TL;DR: Follow along as we celebrate a year of remarkable milestones, highlighting the company's evolution as a core development team for The Graph.
Join us as we look back on the highlights of 2023, reflecting on the moments that shaped Pinax into what it is today, and setting our sights on the exciting possibilities that lie ahead. In this post, we’ll take you through a year filled with achievements that not only define our past but also pave the way for a future brimming with potential.
We became a core development team for The Graph
Pinax achieved a monumental milestone in 2023 by securing a grant to become a core development team for The Graph’s decentralized ecosystem. This collaboration heralds a new chapter for us, where we can show our commitment to fostering the growth and innovation of The Graph.
As part of this new chapter, we’re playing a key role in bringing new data services to The Graph, like Firehose and Substreams, to enhance its capabilities and reach. We’re also proud to offer vital infrastructure support, educational resources, and operational expertise to The Graph ecosystem, ensuring its continued success and stability. Another of our continued efforts is helping to onboard new chains to The Graph.
We became an indexer
In addition to becoming a core development team, we launched our own indexer within The Graph ecosystem. This initiative demonstrates our deepened involvement and investment in The Graph’s infrastructure.
Our indexer serves as a pivotal element in enhancing network performance and reliability, providing comprehensive indexing services that support The Graph’s vision of a fully decentralized and accessible web3 future. Through this endeavor, we are not just participants but active facilitators in The Graph’s journey, propelling the ecosystem forward with our dedicated resources and expertise.
We launched our service portal for Firehose and Substreams
In an exciting development for 2023, Pinax rolled out our Firehose and Substreams service portal, marking a milestone in our mission to streamline blockchain data services. Available on our website, you can access more than 14 blockchain networks, including some testnets. Developers and indexers, check out our video on how to get free API keys to test our services.
The Graph is continuously expanding its network by adding new chains, with Pinax playing a key role in facilitating this growth. By obtaining an API key, you can swiftly configure and test nodes, leveraging the latest in blockchain technology to stream data to your dApp or run indexers more efficiently and cost effectively.
For indexers who may find it challenging to run or maintain sufficient hardware, Pinax’s services offer a practical and cost-effective solution, ensuring uninterrupted and efficient data access without the need for extensive infrastructure investment. Connect to our infrastructure to boost your speed and reliability, all while reducing operational costs.
We engaged at events and conferences
This year, the Pinax team made our mark globally. We were part of some big industry events, sharing knowledge and growing together in the blockchain world.
- ETHDenver: We had a blast at ETHDenver! It was all about exploring the future of decentralization, hanging out at The Graph’s booth, and kicking off the Pinax firefighter helmet challenge.
- Consensus 2023: Here, we joined other leaders to talk about what’s next in our field. You can catch a glimpse of our time there in this Consensus 2023 X update.
- ETHWaterloo: We helped out at The Graph booth and mentored hackathon participants who leveraged The Graph and Firehose & Substreams in their projects.
- ETHToronto and the Futurist Conference: These events were all about discussing topics that will shape our decentralized future. Attendees had lots of fun with our firefighter helmet contest. Check out the activity in our ETHToronto and Futurist Conference X post.
- DappCon 2023 in Berlin: This was a huge deal for us and other web3 enthusiasts. At DappCon 2023 in Berlin, we discussed how The Graph’s tools are changing web3 data and explored new tech like Firehose and Substreams. Plus, there were fun activities and contests, including the Pinax firefighter helmet challenge.
- Waterloo Hackathon: We inspired young blockchain developers with Yaro Shkvorets’ workshop on The Graph Network and subgraph development. It was a hit! See more in our article covering the event.
- Builders Office Hours: We became part of the Builders Office Hours production team, hosted every Thursday in The Graph Discord.
We’re proud of how we’ve contributed to the blockchain conversation this year and look forward to what’s next. Stay tuned for more updates from us!
We forged a collaboration with Deutsche Telekom
We formed a promising collaboration with Deutsche Telekom’s indexing service. Along with the Graph Advocates, we jointly organized the event, Dough, Data, and Decentralization. This inaugural community meetup in Berlin brought experts together, including Pinax’s Martin Breuer, to discuss the future of blockchain technology. We’re excited to join more meetups in the future.
