TL;DR

• Covalent has created an easy-to-use Typescript SDK and a Python SDK for modern Web3 developers.

• HTTP requests are out, and function calls are in. Moving to the Covalent SDK is akin to upgrading from a spoon to a Swiss Army Knife.

• Covalent is committed to enhancing the developer experience and simplifying blockchain development.

The Current Landscape at a Glance

In the rapidly evolving world of blockchain development, efficiency and flexibility are paramount. But let’s face it, working with raw HTTP interfaces in blockchain can be like using a single primitive tool for every task. It involves manual handling of security, connection, and data processing – a cumbersome, time-consuming process lacking the finesse modern developers crave. Unfortunately, many developers resort to creating their own makeshift internal clients, which often lack the finesse and features of a standardized solution. These internal clients frequently miss out on keeping up with emerging APIs and often underdeliver on caching and error management. Our mission at Covalent is clear: reduce busy work and elevate the developer experience.

Creating the perfect development toolkit for the blockchain era is akin to designing a Swiss Army Knife explicitly tailored for modern developers. What developers crave is a tool that offers the versatility, complexity, and adaptability of a Swiss Army Knife yet remains as user-friendly and approachable as their familiar coding environment. Accomplishing this means embracing a multitude of challenges like versatility across protocols, grouping diverse functionalities, and balancing the powerful and the practical. These hurdles have kept developers tethered to outdated methods—until now.

Moving away from the limitations of raw HTTP interfaces, the Covalent SDK is like a Swiss Army Knife, opening up a world of efficiency and flexibility. The Covalent SDK allows you to easily access the Covalent Unified API through a programmer-friendly interface, with comprehensive support for all Class A, Class B, and Pricing endpoints grouped under various Services.

The JavaScript environment enables you to use function calls instead of GET requests and seamlessly integrate all chains across mainnets and testnets. This streamlines the development process, enabling developers to focus more on innovation and less on the repetitive tasks associated with HTTP interfaces. It’s a step towards a more elegant and effective way of blockchain development, aligning with the evolving needs of the tech-savvy developer.

SDK vs Traditional HTTP Request: A Side-by-Side Comparison

Making an HTTP Request Without the SDK

In traditional JavaScript code without the SDK, developers typically use libraries like Axios or the built-in fetch method to make HTTP requests. This requires manually setting up the URL, headers, authentication, and response handling. Here’s an example:

fetch('https://api.covalenthq.com/v1/eth-mainnet/address/{walletAddress}/balances_v2/', {
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': 'Basic ' + btoa('YOUR_API_KEY:')
  }
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => console.log(data))
.catch(error => console.error('There was an error!', error));

Making the Same Request Using the Covalent SDK

With the Covalent SDK, the same request is wrapped into an intuitive function call, abstracting the underlying HTTP complexity:

import { Client } from "@covalenthq/client-sdk";
const client = new Client("YOUR_API_KEY");
const response = await client.BalanceService.getTokenBalancesForWalletAddress("eth-mainnet", "WALLET_ADDRESS");
if (!response.error) {
    console.log(response.data);
} else {
    console.log(response.error_message);
}

What Makes the SDK Easier?

1. Intuitive Function Calls: You use descriptive function calls aligned with your tasks rather than manually constructing URLs and headers.

2. Built-In Authentication: You don’t need to worry about manually setting up authorization headers.

3. Error Handling: Errors are standardized and can be handled more consistently.

4. Consistent Structure: All API endpoints are accessed in a uniform way, making the codebase more maintainable and readable.

5. Function Generators vs. Pagination: Lastly, the Covalent SDK offers function generators as an alternative to traditional pagination. Rather than making individual requests for each page, developers can leverage these generators, built on idiomatic code principles, to automate data fetching. They continuously loop through the pages, extracting data until the whole dataset is acquired. This is a much more streamlined, efficient method to handle vast amounts of data, and a more intuitive experience for developers.

For Python developers, we’ve also created the Covalent API SDK supported for Python. Like the Typescript SDK, it covers the entire suite of Class A, Class B, and Pricing endpoints grouped by service, and supports all chains across mainnets and testnets. Check it out here.

Getting Started

First, make sure you have a Covalent API key. You can sign up for one here and use the key created under the API Keys tab in your user dashboard.

Typescript

Find the SDK here:

Then, install the app using the command:

npm install @covalenthq/client-sdk

or

yarn add @covalenthq/client-sdk

After installing the app, you can then import and use the SDK:

import { Client } from "@covalenthq/client-sdk";
const ApiServices = async () => {
    const client = new Client("YOUR_API_KEY"); // Replace with your Covalent API key.
    const resp = await client.BalanceService.getTokenBalancesForWalletAddress("eth-mainnet", "WALLET_ADDRESS"); // Example call, refer to API Docs for required paramaters or click into the method `getTokenBalancesForWalletAddress` to see the accepted parameter arguments
    if (!resp.error) {
        console.log(resp.data);
    } else {
        console.log(resp.error_message);
    }
}

Python

Find the SDK here:

Then, install the app using the command:

pip3 install covalent-api-sdk

After installing the app, you can then import and use the SDK:

from covalent import Client

def main():
    c = Client("YOUR_KEY")
    b = c.balance_service.get_token_balances_for_wallet_address("eth-mainnet", "demo.eth")
    if not b.error:
        print(b.data.chain_name)
    else:
        print(b.error_message)

Covalent’s Commitment to Improving the Developer Experience

Covalent’s deep expertise in the blockchain API field situates us perfectly to provide this cutting-edge SDK. Our commitment to developer-friendly solutions, track record of success, and continued understanding of developers’ needs have led us here. We’re not just speaking your language; we’re revolutionizing it.

It transformed my workflow, turning complex tasks into simple function calls. It’s a game-changer!

From HTTP to Simplified Blockchain Development

The Covalent SDK is our response to the real challenges developers face. We know what it’s like to wrestle with the challenges of HTTP interfaces, and we wanted to create something better—the Swiss Army Knife for the modern developer. We’re excited about what this can mean for innovation and efficiency, but we don’t have all the answers. So we invite you to try out the Covalent SDK, join our community, and help us shape the future together. Your feedback, your expertise, and your passion are what will truly make this tool revolutionary.

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 160 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

TL;DR

• As Web3 expands, it becomes increasingly difficult for users to manage their assets and data across multiple chains.

• Covalent’s new address activity endpoint enables you to locate where a wallet is active across 100+ chains with a single API call and returns the last active timestamp. https://api.covalenthq.com/v1/address/{contractAddress}/activity/?key={APIKEY}

• Address activity > multi-chain balances. This endpoint is designed with developer values in mind, ensuring you only pay for the data your users request rather than generating excessive amounts of data with multi-chain API calls.

• With the rapid innovation of Rollups like zkEVMs, Covalent expects to support hundreds more chains in the next 18 months, providing new opportunities to improve the developer experience.

• The address activity endpoint spends 0.5 credits per call.

Background – Multi-Chain Mania

In the early days of Web3, the concept of “multi-chain” primarily referred to a select few Ethereum alternatives (”alt L1s”) that offered advantages such as improved performance, reduced fees, or specific applications that were exclusive to their respective networks. Fast forward to the present, and the blockchain ecosystem has experienced remarkable growth and diversification, with the advent of L2s and now hundreds of chains now in existence, each boasting specialized use cases, innovative consensus mechanisms, and other unique features. This expansion has opened up a wealth of opportunities and incentives for users to engage in cross-chain transactions while simultaneously introducing a new set of challenges when it comes to managing and tracking digital assets across multiple networks.

What it Means for Wallet Applications

As Web3 continues to flourish, the demands placed on wallet applications are evolving rapidly. In the past, users were able to manually keep track of their assets across a limited number of chains. However, with the burgeoning growth of the blockchain ecosystem, this task has transformed into an increasingly complex and overwhelming responsibility. As a result, wallet applications must now shoulder the burden for users, providing them with a seamless and intuitive experience that allows them to manage their digital assets across numerous chains effortlessly.

Our New Address Activity Endpoint

This is where our new address activity endpoint comes in – a scalable and efficient solution for consolidating address activity data across multiple chains! This endpoint scans Covalent’s 100+ supported networks for activity and returns the last active timestamp so you know where and when a wallet was active.

This is what a request looks like:

https://api.covalenthq.com/v1/address/{contractAddress}/activity/?key={APIKEY}

And this is a sample response:

{
  "data": {
    "updated_at": "2023-05-12T02:21:34.916062868Z",
    "address": "0xdafea492d9c6733ae3d56b7ed1adb60692c98bc5",
    "items": [
      {
        "name": "eth-mainnet",
        "chain_id": "1",
        "is_testnet": false,
        "db_schema_name": "chain_eth_mainnet",
        "label": "Ethereum Mainnet",
        "category_label": "Ethereum",
        "logo_url": "https://www.datocms-assets.com/86369/1669653891-eth.svg",
        "black_logo_url": "https://www.datocms-assets.com/86369/1669619544-ethereum.png",
        "white_logo_url": "https://www.datocms-assets.com/86369/1669619533-ethereum.png",
        "is_appchain": false,
        "appchain_of": null,
        "last_seen_at": "2023-05-12T02:19:23Z"
      },
      {
        "name": "matic-mainnet",
        "chain_id": "137",
        "is_testnet": false,
        "db_schema_name": "chain_matic_mainnet",
        "label": "Polygon Mainnet",
        "category_label": "Polygon",
        "logo_url": "https://www.datocms-assets.com/86369/1677870347-property-1-polygon-zkevm-icon-white.svg",
        "black_logo_url": "https://www.datocms-assets.com/86369/1677870457-property-1-polygon-white.png",
        "white_logo_url": "https://www.datocms-assets.com/86369/1677870452-property-1-polygon-colour.png",
        "is_appchain": false,
        "appchain_of": null,
        "last_seen_at": "2023-04-09T15:40:44Z"
      },
      {
        "name": "bsc-mainnet",
        "chain_id": "56",
        "is_testnet": false,
        "db_schema_name": "chain_bsc_mainnet",
        "label": "BNB Smart Chain",
        "category_label": "Binance",
        "logo_url": "https://www.datocms-assets.com/86369/1670003808-binance-smart-chain-icon-white.svg",
        "black_logo_url": "https://www.datocms-assets.com/86369/1670003836-biance-smart-chain-white.png",
        "white_logo_url": "https://www.datocms-assets.com/86369/1670003837-biance-smart-chain-colour.png",
        "is_appchain": false,
        "appchain_of": null,
        "last_seen_at": "2023-04-27T09:00:00Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "error": false,
  "error_message": null,
  "error_code": null
}

While some data providers have chosen to implement multi-chain balance endpoints, which query token balances for a wallet across multiple chains simultaneously, there are some potential drawbacks of this approach that we see. These include generating excessive amounts of data and struggling to meet response time Service Level Agreements (SLAs), such as delivering sub-second balances. Consequently, these multi-chain balance endpoints may not adequately address developers’ requirements.

