区块链数据索引：释放 Web3 潜力的关键

区块链数据索引平台是 Web3 行业中最重要但基本上不为人知的创新之一，有助于释放开发人员的资源并显着改善去中心化应用程序的用户体验。

Blockchain data indexing platforms are one of the most consequential, yet largely unknown innovations in the Web3 industry. These platforms help to free up developers’ resources and dramatically improve the user experience in decentralized applications (dApps). Yet the vast majority of Web3 users don’t have the first clue about what a Web3 data indexing platform is, or does, or why it’s so important.

区块链数据索引平台是 Web3 行业中最重要但基本上不为人知的创新之一。这些平台有助于释放开发人员的资源，并显着改善去中心化应用程序（dApp）的用户体验。然而，绝大多数 Web3 用户并不清楚 Web3 数据索引平台是什么、做什么，或者为什么它如此重要。

To understand the importance of indexing, it might be helpful to think back to the early days of Web1, when the only way to find something online was to manually type the IP address of the website you want to visit into the URL bar. That changed when Google came along and indexed the web for the first time with its now-eponymous search engine

要了解索引的重要性，回想一下 Web1 的早期可能会有所帮助，当时在线查找内容的唯一方法是在 URL 栏中手动输入要访问的网站的 IP 地址。当谷歌出现并首次通过其同名搜索引擎对网络进行索引时，情况发生了变化

Now, indexing is going to have a similar impact in Web3 and the tangled web of blockchains that supports it.

现在，索引将对 Web3 和支持它的错综复杂的区块链网络产生类似的影响。

For developers, indexing is a godsend. Imagine you’re building a dApp and you need real-time access to blockchain data, user’s interactions and smart contract events. Finding all of this information on the blockchain, which stores data in a sequential way, is an extremely painstaking task.

对于开发人员来说，索引是天赐之物。想象一下，您正在构建一个 dApp，并且需要实时访问区块链数据、用户交互和智能合约事件。在以顺序方式存储数据的区块链上查找所有这些信息是一项极其艰巨的任务。

The blockchain acts as a distributed database, serving as the backend of every dApp. It provides all of the data a smart contract needs to function, but the challenge lies in accessing this information. While searching for data within a specific block or an account is fairly simple, it quickly becomes much more complicated when developers need to aggregate data from multiple queries of single blocks

区块链充当分布式数据库，充当每个 dApp 的后端。它提供了智能合约运行所需的所有数据，但挑战在于访问这些信息。虽然在特定块或帐户内搜索数据相当简单，但当开发人员需要聚合来自单个块的多个查询的数据时，它很快就会变得更加复杂

The problem is the sequential nature of blockchain, where data is stored one block at a time. As the blockchain adds more and more data, it becomes longer, leaving the data within it scattered all over the place. It’s incredibly disorganized for anyone trying to search through that data and make sense of it, and so it takes a long time to retrieve that information. Yet the most advanced dApps of today require extremely large amounts of blockchain data processing logic and often need to do this for multiple chains at once.

问题在于区块链的顺序性，数据一次存储一个块。随着区块链添加越来越多的数据，它变得越来越长，使得其中的数据分散在各处。对于任何试图搜索这些数据并理解它的人来说，它都是极其混乱的，因此需要很长时间才能检索这些信息。然而，当今最先进的 dApp 需要极其大量的区块链数据处理逻辑，并且通常需要同时对多个链执行此操作。

This is where blockchain indexers such as The Graph and SQD play such an important role, helping to streamline the way on-chain information is categorized and indexed. They can be thought of as a specialist tools for developers, and they vastly simplify the process of building dApps. Just like the index of a book, a blockchain indexer makes it quick and easy for the user – in this case a smart contract or dApps – to find the information they’re looking for. Blockchain indexers help to make the process of querying, retrieving and utilizing on-cain data more efficient.