The gathering strengthened our relationship and led to Deutsche Telekom using Pinax’s Firehose infrastructure, which is saving the company costs.
The collaborative spirit and positivity lasted well after the meetup, as you can see in Deutsche Telekom’s post. As we move into 2024, we’re excited about the potential to establish more such relationships, expand the community, and increase collaboration.
We grew our team
Pinax’s team expanded with key hires, enhancing our creative and technical capabilities. Art Director Mike Crook is strengthening our visual identity, while Technical Writers Ujjwal Thakur, Wisdom Nwokocha, and Paul Barba are demystifying web3 data aggregation and indexing solutions for web3 builders, including Firehose and Substreams technology.
On the engineering front, Johnathan Leung, Gabriel Coutu, Guillaume Cléroux, and Vince Petoscia joined us as site reliability engineers. They help maintain the reliability and performance of our systems, and expand our capabilities and the chains we support.
Back-End Developer Interns Étienne Donneger, Mathieu Lefebvre, Louis Patrick Geoffroy, Julien Rousseau, and Paul Meignan, along with Social Media Intern Sophie-Anne Patry, infused innovation and engagement into our operations (the latter four internships have recently ended). Our developer interns help develop cutting-edge blockchain data solutions, as showcased in our Substreams Unleashed video series.
We’re dedicated to nurturing student engagement with web3 technologies, which is why we’ve established a robust intern program. We often invite our interns to join us part-time to continue their journey.
We pumped up our education and support efforts
In a concerted effort to spread knowledge and aid web3 developers, Pinax significantly ramped up its educational outreach.
One of our key efforts was helping indexers get up to speed on Firehose through a series of tutorial videos presented by our CIO, Matthew Darwin.
In September, we launched our blog and it already has a ton of posts on topics like Firehose, Substreams, and The Graph initiatives. One example includes ongoing summaries of the Indexer Office Hours (IOH) to help people catch up on the latest developments. Check out the blog’s inaugural post by CEO Daniel Keyes.
Our newly launched Pinax Community Discord server is focused on providing developers with a collaborative space for support and discussion, furthering our commitment to the development and growth of the ecosystem.
We extended our chain support
In 2023, Pinax broadened its horizons significantly by adding Firehose support for all chains listed on our website. This expansion deepens our service offerings and shows Pinax’s dedication to fostering a versatile and comprehensive ecosystem.
Our extended chain support includes established names such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB, as well as rising stars like Optimism. By integrating these diverse technologies, we’re empowering developers with the tools they need to innovate and excel in the ever-evolving blockchain realm. You can see by the table below that most have support for Substreams as well.
| Chain | Firehose | Substreams |
|---|---|---|
| Arweave – Mainnet | ✓ | |
| BNB – Mainnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bitcoin – Mainnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Chapel – BNB Testnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cosmos Hub – Mainnet | ✓ | |
| EOS – Mainnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Ethereum – Mainnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Goerli – Ethereum Testnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Holesky – Ethereum Testnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Juno – Mainnet | ✓ | |
| Jungle4 – EOS Testnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Kylin – EOS Testnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mumbai – Polygon Testnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| NEAR – Mainnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| NEAR-testnet – NEAR Testnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Optimism – Mainnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| ORE – Mainnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| ORE Stage – ORE Testnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Osmosis – Mainnet | ✓ | |
| Polygon – Mainnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sepolia – Ethereum Testnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Telos – Mainnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Telos Test – Telos Testnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Theta – Cosmos Hub Testnet | ✓ | |
| UX – Mainnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| WAX – Mainnet | ✓ | ✓ |
| WAX Test – WAX Testnet | ✓ | ✓ |
Wrapping up 2023
We see 2023 as a year of significant growth and exploration for us. The Graph’s new roadmap shows it intends to expand beyond the boundaries of subgraphs and will grow into a centre for many data sources and services. At Pinax, we’re dedicated to supporting the new roadmap and helping to grow the ecosystem.
We invite you to be part of our unfolding narrative and contribute to the shared vision of a decentralized future. Connect with us, collaborate, and let’s shape the web3 landscape together.
That’s a lot of accomplishments for one year. Can’t wait to see what 2024 brings!!
What an amazing year! Shout out to the Pinax team for the great work that made this all possible!