Review: SQD’s Data Layer Delivers Fast and Affordable Indexing for Web3 Dapps

Data is what makes the decentralized world go round. It is the raw material that enables tens of thousands of dapps to deliver onchain services ranging from gaming to trading. When it comes to selecting blockchain architecture to build upon, every layer of the stack is important. But there’s one layer in particular that determines the number of transactions a decentralized application can process per second and the cost passed on to end users – the data layer.

SQD is part of a new breed of web3 data providers that have been engineered to support a number of key objectives. Data availability is the most obvious one, both in terms of the speed with which it can be served and the cost. Another is capacity, allowing dapps to transcend the data storage and retrieval limitations offered by native blockchains by default. Finally, there’s decentralization: the ability for data layers can achieve the foregoing objectives without introducing centralized points of failure.

Let’s examine how SQD performs for these metrics across the three core services it provides: its data network, its SDK, and its cloud solution for enterprises.

The Data Layer Trilemma

The blockchain trilemma, as postulated by Vitalik Buterin, holds that the three most important attributes of a crypto network are decentralization, security, and scalability. Moreover, the thesis maintains that it is difficult to optimize for all three qualities simultaneously, compelling designers to make trade-offs along the day.

Web3 data layers such as SQD are also blockchain networks in their own right, and thus this same framework can be applied to them. But a more apposite one in the context of data networks is to rate their performance based on speed, scalability, and price, since these are the primary qualities that prospective developers are grading them on.

Speed: The ability to deliver onchain data in real-time with low latency and no bottlenecks.

Scale: Both the quantity of data that can be served and the number of data points that can be delivered per second.

Price: The cost to developers of accessing this data relative to that offered by rival solutions and by general purpose blockchain networks.

On first inspection, SQD appears well qualified to solve the “data layer trilemma.” Its network can theoretically support petabytes of data, having stored 856 TB and served 937 TB of data over the last 90 days by way of example. As for price, SQD claims to have delivered all-time infra cost savings of $264M versus utilizing standard blockchain architecture.

While these figures provide a basic overview of what SQD is capable of, it can be hard to visualize how this plays out in real terms for dapp developers. So let’s take a closer look at SQD’s core products and how they’re optimized to solve specific blockchain problems.

SQD Network

The backbone of SQD’s service is its decentralized data layer, known as SQD Network. It collects raw data from an array of on- and off-chain sources and organizes it into easy-to-query datasets. This is one of the key value-adds that web3 data layers provide: they don’t just deliver data, but they make it easily accessible to third-party developers. You can think of them as a Google Search for data, allowing devs to find and connect to the data sources they’re seeking.

The data stored by SQD Network is distributed across hundreds of nodes, maximizing availability while ensuring redundancy in case a node or group of nodes should go offline. This data is then made available to dapps and analysts, who can tap into a rich trove of blockchain and real-world data. SQD calls this a “data lake” which is a good metaphor.

SQD Network enables developers to access data for virtually any blockchain including real-time and historical data. This saves the need to run dedicated blockchain nodes and SQD claims its solution can save over 95% versus the cost of running an RPC node. Data is accessed through gateways, whose request rate is determined by the size and duration of SQD tokens stakes in order to access it. If a dapp needs to make a large number of requests, it’s possible to run multiple gateways, allowing for effectively unlimited data consumption.

SQD SDK

The second of SQD’s trifecta of core products is its SDK – Software Development Kit. This provides a highly customizable toolkit for devs who can access tens of thousands of blocks per second from dozens of EVM chains, Solana, and other major networks. The SQD SDK is used by dapps to access custom data without needing to get bogged down with infrastructure setup and maintenance. 

Because the SDK is modular, it offers a plug-and-play solution that can be easily incorporated into blockchain dapps and protocols with just a few lines of code. The SDK supports PostgreSQL, Google BigQuery, and file systems such as Parquets and CSVs. One of the primary benefits of using the SDK is speed: it enables projects to be up and running with their first indexer in as little as five minutes.

SQD Cloud

Geared towards enterprises in particular, SQD Cloud is a fully hosted service that frees projects from needing to concern themselves with deployment, hosting, and monitoring – SQD handles all of that. It enables businesses to access data from more than 150 blockchains delivered as real-time streams. Because there are unlimited API requests, SQD Cloud is ideal for high volume dapps or for dapps that need to query a diverse range of onchain sources.

SQD offers a tiered pricing package for its Cloud service, but there is a free developer indexer that can be deployed to its Playground. This operates as a space in which devs can kick the tires of SQD Cloud and get a feel for its capabilities before considering whether to take the plunge. With SQD Cloud’s paid services offering up to 500M RPC requests per month, it’s got enough capacity to power even the thirstiest of dapps.

A Whole Lotta Data for Devs to Dive Into

SQD’s promise of a veritable data lake lives up to its billing, providing the backbone for powering a wave of sophisticated and data-hungry blockchain applications. The most compelling aspect of its data service isn’t so much its core products as the modular design that defines SQD’s architecture, making it very easy to build with. The best may be yet to come, however, as SQD is focused on building out a fully-fledged ecosystem replete with tooling and partners who can extend the limits of what can be done with onchain data.