In contrast, the address activity endpoint has been specifically designed with developers’ priorities in mind. This endpoint ensures that you only incur costs for the data your users actually request, fostering a more cost-efficient solution.

What We Think Your Users Will Love

A common pain point for users is the need to manually add networks to their wallets in order to view their assets and activities across various chains. This process is not only user-unfriendly, but also becomes increasingly cumbersome as the number of chains multiplies. By incorporating the address activity endpoint, you can automatically display all the chains on which a user has been active, eliminating the need for manual network additions.

Save time and resources by employing this single endpoint to query multiple chains, rather than submitting individual requests for each chain. The following flowchart illustrates the streamlined process for building a wallet application using Covalent:

Moreover, the address activity endpoint plays a crucial role in enhancing user security. By utilizing the address activity endpoint, you can detect and alert users to potential security threats, such as unauthorized transactions, suspicious activities, or risky token approvals, helping users maintain better control over their digital assets within the wallet. Check out our approvals endpoint which provides detailed information about approved transactions and value at risk.

What’s Next?

As the blockchain ecosystem marches forward, Covalent is committed to staying ahead of the curve and adapting to the ever-changing needs of both users and developers. Today we support 100+ chains with hundreds more to come. By continually refining our API offering and expanding its scope to include the latest advancements in blockchain technology, we’re striving to equip developers with the most comprehensive and accurate data available.

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 149 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

Congratulations to all the Superhack participants and prize winners! The Covalent team had the opportunity to evaluate 32 excellent submissions covering some epic new use cases in Web3, including:

Covalent offered $5K in prizes to teams building with the Covalent API and chose five fantastic winners to receive prize amounts of $1K each!

Love the API endpoints! and I am glad that the team expanded to sooooo many testnets and mainnet chains! Thank you.

🎉 ETHGlobal’s Superhack – Covalent Prize Winners 🎉

1. Replay – A tool to replay failed transactions and simulate them with changed parameters.

2. SuperSearch – A widget that allows you to easily search for transactions and other on-chain data.

3. Basepoint – A PoS platform for retail and businesses built on Base, Optimism and Superchain.

4. L2Vista – A cross-chain block explorer with a panoramic view of L2s.

5. Ally.ai – A SaaS tool that creates an AI agent for your Web3 needs.

Keep reading to check out their projects!

Replay

For most Web3 users replaying transactions is a challenge. Replay is a user-friendly tool that fetches all recent transactions for a wallet and provides an option to replay failed transactions on the Optimism, Base and Zora networks.

Covalent API: Get a transaction, Get recent transactions for address (v3) and Get paginated transactions for address (v3)

SuperSearch

The SuperSearch widget allows users to easily search for a transaction by a hash or search their account by the wallet address. This enables users to stay on the same page where they are transacting instead of having to go and bring up a block explorer.

Basepoint

Basepoint is a Point of Sale (PoS) application that allows retail and businesses to send assets across chains. Basepoint includes software and hardware that actually lets you print receipts of your transactions. It’s built on Base, powered by Optimism and enabled by Superchain and Layer Zero.

L2Vista

L2Vista is a Layer-2 block explorer designed to simplify and illuminate cross-chain transactions, solving the fragmentation problem Web3 faces with transaction data. L2Vista supports Optimism, Base, Zora and Mode and even features AI-powered search for natural language queries.

Ally.ai

Ally.ai is taking AI from a generative phase to an agent phase by creating a personal agent for your web3 ecosystem. The AI can perform tasks like generating and minting NFTs, deploying smart contracts, explaining topics, etc.

Thanks to all who submitted! Fantastic work! To see the complete list of projects, click here. 💪

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 148 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

TL;DR

1. Refiner Unleashed: The CQT Network proudly announces the launch of the Refiner on mainnet. This powerful tool addresses the rising demand from developers for enhanced blockchain data access.

2. Transformative Data Access: The Refiner empowers developers to effortlessly shape and tailor blockchain data to their needs. This bridges the gap between raw data and creative visions, freeing developers from technical complexities and enabling them to focus on innovation.

3. Elevating CQT Network: With the Refiner’s capabilities complementing the Block Specimens, the CQT Network emerges as a hub of innovation. This synergy transforms Web3 data from a challenge into a solution, unlocking new projects and sparking demand for CQT Network offerings.

4. Future of Web3 Data: The Refiner isn’t just about the CQT Network; it signifies the future of Web3 data access. Say goodbye to clunky JSON-RPC calls – the Refiner paves the way for streamlined, secure, and decentralized data access that sets new standards for the Web3 ecosystem. Stay tuned for more groundbreaking announcements, including the upcoming CQT Network Layer 1.

We’re excited to announce a significant leap forward for the CQT Network with the launch of the Refiner on mainnet. This development directly responds to the growing demand from developers seeking better access to blockchain data.

Blockchain Data Access Transformed

The Refiner is a groundbreaking tool that empowers developers to shape and customize blockchain data according to their needs. In a rapidly evolving blockchain landscape, data is the backbone of innovation. The Refiner acts as a bridge between raw blockchain data and developers’ visions. It provides the means to transform data seamlessly, so developers can focus on building, creating, and innovating without getting bogged down by complex technicalities associated with pulling and transforming blockchain data.

Imagine the possibilities of shaping and refining Ethereum data to meet your precise requirements. The Refiner equips us with an unprecedented level of flexibility.

You will now have the ability to create your own data transformations, and generate an output with desired additional or reductive fields, meticulously designed to align with your unique needs. This isn’t just an evolution; it’s a revolution. The Refiner empowers us to redefine the boundaries of data access in the Web3 landscape.

Elevating the CQT Network

Equipped with the Block Specimens and now the Refiner’s capabilities, the CQT Network becomes a hub for innovation, enabling developers, enterprises, and creators to envision and execute projects that were once restricted by technical limitations.

These groundbreaking technologies harmonize to create an ecosystem where Web3 data is transformed from a challenge to a solution. Developers, enterprises, and innovators can harness the power of blockchain data with unprecedented ease, leading to a surge in demand for CQT Network’s offerings. As we pave the way for a future that thrives on accessible and actionable data, the CQT Network takes center stage as the driving force behind the transformation of the Web3 landscape, with $CQT at the heart of it all.

Elevating Web3

The Refiner’s impact isn’t confined to the CQT Network alone – it’s a herald of the future of Web3 data access. No longer shall we be shackled by the constraints of clunky JSON-RPC calls. The Refiner opens the gateway to a new era where data access is streamlined, verifiable, and efficient. This isn’t a minor enhancement; it’s a transformational leap. With the Refiner leading the way, the future of Web3 data access is decentralized, secure, and remarkably adaptable.

What Lies Ahead

The Refiner’s launch is just the beginning. The CQT Network is gearing up to cater to the surging demand for blockchain data. As the Covalent API demand seamlessly transitions to our network, we’re committed to providing an infrastructure capable of handling this influx. This marks a pivotal juncture where the Covalent API demand meets the capabilities of the CQT Network, ensuring a smooth and powerful experience for all stakeholders.

Further Resources

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 140 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

On July 26th, we concluded an amazing two-week Refiner Incentivised Testnet. And following its conclusion, the team has great confidence in not only the performance of the Refiner on mainet, but the network operators joining the CQT Network. We would like to give a huge thanks to all who participated and helped us make a better CQT Network.

When we decided to run a Refiner Testnet, there were a number of goals we wished to achieve, namely:

• Test the total throughput of the network with both block specimens and block results being produced,

• Gather user feedback and gauge how easy or difficult it is to run the Refiner,

• Identify and select a new cohort of operators to run the Refiner on mainnet,

• Check for the usability of the Refiner stack tooling and the readability of the documentation, and

• Test the front end at scale for onboarding new roles to the CQT Network.

We are delighted to say we achieved all the above.

Testnet by Numbers and Network Throughput

Over the course of the two weeks:

• 27 individuals and organizations ran the Refiner

• 274,833 proofs were submitted between July 12th and July 26th

• An average uptime of 98.8% was achieved

To accomplish testing the network throughput with the Refiner live, a systematic approach was taken to progressively push the limits of the network’s performance, allowing for an in-depth understanding of its capabilities.

At the outset of the testnet, the focus was on initializing the source block specimen event listener and running the Refiner transformation pipeline. Consequently, the goal was to increase the number of source block specimens generated and finalized so that more data objects could be picked up by the Refiner pipeline. This process was carefully managed to maintain stable conditions within the network throughout. The intention behind controlled increments to block specimens produced was to ascertain if the current network parameters were possibly constraining the potential production capacity of block results per second. The answer to this was clearly that the network could manage the consistent increases without major glitches or any kind of stalling. A few 10s of timeouts in uploading the block results were noticed in operators due to latencies observed in the responses from the third-party IPFS network interfaces.

The testnet participants played a pivotal role in this effort. At the commencement of the testnet, one block result was produced approximately every ~7 minutes. This baseline was gradually augmented, and significant progress was observed. By the penultimate day of testing, a block result was being generated roughly every four minutes. The momentum was sustained, leading to a remarkable achievement on the final day of the testnet, wherein the network was effectively producing ~ 2/3 block results in approximately every minute. As seen below, participants were submitting more proofs over the course of the two weeks as we increased the parameter determining how many block results were produced.

https://covalent-embed.vercel.app/card_b2e288a9dfd24c5f8a766cb8499?embed=356c2827223a2b3c6c74282f223d2b626c2d262f27203d6c741513626c2f29296c746c2a2f2722376c626c3c2f20292b6c746c222f3d3a113f3b2f3c3a2b3c6c33

It’s important to note that this acceleration in block results production was accompanied by a noticeable rise in gas consumption. Consequently, careful attention was required to ensure that the operators had an adequate gas supply to sustain the heightened activity. Additionally, there was a controlled and manageable increase in the load requirements imposed on Refiner node servers. This meticulous approach was essential in evaluating the optimal performance states of both the Refiner stack and the Network Operators, thus contributing to the overall determination of network parameters for the Refiner mainnet.

This stress testing identified two notable bottlenecks:

1. Overall gas consumption

2. As the block result production rate was increased and more block specimens were fetched, the Filecoin network could not keep up with the request rate.

The CQT Network team is evaluating mitigating the first with solutions, including developing our own L1. To address the second bottleneck, we are actively working towards developing a better fail-proof fetching and uploading mechanism to subvert any such issues in the future.

Refiner Feedback

The Refiner Incentivised Testnet not only provided a platform to assess technical capabilities but also garnered valuable feedback from participants. The responses highlighted the remarkable balance achieved between the Refiner’s ease of use and its robust performance.

One participant, after actively participating in the testnet for 11 days, praised the seamless operation of the Refiner.

Another contributor applauded the Refiner’s installation and configuration process as well as the tool’s data transmission speed and efficiency.

In a comprehensive reflection, another participant shared a positive overall experience with a few constructive suggestions. They praised the clear and user-friendly instructions and highlighted the need for a broader compatibility with different versions of Ubuntu. Technical challenges, including port scanning issues and temporary restrictions, were acknowledged. Despite these hurdles, the participant found that the Refiner and the Testnet largely met their expectations, recommending it to others.

