The Graph, a decentralized protocol for blockchain data indexing and access, has introduced key upgrades aimed at enhancing the decentralized applications ecosystem on Solana.

A press release shared with crypto.news on Sept. 16 states that The Graph (GRT) has upgraded its tooling on Solana (SOL) network to offer new ways for developers to access and leverage the blockchain.

With the upgrades, developers now have more options to access indexed Solana data. The substreams-powered subgraphs allow those building on the smart contracts platform to tap into pre-built solutions from providers like Messari and Top Ledger.

Leveraging Substreams-powered subgraphs

In The Graph’s ecosystem, substreams-powered subgraphs offer technology that enables faster indexing for decentralized applications. Benefits include a dev-environment where dapp developers can use coding tools both remotely and locally.

Developers on Solana can also utilize this technology to sync projects quickly. Builders can access Solana blockchain data without needing to use substreams or the Rust programming language.

A boost to Solana’s web3 ecosystem

This means developers can get the best out of Solana’s network amid the web3 explosion, noted Nick Hansen, head of growth at The Graph Foundation. He highlighted features like high throughput, low fees, and a growing ecosystem of DeFi projects.

“The meteoric rise of developer and user activity on Solana has created a huge demand for open, decentralized data that is true to the values of web3. The Graph’s latest tooling upgrade and enhanced support will ensure the Solana community can get even more value out of web3’s decentralized data layer.”

Nick Hansen, head of growth at The Graph Foundation.

Apart from Solana developers, data analysts and the broader web3 community are also likely to find the new tools crucial.

The Graph, launched in 2018, has grown into one of the key blockchain projects in the web3 space. Developers have deployed dapps built with subgraphs on more than 70 blockchains, including Ethereum (ETH), Arbitrum (ARB), and Avalanche (AVAX).

Base Blockchain, the layer-2 network launched by Coinbase in 2023, is doing well as the ‘crypto winter’ continues.

Nansen data shows that the network’s number of users is growing and beating many blockchains like Avalanche (AVAX), Polygon (POL), and Cronos (CRO).

The number of active addresses jumped to a record high of over 1.964 million, up from the year-to-date low of 196,000. 

Another number reveals that the number of transactions handled by Base Blockchain has jumped to 4.8 million, up from January’s low of less than 300,000. 

Meanwhile, the number of daily deployments in the network rose to an all-time high of near 18,000 earlier this month.

In contrast, as we wrote this week, Avalanche’s number of active addresses and transactions have dropped by over 50% from the highest level this year. 

This growth happened as more developers embraced the network because of its strong speeds and low transaction costs. 

According to DeFi Llama, Base has 348 dApps in the decentralized finance industry and a total value locked of $1.57 billion, making it the sixth-biggest chain. The biggest DeFi dApps in its ecosystem are Aerodrome, Uniswap, Extra Finance, AAVE, and Morpho Blue. 

It is also the sixth-biggest in terms of stablecoins in the ecosystem, with over $1.57 billion. It will likely have more stablecoins when it is included in Tether’s network. 

Most importantly, Base Blockchain has also become the third-biggest chain in the decentralized exchange industry, where its dApps handled a volume of $3 billion in the last seven days. This made it bigger than Arbitrum, which processed $2.77 billion.

Developers and users love Base because of its low gas fees. According to Nansen, while its transactions have jumped, the amount of gas fees fell to $50,425, down from over $2.3 million in March. Base has made just $57 million in fees this year while Ethereum and Tron have made over $1 billion. 

The performance of Base is a good thing for Coinbase, which is losing market share to companies like Crypto.com, Huobi, and Bybit.

Coinbase handled crypto volume worth $66 billion while the others had volume of over $70 billion. 

DeFi has too much infrastructure and not enough apps—or at least, that’s what the consensus seems to be in crypto’s town square. Just this year, venture capitalists and private equity investors have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into crypto projects that make infrastructure a priority, if not an exclusive focus.

The highlight reel speaks for itself. In the first quarter alone, VC firm a16z committed $100 million to Eigen Layer, a restaking protocol and infrastructure layer for the Ethereum network; private equity firms Bridgewater Capital and Deus X Capital joined forces to fund a $250 million infrastructure platform; and RW3 Ventures raised $60 million for a fund focused exclusively on blockchain infrastructure and DeFi. These headlines are just a few of many; a quick perusal of any crypto news outlet reveals countless similar announcements.

Focus on infrastructure

The laser focus on infrastructure sparked considerable conversation during and following the Ethereum Community Conferences, or EthCC’24, in mid-July, with many coming to the same conclusion: We need more apps and less emphasis on infrastructure.

It’s a valid perspective on the surface. To put the issue into metaphor, focusing disproportionately on infrastructure is like building the best theme park ever seen—without the rides. Who cares if the park has nice paths, sleek gift shops, and well-equipped food stalls? If you don’t have a roller coaster (or five) on the premises, no one will show up, let alone pay to play.

