How To Buy The Graph (GRT)?

A common question you often see on social media from crypto beginners is “Where can I buy The Graph?” Well, you’ll be happy to hear it is actually quite a simple and straightforward process. Thanks to its massive popularity, you can now buy The Graph on most cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinbase and Binance in 3 simple steps.

Step 1: Create an account on an exchange that supports The Graph (GRT)

First, you will need to open an account on a cryptocurrency exchange that supports The Graph (GRT).
We recommend the following based on functionality, reputation, security, support and fees:

In order to sign up, you will need to enter some basic information, such as your email address, password, full name and, in some cases, you might also be asked for a phone number or address.

Note: On specific exchanges, you might need to complete a Know Your Customer (KYC) procedure in order to be able to purchase cryptocurrency. This is most commonly the case with licensed and regulated exchanges.

Step 2: Deposit funds into your account

Many cryptocurrency exchanges will allow you to purchase The Graph (GRT) with fiat currencies, such as EUR, USD, AUD and others. Furthermore, they will also provide you with multiple deposit methods through which you can fund your fiat account, such as credit and debit cards, ewallets or direct bank transfers.

Note: Some payment methods will have higher fees than others, such as credit card payments. Before funding your fiat account on your chosen exchange, make sure to do your due diligence to find out the fees involved with each payment method to avoid unnecessary costs.

Step 3: Buy The Graph (GRT)

This process is similar across almost every cryptocurrency exchange. All you have to do is find a navigation bar or a search bar, and search for The Graph (GRT) or The Graph (GRT) trading pairs. Look for the section that will allow you to buy The Graph (GRT), and enter the amount of the cryptocurrency that you want to spend for The Graph (GRT) or the amount of fiat currency that you want to spend towards buying The Graph (GRT). The exchange will then calculate the equivalent amount of The Graph (GRT) based on the current market rate.

Note: Make sure to always double-check your transaction details, such as the amount of The Graph (GRT) you will be buying as well as the total cost of the purchase before you end up confirming the transaction. Furthermore, many cryptocurrency exchanges will offer you their own proprietary software wallet where you will be storing your cryptocurrencies; however, you can create your own individual software wallet, or purchase a hardware wallet for the highest level of protection.

For more in-depth instructions, our ‘Absolute Beginner’s Guide To Cryptocurrency Investing‘ will take you through the process step-by step. In addition to providing instructions for sending and receiving your cryptocurrency.
And if you’re completely new to crypto our beginner, intermediate and advanced level articles will get you up to speed with everything you need to know about the cryptocurrency space starting out. 

Simplecryptoguide.com

What Is The Graph (GRT)

The Graph is an indexing protocol for querying data for networks like Ethereum and IPFS, powering many applications in both DeFi and the broader Web3 ecosystem. Anyone can build and publish open APIs, called subgraphs, that applications can query using GraphQL to retrieve blockchain data. There is a hosted service in production that makes it easy for developers to get started building on The Graph and the decentralized network will be launching later this year. The Graph currently supports indexing data from Ethereum, IPFS and POA, with more networks coming soon.

To date, over 3,000 subgraphs have been deployed by thousands of developers, for DApps like Uniswap, Synthetix, Aragon, AAVE, Gnosis, Balancer, Livepeer, DAOstack, Decentraland and many others. The Graph usage has been growing at over 50% MoM and hit over 7 billion queries during the month of September 2020.

The Graph has a global community, including over 200 Indexer Nodes in the testnet and more than 2,000 Curators in the Curator Program as of October 2020. To fund network development, The Graph raised funds from community members, strategic VCs and influential individuals in the blockchain community including Coinbase Ventures, DCG, Framework, ParaFi Capital, CoinFund, DTC, Multicoin, Reciprocal Ventures, SPC, Tally Capital and others. The Graph Foundation also successfully completed a public GRT Sale with participation from 99 countries (not including the U.S.). To date as of November 2020, The Graph has raised ~$25M.

Who Are the Founders of The Graph?

The Graph team includes professionals from the Ethereum Foundation, OpenZeppelin, Decentraland, Orchid, MuleSoft leading up to the IPO and acquisition by Salesforce, Puppet, Redhat and Barclays.

The initial co-founding team includes Yaniv Tal (project lead), Brandon Ramirez (research lead) and Jannis Pohlmann (tech lead).

The founders have engineering backgrounds and have worked together for 5-8 years. Tal and Ramirez studied electrical engineering at USC and worked together at MuleSoft, an API developer tools company that underwent an IPO and sold to SalesForce.