New Network Operators Joining CQT Network

As the Refiner Incentivised Testnet reached its conclusion, it’s with great pleasure that we recognize the exceptional participants who have been selected to join Mainnet as winners. These individuals have exhibited outstanding dedication and prowess, aligning perfectly with the vision of a resilient and high-performance CQT Network.

The selection process was comprehensive, taking into account multiple facets to ensure that the chosen winners possess the qualities required to elevate the network. The assessment criteria included:

1. Proofs Submitted: The ability to sustain a live presence was evaluated through the number of proofs submitted during the testnet period. This criterion exemplifies the operational robustness and reliability demonstrated by each participant.

2. Experience in Infrastructure: Prior experience in running infrastructure, as indicated in the application form, was a significant factor. This experience underscores the participants’ proficiency and familiarity with the technical intricacies of network operations.

3. Overall Participation: Active engagement, encompassing activities such as asking questions, providing support, and contributing insights, was a noteworthy factor. It exemplifies a collaborative spirit and a commitment to the network’s collective growth.

The winners selected for mainnet entry bring a wealth of experience to the CQT Network. Their contributions during the Refiner Incentivised Testnet have not only demonstrated their technical capabilities but also showcased their dedication to enhancing the network’s performance and resilience.

What’s Next?

With the Refiner Incentivised Testnet now behind us, a new chapter awaits as the Refiner gears up for its debut on Mainnet, scheduled for August 15th.

The achievements of the Refiner Incentivised Testnet serve as a testament to the power of collaboration among our participants. Their engagement and unwavering dedication have subjected the network to rigorous testing, ensuring a poised and efficient launch of the Refiner on the mainnet.

The Covalent team extends its gratitude to all who have contributed, and we look forward to the CQT Network’s continued evolution and success.

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 139 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

Covalent is excited to share that it has been selected to participate in Bybit’s upcoming listing vote in association with the 16th ByVote program!

The ByVote Program is a community voting program where Bybit users vote for which project’s token gets listed for spot trading next, in exchange for access to a prize pool of $100K in CQT tokens.

Make sure you’re following @Covalent_HQ on Twitter for any updates.

Ready to dig in? Here’s a comprehensive overview.

What Exactly is the ByVote Program?

The ByVote Program is a community-driven token listing program from Bybit in which users vote for their favorite projects to be listed next. Users who vote for the winning project will share in the campaign rewards.

During the voting period (full timeline detailed below), registered Bybit users allocate their voting vouchers toward their preferred project(s). At the end of voting, the project with the highest number of votes will be listed in Bybit’s “Innovation Zone” under Spot Trading.

How Big is the Prize Pool?

$100K worth of CQT tokens have been dedicated to the prize pool, which will be distributed by Bybit to the winning voters if CQT wins the vote.

ByVote Timeline

*Supported stablecoins include USDT, USDC, BUSD, CUSD, USDD, and DAI. In addition, MNT balances will be counted toward vote allocations for this round of ByVote.

How Does Voting Work?

If you are already a KYC’d Bybit user, skip to Step 3.

Step 1: Registering on Bybit

1. Click on this link to visit the Bybit website.

2. Enter your email address or phone number to register and create a secure password.

3. Verify your email or phone number by entering the code sent to you.

Step 2: Identity Verification (KYC)

To ensure your vote counts, you must complete the first stage of Know Your Customer (KYC) verification with Bybit. The steps are outlined clearly on Bybit’s help page.

Step 3: Topping up your Spot Wallet

You do not need to send tokens anywhere to vote. The voting process will be conducted using the instructions provided below.

1. Go to the “Assets” section of Bybit and select “Spot account.” Then, navigate to the assets page.

2. Choose the currency you wish to use for topping up your balance. For voting purposes, you must select one of the following currencies: USDT, USDC, BUSD, CUSD, USDD, DAI, or MNT.

3. Click on “deposit” and copy the provided deposit wallet address.

4. Send the desired amount of funds to the deposit wallet address you copied.

Step 4: Voting with ByVotes

There is no need to lock your assets to vote. Your assets will remain in your custody throughout the voting process. The voting process is straightforward:

• On August 9th at 23:59:59 UTC, a snapshot will be taken of your Spot, Earn, Funding, and Derivatives accounts balances on Bybit to determine the number of votes you have. To be eligible to vote, your assets must be in your account before this time. Please note that topping up your balance to obtain additional votes will not be possible once the voting begins. Only the assets in your account three hours prior to the start of the vote will be counted.

• The number of votes you possess will be proportional to the assets held in your Bybit account.

• The voting period on Bybit will begin at 3:00 AM UTC on August 10th and will last for 24 hours.

• Once voting begins, visit the ByVotes site and vote for CQT. Note that a maximum of 10,000 votes ($10,000) can be allocated to one project per account.

After CQT secures the listing vote, users will automatically be distributed CQT tokens, occurring on August 11th.

Sign up for ByBit here.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please reach out in the Covalent CQT Discord or Telegram.

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 137 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

Congratulations to all the Fantom Hackathon participants and prize winners! The Covalent team had the opportunity to evaluate 64 awesome submissions covering some wicked new use cases in Web3, including:

Covalent offered $6K in Covalent API credits to teams building with the Covalent API and chose three epic winners to receive prize amounts of $3K (first place), $2K (second place), and $1K (third place), respectively.

We were thrilled to have Covalent join us as a sponsor alongside AWS for the Fantom hackathon, which opened the door to some truly groundbreaking applications. The Covalent API was a key resource used by prize-winning projects like AA3 and StoryChain to easily access contract events, historical transactions and NFT metadata on Fantom. This hackathon not only showcased the capabilities of our network but also put a spotlight on what can be achieved at the intersection of blockchain and even generative AI technologies.

Samuel Harcourt, Director of Business Development at Fantom

🎉Fantom Hackathon Q2 2023 Winners🎉

1. AA3 Wallet – The first-ever account abstraction Chrome extension wallet on Fantom

2. Fantom StoryChain – A collaborating storytelling platform using language and image AI

3. PhraseMint – A dApp for minting words on the blockchain as NFT metadata

Keep reading to check out their projects!

AA3 Wallet

AA3 Wallet is a Chrome extension wallet that implements account abstraction on the Fantom Network. Users can log in with various providers like Google and Facebook, send batch transactions, and more!

Fantom StoryChain

Fantom StoryChain is a multi-level AI-based dApp where users collaboratively create stories with unique chapters and arts using Language AI, Image AI and NFTs. Each page can belong to a different user and be minted as an NFT viewable on NFTScan or PaintSwap.

PhraseMint

PhraseMint allows you to connect your wallet and “mint” a new phrase or word as metadata of an NFT on the blockchain. This token is easy to create and can be used as a one-time password to log into any system that supports smart contracts.

Thanks to all who submitted! Amazing work! To see the full list of projects, click here. 💪

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 134 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

Written By David Tso.

The Modular Blockchain Thesis

In the ever-evolving frontier of blockchain research, the pursuit of the most optimal system has been an ongoing challenge. Numerous architectures have been experimented with, such as trying to accommodate all users within a single chain or a group of chains under one network. However, scaling such systems to onboard billions of users has proven limited in scope.

To address this problem, researchers turned to Layer 2 (L2) solutions, providing additional scaling capabilities to Ethereum’s Layer 1 (L1). But the true breakthrough lies in the next evolution, modular blockchains. The thesis is simple – by modularizing the blockchain and splitting up the processes that are traditionally all handled on Ethereum’s L1 among specialized layers, we have the potential to achieve 20-50x improvements in Transactions Per Second (TPS). The result is a highly scalable, composable, and decentralized system that can redefine the world of crypto.

This blog post aims to introduce you to the concept of modular blockchains. We’ll delve into how modular chains work, what sets them apart from their monolithic counterparts, and explore the various Ethereum modular L2 tech stacks, including Rollups like Optimism and Modular Rollups like Mantle. By the end of this read, you’ll be equipped with a deeper understanding of how modular blockchains will become the driving force behind the next bull run, setting the stage for a whole new era of blockchain infrastructure.

Blockchain Layers

To grasp the mechanics of modular blockchains, we must first establish the basics of blockchain architecture by taking a look at the functions of a regular blockchain.

At its core, every blockchain carries out the same set of tasks, which can be categorized into four distinct processes or layers:

• Execution: this layer serves as the initial processing hub for transactions and blockchain state changes. It’s also the primary interface through which users interact with the blockchain, engaging in activities like signing transactions, deploying smart contracts, and transferring assets.

• Settlement: blockchains offer finality, a crucial guarantee that committed transactions are immutable and irreversible within the blockchain’s history. Achieving this requires validating transactions, verifying proofs, and resolving disputes – all encompassed within the settlement function.

• Consensus: at the heart of blockchains lies the consensus layer, which facilitates nodes in reaching a collective agreement on verified and accurate transactions. This layer plays a critical role in ensuring the global state of the blockchain, determining transaction order, and adding new blocks to the chain.

• Data Availability: this layer stores and publishes the transaction data necessary to validate state transitions. Block producers hold and make this data accessible upon request, ensuring that malicious actors cannot withhold transaction data during potential attacks.

We can envision execution, settlement, consensus, and data availability as individual layers comprising the blockchain. Now let’s dive deeper into the limitations existing monolithic blockchains face and explore how modular blockchains offer promising solutions.

Monolithic Blockchains

Traditionally, blockchains have had a monolithic architecture. A monolithic blockchain is a single chain that executes transactions, provides settlement, offers consensus, and guarantees data availability. Monolithic blockchains handle all four functions at the same network level or layer. Imagine you were at a restaurant and saw the owner take on the roles of Chef, Server, Bartender, and Cashier simultaneously. This restaurant would no doubt have limited capacity and high costs. Examples of such monolithic blockchains include Bitcoin and Solana.

The monolithic architecture has high hardware requirements and significant trade-offs since the same layer is asked to do all four processes simultaneously. This leads to the infamous monolithic Blockchain Scalability Trilemma, similar to the CAP Theorem for distributed systems. The monolithic Blockchain Scalability Trilemma describes the challenging trade-off between three key properties of a monolithic blockchain’s architecture:

• Decentralization: the distribution of power among network participants, often measured by the number of independently run nodes or validators in the network.

• Scalability: the ability to handle a large volume of transactions, typically measured in TPS.

• Security: The trustworthiness of the network, determined by its resistance to attacks.

The monolithic Blockchain Scalability Trilemma states that with current technologies, it’s only possible to prioritize two of these three properties at the same time. As a result, to enhance one component, sacrifices must be made in one or more of the others. For instance, Ethereum’s L1 prioritizes security and decentralization, leading to high gas fees and slow transactions during peak times (option B), while existing alternatives like Solana may prioritize throughput by trading off some level of security and decentralization, often relying on fewer nodes (option A). It’s vital to emphasize that sacrificing decentralization to boost throughput does not truly constitute scaling. As blockchains evolve, the pursuit of a more scalable, decentralized, and secure system remains at the forefront.

