Indexing Demystified
This post serves as a rapid-fire reference for developers trying to compare feature sets of different indexers.
Indexers are important because performant dapps need efficient ways of reading chain data and listening to relevant events.
There are a number of indexers for EVM data, and it can be confusing understanding the featuresets of different options. We have tried to map out the space here.
A Mental Model
At a high level, there are two major types of indexer services:
1. Providers of data for the most common use cases such as token balances or activities for a given address
2. Indexing frameworks that allow developers to build custom off-chain calculators
Data for common use cases
Access methods: API or streaming (i.e. rapid replication to your environment)
Data you'll typically see:
- raw data (blocks, transactions, logs, traces). For transactions and logs, they may be ABI-decoded
- token (native/ERC20/NFT) balances
- token (native/ERC20/NFT) transfers
- DEX trades
- market data
A matrix of data offerings by provider is here: docs.monad.xyz/tooling-and-in…
10 data indexers already support Monad Testnet including Allium, Codex, Dune Echo, Goldrush (by Covalent), Mobula, Pangea, Reservoir, thirdweb, Unmarshal, and Zerion.
Indexing frameworks
Smart contract indexers allow you to listen for specific events and compute additional metrics off-chain. You can think of them as extensions to a smart contract that do additional off-chain computation and maintain additional off-chain state.
Indexers vary by language, hosting support, and additional features like built-in alerting and visualization.
A matrix of features by provider is here: docs.monad.xyz/tooling-and-in…
8 smart contract indexers support Monad Testnet including DipDup, Envio, Ghost, Goldsky, Sentio, SQD, SubQuery, and The Graph.
If I got anything wrong, let me know!
This post serves as a rapid-fire reference for developers trying to compare feature sets of different indexers.
Indexers are important because performant dapps need efficient ways of reading chain data and listening to relevant events.
There are a number of indexers for EVM data, and it can be confusing understanding the featuresets of different options. We have tried to map out the space here.
A Mental Model
At a high level, there are two major types of indexer services:
1. Providers of data for the most common use cases such as token balances or activities for a given address
2. Indexing frameworks that allow developers to build custom off-chain calculators
Data for common use cases
Access methods: API or streaming (i.e. rapid replication to your environment)
Data you'll typically see:
- raw data (blocks, transactions, logs, traces). For transactions and logs, they may be ABI-decoded
- token (native/ERC20/NFT) balances
- token (native/ERC20/NFT) transfers
- DEX trades
- market data
A matrix of data offerings by provider is here: docs.monad.xyz/tooling-and-in…
10 data indexers already support Monad Testnet including Allium, Codex, Dune Echo, Goldrush (by Covalent), Mobula, Pangea, Reservoir, thirdweb, Unmarshal, and Zerion.
Indexing frameworks
Smart contract indexers allow you to listen for specific events and compute additional metrics off-chain. You can think of them as extensions to a smart contract that do additional off-chain computation and maintain additional off-chain state.
Indexers vary by language, hosting support, and additional features like built-in alerting and visualization.
A matrix of features by provider is here: docs.monad.xyz/tooling-and-in…
8 smart contract indexers support Monad Testnet including DipDup, Envio, Ghost, Goldsky, Sentio, SQD, SubQuery, and The Graph.
If I got anything wrong, let me know!
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