They previously co-founded a developer tools startup together and have spent a significant portion of their careers working to optimize the API stack. At their last startup, the founders built a custom framework on an immutable database called Datomic. The Graph was born from this vision to create immutable APIs and data access, using the GraphQL query language.

What Makes The Graph Unique?

The Graph is working to bring reliable decentralized public infrastructure to the mainstream market. To ensure economic security of The Graph Network and the integrity of data being queried, participants use Graph Token (GRT). GRT is a work token that is locked-up by Indexers, Curators and Delegators in order to provide indexing and curating services to the network.

GRT is an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain, used to allocate resources in the network. Active Indexers, Curators and Delegators can earn income from the network proportional to the amount of work they perform and their GRT stake. Indexers earn indexing rewards (new issuance) and query fees, while Curators earn a portion of query fees for the subgraphs they signal on. Delegators earn a portion of income earned by the Indexer they delegate to.

By making it easier for developers to interact with blockchains, The Graph is making it easier to build new applications and track valuable data. Using The Graph, developers can focus on having great user experience UX/UI, as opposed to building custom back-end infrastructure for each application. 

Today, over 6,000 developers are actively using The Graph and have built over 3,400 subgraphs (open APIs) for hundreds of applications. Additionally, over 210 Indexers from 54 countries have deployed nodes in the testnet and over 2,000 Curators have signed up in the testnet. 

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How Does The Graph Work With Ethereum?

The Graph has built an open data layer on top of Ethereum to make it easy for developers to pull information and serve that information to their users, quickly and efficiently. Subgraphs abstract interacting with Ethereum’s JSON-RPC API for reading blockchain data, and with subgraph features like mutations, writing to the blockchain will be simplified as well.

Because the developers do not use an indexing database in-house, they can easily pull data from the blockchain in an efficient way, so applications load quickly for users. Subgraphs are also open source, meaning applications can query the same APIs used by other projects to create a single source of truth for users.

What Are Indexers, Delegators, Curators and Consumers?

There are many different roles in The Graph Network, including Indexing, Curating, Delegating and Consuming.

Indexers are node operators in The Graph Network that stake Graph Tokens (GRT) in order to provide indexing and query processing services. Indexers earn query fees and indexer rewards for their services. To be an Indexer on The Graph network, you need to be able to run the node software. Indexing is a technical role in the network.

Curators are subgraph developers, data consumers or community members who signal to Indexers which APIs should be indexed by The Graph Network. They use their knowledge of the blockchain ecosystem, applications and consumers to identify the most reliable data sources.

Curators deposit GRT into a bonding curve to signal on a specific subgraph and earn a portion of query fees for the subgraphs they signal on — this incentivizes the highest quality data sources. Because signaling occurs on a bonding curve, the earlier you signal on a subgraph, the greater share of the query fees you earn on that subgraph for a given amount of GRT deposited. This also means that when you go to withdraw, you could end up with more or less GRT than you started with. To be a curator, you do not need to be technical, you just need to understand the open data.

An example of curation would be if a new DeFi subgraph pops onto the market for a protocol that you think is promising. You could signal on that subgraph to indicate to Indexers that it should be indexed and to make it discoverable by DApp developers. You would then earn a cut of the query fees on that subgraph for being early to signal.

Delegators are individuals who would like to contribute to securing the network but do not want to run a Graph Node themselves. Delegators contribute by delegating GRT to existing Indexers, and they earn a portion of query fees and indexing rewards in return. Delegators select Indexers based on their performance on measures like query fee rates, past slashing and uptime, as well as delegator parameters like the cut of fees and rewards from the Indexer. Delegators will delegate and undelegate GRT on Indexers via the Graph Explorer DApp. You do not need to be technical at all in The Graph Network, as it just takes a single click to delegate.

Consumers are the end-users of The Graph that query subgraphs and pay query fees to the Indexers, Curators and Delegators. Consumers are likely to be developers or projects themselves that cover query fees for their applications as they would AWS or cloud service costs. However, some applications will pass on query fees to users or bundle the cost in product fees. Consumers will pay for query fees via “gateways” or wallets that will be built on top of open source contracts in The Graph Network.

The Graph development updates in 2023

The Graph, a key player in the decentralized Web3 ecosystem, has made significant strides in 2023 with numerous updates enhancing its capabilities and user experience. Here are some of the key developments:

• AI-Assisted Querying: One of the most notable advancements in The Graph’s “New Era” roadmap is the introduction of AI-assisted querying using large language models. This feature allows developers to perform complex data queries in natural language, significantly lowering the technical barriers to blockchain development and accelerating innovation within the Web3 ecosystem​​.