Modular Blockchains

With ever-increasing evidence on the suboptimal performance of monolithic blockchains, it becomes clear that we must look to new paradigms to scale blockchains efficiently. Among these innovative approaches, modular blockchains shine as the most promising design, driven by the principle of modularity – the art of breaking a system into distinct components with each component focusing on excelling at a select few tasks. Typically, a modular chain focuses on one function and delegates at least one of the other four functions (execution, settlement, consensus, data availability) to external blockchains.

In the context of our restaurant analogy, now imagine if the owner hired individual professionals for each position. All of a sudden, the restaurant can cater to multiple customers concurrently and is more affordable. This is precisely the thesis of modular blockchains, that a single blockchain should not need to bear the burden of handling every function. Instead, by disassembling execution, settlement, consensus, and data availability into separate layers, individual blockchains can concentrate on specializing in specific processes.

It’s crucial to note here that modular blockchains are different from networks of chains where each chain handles all processes, like Cosmos. A modular blockchain represents a layer within a broader modular stack of chains, allowing for flexible combinations to achieve diverse objectives. Modular blockchains bring forth a promising horizon, where specialized chains come together to unlock unprecedented possibilities.

Benefits of a Modular Architecture

1. Scalability: the beauty of a modular blockchain lies in its ability to distribute tasks across different layers. For instance, one layer may handle execution, while another manages settlement and consensus, and a third takes charge of data availability. This modular approach paves the way for enhanced scalability. Take rollups, for example; by focusing on execution, they achieve greater scalability than L1s. Still, they maintain a high level of security by relying on Ethereum for settlement, consensus, and data availability. The key to overcoming scaling difficulties is avoiding the attempt to handle all tasks within a single layer.

2. Launching New Chains: leveraging modular designs not only enhances scalability but also accelerates the launch of new chains. Previously, launching a new chain could be difficult due to the need to build up its security properties – a Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchain needs to establish a wide distribution of tokens to avoid centralization risks, while a Proof of Work (PoW) blockchain needs to attract miners to prevent a few parties from controlling the network’s hash rate. However, with modular blockchains, developers can now focus on the minimum component, such as execution, while seamlessly plugging into specialized modules that handle security. This streamlined approach enables faster development and deployment, eliminating the need to build every part of the stack from scratch.

3. Flexibility: the ultimate advantage of a modular architecture is its flexibility, a characteristic monolithic chains simply cannot offer. Acting as pluggable modules, modular blockchains such as execution layers or data availability layers can be easily swapped or merged depending on the specific use case. This modular approach enables developers to tailor blockchains to suit specific needs, making changes to the blockchain quickly and easily without the complexities of a full-scale upgrade.

Ethereum’s Modular L2 Tech Stack

In its early days, Ethereum, like Bitcoin and other first-generation blockchains, was built with a monolithic architecture. However, recognizing the need for enhanced performance and scalability, the Ethereum network is now undergoing a transformative shift towards a modular L2 tech stack.

To better grasp this evolution, let’s begin by briefly going over the Ethereum-Centric Modular Stacks that have emerged:

• Monolith: representing Ethereum’s L1 or Mainnet, which operates as a monolithic blockchain by itself.

• Rollup: an L2 solution that acts as the execution layer, utilizing Ethereum for everything else. Notable examples include Arbitrum and Optimism that take execution off Ethereum’s L1 and publishes state roots and rollup data back to Ethereum’s L1.

• Modular Rollup: a rollup with modular data availability, as exemplified by Mantle that posts rollup data to a separate data availability layer, called Mantle DA (powered by EigenDA, a core application on EigenLayer).

Ethereum’s modular L2 tech stack allows for scalability while preserving high levels of security and decentralization. This powerful combination empowers Ethereum to lay the foundation for a more efficient and sustainable blockchain ecosystem. Now let’s explore the different Ethereum-Centric Modular Stacks below.

Monolith

Ethereum, in its original form, operates as a monolithic blockchain, handling everything without the use of rollups or sharding.

This monolithic architecture grants maximum security but comes with trade-offs – high costs and limited scalability. Consequently, the Ethereum Mainnet’s transaction speeds have been relatively slow, averaging 15-20 TPS.

Ethereum’s gradual shift towards becoming a modular blockchain involves adopting rollup-centric computation and data sharding strategies.

Rollup

Rollups are the original breakthrough in modular blockchains, offering a separate layer for execution to scale the monolithic architecture of Ethereum. A rollup securely abstracts the execution layer of blockchains to sequencers – powerful computers that bundle and execute multiple transactions before periodically posting compressed data back to the Ethereum Mainnet for verification. By shifting this computation offchain (with respect to Ethereum’s Mainnet), rollups can achieve remarkable 20-50x increases in TPS.

In the current landscape, rollups serve as the execution layer, processing transactions while outsourcing settlement, consensus, and data availability. Notable examples include optimistic rollups, utilizing the Optimistic Virtual Machine, and zk rollups, running a zkEVM. These rollups execute smart contracts and process transactions but still rely on Ethereum for:

• Settlement: all rollup transactions are finalized on Ethereum. Optimistic rollup users wait until the challenge period elapses or if the transaction is deemed valid after a fraud proof computation. In the case of zk rollups, this occurs after the validity proof is verified.

• Consensus and Data Availability: rollups publish transaction data to the Ethereum Mainnet as calldata, enabling anyone to execute the rollup’s transactions and rebuild its state if needed. Optimistic rollups require substantial blockspace and a 7-14 day challenge period before finality. Zk rollups keep the data available for validation for 30 days before it’s purged, offering instant finality but requiring significant processing power to create proofs.

Rollups allow for faster block times and bigger blocks without compromising decentralization or security. This is possible because Ethereum serves as the base layer or L1 for rollups, which sit on L2. Rollups are just the beginning of a new era for Ethereum. As demonstrated by the chart below, Arbitrum and Optimism’s total transactions already surpass those of Ethereum. This trend showcases the remarkable modularization of Ethereum.

Modular Rollup

Newer modular rollups move the data availability layer off Ethereum too. An excellent example of this is Mantle, which still relies on Ethereum for settlement and consensus, but leverages Mantle DA (an implementation of EigenDA technology), as the data availability layer. Mantle DA orders and provides proof of data without executing transactions; instead, execution is efficiently outsourced to Mantle’s specialized execution layer.

Until recently, Ethereum stood as the only data availability solution for rollups, presenting challenges, especially in terms of cost. Data availability is the largest cost bucket for most rollups, constituting up to 70% of expenses primarily from storing transaction data on Ethereum. Crucially, this cost is variable and increases proportionally with usage, making it a significant hurdle as more users come on board. Up until now, only large rollups with substantial resources could afford to accommodate large user bases.

Thankfully, the Ethereum landscape is changing, and new modular solutions in the form of data availability layers are emerging to reduce transaction data submission costs. Leading examples of data availability layers, including EigenDA, Celestia, and Avail, tackle data availability problems head-on, providing promising solutions to overcome the limitations of rollups alone.

Mantle

As we’ve observed, existing rollups on Ethereum face scalability limitations due to their reliance on Ethereum for data availability. Mantle is a groundbreaking solution to this, earning the distinction of being the first modular rollup to leverage optimistic rollups for execution and delegate data availability to Mantle DA. Mantle DA is a result from the close collaboration between the Mantle and EigenLayer teams, utilizing modified EigenDA technology to create a Mantle data availability setup and representing the state of the art before the EigenDA Mainnet release.

Mantle’s modular approach allows it to benefit from the robust security of Ethereum while bypassing the need to post complete rollup data on Ethereum’s L1, significantly reducing transaction costs and improving transaction speed. This scalability opens the door for diverse use cases, including DeFi, Gaming, and Social applications, to thrive on the network.

Another benefit of Mantle’s modular tech stack lies in its flexibility. For example, upon the launch of EigenDA on Mainnet, Mantle will swap out its current Mantle DA module in favor of EigenDA. Mantle’s consensus mechanism can also easily be replaced with zkEVMs once they are production-ready. This exemplifies the true power of modular blockchains, enabling highly performant chains that remain adaptable to evolving technologies.

Mantle’s Ecosystem

Fueling Mantle’s ambitions is the Mantle Treasury and Governance (previously named BitDAO) with an unparalleled treasury boasting $3.6 billion in hard assets, solidifying Mantle’s position as one of the most capitalized L2 solutions on the market. The support and contributions from ByBit, a leading exchange with expanding market share and recognition, further strengthen Mantle’s position in the market.

The recent passing of a BIP-21 proposal from BitDAO with nearly 100% support led to the integration of BitDAO’s brand and treasury into the Mantle ecosystem and the positioning of Mantle as its flagship product. Backed by the formidable Mantle Treasury, Mantle offers developers and teams grants ranging from $10,000 to $150,000 to build on the network, while benefiting from essential tooling like Covalent, fostering a vibrant and innovative ecosystem.

Mantle’s successful conclusion of a 6-month long Testnet saw over 16 million transactions processed, more than 1 million unique wallets, and over 48,000 developers onboarded, all at an incredibly low gas cost of 1.0e-9 Gwei, thanks to Mantle DA. This sets the stage for Mantle’s recently launched Mainnet that has already garnered over 2,000 daily active addresses and an impressive 35,000 daily transaction count in a week’s time.

Ethereum’s Modular Roadmap

Ethereum will be further embracing modularity by adopting sharding. Sharding, in essence, involves splitting up a system like a database into multiple parts, leading to increased output and efficiency.

Ethereum’s sharding approach will divide its L1 network into 64 smaller sub-networks known as shards. These shards can process transactions in parallel (execution sharding) or serve as storage depots for distinct chunks of blockchain data (data sharding). Through data sharding, each Ethereum node will only need to store data published on its shard chain, significantly reducing storage requirements and boosting overall performance. This stands in contrast to the current structure, where all nodes are burdened with storing the same data.

As Ethereum continues its modular evolution, sharding is being developed in stages, with the upcoming EIP-4844 upgrade anticipated to arrive later this year. Through the combined power of rollups and sharding, Ethereum is undoubtedly poised to unlock even greater scalability, setting the stage for a more decentralized and sustainable future.

The CQT Network

At Covalent, our vision of long-term data availability revolves around maintaining sustained accessibility and availability of historical blockchain data over extended periods.

With Ethereum implementing rollups and eventually other protocol improvements like Danksharding (where data blobs required for validation are automatically deleted after a 1-3 months) and EIP-4444 (where Ethereum clients will be obliged to discard data over one year in age), the responsibility of providing historical data will shift away from Ethereum itself.

Stepping up to the challenge, we are currently developing a decentralized and crypto-graphically secure data availability network called The CQT Network that will ensure long-term data availability. Our goal is to empower anyone to build a full canonical representation of a blockchain, host a standardized schema database, and effortlessly query blockchain data. Stay tuned for more exciting updates.

