Covalent provides a unified API to bring full transparency and visibility to assets across all blockchain networks. Simply put, we have a single API that allows you to pull detailed, granular blockchain transaction data from multiple blockchains with no code.
Building Open APIs for Web3
Indexing is a way of structuring and categorizing data so it can be easily searched for and queried by users. The web search engines is a famous example of indexing web data, substantially decreasing the time it takes for users to find and use the information on the Internet. Without data indexing, users would need to manually scroll through unorganized data stores filled with raw and unmapped data to find the information they need.
Blockchains are increasingly becoming data-rich environments, both through data generation activities on-chain (smart contract events and calls) and through dApps bringing external data on-chain via oracles. All dApps that show blockchain data in their UIs require indexed data to reference the information they need and create good user experiences.
Before middleware service providers like Covalent, The Graph, Unmarshall developers had to write their own indexing code and maintain servers and databases on centralized infrastructure. This introduces a central point of failure; the indexed data can be maliciously or mistakenly manipulated by the dApp or the single server can go offline. Furthermore, developers have to spend extra time and money to run the infrastructure themselves. Deploying a subgraph is the most efficient way for developers to index blockchain data.
What makes Covalent unique?
let’s point out the unique elements of Covalent and compare them with peers:
1. Data availability
Covalent the index entire full blockchains — this means every single contract, every single wallet address, and every single transaction. This is billions of rows of data and terabytes of data. Meanwhile, The Graph provides an opportunity to create subgraphs and access specific blocks.
2. Composability
Composability is a critical piece of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) applications and allows developers to quickly and easily construct financial solutions leveraging ‘Lego-like’ building blocks from a multitude of projects. The multichain flexibility and deep, granular data provided by our APIs means developers can quickly and easily build scalable and data-rich applications with no query code.
3. Multi-blockchain support
Covalent already indexes and has customers on 12 different blockchain networks with many more to announce soon. The Graph and Unmarsal much less.
4. No code solution
Covalent in no-code solutions for our users. This means no complicated SQL queries, no subgraph development and maintenance, and no need to invest in highly-skilled (read expensive) developers to simply retrieve blockchain data, which is a monumental waste of engineering time. One API and you are done. The Graph requires coding skills to start and build a subgraph.
Covalent leverages big-data technologies to create meaning from hundreds of billions of data points, delivering actionable insights to investors and allowing developers to allocate resources to higher-utility goals within their organization. Instead of pain-stakingly sourcing data from a small handful of chains, Covalent aggregates information from across dozens of sources including nodes, chains, and data feed. The Covalent API then sources end-users with individualized data by wallet, including current and historical investment performance across all types of digital assets. Most importantly, Covalent returns this data in a rapid and consistent manner, incorporating all relevant data within one API interface.
To learn more about Covalent, visit covalenthq.com
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