Verifying Subgraphs and Estimating Query Traffic V2

The Graph Pr
How To Verify Subgraphs and
ocol Curation
timate Query Traffic
Why Verify? 2
Step One: How to Verify Subgraphs with the Development Team 3
Step Two: How to Verify While Waiting on the Development Team 4
Step Three: Estimating Query Traffic 6
**This is a publication of the process by which the @DataNexus and her Curators within the
community have been verifying subgraphs, and estimating query traffic. This is n to be used as
investing advice and is intended to be used at the reader's discretion. These are suggestions of what
a standardized process of verifying subgraphs will look like, please utilize as you may see fit!**
Published by: Derek from DataNexus and Jackson Blau

Why Verify?
This is a crucial step in the process for numerous factors. First and foremost your job as a curator is to do
the R&D for the indexers to signal to them legitimate subgraphs to start syncing to. If you signal incorrectly
this causes two negative issues for indexers.
1. We cann waste indexers time syncing something that will never be used, we have 156 indexers
(at the time of writing this) on the network and their time is best spent handling the technical &
query traffic for The Graph.
2. Regardless of indexers themselves syncing with a bogus subgraph (in the case of bad curating), it
will misappropriate the indexer rewards. The amount received by indexers is a set amount that is
split amongst all of the subgraphs determined by how small/large a signal that subgraph has. If we
signal on illegitimate subgraphs we’re penalizing the indexers who are doing their job well by
avoiding garbage. As curators our mindset needs to be, help the indexers serve inexpensive data to
DApps profitably and provide their delegators a good APY. This activity done success lly will grow
The Graph network.
3. There are currently no safeguards against deployment of illegitimate subgraphs which were deployed
and signaled for the sole purpose to profit on the bonding curve. If you followed a crowd into a bad
subgraph, then your share value is at high risk to decrease significantly once malicious actors
unsignal and take their profits.
4. The way in which curation is a positive sum game is when good subgraphs are hosted by indexers
and it generates query fees. This positive sum game is a continuous dynamic as query fees a are
generated constantly. Signaling with long-term intent is therefore the recommended strategy and so
your research is very important as you will want to commit to a long-term view. Trading bags
around on bogus subgraphs is a zero sum game which pushes curators out of the ecosystem.
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Step One: How to Verify Subgraphs with the Development Team
This process is something that requires you to evaluate data points and come to a conclusion. Too many red
flags should prevent you from signaling. Too much uncertainty should prevent you from signaling. If you have
100% certainty you can go to the ne step. (n e there are proposals taking place to assist in this process,
but this is what it looks like currently)
Go in the project’s discord, telegram channels or message their project twitter account (use search nctions
first, where applicable, to make sure your question isn’t already answered) and politely ask the developers if
the subgraph that was just posted on The Graph’s mainnet was initiated by their team. If the devs confirm
you can jump straight to step three.
Key point, be very clear about what you say. “Did your team publish ____ subgraph on The Graph’s
mainnet?” is n specific enough. A screensh of the name and icon may cause a developer to think you’re
referring to a subgraph from the testnet, be overly specific and send links and deployment ID’s when
referring to the subgraphs.
**Inquire with the developer team if they have any planned updates to the subgraphs they have just deployed.
Sometimes, DApps will post a subgraph just to test/verify it’s deployment and are n yet ready for queries.
In this conte , it is important to know whether or n updates will be made to the existing subgraph or if
they will be deploying an entirely new subgraph (different deployment ID) down the road.**
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Step Two: How to Verify While Waiting on the Development Team
a. While waiting for a response from the developer team, inspect the address that
deployed the subgraph by clicking on the address referred to below.
b. Check and see if there are any her subgraphs this person has deployed. Generally
speaking a subgraph is either published by the developer of a project or the
subgraph serves a nction for multiple DApps (such as EIP721). If it’s a nction
based subgraph, has the subgraph dev made hers that were utilized? This would
be a good sign of the developers legitimacy. However, if it’s a project based
subgraph, you should n see one DApp publishing an her DApp’s subgraph (this
would be a red flag). Most o en they will only have one. Check and see if the
subgraph has a GitHub linked to it and does the GitHub have an e-mail address you
can reach out to? If so, reach out and verify they are in fact behind the subgraph!
How long have they been in the community? Many projects are entering for the first
time to deploy their subgraph. For a nction based subgraph, you would require
them to have experience in this network:
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c. Click on their address and view their transaction history. Do they have a transaction
history or was this wallet just started? If the wallet was just started, this could be a
possible red flag. Do they have an ENS showing a registered name - if so when was
it registered? If recently, this could be a possible red flag. If it matches the project
name open MM explorer and go to the site to confirm it shows the project site.
d. Look at what her tokens this address holds. Are they scammy? If so this would be
a red flag.
d. If you’ve completed all the above steps, and haven’t been able to verify a subgraph,
you should refrain from signaling that subgraph for now. We suggest waiting until
you hear back from social media channels.
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Step Three:
timating Query Traffic
For existing graphs we recommend comparing the 30 day Query Fees to the amount of t al signal to assess
the monetary value of curating a subgraph. This is a good estimate for what one can expect to receive in their
share’s value increase purely by holding their position (similar to a dividend reinvestment program or DRIP).
Why is This Important?
Let us say we have 2 subgrahs - A and B. Subgraph A has a t al signal of 200,000 and produces 5,000 GRT
in query fees every 30 days, and subgraph B has a t al signal of 200,000 and produces 10,000 in query fees
every 30 days. The curators in subgraph B will have their shares appreciate in value faster than subgraph A.
Thus subgraph B is actually more valuable but the curator market has n yet reacted to this.
For newer subgraphs we don’t have access to historical query traffic to evaluate this. Obtaining an early
position on the bond curve is important, this is where you speculate what the monetary value of curating the
subgraph will be - and ultimately if the t al signal should go up or down.
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Important Questions to Ask When
timating Query Traffic
What is their website traffic like?
Check their alexa ranking. For example, a project with a ranking of 500,000 is newer and we shouldn’t over
signal them, a project with a ranking of 50,000 has high traffic and high engagement.
​If project based, what industry is the DApp in?
​
​DeFi is one of the highest processors of The Graph’s API’s. Looking at the schema.graphql file can give you
an idea of what information they’re accessing. For example the ETH2 subgraph is pulling information related
to how many deposits have been made into the ETH2 contract. While this is very valid data to gather from the
blockchain, this is n something that is run hundreds of thousands or millions of times per day. You should
also look at some more elementary data pertaining to the community around the specific DApp you are
looking at. Metri you can use to analyze community strength include but aren’t limited to Twitter followers
and Discord members. Look through Twitter and Discord and see how active n only the team is, but the
community around the project and analyze how The Graph Pr ocol has/will benefit this DApp.
If nction based, what is the user base of the subgraph?
If it is a new nction based subgraph, ask yourself how the subgraph provides utility and if there will be
DApps that utilize it. If already established on the test net, ask yourself how many DApps were utilizing this
specific subgraph on the testnet, how much query traffic were they generating, and why DApps utilize it.
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