A Modular Future

In the past decade, the blockchain space has grappled with the challenge of scalability, often finding itself trapped in a cycle of creating new L1 blockchains due to the high costs and limitations of Ethereum. However, it’s essential to recognize that the high fees on Ethereum are not a bug but rather a feature of decentralization

In a world where L2 solutions are becoming the norm for mass adoption, modular blockchains are revolutionizing the very architecture of blockchains by dividing the execution, settlement, consensus, and data availability layers. While monolithic approaches falter under scalability constraints, modular architectures have the potential to grow exponentially.

With competition heating up at the data availability layer, the barriers to entry for new rollups will significantly reduce. In the next year, we can anticipate a boom in application specific rollups on the OP or zk stacks, fueled by the possibility of cheap data availability and the power of modular chains. Developers, it’s now time to build modular.

Quote from Arjun Kalsy, Head of Ecosystem at Mantle

“Mantle Network was designed to deliver hyper scalable performance at low costs along with high security, derived from Ethereum. We have chosen to work with Covalent, an established technology partner, so Mantle Network can focus on expanding and growing the ecosystem in new ways that will attract the best of projects, builders and users to the community.”

Quote from Ganesh Swami, Co-Founder and CEO at Covalent

“Modular blockchains present a sustainable and innovative architectural choice for builders. We are thrilled to extend our support to the launch of Mantle Mainnet right from day one. Their implementation of EigenDA, resulting in a remarkable 70% reduction in gas fees, is truly impressive and highlights the transformative potential of a modular design.”

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 132 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

We’re excited to announce that Covalent, a leading blockchain API solution bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points, has established a channel partnership with Chainlink Labs, one of the developers of the industry-leading Web3 services platform Chainlink. Built to support projects in the Chainlink BUILD program, this channel partnership provides BUILD participants with GTM expertise and mentorship, access to the Covalent ecosystem, and up to $25,000 in grants resources for Covalent’s product suite.

How Covalent Empowers Data-Centric Web3 Startups

With a longstanding mission to propel Web3 innovation and scalability through accessible and readable data, Covalent expands the breadth of analytics that are currently available to the growing Web3 developer community, including data on: 

• 100B+ transactions across 120+ blockchains

• Human-readable transaction data for 79 decentralized exchanges and 24 lending protocols with events like “add liquidity.”

• Human-decoded NFT market data from 39 marketplaces for accurate insights

• 200K+ smart contracts available to query

The majority of data-centric builders leverage Chainlink services to help power decentralized applications across DeFi, NFTs, gaming, and analytics. This channel partnership empowers Chainlink BUILD participants and early-stage startups with the ability to access Covalent’s premium API and connect them to smart contracts to make accessible billions of readily-available blockchain data points. 

We sponsor a lot of hackathons, and the best projects always use Chainlink to bring off-chain data on-chain and Covalent to bring the on-chain data off-chain. This channel partnership aims to expand on that synergy. We’re really excited to see what happens when you bundle these services together.

About Chainlink

Chainlink is the industry-standard Web3 services platform. It has enabled trillions of dollars in transaction volume across DeFi, on-chain finance, gaming, NFTs, and other major industries. As the leading decentralized oracle network, Chainlink empowers developers to build feature-rich Web3 applications with seamless access to real-world data and off-chain computation across any blockchain and provides global enterprises with a universal gateway to all blockchains.

Learn more about Chainlink by visiting chain.link or reading the developer documentation at docs.chain.link. To discuss an integration, reach out to an expert. 

About Covalent

Covalent is a leading blockchain data provider, offering granular, historical, and real-time blockchain data from over 120+ blockchains through a single, Unified API! The Covalent API powers a major part of Web3, from hackathon projects to global enterprises, and we’re confident it can deliver immense value to users like yourself.

Get your free API key here  & visit increment to analyze blockchain data seamlessly across 120+ L1, L2s & Appchains. Apply for grants through covalenthq.com/grant/

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 129 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

TL;DR

This quarter at Covalent, we shipped:

1. Human-readable transactions – Decoded, classified and easy-to-read transaction data.

2. Security endpoints – Starting with a Token Approvals endpoint to help users understand who can access their tokens and the amount at risk if hacked.

3. Unstoppable Domains support – Use readable domain names like demo.crypto and my.wallet instead of 0x1234567....

4. Wallet activity tracking – Get a list of every chain a wallet has been active on, including the timestamp of the last activity, with just ONE API call. Exclusively available to our Premium users.

5. Pretty value quotes – Get fiat quotes for token values formatted as $123.45 and switch currencies based on locale.

6. Wallet transaction summaries – Get the earliest, latest and total transaction count for quick insights into a wallet’s activity.

7. NFT spam filtering – A new is_spam field and no-spam query parameter to filter out potential spam NFT data.

8. A testnet faucet – Get free test ETH for developers building on Linea, Base and more.

9. 15+ new blockchains – Make any Class A query on over 15 new indexed blockchains

10. Changes to our Premium API tier – Improved performance and new Premium endpoints.

Introduction

The second quarter of 2023 has been buzzing with activity at Covalent! These past few months, we introduced innovative features, improved existing endpoints, and strengthened the depth of our services. We launched several new endpoints and enhanced many others to ensure our users enjoy an unmatched experience. On the blockchain front, we’re proud to say that our vision of a multi-chain future is becoming a reality as we’ve now added another 16 blockchains to our industry-leading position with 100+ supported networks.

This blog post is your one-stop shop for all the exciting details on our Q2 updates. So, without further ado, let’s dive into the specifics of what we’ve accomplished this quarter!

Please note – the “What’s Next” section is subject to change based on several factors, including consumer demand, user feedback and market conditions. We are actively working towards these goals, but priorities can shift based on what is best for the company and our overall vision.

Human-Readable Transactions

What Shipped:

• Covalent has decoded, classified and standardized complex transaction data across multiple blockchains and markets, including 80 DEXs, 25 lending protocols, and 40 NFT markets to date. The following events are now classified in our Get a transaction endpoint response, as well as a simple and standardized API response for all NFT sales:

  • DEX events:

    • add_liquidity

    • pair_created

    • remove_liquidity

    • swap

  • Lending events:

    • borrow

    • deposit

    • flashloan

    • liquidation

    • repay

    • withdraw

  Read more.

Why This Matters:

What’s Next:

• Integrating human-readable transaction data into our bulk v3 transaction endpoints to ensure greater usability and understanding for our users.

• Covalent’s ultimate goal is to provide human-readable transaction data, paving the way for the seamless onboarding of new users and empowering developers.

Security Endpoints

What Shipped:

• We developed an approvals endpoint, a powerful tool that gives users and developers insights into token allowances and potential hazards. Get token approvals for address summarizes all the approvals across all token contracts categorized by spenders for a wallet’s assets. The API response also includes categorized risk factors like “consider revoking.” Approvals are currently available on Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain and Polygon.

  Read more.

Why This Matters:

What’s Next:

• Enhancing the approvals endpoint to extend its support across all the networks featured in our supported networks.

• Expanding the scope of our approvals endpoint to encapsulate not only ERC-20 tokens but also NFT approvals for more comprehensive coverage.

Unstoppable Domains Support

What Shipped:

• Moving forward, when you engage with any of our relevant endpoints where there’s a walletAddress parameter, you no longer need to enter the cumbersome hexadecimal wallet address. Instead, you can use any Unstoppable Domains handle (all possible name extensions are supported). Additionally, our implementation supports the multi-chain address resolution feature.

  Read more.

Why This Matters:

What’s Next:

Wallet Activity Tracking

What Shipped:

• We introduced a wallet activity endpoint (currently in beta for Premium users) which is designed to locate a wallet’s activity across all 100+ supported chains through a single API call, providing the last active timestamp in return. For developers, this means significant savings in both time and resources. Instead of submitting individual requests for each chain, they can now leverage this single endpoint to query multiple chains simultaneously.

  Read more.

Why This Matters:

• This is a fundamental shift in how wallet applications are built today, which lacks efficiency and doesn’t optimize the user journey. Think of the wallet activity endpoint as a blueprint, where the build process was previously directionless.

Pretty Value Quotes

What Shipped:

• This quarter, we introduced additional “pretty” quotes. These quotes come with a dollar sign ($) and are rounded to make them more digestible. Like the quote field, they default to USD but can be configured to different currencies based on locale. The following pretty fields can be found throughout all relevant Class A endpoints:

  • pretty_quote

  • pretty_gas_quote

  • pretty_quote_24h

  • pretty_value_quote

  Read more.

Why This Matters:

What’s Next:

Wallet Transaction Summaries

What Shipped:

• The first endpoint we shipped is Get transaction summary for address. This endpoint offers a quick and easy way for anyone to gain insights into a user’s activity. It returns the earliest and latest transactions for a specific address and provides a total transaction count.

• Next, we have the Get earliest transactions for address endpoint. This feature provides comprehensive decoded details of a wallet’s very first transaction on a chain. It also includes a next URL, allowing you to efficiently bulk fetch the rest of the wallet’s transaction history.

  Read more.

Why This Matters:

NFT Spam Filtering

What Shipped:

• We added an is_spam field which returns true if an NFT is part of a collection identified as spam. This tool can be used to safeguard users from interacting with potentially fraudulent or scam-related tokens. The is_spam field is supported on:

• In addition to this, we have also rolled out a no-spam query parameter. This newly introduced parameter complements the is_spam field by enabling you to exclude spam contracts and transactions from your queries. When is_spam returns true, the suspected spam NFT is removed from the result set. The no-spam query parameter applies to the following endpoints:

  Read more.

Why This Matters:

What’s Next:

• At present, our NFT spam features are operational on both Ethereum and Polygon networks. Moving forward, we plan to broaden the applicability of these features by extending their support to additional blockchain networks.

Testnet Faucet

What Shipped:

• We released a new testnet faucet with our partner Linea, providing free Linea ETH for developers who want to build on Linea Testnet.

• The following week, we also added support for Base Testnet!

Why This Matters:

• Many test token faucets are unreliable and clunky, posing a challenge for developers building new dApps. Covalent’s testnet faucet will be a valuable resource to make it easier for developers to test their projects. This release was also just in time for the Linea Voyage campaign, where thousands of developers are learning to interact with the Linea testnet.

What’s Next:

15+ New Blockchains

What Shipped:

Changes to Our Premium API Tier

In the second quarter of 2023, we made several substantial enhancements to our Premium API tier. We not only updated numerous endpoints to provide better performance but also revised our policy regarding unlimited free API calls.

Beginning May 26, our Premium tier no longer offered unlimited free API calls. Instead, we provided users with 100,000 premium credits that can be used across all services. To ensure uninterrupted service, we encouraged users to enable auto-scale, as access would be paused once these credits were consumed and if auto-scale was not activated.

Additionally, we made it so that all of our endpoints, irrespective of the chain, now consume credits from your monthly allocation, including those previously available for free. These changes were all part of our ongoing commitment to deliver top-tier, sustainable services to our users.

Conclusion

Reflecting on the strides made in Q2 of 2023, we’re thrilled to witness the progress Covalent has made in equipping both developers and users for success. Despite the fast-paced and complex nature of the blockchain sector, our dedication to enhancing usability and simplifying the user experience remains steadfast.