• Enhancements in Indexing Capabilities: The Graph has introduced Firehose and Substreams technologies. Firehose is designed to speed up the indexing of blockchain data, improving data retrieval efficiency and reducing latency. Substreams enable developers to write Rust modules and collaborate in composing data streams, offering high-performance indexing and paving the way for innovative blockchain applications​​.

• Improvements in Tools and Documentation: The Graph’s team has been actively working on enhancing various tools and documentation. This includes integrating graph-ts, developing a Proxy for API keys, patching issues in graph-node, and introducing new features in graph-tooling like support for various platforms, upgrades to Node 20, and enhancements in code generation​​​​.

• Expanding Data Services and Network Performance: The Graph aims to expand beyond subgraphs to create a diverse market of data on the network. This involves integrating more data sources, supporting new query languages, and streamlining billing and pricing models. Additionally, efforts are being made to improve Indexer tooling and operational capabilities, enhancing scalability, reducing costs, and boosting network reliability​​.

• Focus on Developers and Data Consumers: The Graph provides scalable and efficient indexing, making it easier for developers to build dApps without compromising performance and reliability. It supports various platforms like Ethereum, IPFS, and POA, offering a user-friendly interface for data consumers. The flexibility and efficiency of The Graph make it a vital component of the blockchain ecosystem, aiding in the development of fast, reliable, and user-friendly decentralized applications​​.

• Future Expansion and Migration Plans: The Graph has completed its second phase of Arbitrum migration and is planning to adopt additional blockchain networks like Fantom and Polygon. This expansion will enhance the token’s accessibility and interoperability across various exchanges​​.

These updates highlight The Graph’s commitment to advancing the decentralized web, providing robust tools for developers, and enhancing the blockchain ecosystem’s overall functionality and efficiency.

Official website: https://thegraph.com/

Best cryptocurrency wallet for The Graph (GRT)

There are plenty of different crypto wallets available. The best one for you depends on your general trading habits and which provides the most security in your situation. There are two main types of wallets: hot storage wallets (digital) and cold storage or hardware wallets (physical). Both have their pros and cons, and there is not necessarily a right or wrong answer when it comes to figuring out which crypto wallet is best for you.

HOW DO I DECIDE WHICH cryptocurrency WALLET TO USE for The Graph (GRT)?

Deciding which type of wallet to use depends on a variety of factors, including:

• How often you trade. In general, hot wallets are better for more active cryptocurrency traders. Quick login ability means you are only a few clicks and taps away from buying and selling crypto. Cold wallets are better suited for those looking to make less frequent trades. 
• What you want to trade. As mentioned earlier, not all wallets support all types of cryptocurrencies. However, some of the best crypto wallets have the power to trade hundreds of different currencies, providing more of a one-size-fits-all experience.
• Your peace of mind. For those worried about hacking, having a physical cold wallet stored in a safe deposit box at the bank or somewhere at home, provides the safest, most secure option. Others might be confident in their ability to keep their hot wallets secure.
• How much it costs. It is important to investigate the costs associated with each wallet. Many hot wallets will be free to set up. Meanwhile, cold wallets, like any piece of hardware, will cost money to purchase.
• What it can do. While the basics of each cryptocurrency wallet are the same, additional features can help set them apart. This is especially true of hot wallets, many of which come with advanced reporting features, insights into the crypto market, the ability to convert cryptocurrencies and more. Security features can also be a good differentiator.

For a more in-depth overview of cryptocurrency wallets visit our “Cryptocurrency Wallets Explained” guide.

If you’re going to be dealing in larger volumes of crypto, investing in cold storage might prove advantageous.
Most widespead examples of this being the Ledger Nano and the Trezor.

Ledger manufactures cold storage wallets designed for users who want increased security. Their wallets are a physical device that connects to your computer. Only when the device is connected can you send your cryptocurrency from it. Ledger offers a variety of products, such as the Ledger Nano S and the Ledger Nano X (a bluetooth connected hardware wallet).

Trezor is a pioneering hardware wallet company. The combination of world-class security with an intuitive interface and compatibility with other desktop wallets, makes it ideal for beginners and experts alike. The company has gained a lot of the Bitcoin community’s respect over the years. Trezor offers two main models – The Trezor One and Trezor Model T (which has a built in touch screen).