Today, The Graph announces that Polygon is now available on The Graph’s hosted service.
This marks the beginning of The Graph’s growth from Ethereum-based apps to Layer 2 scaling solutions. It now include side chains, as well as indexing and searching for Polygon. This makes it easier for developers to create dApps on the platform. The utility of second-layer scaling solutions like Polygon highlights Ethereum’s recent record costs. Developers will be able to build scalable decentralized apps thanks to the indexing provided by the Polygon ecosystem.
The enormous number of dApps, transactions, and unique users on Polygon. It makes it possible for popular projects like Polymarket, Aavegotchi, Decentral Games, and Neon District to deliver a high level of customer satisfaction. GraphQL-enabled applications can now access open APIs called “subgraphs” created by Polygon developers.
This complements The Graph’s community of over 10,000 active developers. They have created over 8,000 subgraphs for apps like Uniswap, Synthetix, Aragon, Gnosis, Balancer, Livepeer, DAOstack, AAVE, Decentraland, and many others. The Graph now indexes data from Ethereum and IPFS; however, adding support for Polygon is just the beginning of The Graph’s growth and PoA. There are more Layer 1 and Layer 2 chains on the way.
Polygon Rebranded as Layer 2 Aggregator
Polygon is one of the first Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development platforms to be well-structured and user-friendly. It has rebranded as a Layer 2 Aggregator for Ethereum. It incorporates numerous L2 scaling methodologies such as sidechains (Standalone or Shared Security). Lastly, it also includes other scaling techniques such as zk Rollups, Optimistic Rollups, and Plasma. Polygon SDK is its fundamental component.
Polygon is a modular, adaptable platform that allows users to create and connect Secured Chains such as Plasma, Optimistic Rollups, zkRollups, and Validium. It also includes Standalone Chains such as Matic POS. The Graph Foundation decided to launch the hosted Graph service for Polygon’s dev community. This was after receiving a lot of demand for Polygon support from the Defi and NFT developers within the larger Ethereum community.
Indexing is a method of organizing and categorizing material so that it can be quickly found and queried by users. Additionally, Google is a well-known example of web data indexing. It significantly reduces the time it takes consumers to access and use information on the Internet. Users would have to manually scroll through unstructured data storage filled with raw and unmapped data. This is to find the information they require without data indexing.
Furthermore, data creation activities on-chain are transforming blockchains into data-rich ecosystems. Examples of which are such as smart contract events and calls, and dApps bringing external data on-chain via oracles. To reference the information, they need and build acceptable user experiences. All dApps that expose blockchain data in their UIs require indexed data.
The Former Method
Before The Graph, developers had to design their own indexing code. At the same time rely on centralized infrastructure to maintain servers and databases. This creates a single point of failure; the indexed data can alter maliciously or inadvertently by the dApp, or the single server can go down. Developers must also devote additional time and resources to maintaining the infrastructure. The most effective way for developers to index blockchain data is to use a subgraph.
By creating a decentralized system for indexing blockchain data, The Graph solves the problem of centralized data indexing. Users will no longer have to rely on teams to run servers. At the same time, developers will be able to deploy to secure public infrastructure that they will not have to manage. The Graph makes use of GraphQL, an open-source query language popular among web developers. It has a sophisticated API that allows users to receive exactly the data they need in a single request. This si done through traversing and merging data sources effortlessly. GraphQL makes it simple for Web2 developers to create Web3 applications.
Polygon developers can now create and publish subgraphs. This means that applications built on Polygon, such as Games, Decentralized Exchanges, Lending Protocols, and other DeFi applications, can access and consume organized data from Polygon directly into their dApps.