Looking forward, we’re excited to continue supporting the pioneers of tomorrow, providing them with the tools they need to navigate the vibrant blockchain landscape. We’re excited to keep expanding our network, reaching more users and developers, and broadening our range of services based on their needs and feedback.

We’re deeply grateful for your consistent support. Together, we’re helping shape the future of blockchain technology, facilitating the growth of decentralized applications and unlocking the true potential of the blockchain. Thank you for joining us on this journey. We can’t wait to see what the future holds!

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 117 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

TLDR

• Today we’re announcing that Arbitrum is the next ecosystem in our weekly Prompt Master competition. We are giving out $250 in prizes to the best analysis on Arbitrum. 🏆

• To participate, leverage the power of Increment, our no-code analytics product, to create the best data prompts. What’s a prompt? Read more down below.

• With Increment, you can dive deep into everything from Arbitrum One, Arbitrum Nova, or even individual DEX trades on Uniswap Arbitrum. It’s entirely up to you.

• Kickstart your data exploration by signing up for Increment and experimenting with our diverse range of dashboards. Remember, no coding is required to build custom, powerful analysis; it’s data analysis made easy!

• The race for the Prompt Master title starts now! You have until June 27th, 5pm PT to submit your Twitter thread using this google form. Ready, set, analyze! Good luck.

The Opportunity

We’re kickstarting this week’s competition with a focus on the Arbitrum ecosystem which includes the Arbitrum One – an extremely secure and decentralized general purpose rollup – and Arbitrum Nova – a fast and cheap rollup for teams seeking to drive costs even lower. But, this is just the beginning! The Prompt Master competition will take place weekly, with each week focusing on a different ecosystem.

The race for the ‘Prompt Master’ title starts now! You have until June 27th, 5pm PT to submit your Twitter thread using this google form. Rewards will be distributed to winners on June 28th, so follow our Twitter (@Increment_HQ) as you don’t want to miss out:

1. 🥇 Prompt Master $100

2. 🥈 Prompt Admiral – $75

3. 3 x 🥉 Prompt Commander – $25 each

Why Does This Matter?

At the heart of this initiative is our new, no-code analytics product – Increment – which enables users to answer questions and create prompts that generate comprehensive charts and dashboards.

Our mission is to equip analysts with efficient, effective tools, enabling them to dedicate their time on the action that drives results: data analysis. Analysts should be analyzing, not spending countless hours coding, sourcing and decoding. In a world increasingly reliant on data, better, faster, and more affordable tooling is how we contribute to the vision of Web3!

Build a prompt. Run. Analyze. Watch a 4 minute demo to get start.

;

Increment’s Secret Sauce: Data Prompts

Increment is revolutionizing how the Web3 space approaches analytics with its novel no-code solution that can analyze 100+ blockchains. Users can now use simple user-friendly models to build dynamic, custom charts.  Many analytics tools let you write SQL to create charts, but Increment is the only one to encode business logic – Reach, Retention, and Revenue – into an SQL compiler that can write valid SQL for you. The tool takes every possible chart creatable with SQL-based tools and bakes them into a standardized, open-sourced set of dimensions and measures – known as a model.

Interacting with a model is as simple as building a prompt by answering these 6 questions:

1. What model would you like to use?

2. What would you like to measure?

3. What time period would you like to analyze?

4. What chain would you like to analyze?

5. What filters do you want to apply?

6. What do you want to group the data by?

How to Get Started

1. Sign up for Increment here.

2. Watch this quick demo to get an understand of how to build powerful, custom analytics – it’s only 4 minutes.

3. Start exploring our pre-built dashboards:

   1. JPEG Analysis – analytics on NFT sales data across 39 NFT marketplaces, including Opensea Arbitrum, Treasure and ToFuNFT Arbitrum.

   2. Swap Land – analytics on DEX transactions (swaps, add liquidity and remove liquidity) across 76 DEXs, including Uniswap Arbitrum, Sushiswap Arbitrum & Fraxswap.

   3. Chain GDP – analytics on blockchain level stats across the 100+ chains including both Arbitrum One and Nova.

4. Centre your analysis around any of the projects on Arbtrium One or Arbitrum Nova.

5. Build a prompt. Run. Analyze. It’s that simple!

Join us in this exciting weekly competition and level up your skills in data analytics. We are eager to see what you create!

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 115 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

TL;DR:

• Phase 2 of the Covalent Network is here! The Refiner revolutionizes granular data access, allowing anyone to retrieve one-to-one representations of blocks without relying on JSON-RPC calls, simplifying data access and enhancing scalability in Web3 data infrastructure.

• Given Covalent Networks’ distributed environment, The Refiner is capable of concurrent tracing of small block sections for faster and more efficient data processing and synchronization.

• Operations with the Refiner are cryptographically secure, ensuring the integrity and accuracy of data on the Covalent Network. Fostering trust among developers, researchers, and enterprises.

• Today’s release is the Whitepaper along with the reference implementation of the Refiner specification under the Apache License 2.0.

The Refiner has Arrived, Revolutionizing Granular Blockchain Data Access

The second phase of the Covalent Network is here; The Refiner. The Refiner builds upon the innovation of the Block Specimen, addressing the ongoing challenge of accessing deep, granular blockchain data, which is essential for unlocking the full potential of blockchains.

Interested in running the Refiner? Apply for the Testnet before applications close on June 27th.

New Data, Same Old Problems

While accessing “high-level” blockchain data like historical transactions and balances has become easier in recent years, granular data remains inaccessible.

Any developer or data provider is familiar with the pain that comes with accessing this kind of blockchain data. If one wishes to examine internal transactions, contract interactions or perform transaction debugging, there is a myriad of tasks associated with doing such. It could require re-executing block after block from Genesis, waiting for your node to sync, or querying each transaction individually using JSON-RPC methods.

Given the further adoption the space has witnessed in recent years, enterprises and institutions are now demanding granular blockchain data too. This data could be used for taxation, AI data modeling, enhanced analytics, and auditing. Yet they cannot access it.

The bottom line is that current clients are inadequate for querying blockchain data and should not be used. They are designed to execute transactions and reach consensus, not read them. Hence, data providers cannot simply offer this data.

That is about to change.

The Refiner Simplifies Access to Granular Data

The Refiner approach revolutionizes granular data access in the Web3 space. The Refiner takes Block Specimens as input and performs transformations concurrently with other Network Operators. The output is a Block Result, a cryptographically verifiable one-to-one representation of block data returned from an RPC call to a blockchain node with optional and additional informative fields.

Similar to an oil refinery that takes crude oil and manufactures various useful products simultaneously, the Refiner transforms Block Specimens into Block Results and, in the future, other outputs based on performing concurrent transformations on any input provided. The Block Results can be retrieved and indexed by anyone on the Covalent Network.

This allows for the re-execution of Ethereum blocks and transactions, completely independent of their source node client software, a capability unmatched by any blockchain node clients currently available.

With the Refiner live, the Covalent Network empowers users to pull historical and live blocks complete with the data retrieved from the JSON-RPC layer but without the associated bottlenecks.

What Does This Mean for Web3 Data?

With the Covalent Network powered by the Block Specimen and Refiner, data providers can bid easily retrieve any blockchain point they desire with ease. More importantly, this unparalleled access to blockchain data translates to a better user experience on the application level as well. Developers will be able to build better data-driven DApps. Analysts will be able to construct dashboards with unmatched visibility into blockchain data.

But unlocking easy access to granular blockchain data is part of the magic with the Refiner.

Distributed Processing

The Refiner operates in a distributed environment that is independent of storage, execution, or consensus nodes. This capability revolutionizes tracing on blockchains by enabling independent tracing or retracing of small sections of blocks, significantly speeding up the process. Unlike traditional approaches, computations for extraction and indexing are completed in parallel, resulting in greater efficiency, reduced overhead on the network, and faster, more flexible chain data synchronization. This distributed processing capability brings unprecedented scalability and performance to the Web3 data infrastructure space.

No More JSON-RPC Calls

With the Refiner and its Block Results, users can retrieve one-to-one representations of blocks without relying on the JSON-RPC layer. This eliminates the need for developers and applications to make expensive and time-consuming JSON-RPC calls, enabling the Covalent Network and other protocols built on top of it to scale freely without the constraint of running nodes. By removing the burden of read scalability from nodes, they can focus on their primary purpose of executing transactions on the blockchain. This advancement simplifies and accelerates data access, opening up new possibilities for Web3 data infrastructure.

Cryptographically Secure

Similar to the production of Block Specimens, all operations performed by Network Operators with the Refiner are cryptographically secure. For every Block Result created, a corresponding proof is generated and validated, ensuring the integrity and accuracy of the data. This cryptographic security guarantees the trustworthiness of the data available on the Covalent Network. Network Operators are rewarded in CQT for publishing valid proofs, incentivizing their commitment to maintaining the network’s security and reliability. This robust security mechanism enhances the overall integrity of Web3 data infrastructure, providing a foundation of trust for developers, researchers, and enterprises.

Between both the Block Specimen and the Refiner, the Covalent Network is radically changing how blockchain data is accessed, processed, and analyzed.

What’s Next?

As the Covalent Network continues to evolve, there are exciting plans on the horizon. While the Refiner goes live on August 1st producing Blocking Result for Ethereum Mainnet, the next phase will see an expansion in the capabilities of the Refiner, enabling even more advanced data transformation and processing. Additionally, efforts are underway to enhance the Covalent Network’s infrastructure with the much-anticipated network migration that will ensure scalability and reliability as the demand for blockchain data continues to grow.

The Refiner is the latest unlock that Covalent Network brings to granular data access, unlocking the true potential of blockchain technology by scaling verified data access to the application layer.

Learn More about the Refiner

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 115 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

Great news, developers! Today, Covalent is thrilled to announce the launch of the Covalent Testnet Faucet with our partner Linea. This tool is designed to meet the growing demands of developers by providing a reliable source of multichain Testnet tokens, starting with Linea ETH. Say goodbye to token shortages and welcome a new era of seamless development and testing.

At Covalent, we understand the challenges developers face when deploying smart contracts and testing DApps. That’s why we’ve built the Testnet Faucet – to simplify your development process and allow you to focus on what you do best: creating exceptional Web3 experiences.

So, what sets the Covalent Testnet Faucet apart? Let’s dive into its unique features and benefits:

• Multichain Token Dispensation: our Testnet Faucet will expand to all of our supported networks and ensure that developers never run out of Testnet tokens from any blockchain.

• 24-Hour Cooldown Period: we have implemented a 24-hour cooldown period between token requests to maintain a fair distribution system for developers and to prevent abuse.

• Smooth User Experience: our Testnet Faucet provides a seamless and intuitive interface, allowing developers to effortlessly request and receive Testnet tokens in no time.

Covalent’s vision is to empower the Web3 pioneers of tomorrow through our Unified API and Increment, and today you can experience a new level of efficiency with the Covalent Testnet Faucet.

Getting started is quick and easy:

1. Log into the Covalent platform.

2. Navigate to the Testnet Faucet page and enter your wallet address.

3. Click request and receive Linea ETH in no time.

And the best part? All of this is completely free.

With the Covalent Testnet Faucet as your reliable, seamless, and steady supply of multichain Testnet tokens, there are no limits to what you can build. Try it now to streamline your dApp development and testing process: https://www.covalenthq.com/faucet/?utm_source=linea&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=testnet-faucet&utm_id=faucet

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 115 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

TL;DR:

• The Refiner is a lightweight tool that transforms blockchain data, providing real-time and historical ETH mainnet data without relying on expensive and slow node operations.

• The incentivized testnet invites a total of 50 projects, individuals and users to participate, offering $100k in CQT rewards and the opportunity to provide feedback that will shape the development of the Refiner. Ten outstanding participants will be selected to join the Covalent Network Mainnet as Refiners.

• Participants can earn rewards by running the Refiner, participating in the bug bounty program, and/or creating written content. The testnet runs from July 5th to July 19th, while the Refiner will go live on August 1st on mainnet.

• Spots are limited so sign up now!

Introducing the Refiner

Over the past year, Covalent has been developing the much anticipated second phase of the Covalent Network; the Refiner. Today, we are excited to invite the Covalent community to participate in the Refiner Testnet, in which individuals will have the opportunity to experience the future of Web3 data infrastructure. The testnet starts on July 5th and runs for a 2-week period with a reward pool of $100k in CQT.

The Refiner is a super lightweight tool that anyone can run (and we mean anyone). Just as an oil refinery takes crude oil as input and processes it to produce different products (such as gasoline and diesel), the Refiner takes raw blockchain data as input and processes it to produce different outputs. The Refiner can run multiple transformations concurrently, just like an oil refinery can process multiple streams of crude oil at the same time, to produce different products.

With the Refiner, data providers will no longer need to rely on expensive and slow node operations. Rather, anyone will be able to capture, splice, and trace real-time and historical ETH mainnet data without relying on RPC calls.

More information regarding the Refiner, including a whitepaper, will be released in the coming weeks.

Testnet Overview

Covalent firmly believes that our community and current customers are invaluable stakeholders who can profoundly shape the Covalent Network’s future. So, we are actively inviting a total of 50 projects, individuals and users to participate in the testing of the Refiner. This testnet period will run from July 5th to July 19th, with participants expected to maintain an uptime of at least 80% over this period to be eligible for rewards. Furthermore, the goals of this testnet are:

• Solicit Feedback: Every participant will be able to provide direct feedback to Covalent Engineers which will be incorporated into the development of the Refiner; and

• Onboard New Network Operators: 10 outstanding participants will be selected to onboard to Covalent Network Mainnet after the testnet period as Refiners.

Upon applying, the Covalent team will judge applications based on prior experience with running Web3 infra and willingness to join the Covalent Network.

Let’s dive into the testnet tasks.

Task 1: Run the Refiner

Testnet participants are required to run the Refiner for the duration of the campaign. While mandatory, the Refiner is nothing more than a Docker instance and has been designed to be extremely easy to run and maintain. There is a generous prize pool of $80,000 worth of CQT tokens available for this task. The top 10 participants with the highest uptime will receive the minimum stake for running the Refiner and be onboarded to the Covalent Network’s mainnet. The remaining CQT tokens will be distributed among participants who achieved an uptime of 80% or more, pro-rated to their uptime.

Task 2: Bug Bounty

For participants who love to hunt for bugs, Covalent is offering an optional bug bounty program. During the testnet campaign, you have the opportunity to identify and submit any bugs you encounter. The rewards for the bug bounty program will be based on the complexity and significance of the reported bugs. A prize pool of $10,000 worth of CQT tokens is set aside for this task, with the top bug finders receiving well-deserved recognition and rewards.

Task 3: Written Content

If you have a flair for writing and a passion for Web3, the Refiner Testnet campaign offers an optional task. Participants can create written content on provided topics and share their insights with the community. The content should be in the form of a blog post and a Twitter thread. Submissions will be based on originality, insight, clarity, and relevance to the given topic. There will be 15 winners selected for this task, with a prize pool of $10,000 worth of CQT tokens awaiting the top contributors.

Key Dates

• Application closes: June 27th

• Participants selected and announced: June 29th

• Onboarding: July 4th and July 5th

• Testnet: July 5th – July 19th

• Mainnet launch: August 1st

Shape the Future of the Covalent Network

The Covalent Network’s Refiner testnet campaign presents an incredible opportunity to be part of our mission. By running the Refiner, participating in the bug bounty program, or creating engaging written content, you can contribute to the growth and success of the Covalent Network while earning CQT rewards. Don’t miss out on the chance to shape the future of Web3 data infra and be rewarded for your efforts. Apply now and join the Covalent community on this exciting journey.

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 112 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

TLDR

• Today we’re announcing that Optimism is the next ecosystem in our weekly Prompt Master competition. Each week we give out $250 in prizes to the best analysis on a unique ecosystem, and this week, it’s all about Optimism. 🏆

• To participate, leverage the power of Increment, our no-code analytics product, to create the best data prompts. What’s a prompt? Read more down below.

• With Increment, you can dive deep into everything from Optimism’s chain stats to app-chains like Base, or even individual NFT sales on Opensea Optimism. It’s entirely up to you.

• Kickstart your data exploration by signing up for Increment and experimenting with our diverse range of dashboards. Remember, no coding is required to build custom, powerful analysis; it’s data analysis made easy!

• The race for the Prompt Master title starts now! You have until June 13th, 5pm PT to submit your Twitter thread using this google form. Ready, set, analyze! Good luck.

The Opportunity

We’re kickstarting this week’s competition with a focus on the Optimism ecosystem which includes the Optimism L2 rollup – a general purpose rollup – and Base – a purpose built OP app-chain. But, this is just the beginning! The Prompt Master competition will take place weekly, with each week focusing on a different ecosystem.

The race for the ‘Prompt Master’ title starts now! You have until June 13th, 5pm PT to submit your Twitter thread using this google form. Rewards will be distributed to winners on June 14th, so follow our Twitter (@Increment_HQ) as you don’t want to miss out:

1. 🥇 Prompt Master $100

2. 🥈 Prompt Admiral – $50

3. 2 x 🥉 Prompt Commander – $25 each

Everyone who submits a Twitter thread will be a lot more likely to get accepted into the next Data Alchemist Boot-Camp, where alumni receive up to $5000.

Why Does This Matter?

At the heart of this initiative is our new, no-code analytics product – Increment – which enables users to answer questions and create prompts that generate comprehensive charts and dashboards.

Our mission is to equip analysts with efficient, effective tools, enabling them to dedicate their time on the action that drives results: data analysis. Analysts should be analyzing, not spending countless hours coding, sourcing and decoding. In a world increasingly reliant on data, better, faster, and more affordable tooling is how we contribute to the vision of Web3!

Build a prompt. Run. Analyze. Watch a 4 minute demo to get start.

;

Increment’s Secret Sauce: Data Prompts

Increment is revolutionizing how the Web3 space approaches analytics with its novel no-code solution that can analyze 100+ blockchains. Users can now use simple user-friendly models to build dynamic, custom charts.  Many analytics tools let you write SQL to create charts, but Increment is the only one to encode business logic – Reach, Retention, and Revenue – into an SQL compiler that can write valid SQL for you. The tool takes every possible chart creatable with SQL-based tools and bakes them into a standardized, open-sourced set of dimensions and measures – known as a model.

Interacting with a model is as simple as building a prompt by answering these 6 questions:

1. What model would you like to use?

2. What would you like to measure?

3. What time period would you like to analyze?

4. What chain would you like to analyze?

5. What filters do you want to apply?

6. What do you want to group the data by?

How to Get Started

1. Sign up for Increment here.

2. Watch this quick demo to get an understand of how to build powerful, custom analytics – it’s only 4 minutes.

3. Start exploring our pre-built dashboards:

   1. JPEG Analysis – analytics on NFT sales data across 39 NFT marketplaces, including Opensea Optimism, Quix and ToFuNFT Optimism.

   2. Swap Land – analytics on DEX transactions (swaps, add liquidity and remove liquidity) across 76 DEXs, including Uniswap Optimism, Fraxswap Optimism & Zipswap.

   3. Chain GDP – analytics on blockchain level stats across the 100+ chains we support.

   4. Token Dog Mode – analytics on tokens across 100+ chains.

4. Centre your analysis around any of the projects on Optimism or Base – the first OP app-chain.

5. Build a prompt. Run. Analyze. It’s that simple!

Join us in this exciting weekly competition and level up your skills in data analytics. We are eager to see what you create!

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 111 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

TLDR;

• Covalent has decoded, classified and standardized complex transaction data across multiple blockchains and markets, including 80 DEXs, 25 lending protocols, and 40 NFT markets to date.

• Covalent’s ultimate goal is to provide human-readable transaction data, paving the way for the seamless onboarding of new users, empowering developers, and promoting a multi-chain future.

The Evolution of Blockchain Transactions: From Simple Payments to Complex DeFi Systems

The advent of blockchain technology, pioneered with Bitcoin, initially focused on simple peer-to-peer transfers of value, much like digital cash. These transactions were relatively straightforward, with each transaction essentially involving a sender, a receiver, and a specified amount of cryptocurrency being transferred.

However, with the emergence of Ethereum and its smart contract functionality, the landscape of transactions on the blockchain became exponentially more complex. Unlike Bitcoin, which was designed primarily as a currency, Ethereum was conceived as a platform for decentralized applications (dApps). This opened up a myriad of possibilities for more complex transactions governed by programmable contracts.

Here are a few examples:

1. Smart Contracts & dApps: Ethereum’s programmable smart contracts can encode complex logic, enabling the creation of dApps with advanced features. Transactions involving smart contracts can include function calls and event logs, which can be challenging to decipher without a deep understanding of the contract’s code.

2. DeFi (Decentralized Finance): The DeFi movement on Ethereum has introduced a host of innovative financial products, like decentralized exchanges (DEXs), lending platforms and more. Transactions in DeFi protocols are often multifaceted. For example, a user might deposit collateral, borrow against it, swap borrowed assets on a DEX, then stake the swapped tokens in a yield farm – all in a single transaction.

3. NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens): NFTs represent unique digital assets on the blockchain, and they have added another layer of complexity to blockchain transactions. NFT transactions can involve minting, buying, selling, bidding, or transferring unique tokens, often with accompanying metadata about the asset.

4. DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations): Transactions in DAOs can involve voting on proposals, staking tokens for governance rights, and collectively managing pooled funds, among other things.

Each of these areas has its own sets of transaction types, events, and data structures. This complexity makes extracting meaningful information from blockchain transactions challenging for users, developers, and analysts. The complexity is further exacerbated with the same protocol with subtle changes across blockchains.

Addressing the Scaling Shortfalls of Blockchain Transactions

Why Transaction Data Doesn’t Scale

1. Blockchain data is highly decentralized and heterogeneous. Blockchains are open and permissionless, meaning anyone can write anything to a blockchain – essentially a form of free speech. While there are token standards like ERC-20, ERC-721 (NFTs), ERC-1155 (multi-token standard), and others, the implementations of these standards by different protocols or platforms can vary, and it’s an open platform which is what makes blockchains attractive. This difference in each protocol’s rules and methods for recording transactions and events leads to inconsistency in the data these contracts produce.

