What is The Graph (GRT)? Everything you need to know about GRT token

Originally founded in 2018, The Graph has been trusted and used by many projects in the crypto world such as Balancer, Synthetix, Livepeer and more. The launch of The Graph makes it easy for developers to build applications on blockchains. 

In this article, we will explore everything you need to know about The Graph and its native token GRT.

What is The Graph?

The Graph is a decentralized protocol that enables users to index and search data from blockchains. This makes it possible for individuals or organizations with difficult-to-query information, such as Ethereum transactions on the blockchain, to make them accessible in an easily queried way.

Applications using GraphQL can query open APIs, which are called subgraphs. By querying these open data sources on the network, developers will be able to retrieve indexed information in a serverless environment with The Graph.

Why is The Graph needed?

Indexing data from blockchains has become a major issue as more and more blockchains and dApps are coming out recently. It is really difficult to read or access data from projects with complex smart contracts such as Uniswap from Ethereum Network.

If you need to perform complex data access such as reading the metadata or processing every single transaction from a blockchain, it would take hours or even days. Having a built-in server to process and save data to its own database is also an option. However, there will be extra work required for maintenance and security. 

Therefore, The Graph solves this issue with a decentralized protocol that indexes and enables the performant querying of blockchain data. 

How does The Graph work?

So the easiest way to explain what The Graph does to blockchains is the same as how Google does for searching.

The project uses “Subgraph Manifest” in order to index data from the Ethereum Network. This refers to the data based on subgraph which contains data from smart contracts, blockchain events or transactions. 

All data from decentralized applications that are added to the Ethereum blockchain through smart contracts are organized in a particular flow. The first stage begins with transactions, followed by subgraph manifests and finally a database.

The Graph Node is the second part of the data processing framework. It takes in all blockchain information and searches for any that matches user queries to create an index, which makes querying much easier.

GraphQL is a way to deliver data from the blockchain into an application that has been requested. It does this through Graph Nodes which then delivers results of queries back to users' applications after searching for them with their query.

This is basically the whole process of how data query and indexing works:

Key roles of The Graph

The Graph is composed of the following participants:

• Consumers: The users who pay Indexers for their searches are called consumers. Consumers are web services or software that use The Graph.
• Indexers: Indexers are the node operators of The Graph. They are incentivized for indexing data on the platform.
• Delegator: Delegators usually deposit shares in Indexers to contribute to the network. They don’t run nodes as Indexers but can participate in existing ones to earn a share of the node’s fees.
• Curators: Curator’s role is deciding whether or not the data source is trustworthy.

What makes The Graph unique?

The utility of the project has attracted many projects such as Uniswap and Sythetix by these key factors:

• No Tradeoff: The Graph's subgraphs allow dApp developers to easily access the blockchain data they need without having to rely on a centralized third party.
• Flexibility: Using the subgraphs supplied by The Graph, dApp developers can access relevant data without having to build their own query services or be limited to only what a third party provides
• Building Infrastructure: The Graph protocol has the potential to contribute to the greater usability of decentralized applications on Web3. The technology will remove one of its biggest challenges for developers --lack of availability and liquidity of data needed in order for apps/dapps to function properly.

What is GRT Token?

GRT is the native token of The Graph. Built on the ERC-20 standard, GRT can serve as a medium of exchange and reward participants for being one of the key players in the network.

The Graph Token is a crucial part of the protocol that has two primary uses:

• Indexer Staking: Indexers deposit Graph Tokens to make their work discoverable and secure in the query market.
• Curator Signaling: Curators must deposit Graph Tokens in a curation market, where they are rewarded for correctly predicting which subgraphs will be valuable to the network.
• Protocol Sinks & Burns: The network will burn a small percentage of the query fees, starting at 1% of the total query fees.                                                    

Detailed information about GRT Token

GRT Token Metrics

• Token Name: The Graph.
• Ticker: GRT.
• Blockchain: Ethereum.
• Contract: 0xc944e90c64b2c07662a292be6244bdf05cda44a7
• Token type: Utility.
• Token Standard: ERC-20.
• Total Supply: 10,000,000,000 GRT
• Circulating Supply: 4,756,845,231 GRT.
• Total Initial Token Supply: 10,000,000,000 GRT

GRT Token Allocation

GRT Token Sale

The Token sale event ended in October, 2020 with 400,000,000 GRT sold at 0.03 USD

How to buy GRT token

You can use Coin98 Exchange to swap other tokens for GRT following these simple steps on: https://exchange.coin98.com

Step 1: Connect Coin98 Extension Wallet.

Step 2: Select Uniswap.

Step 3: Choose coins/tokens for trading:

• Search GRT.
• If the result does not come up, you can paste the contract of GRT into the search box: 0xc944e90c64b2c07662a292be6244bdf05cda44a7

Step 4: Adjust the amount you want to swap.

Step 5: Adjust the gas fee, then click Approve.

How to mine GRT token

Users can become Delegators, Curators, Indexers to earn GRT for providing services to consumers. Further information about incentives can be found here.

How to store GRT token

You can store GRT token on Coin98 Wallet with these steps:

Step 1: Open Coin98 Wallet & click Receive on the home screen.

Step 2: Search GRT Token.

Step 3: Click on the correct result, copy the wallet address and send GRT to this address.

Roadmaps and Updates

The roadmap is not published by the founding team.

However, in July 2021, the project distributed over $2.8 million to grantees working on protocol research and development, tooling for building subgraphs and dapps, community building, and security audits.

Team, Investors, and Partners

Team

The Graph currently has five employees, including project lead Yaniv Tal.

He has extensive experience in the field of technology, particularly in the development of GraphQL for data querying.

Investors

The Graph has raised a total of $19.6M in funding over 7 rounds with Multicoin Capital and Coinbase Ventures on the investor list.

Partners

The Graph has been trusted and used by many projects including Curve, Sushiswap, Uniswap,...

Also, there are 9 blockchains supported by the network.

Is GRT a good investment?

I hope you have gained some basic knowledge about The Graph project and its token GRT. It is important to look at few key points in the article:

• Building infrastructure is a crucial part of a blockchain and its ecosystem. The Graph provides a service for developers to build their apps/dapps faster and less difficult without having their own database.
• The project is attempting to broaden its reach by publishing support packages. One of the largest packages, worth up to $60 million, for StreamingFast to become the project's core developer. The project's scalability will be accelerated as the developer staff is expanded, allowing it to build a radically more open Internet.
• The Graph is open for anyone who wants to contribute to the network and they reward their users with the Grants Program to collaborate with contributors. This working architecture allows the project to attract more users to contribute to the network.
• Currently, The Graph is arguably the most well-known project in the field of data querying. With a market valuation of up to $3.4 billion, the project is now ranked 46th in the top 100. However, there have been a number of other projects directed at this subject, the most noteworthy one is Covalent.