The Graph, an innovative protocol for indexing and querying blockchain data, has successfully completed its transition to a fully decentralized data layer with the conclusion of The Graph Foundation’s Sunrise initiative. This marks the end of a three-phase decentralization plan, upgrading subgraphs from centralized hosting services to a globally distributed network of token-incentivized individuals and independent companies acting as data indexers.

Unlike traditional web2 applications, The Graph’s network is not controlled by any single company. Instead, each indexer selects which application they want to sync with and serve queries for, receiving payments from users in native GRT tokens for their contributions. This decentralized approach eliminates reliance on centralized hosting providers, allowing for a more robust and scalable system.

“With the completion of The Graph's Sunrise of decentralized data, we have removed the 'training wheels,' as Vitalik Buterin described them,” said Tegan Kline, CEO of Edge & Node, one of the key development teams behind The Graph protocol. “The Graph’s network of data indexers is now fully decentralized and token-incentivized. There is no longer any reliance on interim crutches or centralized hosting providers.”

Introduced in 2018, subgraphs initially indexed data from Ethereum but now support over 55 chains, including Optimism, Base, Arbitrum, Avalanche, NEAR, and Cosmos. Subgraphs allow developers to efficiently extract and organize blockchain data for decentralized applications and can also access data from decentralized filesystems like IPFS and Arweave.

The Graph network now hosts more than 6,000 live subgraphs, generating over 900 million queries in the last 30 days—an increase of more than tenfold year-over-year. Data service fees have surged by 369% over the same period. Notable projects utilizing The Graph include AAVE, Balancer, Snapshot, Decentraland, ENS, Lido, PancakeSwap, and SushiSwap, enabling users to access blockchain data quickly and easily.

Developers publish subgraphs to The Graph Network, deployed on Arbitrum. Once published, subgraphs can be indexed by a network of over 100 globally distributed nodes. Multiple indexers compete to serve queries, ensuring redundancy and scalability. If one indexer fails, others are available to maintain service continuity.

Indexers are incentivized through query fees, paid for each query sent by decentralized applications and data consumers, and indexing rewards issued by the protocol for upfront data indexing. Indexers must self-stake at least 100,000 GRT tokens and meet minimum hardware specifications of 16 CPUs, 1TB storage, and 32GB of RAM.

This decentralized model allows decentralized applications (dapps) to offload their data needs, such as the cost of running physical infrastructure or maintaining databases, to The Graph network. “In other words, developers use The Graph to get the on-chain data they need for their dapps in an easy-to-use, reliable, and decentralized way,” Kline explained.

“It’s no secret that web3 builders often have to reach for centralized utilities as a sort of ‘training wheels,’” Kline concluded. “While making transactions on the blockchain was open to anyone, reading that data often required reliance on centralized SaaS services. The Graph’s decentralization of this key function is just one of many long-needed steps forward for the entire web3 space.”