这就是 The Graph 和 SQD 等区块链索引器发挥重要作用的地方，有助于简化链上信息的分类和索引方式。它们可以被认为是开发人员的专业工具，并且极大地简化了构建 dApp 的过程。就像书籍的索引一样，区块链索引器使用户（在本例中为智能合约或 dApp）可以快速轻松地找到他们正在寻找的信息。区块链索引器有助于提高查询、检索和利用 on-cain 数据的过程。

For developers, the beauty of a blockchain indexer is that they only have to define the data type and the relationships between them and specify how that information should be stored. The blockchain index will then create a customized GraphQL endpoint that presents the necessary information to their dApp. This solves all of the blockchain data retrieval and querying headaches for developers, leaving them with more time to focus on the actual functionality of their dApps – in other words, making them better.

对于开发人员来说，区块链索引器的优点在于他们只需定义数据类型及其之间的关系，并指定如何存储该信息。然后，区块链索引将创建一个定制的 GraphQL 端点，向其 dApp 提供必要的信息。这解决了开发人员面临的所有区块链数据检索和查询难题，让他们有更多时间专注于 dApp 的实际功能，换句话说，让它们变得更好。

Blockchain Indexing Benefits

区块链索引的好处

Blockchain data indexers abstract away much of the complexity, they’re optimized for latency so they can access information in real-time, as it’s added to the blockchain, and they can retrieve historic data rapidly too.

区块链数据索引器消除了大部分复杂性，它们针对延迟进行了优化，因此它们可以在信息添加到区块链时实时访问信息，并且它们也可以快速检索历史数据。

The benefits for developers are myriad, helping to speed up dApp development lifecycles, increase the responsiveness of dApps, boost their reliability and provide a smooth user experience.

为开发人员带来的好处是多方面的，有助于加快 dApp 开发生命周期、提高 dApp 的响应能力、提高其可靠性并提供流畅的用户体验。

For one thing, blockchain indexers are developer-friendly, abstracting away the complexity of coding logic that was previously required to query and retrieve blockchain data. They automate much of the process of indexing blockchain data, using templates and quickstart guides to help developers get started. Some of the newer indexers support familiar programming languages, such as TypeScript and JavaScript, meaning they’re easier for developers to get to grips with.

一方面，区块链索引器对开发人员友好，消除了以前查询和检索区块链数据所需的编码逻辑的复杂性。他们自动化了区块链数据索引的大部分过程，使用模板和快速入门指南来帮助开发人员入门。一些较新的索引器支持熟悉的编程语言，例如 TypeScript 和 JavaScript，这意味着开发人员更容易掌握它们。

Blockchain indexers support a high level of customization too, enabling developers to quickly and easily index application-specific data such as custom events from smart contract functions. At the same time, many also offer multi-chain support, meaning they provide developers with the ability to obtain and aggregate data from multiple chains and present it in a unified database table. This means dApps can quickly present unified information to users, without the developers needing to worry about using multiple APIs or subgraphs to access and manage the data from each chain.

区块链索引器还支持高水平的自定义，使开发人员能够快速轻松地索引特定于应用程序的数据，例如来自智能合约功能的自定义事件。同时，许多还提供多链支持，这意味着它们为开发人员提供了从多个链获取和聚合数据并将其呈现在统一数据库表中的能力。这意味着 dApp 可以快速向用户呈现统一的信息，而开发人员无需担心使用多个 API 或子图来访问和管理每个链的数据。

The Evolution Of Blockchain Indexers

区块链索引器的演变

The very first blockchain indexer to make its mark on the Web3 industry was The Graph. As the first decentralized service of its kind, it gave developers free access to indexing capabilities, meaning they no longer had to pay a centralized service provider.

The Graph 是第一个在 Web3 行业中崭露头角的区块链索引器。作为同类中的第一个去中心化服务，它使开发人员可以免费访问索引功能，这意味着他们不再需要向中心化服务提供商付费。

The Graph was once known as the “Google of Web3”, and provided an open data marketplace powered by the GRT token that any dApp could tap into. The Graph’s network unites numerous network participants, including data consumers, indexers who query data on their behalf, and the curators who manage the subgraphs

The Graph 曾被称为“Web3 中的 Google”，提供了一个由 GRT 代币支持的开放数据市场，任何 dApp 都可以利用。图的网络联合了众多网络参与者，包括数据消费者、代表他们查询数据的索引器以及管理子图的管理者