Data is the new oil for big, mid-size, and even smaller companies in the new-age technology world. From investors to retail stock market traders to product managers and marketing teams, each relies on data to drive their field of expertise.
If you are a data freak and have lived, eaten, and slept on data 24*7, you would have heard of data studio, mix panel, google analytics, and various other data tools that enable companies to take data-driven decisions and product findings are directly related to the growth.
Data in Web3
Every decade, technology advances. It began as a static format as web1 in the 1990s, followed by the transition to web2 during the last decade. We are now in a web3 era. In the WEB2 world, where most of the data is stored in the cloud, it is easier to fetch and put into a data modifier tool. In contrast, in #WEB3, a distributed ledger technology, data is stored in blockchains and not contained in a centralized computer.
As web3 technology grows in popularity, dozens of applications are being developed in the form of smart contracts and hosted on blockchains and distributed ledger technology. Interestingly, though the web3 space is gathering momentum, it is not as dynamic as web2.
Web2 applications, for instance, Facebook or Instagram, use APIs to fetch data from their centralized storage server, which works with great agility. The same doesn’t apply to web3, as the data here is encrypted end-to-end.
Data Querying and Product Analytics on Web3
If a dApp wants to build a query layer for his smart contract while building an analytical dashboard, plenty of solutions can help… but does it really address their requirements?
Let’s find it out…
When we examine the data infrastructure companies that can assist us in querying data from web3 protocols, “The Graph” is one of the most popular solutions in the market. But it has certain limitations, one being the process in place for deploying a “Sub Graph” to query data. If there is no existing subgraph for the protocol for which you want to build an analytics dashboard, you will not be able to access the APIs immediately. You will need to develop or delegate the task of creating the subgraph of the specific protocol that your application requires, which is time-consuming. The second limitation of the subgraph is that the data is only available in GraphQL API format and does not support some basic queries such as “token balance” or “transactions”.
If we were to index and build analytics dashboards for a specific smart contract or a protocol, “Dune Analytics” would be the go-to option. It allows you to instantly index data for the specific smart contract or a protocol for building analytical charts. But the problem with Dune is that it is only specific to analytics. It cannot be used for dApp data querying.
There are missing pieces in the market regarding data querying and building product analytics in web3. Also, the tedious process of indexing intelligent contract data and waiting for sync times.
Conclusion
Unmarshal understands the gaps in data availability in Web3 applications and the challenges dApp developers face. Therefore, there is a need of a smart indexing interface that can serve as both query and analytics data layer.
About Unmarshal
Unmarshal is a Multi-chain Web 3.0 data network aiming to deliver granular, reliable & real-time data to dApps, DeFi protocols, NFTs, Metaverse and GameFi solutions. Unmarshal provides the easiest way to query Blockchain data from XDC Network, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polkadot, Near and Solana. Unmarshal network consists of data indexers and transforming tools to power Web 3.0 applications on any chain while providing a latent view of transformed data.
