Video: 10 Minute IT Jams - An update from SubQuery

Decentralised data is changing the digital world. As more industries turn to blockchain to manage information, the need to organise vast stores of data for practical use has never been greater. SubQuery, a company based in Auckland, New Zealand, is at the forefront of making decentralised data accessible to everyday customers and developers alike.

James Bailey, a key figure at SubQuery, spoke about the company's purpose. "We are a blockchain company, and what we do is basically organise blockchain data into a format that people use it for apps," he said. Blockchain, by its very structure, poses challenges for data usage. Bailey likened it to finding all appearances of a character in a lengthy book - with each 'page' being a sequential block in a chain. "Looking up data is quite similar," he explained. "You have to go through every single page sequentially and after doing all that, you finally know what pages that appeared in."

For businesses, this sequential process can mean filtering through hundreds of millions of blocks just to collate simple information such as a list of transactions. But SubQuery helps to streamline this process. "SubQuery is a service that's used by a large number of blockchain development teams around the world and essentially we index data," Bailey noted. By allowing users to "define a certain mapping function" - for example, who sent and received each transaction and the exact date and time - the company automates the arduous task of collating and sorting blockchain history, as well as keeping up with every new block added to the chain.

The result is clear: "It takes all this blockchain - again the most horrible way to query data, the most inefficient medium for data - and it puts into a format that makes it very easy to build applications on top of," Bailey said.

Beyond technical efficiencies, the shift to decentralised, open data is also driving profound changes for businesses everywhere. According to Bailey, data remains the most precious resource in the modern era, just as it fuelled the rise of internet giants like Facebook. "We believe it's not going to be any different on blockchain," he said, "the same challenges" of managing and accessing data will drive future development.

The distinctive advantage of decentralised data, he stressed, is openness. "It's all open, it's all public, it's all there in a blockchain - the thing about blockchains is they're open," Bailey explained. This represents a radical shift from traditional, siloed data storage systems and presents both promise and challenge. "Rather than these stores of data hidden away and locked in the bank somewhere, everyone around the world has access to it," he said. But, as Bailey emphasised, the true challenge lies in making useable sense of the "huge volume of data, those terabytes of blocks," and bringing them into a format where they can be used effectively.

Such capabilities have attracted significant industry partnerships for SubQuery. In late 2021, the company announced a partnership with Acala, a fellow blockchain specialist running an ecosystem built on Polkadot, another major blockchain protocol. Bailey described the connection as "a very close partnership." SubQuery, he asserted, is currently an open-source system that anyone can operate, but it also provides managed services for its customers - many of which are "the biggest wallets, NFT marketplaces [and] block explorers." These major players "use our managed service because we look after your project, we run it in production way, we keep it online," he added.

The goal, however, remains decentralisation itself. "Our goal is to decentralise our network and that means anyone can run a SubQuery project, can offer that data to the world, and can be rewarded for doing so," Bailey said. This is at the heart of what he calls the SubQuery network.

Through the partnership with Acala, SubQuery is building its decentralised network directly on the Acala blockchain with test launches expected soon. "Carla are doing a DeFi hub... and we're working very closely with them to build contracts, build the logic inside their network and then launching that later this quarter for a test network and hopefully going into our main network by mid this year," said Bailey.

Asked about the year ahead, Bailey painted a picture of relentless development and expansion. "It's a lot of hard work," he admitted. Having forged a reputation in the Polkadot ecosystem - "it's growing fast, there's a lot of developers building... it's actually the second largest developer community behind Ethereum" - the company's next challenge is to expand across other major blockchain networks. "Other generation three layer ones like Solana, Cardano, Algorand, Avalanche - one of our big tasks is how do we take our existing code base and also take this value to those networks," Bailey outlined.

The efficiencies SubQuery can provide are appreciated by its customers, Bailey revealed. "I was talking to an NFT provider this morning and they said to me, James, you guys saved us two months worth of engineering effort by using SubQuery... that's kind of what we do for our customers, we save time and effort," he said.

SubQuery's growing influence is rooted in its team and their connections to the broader Asia-Pacific market. "We're a majority based in Auckland, New Zealand, we've got members all around the world but most of us are based here in New Zealand," Bailey shared, highlighting the collaborative atmosphere of working in the same office. He encouraged interest from would-be developers and engineers. "We're constantly hiring, so if you're looking forward to getting into blockchain, if you're looking forward to getting into data, you don't even know anything about blockchain - as long as you're smart and can learn on the fly, let us know."

Support and engagement with SubQuery is also encouraged via its online community. "Our Discord is our main community, there's 25 thousand people in our Discord... helping each other, we've got a very inclusive community there," Bailey said. "So if you're any questions, best place to start is that Discord group."

Bailey ended on an optimistic note for the future, expressing excitement for what lies ahead. "Thank you very much. It was a pleasure," he said.