{"id":37669,"date":"2022-07-27T13:30:47","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T10:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=37669"},"modified":"2025-08-29T19:51:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T16:51:30","slug":"what-is-the-graph-grt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/what-is-the-graph-grt\/","title":{"rendered":"What is The Graph (GRT)?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-text-wrappers-cards single_card\">\n<h2 class=\"card_label\"><strong>Key points<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/thegraph.com\/\">The Graph<\/a> is a decentralised protocol designed for efficient indexing and querying of data from public blockchains.<\/li>\n<li>The protocol\u2019s basic functional unit is the subgraph, created by third-party developers to ingest and index data from specific blockchains.<\/li>\n<li>The Graph was first launched on Ethereum; its subgraphs now operate across more than 30 decentralised networks.<\/li>\n<li>Projects that have built and use subgraphs include Aave, Audius, Uniswap, Opyn, ENS, DAOstack, Synthetix, Gnosis, Balancer, Livepeer, Decentraland and others.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-text-wrappers-cards single_card\">\n<h2 class=\"card_label\"><strong>Who created The Graph?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Graph Protocol was founded in 2018 in San Francisco by Yaniv Tal, Jannis Pohlmann and Brandon Ramirez. The trio had previously worked together on software start-ups focused on tools for developers.<\/p>\n<p>That same year a non-profit, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.graphfoundation.org\/\">The Graph Foundation<\/a>, was registered in the United States to promote the technology, preserve intellectual property and support ecosystem growth.<\/p>\n<p>The project has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crunchbase.com\/organization\/the-graph\/investor_financials\">raised<\/a> a total of $69.6m across seven rounds. A seed round led by crypto fund Multicoin Capital in January 2019 brought in $2.5m.<\/p>\n<p>In October 2020 a public token sale raised $12m. The largest round came in January 2022 at $50m. Investors in Graph Protocol include Coinbase Ventures, Digital Currency Group, AU21 Capital and Tiger Global Management.<\/p>\n<p>On December 17th 2020, after several months of testnet operation, The Graph Network launched on Ethereum.<\/p>\n<p>After launch, The Graph Foundation<em> <\/em>focused on ecosystem development and funding external engineering teams. The core protocol developer became <a href=\"https:\/\/edgeandnode.com\/\">Edge&#038;Node<\/a>, a company founded by The Graph team in 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-text-wrappers-cards single_card\">\n<h2 class=\"card_label\"><strong>How does The Graph Network work?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Graph indexes blockchain data much as Google\u2019s crawlers index web pages.<em> <\/em>Files, data and metadata are scanned and catalogued so results can be found quickly.<\/p>\n<p>The protocol organises data into subgraphs, which are open <span data-descr=\"Application Programming Interface\" class=\"old_tooltip\">API<\/span>. Any developer can create a subgraph and propose it to The Graph Network community to deliver data (for example, token prices) to decentralised applications.<\/p>\n<p>The Graph Network adheres to strong decentralisation: most protocol processes are distributed among thousands of community participants, whose contributions to network operation are rewarded in GRT tokens.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond independent developer teams that create subgraphs, the protocol has four types of participants:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>indexers<\/strong> \u2014 node operators who index the blockchain and process queries in return for rewards. To begin, they must lock at least 100,000 GRT as a bond of node integrity. If a node serves incorrect data, the operator is penalised;<\/li>\n<li><strong>curators<\/strong> \u2014 community members who signal to indexers which subgraphs contain valuable data and should be indexed. A signal is created when a curator deposits their GRT into a specific subgraph. Several curators can back the same subgraph; in that case all receive a portion of query fees in proportion to their stake;<\/li>\n<li><strong>delegators<\/strong> \u2014 participants who can delegate tokens to one or several indexers, receiving a share of query-processing rewards. If a delegator wishes to withdraw GRT, they must wait 28 days for unbonding;<\/li>\n<li><strong>consumers<\/strong> \u2014 end users who retrieve data from subgraphs using GraphQL. They pay for each query in GRT, which is distributed among indexers, curators and delegators.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>An indexer can run a Graph Node for any EVM-compatible blockchain. Nodes can also interact with other blockchains via integration with the Firehose tool. Networks already supported include NEAR, Arweave, Solana and Cosmos.<\/p>\n<p>With The Graph, developers build Web3 applications that do not require centralised servers and run entirely on public, decentralised infrastructure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-text-wrappers-cards single_card\">\n<h2 class=\"card_label\"><strong>The Graph tokenomics<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Graph Network uses an ERC-20 utility token, GRT.