curation, si paga una tassa di curation del 1%. Si pagherà anche una tassa di curation del 0,5% per ogni migrazione. Gli sviluppatori di subgraph sono scoraggiati dal pubblicare frequentemente nuove versioni: devono pagare una tassa di curation del 0,5% su tutte le quote di curation auto-migrate.

Curators have the option to withdraw their signaled GRT at any time.

Unlike the process of delegating, if you decide to withdraw your signaled GRT you will not have to wait for a cooldown period and will receive the entire amount (minus the 1% curation tax).

Once a curator withdraws their signal, indexers may choose to keep indexing the subgraph, even if there's currently no active GRT signaled.

However, it is recommended that curators leave their signaled GRT in place not only to receive a portion of the query fees, but also to ensure reliability and uptime of the subgraph.

1. Il mercato delle query è intrinsecamente giovane per The Graph e c'è il rischio che la vostra %APY possa essere inferiore a quella prevista a causa delle dinamiche di mercato nascenti.
2. Curation Fee - when a curator signals GRT on a subgraph, they incur a 1% curation tax. This fee is burned and the rest is deposited into the reserve supply of the bonding curve.
3. (Ethereum only) When curators burn their shares to withdraw GRT, the GRT valuation of the remaining shares will be reduced. Be aware that in some cases, curators may decide to burn their shares all at once. This situation may be common if a dApp developer stops versioning/improving and querying their subgraph or if a subgraph fails. As a result, remaining curators might only be able to withdraw a fraction of their initial GRT. For a network role with a lower risk profile, see Delegators.
4. Un subgraph può fallire a causa di un bug. Un subgraph fallito non matura commissioni della query. Di conseguenza, si dovrà attendere che lo sviluppatore risolva il bug e distribuisca una nuova versione.
   • Se siete iscritti alla versione più recente di un subgraph, le vostre quote di partecipazione migreranno automaticamente a quella nuova versione. Questo comporta una tassa di curation di 0,5%.
   • If you have signaled on a specific subgraph version and it fails, you will have to manually burn your curation shares. You can then signal on the new subgraph version, thus incurring a 1% curation tax.

By signalling on a subgraph, you will earn a share of all the query fees that the subgraph generates. 10% of all query fees go to the Curators pro-rata to their curation shares. This 10% is subject to governance.

Trovare subgraph di alta qualità è un compito complesso, ma può essere affrontato in molti modi diversi. Come Curator, si desidera cercare subgraph affidabili che generano un volume di query. Un subgraph affidabile può essere utile se è completo, accurato e supporta le esigenze di dati di una dApp. Un subgraph mal progettato potrebbe dover essere rivisto o ripubblicato e potrebbe anche finire per fallire. È fondamentale che i Curator rivedano l'architettura o il codice di un subgraph per valutarne il valore. Di conseguenza:

• I curator possono utilizzare la loro comprensione di una rete per cercare di prevedere come un singolo subgraph possa generare un volume di query più o meno elevato in futuro
• Curators should also understand the metrics that are available through Graph Explorer. Metrics like past query volume and who the subgraph developer is can help determine whether or not a subgraph is worth signalling on.

Migrating your curation shares to a new subgraph version incurs a curation tax of 1%. Curators can choose to subscribe to the newest version of a subgraph. When curator shares get auto-migrated to a new version, Curators will also pay half curation tax, ie. 0.5%, because upgrading subgraphs is an on-chain action that costs gas.

Si suggerisce di non aggiornare i subgraph troppo frequentemente. Si veda la domanda precedente per maggiori dettagli.

Curation shares cannot be "bought" or "sold" like other ERC20 tokens that you may be familiar with. They can only be minted (created) or burned (destroyed) along the bonding curve for a particular subgraph. The amount of GRT needed to mint a new signal, and the amount of GRT you receive when you burn your existing signal are determined by that bonding curve:

• As a Curator on Ethereum, you need to know that when you burn your curation shares to withdraw GRT, you can end up with more or less GRT than you initially deposited.
• As a Curator on Arbitrum, you are guaranteed to get back the GRT you initially deposited (minus the tax).

Curation grants are determined individually on a case-by-case basis. If you need assistance with curation, please send a request to [email protected].

The behavior of the curation mechanism differs depending on the protocol chain deployment, notably, how the price of a subgraph share is calculated.

The Graph Network's original deployment on Ethereum uses bonding curves to determine what the price of shares is: the price of each subgraph share increases with each token invested and the price of each share decreases with each token sold. This means that curating puts your principal at risk, since it's not guaranteed you can sell your shares and get back your original investment.

On Arbitrum, curating subgraphs becomes significantly simpler. The bonding curves are "flattened", their effect is nullified meaning no Curator will be able to realize gains at the expense of others. This allows Curators to signal or unsignal on subgraphs at any given time, at a consistent cost, and with very limited risk.

If you are interested in curating on Ethereum and want to understand the details of bonding curves and their effects see Bonding Curve 101. Please do your diligence to make sure you curate on subgraphs you trust. Creating a subgraph is permissionless, so people can create subgraphs and call them any name they'd like. For more guidance on curation risks, check out The Graph Academy's Curation Guide.

Each subgraph has a bonding curve on which curation shares are minted when a user adds signal into the curve. Each subgraph’s bonding curve is unique. The bonding curves are architected so that the price to mint a curation share on a subgraph increases linearly, over the number of shares minted.

Di conseguenza, il prezzo aumenta linearmente, il che significa che l'acquisto di una quota diventerà più costoso nel tempo. Ecco un esempio di ciò che intendiamo, vedi la curva di legame qui sotto:

Si consideri che abbiamo due curation che coniano quote di partecipazione per un subgraph:

• Il curator A è il primo a segnalare il subgraph. Aggiungendo 120,000 GRT alla curva, riesce a coniarne 2000 quote di partecipazione.
• Curator B’s signal is on the subgraph later at some point. To receive the same amount of shares as Curator A, they would have to add 360,000 GRT into the curve.
• Dal momento che entrambi i curator detengono la metà del totale delle quote di curation, riceveranno una quantità uguale di royalties di curation.
• Now, if any of the curators were to burn their 2000 curation shares, they would receive 360,000 GRT.
• Il curator rimanente riceverebbe ora tutte le royalties di curation per quel subgraph. Se dovessero bruciare le loro quote per ritirare GRT, riceverebbero 120.000 GRT.
• TLDR: La valutazione del GRT delle quote di curation è determinata dalla curva di legame e può essere volatile. È possibile subire grosse perdite. Segnalare in anticipo significa investire meno GRT per ogni quota di partecipazione. Per estensione, ciò significa che si guadagnano più royalties di curation per GRT rispetto ai curator successivi per lo stesso subgraph.

In general, a bonding curve is a mathematical curve that defines the relationship between token supply and asset price. In the specific case of subgraph curation, the price of each subgraph share increases with each token invested and the price of each share decreases with each token sold.

Nel caso di The Graph, l'implementazione da parte di Bancor della formula della curva di legame viene sfruttata.

Ancora confusi? Date un'occhiata alla nostra video-guida sulla Curation: