Binance Smart Chain and Cosmos among blockchains considered to join Ethereum and IPFS on The Graph
The indexing protocol The Graph announced yesterday that it is evaluating support for additional layer-1 blockchains following its successful mainnet launch on Ethereum.
To support Web3 development and enable queries to open APIs called subgraphs across multiple blockchains, The Graph is considering integrating Bitcoin, Binance Smart Chain, Polkadot, Cosmos, Avalanche, Solana, NEAR and Celo.
These networks would join the chains already supported—Ethereum and the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), a peer-to-peer network for storing and sharing data.
Ethereum will remain the standard for The Graph Network—The Graph Network’s smart contracts are deployed on Ethereum and the Graph Token (GRT) will remain an ERC-20 token. The Graph will also continue collaborating with State Channels, Connext and Consensys R&D to help scale Ethereum.
Many Ethereum applications, such as Aave, Synthetix, Uniswap and Decentraland, are already integrated with The Graph and use subgraphs to fetch data. By making on-chain data more accessible, The Graph aims to accelerate Web3 development and help Ethereum developers build interoperable applications.
Eva Beylin, Director of The Graph Foundation, explained: “Although the protocol currently supports Ethereum and IPFS, The Graph is blockchain-agnostic. We are excited to welcome more developers and layer-1 chains into our community. While The Graph is built on Ethereum, we also believe in unifying the ecosystem under a future multi-blockchain landscape to simplify Web3 development and usage. By providing subgraph support across chains, developers will be able to leverage the best each blockchain has to offer.”
Improving blockchain interoperability matters: applications will need to interact with many chains and protocols as DeFi and NFT ecosystems continue to grow. To date, more than 10,000 active developers have deployed over 7,000 subgraphs to support this mission.
The number of subgraphs will increase as new layer-1 integrations are added, enabling dApps to operate in a multi-blockchain environment. Using subgraphs also means developers do not need to learn each chain’s native smart contract language or build proprietary servers and back-end infrastructure when creating applications.
The Graph is currently evaluating candidate blockchains for integration. Key criteria include alignment with The Graph’s goals, developer and application activity, integration complexity, and community enthusiasm for the blockchain.
The Foundation is distributing up to 25 million GRT in grants this year for decentralized applications, tools, protocol infrastructure and community building. Contributors working on candidate blockchains are eligible to apply to The Graph’s grants program. Additional blockchain integrations are expected to be rolled out in the coming months.
Translated by Carolane de Palmas