TL;DR: In 2024, Pinax expanded its blockchain data infrastructure to support 60+ chains and became a top-ten indexer on The Graph Network. We made significant technical contributions including saving Ethereum blobs and launching datasets on Snowflake Marketplace. Pinax also strengthened its community presence by tripling event participation, producing educational content, and expanding outreach to Asian communities.
This past year, Pinax excelled in our role as a core dev working on The Graph, made solid investments in our infrastructure and blockchain data tools, and engaged and connected with the global web3 community.
From saving blobs to launching datasets, here’s how we’ve contributed to building a more accessible blockchain data ecosystem in 2024.
Expanded our support for chains
Pinax provides access to blockchain data for anyone who needs it, like developers, data analysts, and accountants, for various uses, like DeFi applications, blockchain forensics, AI model training, and finance analytics.
In 2024, we added substantially to the list of blockchains we support. Currently, we’re at 60+ chains, including Ethereum, Arbitrum One, Polygon, BNB, and Optimism, but check our website for the most up-to-date information. Most recently, we launched endpoints for Solana (beta) and Scroll.
We enable blockchain data access using Firehose and Substreams, which results in fast and reliable data. We’ve been working with blockchain data processing tools since 2018, becoming experts and expanding our infrastructure. In May, we deployed new hardware to our data centers for improved resiliency and expansion of services, adding:
- 1 PiB HDD
- 700 TiB NVME
- 10 EPYC servers
Plus, we’re actively expanding our Riverside data center to strengthen our infrastructure, provide increased scalability, and ensure we can support the growing influx of new chains.
Our expertise serves us well as core devs working on The Graph, where we provide infrastructure for chains currently supported on The Graph and support protocol integration with new chains as part of the chain integration process.
Helped to grow The Graph Network
Became a top-ten indexer
To help enhance The Graph Network’s performance and reliability, Pinax launched its indexer in 2023 and provides indexing and query processing services. In 2024, our indexer reached the top-ten ranking by all-time query fees generated and currently sits at seventh.
Supported the move to the decentralized network
Having an indexer allowed us to support The Graph’s transition from the hosted service to the decentralized network (aka the Sunrise of Decentralized Data). We supported chains that had been available on the hosted service so our indexer could support the subgraphs being migrated to the network. We also drove value to the network by prioritizing serving subgraphs that generated query fees over delegation rewards and supported high-demand subgraphs that had been migrated.
The Pinax team also supported the Sunrise Upgrade Program by hosting X Spaces to promote The Graph Sunrise, along with a meme campaign across the Pinax and team member accounts.
Here’s our Chief Marketing Officer, Martin, showing his support for the Sunrise of Decentralized Data:
Migrated dfuse customers to The Graph Network
A significant milestone for us this year, which also contributed to the growth of The Graph Network, was shutting down our dfuse hosted service in favor of leaner, more scalable technology—Firehose and Substreams. We migrated those who had been using dfuse for Antelope blockchain data (EOS, WAX, and Telos) to new Substreams-powered subgraphs that we built, bringing support for WAX and EOS on The Graph for the first time.
To provide more tools for builders using Antelope blockchain data, we published Antelope Foundational Substreams Modules. These modules allow developers to subscribe to a Substreams feed, define their query, and receive the filtered data—all without writing a single line of backend code.
Developed and launched new tools and data services
Saved the blobs
You may have heard of Ethereum Improvement Proposal 4844 (EIP-4844) and its goal of improving Ethereum’s scalability by enabling temporary bulk data storage. But these “blobs” are only stored for 18 days and then gone forever. The core devs working on The Graph agreed we needed to #savetheblobs. Pinax completed the majority of the work to save the blobs ahead of EIP-4844, including implementing Firehose for Beacon chains and developing a Substreams-powered subgraph for querying blobs live on the network.
Developed and tested new data services
Pinax is helping The Graph ecosystem expand beyond subgraphs, collaborating with fellow core devs to build and test potential new data services.
Firehose and Substreams
We collaborated with StreamingFast to bring Firehose and Substreams query fees to the network, showing the potential for when these are native data services on The Graph.
We completed additional Substreams improvements including collaborating with StreamingFast to redesign and rebuild the Substreams.dev UI and developing a Substreams Sink CSV to output blockchain data to CSV.
Datasets
Leveraging our expertise in Firehose and Substreams, we developed and launched datasets on The Graph, with an Ethereum dataset available on the Snowflake Marketplace. This enables direct SQL querying capabilities and seamless data exploration for blockchain analysts and developers.
Geo
We developed a Geo Data Service subgraph and deployed it to The Graph testnet. We’re looking forward to the upcoming launch of Geo, a web3 browser and knowledge graph app. Geo is the first use case for the GRC-20 knowledge standard. Learn more in our article, Enabling Tomorrow’s Internet: How Knowledge Graphs Unlock Synergies between Web3 and AI.