<\/p>\n<p>GRT played an important role in funding the project. Before mainnet, from 2018 to 2020, 17% of the supply was sold in private and public token sales, raising a total of $7.5m.<\/p>\n<p>At The Graph Network\u2019s launch the initial GRT supply was 10bn. Tokens were allocated <a href=\"https:\/\/thegraph.academy\/ecosystem\/graph-token-economics\/\">as follows<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>team and advisers \u2013 23%;<\/li>\n<li>community (The Graph Foundation and other purposes) \u2013 35%;<\/li>\n<li>investors \u2013 34%;<\/li>\n<li>Edge &#038; Node \u2013 8%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The vesting schedule spans ten years. As of August 2022, 74% of the total supply, or 7.4bn GRT, had been unlocked. The asset\u2019s inflation is about 3% per year. A set of adjustable mechanisms can also remove and burn a portion of tokens from circulation.<\/p>\n<p>GRT is the key element of the incentive system that underpins The Graph Network. The token is used for:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>funding<\/strong> \u2013 The Graph Foundation issues grants in GRT to developers of subgraphs and other tools;<\/li>\n<li><strong>staking<\/strong> \u2013 indexers lock GRT as a bond of good conduct when indexing subgraphs and processing queries;<\/li>\n<li><strong>signalling<\/strong> \u2013 curators deposit GRT into subgraphs to attract indexers\u2019 attention;<\/li>\n<li><strong>delegation<\/strong> \u2013 delegators hand GRT to existing indexers;<\/li>\n<li><strong>payment<\/strong> \u2013 data consumers pay GRT for subgraph queries;<\/li>\n<li><strong>rewards<\/strong> \u2013 indexers, curators and delegates receive a share of query fees.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The token trades on major crypto exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, KuCoin and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coingecko.com\/ru\/%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD\/okex\">OKX<\/a>. The asset ranks among the top 100 by market capitalisation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-text-wrappers-cards single_card\">\n<h2 class=\"card_label\"><strong>How is The Graph evolving?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In June 2020 an integration with <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-chainlink-link\">Chainlink<\/a> was announced. It enabled indexed data from subgraphs to be delivered into smart contracts via Chainlink\u2019s decentralised oracle network.<\/p>\n<p>Early in 2021 The Graph Foundation allocated $5m in grants to more than 50 teams from ten countries to build protocol tools, subgraphs and educational resources.<\/p>\n<p>For security audits across the ecosystem, it engaged OpenZeppelin, Chainsafe, Consensys Diligence and other blockchain-security firms.<\/p>\n<p>In February 2022 Digital Currency Group, Multicoin Capital, Reciprocal Ventures, Cryptos Capital, NGC Ventures and HashKey created a $205m fund to invest in blockchain projects that use <a href=\"https:\/\/thegraph.com\/\">The Graph<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That same month The Graph Foundation<em> <\/em>launched the Graph Advocates programme. Dozens of community ambassadors were selected to produce educational content, run events, offer technical support and ensure access to The Graph\u2019s resources worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>In April 2022 a new governing body was introduced \u2014 the decentralised autonomous organisation Graph AdvocatesDAO, which took over oversight and funding of the <a href=\"https:\/\/thegraph.com\/blog\/graph-advocates\">Graph Advocate<\/a>s programme, as well as the distribution of community grants.<\/p>\n<p>In less than two years from launch, the project had already become an important element of the fast-growing Web3 infrastructure and the DeFi industry.<\/p>\n<p>As of July 2022, The<em> <\/em>Graph supported data indexing in 31 networks, including Ethereum, NEAR, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Avalanche, Celo, Fantom, Moonbeam, IPFS and PoA. <\/p>\n<p>By now more than 24,000 developers have deployed over 31,000 subgraphs for applications such as Uniswap, Synthetix, Zora, Known Origin, Gnosis, Balancer, Livepeer, DAOstack, Audius and Decentraland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-block-text-wrappers-cards single_card\">\n<h2 class=\"card_label\">What else to read?<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-hedera-hashgraph-hbar\">What is Hedera Hashgraph?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-curve\">What is Curve?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-algorand-algo\">What is Algorand?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-chainlink-link\">What is Chainlink (LINK)?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is The Graph? How does this decentralised protocol index data from public blockchains? Explained in ForkLog\u2019s educational cards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"2","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2113],"tags":[2117,2114,2069],"class_list":["post-37669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptorium","tag-101-altcoins","tag-101-decentralization","tag-the-graph"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"103","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37669"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37671,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37669\/revisions\/37671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}