TL;DR: Great insights for indexers in this session's fireside chat with delegator, PaulieB.
Opening remarks
Hello everyone, and welcome to the latest edition of Indexer Office Hours! Today is March 19, and we’re here for Episode 149.
GRTiQ 160
Catch the latest GRTiQ podcast with Daniel Keyes, Co-founder and CEO of Pinax. Learn about his early career in broadcast journalism followed by a decade in the banking industry. Explore his journey into the world of crypto, his transition to full-time work in web3, and the genesis of Pinax.
Repo watch
The latest updates to important repositories
Execution Layer Clients
- sfgeth v2.0:
- geth v1.13.12 fh2.4
- Celo: New release v1.8.2 :
- Includes a a collection of bug fixes and improvements in preparation for the launch of new fee currencies. This update is highly recommended for all users.
- Arbitrum-nitro New release v2.3.2 :
- This release improves batch poster support for EIP-4844 and fixes a rare state corruption issue with debug tracing requests.
- Heimdall: New release v1.0.5 :
- Bridge, staking: chg: bug fix.
Graph Orchestration Tooling
Join us every other Wednesday at 5 PM UTC for Launchpad Office Hours and get the latest updates on running Launchpad.
The next one is on March 27. Bring all your questions!
Blockchains Operator Upgrade Calendar
The Blockchains Operator Upgrade Calendar is your one-stop solution for tracking hard fork updates and scheduled maintenance for various protocols within The Graph ecosystem.
Simplify your upgrade process and never miss a deadline again.
Protocol watch
The latest updates on important changes to the protocol
Contracts Repository
- chore: SAM deployments #961 (open)
- chore(deps): bump follow-redirects from 1.15.5 to 1.15.6 #962 (closed)
- Update README.md #960 (closed)
Project watch
A new release of Graph Node (v0.35.0) is coming soon, with another release (v0.35.1) around early April.
View the project watch presentation.
Open discussion
Delegator Fireside Chat
- PaulieB joined to provide indexers and other participants the chance to ask him questions about his experience as a delegator.
- PaulieB has been delegating since 2021, plus he’s active in curation, a member of the Graph AdvocatesDAO, the Graphtronauts, and a technical writer at Pinax.
Delegators are participants in The Graph Network who delegate, or stake, their GRT to one or more indexers. Unlike indexers, delegators do not run a Graph Node. By aligning with an indexer, they support network security and in return, earn a slice of the indexer’s query fees and indexing rewards.
From Demystifying Delegation: A Visual Guide to GRT Flow in The Graph Protocol
Questions
The Q&A was a rapid-fire session with topics like the importance of communication channels and why indexers should promote all that they do. To hear about everything that was discussed, watch the recording.
Here’s a sample of the Q&A.
Q1: What are some factors you consider when choosing which indexer to delegate to?
Answer:
I think it’s important to be able to contact an indexer and have a way to communicate with them because some are not reachable while others are. Also I feel it’s good to have an indexer that is active in the community.
I try to find a competitive, reputable indexer that may not have a huge delegation to help decentralization and prevent one or a few indexers from controlling too large of a stake.
Q2: Do you have any specific expectations in terms of transparency and communication?
Answer:
I expect someone to have Telegram or some way to say, “Hey, what’s going on with this allocation? It’s over 28 days.”
Indexers should have a common line of communication with the delegators.
Q3: Are there any particular metrics you prioritize when evaluating an indexer’s performance or reliability?
Answer:
It’s good if they manage allocations and close timely, keep a channel for communication. I don’t look for the highest APY—that’s not the most important metric for me, although a competitive APY/return is somewhat important.
Q4: Are there any particular channels that you prefer for getting updates from indexers? Discord, forums, or Twitter (X)?
Answer:
I like Discord and Telegram. X is good for more general updates.
Q5: Is the Graphtronauts app your go-to app, or the official Graph Explorer or graphscan?
Answer:
The Graphtronauts app is good for tracking long-term, and graphscan is good for quick checks. Both are good for notifications. Notifications are essential to delegating and staying updated on your delegation. Graph Explorer could use a better UI for delegation, but it’s probably the best source of truth.
Nice session from Paul