Token API
We’re making good progress in developing a Token API. We’re working on a RICE analysis and are gathering feedback from fellow core devs.
Deployed a registry for networks in The Graph ecosystem
To establish a centralized source of truth for chain configurations across The Graph ecosystem, we launched the Supported Networks Registry (and demo app). We also developed cross-language The Graph Network libraries (TypeScript, Rust, Go) for seamless interaction with The Graph Network Registry. This work is the first step in rebuilding The Graph CLI.
Built and presented our Kubernetes deployment toolkit
We created a streamlined Kubernetes deployment toolkit that takes indexers from zero to production-ready in minutes, powered by kind and FluxCD. This GitHub repo is a starting point for indexers to work with Kubernetes in a simple way, replacing manual configuration with automated, version-controlled infrastructure management. See the demo and follow along in The Graph Indexer Office Hours #180.
Increased educational content and our community presence
Provided developers and indexers with quality educational content
Our blog continued publishing guides, interviews, articles, and summaries on Firehose and Substreams, The Graph, blockchain indexing, and web3 development. We’ve expanded our audience from developers, indexers, and web3 enthusiasts to include beginners who are curious about web3 and The Graph but may not be as knowledgeable. We’ve also expanded our languages with many articles translated into French, Vietnamese, and Korean.
In 2024, we published over 60 blog articles, with the most popular on Substreams and ClickHouse, our achievements in 2023, and the Substreams-based Atomic API. Each week, we recap The Graph Indexer Office Hour recordings (with 51 this year), providing a searchable detailed summary for indexers who can’t attend, allowing them to skip right to the content they need. We added a list of Frequently Asked Questions to answer your common questions.
Our YouTube channel continued to entertain and instruct, posting 23 videos, including Substreams demos, hackathon demos (Hack’N Heights), The Graph Espresso news show, and a datasets demo with Snowflake. The Graph Espresso episodes 1 and 2 got the most watch time of 2024, with episode 1 getting the most views. Interestingly, the top two Firehose videos from 2023 still hold steady in the top ten, each with the highest watch times (a combined 50+ hours!) and one with the most views overall. We also published seven YouTube shorts, including conference highlights, builders spotlights, and promotional clips.
Promoted and supported the community
Our Pinax X account heavily promoted Substreams, Firehose, The Graph ecosystem, and web3. Some of our top-performing posts were about The Graph’s enhanced support for Solana and the impact of knowledge graphs on web3 and AI.
Starting in April, the Pinax team began supporting the production of weekly Graph Builders Office Hours, including promotional graphics and a POAP, streaming support, and video editing. Here’s an example of the type of promotion and graphic:
Reached out to Asian communities
Another significant contribution we made this year was outreach and support of the Asian community. Pinax’s Chinese community managers, Lena and Eleven, fostered and supported The Graph Chinese communities through social channels and in-person events. Lena helped organize and coordinate an event at Chengdu University, presented at a side event as part of Shanghai International Blockchain Week at Fudan University, and both Lena and Eleven staffed The Graph booth at ETH Shenzhen. Pinax also supports the Vietnamese community manager for The Graph.
Tripled the live events we attended
Compared to 2023, we tripled the number of events we participated in. Pinax traveled to 17 live events in 2024, promoting Firehose, Substreams, and The Graph, presenting on Firehose and Substreams, and helping at The Graph booth.
These events allowed us to connect with builders worldwide, introduce them to the potential of building immortal applications with decentralized blockchain data indexing, and invite them to access and transform this data with Firehose and Substreams. Everyone who found the red firefighter helmet was invited to try our data endpoints and discover the power of this technology.
Pinax’s Firehose helmet was recognized at conferences around the world:
- ETHDenver
- ETHTaipei
- ETH Bucharest
- Collaboration with The Graph On Campus at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China
- Avalanche Canada Launch Event
- Hack’ N Heights hackathon at Berlin Blockchain Week
- ETHPrague
- ETHCC & ETHGlobal in Brussels
- ETH Shenzhen
- Shanghai International Blockchain Week
- ETHGlobal in San Francisco
- Token 2049 Singapore
- Solana Breakpoint in Singapore
- Messari Mainnet in New York
- Datapalooza BKK & DevCon 7 in Bangkok
Looking back, moving forward
As we reflect on 2024, we’re proud of our contributions to The Graph ecosystem and blockchain data infrastructure, from expanding chain support to becoming a top-ten indexer and launching innovative tools like datasets. We’re grateful for the growing community that joined us at events worldwide and engaged with our educational content. Looking ahead to 2025, we remain committed to strengthening our blockchain data infrastructure and supporting builders in web3.
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