SubQuery Network Whitepaper (Summary)

pitchaba.crypto
Mar 15, 2022
4 min read

SubQuery’s mission is to extract and query blockchain data in only minutes and provides to decentralized apps (dApp) effectively.

Normally, anyone can already use blockchain data in a centralized way while SubQuery Network proposes to enable this same scalable and performant solution, but in a completely decentralized way.

The Problem

The weakness of blockchain data is the poor and inefficient performance of processing and querying the data.

Therefore, the extraction and query process is hard to use. Moreover, SubQuery also believes in a multi-chain future where have more layer 1 networks and more users, the querying is more difficult and complex.

Thus, the world needs a unique, flexible, and open-source platform that unlocks the value of this data.

In order to build increasingly complex and intuitive applications, developers need powerful tools to process and query their data faster.

Our Services

Currently, SubQuery is used with many leading applications in Polkadot, such as

the largest wallets : Nova and Fearless

scanners applications : Subscan, SubVis, and DotMarketCap

NFT platforms : Kodadot and Yuser and more.

SubQuery Services including;

The SDK
SubQuery Projects
SubQuery Explorer
SubQuery Network

1. SubQuery’s SDK

SubQuery team delivered the open-source Software Development Kit (SDK). This SDK helps users to generate their own SubQuery Project, defining how the Indexer should traverse to create them suitable with their own protocol.

In SubQuery’s view, success is dependent on the community’s success.

2. SubQuery Projects

SubQuery Projects is an online managed service where anyone can publish their own SubQuery Projects. You can deploy your project to our high-performance nodes.

This allows you to share your projects with people all over the world. Moreover, it also helps you work more easily and get the most out of your work. free of charge

3. SubQuery Explorer

SubQuery Explorer is an online managed service that provides access to published SubQuery Projects made by contributors in the community.

4. SubQuery Network

SubQuery will aim to power the future plethora of serverless applications in different blockchain ecosystems and accelerate our transition to a decentralised future.

The principle with the SubQuery Network is simplicity. The aim is to make it easy for you to get involved in the network and to clearly forecast your future potential return. Additionally, SubQuery is designed to cross multiple layer 1 chains.

The SubQuery Token (SQT)

The SubQuery Token (SQT) is designed as a utility token that powers the SubQuery Network, providing an incentive for participation, as well as serving as a medium of exchange for transactions within the SubQuery Network.

Consumers of data will commit SQT in exchange for data from Indexers and this SQT will be distributed among Indexers based on the payment method selected.

Network Participants

For the main contributors, there are 3 parts as follows:

Consumers: People who require data from the SubQuery Network and will pay with SQT for the exchange.
Indexers: Indexers host SubQuery Projects in their own infrastructure, running both the node and query service to index data and answer GraphQL requests.
Delegators: Join the network by sponsoring their favorite Indexers to earn rewards.

Payment Methods

There are several payment methods in the SubQuery Network to give all participants a flexible way to transact SQT, with all details posted on the Plan Marketplace.

1. Pay as You Go (PAYG)

One of the most important and new standards among the web3 industry is Pay as you Go.

The Consumer who makes a request must lock the token to require that request. At the end of the era, these tokens will be distributed to the Indexer according to Cobb-Douglas' production functionality.

2. Closed Agreement

Closed Agreement represents an agreement between only 1 Indexer and 1 Consumer.

It’s a direct relationship where all payment flows between the two parties for the work that is done.

3. Open Agreement

Open Agreements are similar to Closed Agreements, but many indexers participate and compete to provide the consumer with information.

Open Agreements will be able to provide favorable terms for both parties (Indexers and Consumers), increasing efficiency and reliability for Consumers by attracting Indexers to compete and providing more of the same information. Especially when deploying large applications with global users, Open Agreements are a better fit.

Indexer Staking

In order to earn rewards from query revenue, Indexers must stake SQT against a particular SubQuery Project that they are providing the service to.

The Cobb-Douglas production function will be used to determine the rewards distributed to each Indexer.

Sometimes, there are multiple reward pools simultaneously active for a given Indexer. The indexer’s job is to allocate their staked and delegated SQT amongst these pools (in terms of a percentage of their total SQT).

There will be some groups where Indexer is PAYG enabled and some are Market Agreement enabled, but for Closed Agreement, Cobb-Douglas production is not used to allocate rewards to Indexer.

Indexer Delegation

SubQuery allows SQT token holders to help increase Indexers’ query fee revenue by delegating their own SQT tokens for staking.

Delegators will only receive rewards for staking Eras that they were a part of for the entire period.

Delegators can withdraw their staked amount at any time, but they will forfeit any rewards earned within the staking Era (as they were not part of the delegation pool for the entire duration of the staking Era).

Advantages

The main principle is simplicity and flexibility including various payments and working in different networks.

1. Multi-Chain by Design

In the future, SubQuery also believes in more layer 1 networks (multi-chain). Thus, SubQuery is designed to support multi-chain, while others support only one chain.

2. Flexibility

dApp developers can modify data to provide information in a format specific to their dApp. This will facilitate development and differentiate it from others.