Theoretical value and potential can only inspire so much customer adoption. A wide variety and deep volume of apps could help hook and retain DeFi users. With more options on offer, users will have more reason and opportunity to not only onboard but also explore.

The problem? Increasing the number of apps can only help the underlying issue (e.g., the long-term growth and sustainability of the DeFi ecosystem) so much. Returning to our metaphor, a good theme park needs a variety of rides to attract guests; however, if those rides are inconvenient to access or unpleasant to experience, interest will taper off sharply. 

The real problem: UX

Here, we come to the real problem at the heart of the apps vs. infra debate: user experience.  

To say that the DeFi ecosystem (and the emerging BTCFi sector in particular) isn’t intuitive for layperson users would be an almost comical understatement. Even seemingly simple acts such as moving assets between dapps in different ecosystems can become a time-sucking, frustrating exercise for ordinary users. Despite being fundamental to cross-chain transactions, bridging and swapping are virtually impossible for crypto newcomers to figure out without professional guidance. It’s hard to blame a layperson for giving up midway—or opting not to try in the first place.  

Infrastructure is meant to enable dApps to seamlessly onboard users, yet the BTCfi ecosystem still grapples with fragmentation issues between various Bitcoin (BTC) variants. While crypto has made progress on interoperability, the user experience remains complex. Traditional bridges and platforms still pose significant limitations and frustrations regarding scalability, slippage, MEV problems, TVL honeypots, and slow and expensive transactions.

The “we need apps, not infra” debate fundamentally misses the point of dApp and infra development by seeking to prioritize one over the other. The number of infra projects doesn’t matter; their quality and impact do.

To be fair, few set out to create a low-impact infra project. DeFi is characterized by its pioneering culture; many dApps are the first of their kind and require their innovators to build appropriate infrastructure rails from scratch.

But, as it is in any race, not everyone can be a winner, and unfortunately, many infra projects today are not and may never be impactful. The days of developing projects for DeFi devotees willing to dedicate time to learning how to use a dapp are fast fading into history. DeFi is approaching its mainstream era—and the amateur users we seek to attract won’t tolerate poor UX or care about underlying infra. To reframe into a common experience: if you’re booking an Uber ride, you don’t care whether the Uber platform runs on AWS or Google Cloud; you just want to get from A to B.

Users first

With this in mind, our end goal should be to have robust infra and abstract it away from a user so they can make full use of their dApps without thinking too hard about how it works. Navigating the DeFi ecosystem—and every app within it—should feel seamless to the point of being intuitive for users. At a minimum, we must simplify interoperability by enabling fast, zero-slippage, MEV-resistant, secure swaps with consistently excellent UX. Next, infra-abstraction must be prioritized; users should never need to see the cogs in the metaphorical machine.

This is possible, and intent-based architecture provides a model for user-centric development in DeFi. Unlike conventional blockchain architecture, which requires users to follow a series of often complex steps to achieve a goal, intent-based architecture seeks to put users first. With this approach, users can state their objective (e.g., make a purchase in a BTCFi app using funds stored on Ethereum) and rely on the blockchain protocol to autonomously complete the technical steps required to achieve that directive. Intent-based models could, if applied widely, go a long way towards ensuring infra-abstraction while improving user experiences and simplifying architecture.

Of course, intent-based architecture isn’t a silver bullet. Projects and protocols must collaborate closely to develop integrations that guarantee seamless interoperability and abstract away operational complexities that users may find overwhelming. Innovators will need to build with amateur users in mind rather than crypto natives with technical knowledge.

It’s time to set aside the infra vs. apps debate and focus on what matters most: the users. Most users probably don’t pay attention to architecture design or care about the investment divide between app and infrastructure projects as long as they follow high-security standards and get the job done. They want blockchain-based finance to be accessible and easy to understand; consumers need to be able to use apps, process transactions, and find new ways to use and make money with DeFi. As innovators and advocates for DeFi’s potential, it falls to us to (re)create the ecosystem into a welcoming world that even amateur users can explore without feeling confused, overwhelmed, or demoralized.

Let’s stop counting infra projects and start making them count instead.

Jeroen Develter

Jeroen Develter is the chief operating officer at Persistence Labs and a seasoned professional in both finance and tech start-up environments. With a decade of international experience in consulting, management, entrepreneurship, and leadership, Jeroen excels at analyzing complex business cases, establishing streamlined operations, and creating scalable processes. With Persistence, Jeroen oversees all product and engineering efforts and is deeply passionate about enhancing Bitcoin defi, or BTCfi, adoption and using intents to develop scalable, fast, secure, and user-friendly solutions. His work at Persistence Labs addresses the significant interoperability challenges between Bitcoin L2s.  In addition, Jeroen is also a co-host of the Stacked Podcast, a platform for gaining knowledge about Bitcoin and crypto from prominent Bitcoin builders.