Altcoin Overview: All About The Graph
Altcoins can be a finicky thing. One minute a project is on the top of the charts, the next minute, your project is nowhere to be found. The project that has come to this week’s spotlight for its ups and downs on the charts is a project known as The Graph.
The Graph cryptocurrency and blockchain are an indexing protocol that collects and stores data from various blockchain networks. This creates a third-party method to store information in a decentralized manner that anyone can access.
But before you jump in on an investment in the project, it’s important to learn a little more information about it. Read on to find out just what The Graph is and if it might be the technology or investment you’ve been looking for.
What is The Graph?
The Graph is a unique software protocol that can collect data from blockchains and store it in a way that is easy to retrieve. Think of it a bit like one giant database. But unlike most databases, where a centralized entity oversees the collection and storing of data, The Graph is decentralized, meaning anyone can store and retrieve information as long as they pay the fee required to do so.
Originally, The Graph was launched on the Ethereum blockchain in order to make it easier for developers to work on the blockchain and develop dapps. It turned out to be so useful that you can currently use The Graph to collect and store data on other blockchains like Filecoin as well. And the developers plan to expand even further in the future into connecting The Graph with blockchains such as Bitcoin and Polkadot.
Many dapps currently use The Graph to collect and store their data. Some of the big names you might recognize are Aave, Uniswap, and Curve, but there are over 200 Ethereum based dapps using The Graph to collect and store data.
This data is collected and stored by nodes, some of which are tasked with verifying the data, others of which are responsible for indexing it in the proper place so it can be found again. There is additionally a third role of nodes and that is to delegate to other nodes the indexing or verification process. All nodes receive the fees the users pay to use the system. The data is collected through a specific coding language known as GraphQL. This language is famous for being used to collect user newsfeed data on the popular social media site Facebook.
Who Founded The Graph?
This project was thought up by Yaniv Tal, Brandon Ramirez, and Jannis Pohlmann in 2018. This isn’t their first start-up, and all three men have been involved in cryptocurrency start-ups previously. The ICO for The Graph was held in October 2020 and netted $10 million on the sale of the first 1 billion coins. An additional $9.5 million has been put towards the project in the time since bringing the total invested in The Graph to over $19.5 million.
This project, while recently launched, is constantly developing. Anyone interested in the project should follow The Graph blog for updates on what will be launched next.
Should You Invest in The Graph?
The Graph is an interesting project mainly because it is for a blockchain service. This means that it is highly valuable to companies who are starting out on the blockchain or want to add a blockchain aspect to their business. Thus there is room for a lot of growth in the space which makes The Graph cryptocurrency a highly investable altcoin.
But there are a few problems, however, and the first of which is that The Graph isn’t the only project in this space. While it is the biggest currently, this doesn’t mean it’s the best. Also, unlike Bitcoin, which has a hard ceiling of coins that can be produced, more The Graph coins are added to the system each year. The plan is to increase the supply by 3% each year, but also remove 1% of the coins annually. This means that your investment will be subject to inflation.
The price has also shown to be quite volatile as of late, which is never a good sign when it comes to purchasing an altcoin. But remember that famous coins like Bitcoin were also quite volatile in the beginning and have come to grow more stable with time and a larger user base. And The Graph is a fairly new project as it just launched on July 8th, 2021.
Basically, when it comes to investing in The Graph, you should take a look at the price and the project itself and see if it might be a good fit for you before you invest your hard-earned money.
Where Can You Buy The Graph?
If you have decided that The Graph is a good investment for you, you’re in luck because there are quite a few exchanges that feature the coin. Currently, you can purchase The Graph on Binance, OKEx, FTX, Coinbase, Huobi Global, and CoinTiger. These are just the largest exchanges featuring the coin, and it is highly likely that you can find The Graph on several smaller exchanges as well.
The Graph is an ERC-20 token, meaning that any wallet made to hold Ethereum will work to hold The Graph. This makes it very convenient to store the token. As of the writing of this article, The Graph tokens cost about $1 each, but their all-time high to date was almost $3 per coin. It has surpassed coins such as Monero and Aave, but still lags behind bigger projects such as DAI, ICP, and Cosmos.
Overall, like any altcoin project on the market, you should approach The Graph with caution. Although it may be a worthwhile investment, there is also a chance that you could lose your entire investment. But this isn’t anything new in the altcoin world, so if you are ready to invest in data storage, The Graph is a worthy prospect.