2. The volume of data is enormous. Blockchains have had scalability challenges, leading to all sorts of solutions being presented, including L2s, sharding, etc. These networks process thousands to millions of transactions daily, each with its own metadata. This means the that there is a colossal and rapidly growing volume of data that isn’t necessarily standardized.

The Result

Blockchain data is immutable and transparent, yet not easy to interpret.

While the above points are strengths from a security, scalability and trust perspective, they often mean that transactions are encoded in a way that is not user-friendly. As a developer trying to process and make meaning of this data to build into their app or UX, the lack of standardization and clarity makes it a huge challenge.

Covalent’s Focus: Simplifying Transaction Data

Covalent is uniquely positioned to take on this challenge due to its technical expertise, infrastructure, and a singular focus on tackling blockchain data. The Covalent team has developed specialized methods to extract, transform, and load this data into a format that is easy to understand and use. This includes working out the kinks associated with different contract standards, normalizing across various protocols, and creating endpoints that scale.

Covalent goes beyond providing raw blockchain data. We decode and classify complex transaction events, standardize data across different blockchains and contracts, and enrich the data with additional contextual details, like protocol logos and quotes in fiat currency. The end result is a comprehensive and user-friendly blockchain data service.

How We Solve It

To simplify transactions, we have standardized the following complex events across several markets and blockchains:

DEX events

• add_liquidity

• pair_created

• remove_liquidity

• swap

Each of these events signifies a particular type of activity within a DEX, and by presenting them in a consistent format, we facilitate a clearer, enhanced understanding of the transaction process.

Here, you can see the before (left) and after (right) of adding additional DEX data to the Get a transaction endpoint response:

Lending events

• borrow

• deposit

• flashloan

• liquidation

• repay

• withdraw

These events represent various actions within lending protocols, and by unifying their representation, we bring greater clarity to the user experience.

NFT sales

We’ve reverse-engineered the array of transaction types that occur in NFT sales across different markets, simplifying the transaction data to an easy-to-understand format. For example:

“Megan sent $500 to Bob, and Bob sent Megan an image of a monkey.”

Today, our Get a transaction endpoint supports 80 DEXs, 25 Lending protocols, and 40 NFT markets.

Illustrating the Potential of Human-Readable Transactions

The convention for most people, when they complete a transaction in Web3, is to view the details on Etherscan or another block explorer to confirm it executed successfully. This is not a particularly user-friendly experience for a few reasons:

1. Complexity: blockchain explorers present data in a technical format. These websites provide essential details but can be overwhelming for people unfamiliar with blockchain technology and jargon.

2. Auditability: For compliance reasons, businesses often need to keep detailed records of all transactions. While block explorers provide the raw data, they don’t offer the kind of formatting and organization that would make this information readily auditable.

3. Multi-chain transactions: With the proliferation of various blockchain networks, users may execute transactions on different chains. Block explorers are usually specific to one blockchain, making it difficult for users to track their activities across multiple networks in a unified way.

4. No Visual Appeal: While this might seem minor, the lack of visual appeal and user experience design in many block explorers can make them uninviting and challenging to use, particularly for newer users who might be more accustomed to well-designed, intuitive interfaces in other web applications.

These are all pain points addressed by Covalent’s human-readable transaction data. Rather than placing a burden upon users to sift through technical information on external websites, dApps integrate receipt or invoice features that mimic the familiar experience of transacting in Web2. This makes it easy for users to do their own record-keeping, understand the context of each transaction, and serve as an onboarding tool in helping newcomers understand what’s happening when they make a transaction on-chain.

Here’s an example of a receipt created with Covalent’s enriched NFT transaction response. In this case, the user can see:

Similar features could be added to DeFi protocols to help users manage their LP positions, keep track of their cost basis, and understand complex multi-part transactions.

The Power of Simplicity in Web3

The impact of Covalent’s work in simplifying blockchain transactions reaches far and wide, creating a powerful ripple effect in the world of Web3. It paves the way for seamless onboarding of the next wave of users, aligning with industry trends such as account abstraction. By providing clarity in transactions, we enable developers to concentrate on what genuinely matters to their users, thereby fostering innovation and boosting productivity. Most importantly, our efforts bolster our conviction in a multi-chain future. By making transactions across different chains appear seamless, we’re not just advocating for a multi-chain future—we’re helping users believe in and embrace it.

Join the Future of Web3 Development

Embrace the new era of standardization and clarity in blockchain transactions. Join Covalent in paving the way for a more accessible and user-friendly blockchain future. If you haven’t got a free API key yet, get one here!

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 111 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

TL;DR:

• Season one of the Data Alchemist Boot-Camp was a roaring success with numerous Data Alchemists landing jobs in Web3. It’s now time for season two. Sign up here.

• The Data Alchemist Boot-Camp pays participants up to $5,000 to learn Web3 Business Intelligence.

• The 4-week boot-camp teaches how to create in-depth Reach, Retention, and Revenue (RRR) analysis to answer business questions across multiple chains, protocols, and user types.

• AI & LLMs will start to shift demand away from SQL writers to data analysts. With Increment, there’s no longer a need to write SQL; our software does it all for you. Formulate prompts, run, and start your analysis.

• Spots are limited so sign up now.

Analytics Is One Of The Most In-Demand Skills

The growth of stablecoins, NFTs, and DeFi products over the last 18 months has led to huge demand for Web3 analysts. Even with a market downturn, stablecoins have a $152 billion market cap and NFT volume has grown to 35x the volume Ebay was doing at IPO (source).

Global brands such as Adidas, Nike, and Samsung have acknowledged this trend and now have departments of Web3-focused data scientists and analysts. Similarly, if you visit the job boards of leading Web3 companies – such as Binance’s careers page – there is an unresolved backlog of unfilled data-driven roles.

We believe demand is not the limiting factor for blockchain analytics, but rather a shortfall in the supply of proficient blockchain data analysts. Analysts have been hindered by a serious shortage of appropriate tooling and the necessary training to use these tools effectively – until now.

Covalent has addressed this challenge by creating a customizable, no-code analytics solution known as Increment. The objective of the Data Alchemist Boot-camp is to empower thousands of analysts with the knowledge and skills to leverage Increment effectively.

What Is The Data Alchemist Boot-Camp?

The boot-camp’s curriculum spans 4-weeks, encompassing exciting course content, and challenges. This includes completing in-depth Reach, Retention, and Revenue (RRR) analysis to answer business questions across multiple chains, protocols, and user types. The challenges you complete will showcase your skills and talents in Web3, making you competitive for a career in the industry. The focus of the boot-camp has shifted away from teaching SQL to using our no-code analytics product – Increment – to teach people how to derive value from data.

Everyone who completes the boot-camp will earn $1000 in premium Increment credits (1M credits) so you can continue using our products to increase your skills. There will be a total of $200K in prizes to win:

All rewards are in USD but paid out in Covalent’s native token CQT. We plan on scaling this educational initiative to 1,000 Web3 Data Analysts with a new season every quarter – so don’t get disheartened if you aren’t accepted in this cohort.

Week One – Introduction to blockchain data and business intelligence.

The boot-camp starts by introducing Data Alchemists to the structure of blockchain data and how it’s used to form impactful analysis. Without this understanding, it’s extremely hard to build meaningful analytics that can drive results.

Week Two – Reach, Retention & Revenue (RRR) framework for Web3 analysis.

In week two – building upon their newly acquired understanding of blockchain data – Data Alchemists analyze two competing projects using the Reach, Retention, and Revenue framework. Data Alchemists will learn how to apply the RRR framework to answer a series of Web3 business questions.

Week Three – Build multi-chain analysis across 100+ chains with a standardized schema

During the third week, Data Alchemists will leverage the RRR framework to carry out a comprehensive, detailed analysis of a token’s cross-chain traction. This includes tracking the flow of capital, analyzing buy and sell volumes, understanding liquidity utilization, and much more. The insights gathered from this analysis will then be used to make a decision on where to fund a liquidity mining program.

Week Four – Learning how to utilize AI and LLMs to supercharge your analysis.

In the final week of the boot-camp, Data Alchemists dive into the role of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) in elevating data analysis, enhancing decision-making, and sparking new ideas. Ignoring this technology is like entering formula one with a racehorse – you’ll quickly get left behind.

What It Means To Be A ‘Data Alchemist’

A ‘Data Alchemist’ is a determined, self-starter who is keen to demonstrate dedication to their project and personal growth in Web3. They will become part of the Data Alchemist community, which already has over 250 analysts, all passionate about pushing the boundaries on what’s possible in Web3 analytics.

Becoming a Data Alchemist requires commitment; the Data Alchemist Boot-Camp is an intense and demanding course and participants learn and grow based on the time and effort they put into the process. As a result, the Data Alchemist community has become an amazing environment to maximize personal growth and be at the forefront of Web3. While some people took a month off work to complete the boot-camp during the first cohort, the program is designed to be flexible to accommodate students and professionals globally. As such, the boot-camp is structured as one recorded lecture a week with asynchronous assignments and Covalent team office hours that span multiple time zones.

The only prerequisite to joining our Data Alchemist Boot-Camp is a desire to learn about Web3. There is a real need for individuals who are experts in this new cross-section of data and blockchain. We want to help train these future leaders to quickly fill these new roles in the near term. This boot-camp is how we try to spark change in an exciting and rapidly growing community.

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Our Track Record of Educating Web3 Users

Season one of the Data Alchemist Boot-Camp was a huge success with:

Season two aims to build upon this success and take the Data Alchemist Boot-Camp to a whole new level. We’ve engineered the boot-camp to teach practical Web3 analytical skills, the backbone of numerous roles within the Web3 ecosystem.

We’re proud to help bridge the gap between Data Alchemists and experienced blockchain professionals, offering opportunities for learning and career advancement in the industry. A considerable number of our Data Alchemists have already gone on to secure analyst positions in the industry, showcasing the real-world impact of our program.

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 110 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

TLDR

• Today we’re announcing that Avalanche is the next ecosystem in our weekly Prompt Master competition. Each week we give out $250 in prizes to the best analysis on a unique ecosystem, and this week, it’s all about Avalanche. 🏆

• To participate, leverage the power of Increment, our no-code analytics product, to create the best data prompts. What’s a prompt? Read more down below.

• With Increment, you can dive deep into everything from the Avalanche’s C-Chain to specific subnets like DeFi Kingdoms, or even individual DEX trades on TraderJoe. It’s entirely up to you.

• Kickstart your data exploration by signing up for Increment and experimenting with our diverse range of dashboards. Remember, no coding is required to build custom, powerful analysis; it’s data analysis made easy!

• The race for the Prompt Master title starts now! You have until May 30th, 5pm PT to submit your Twitter thread using this google form. Ready, set, analyze! Good luck.

The Opportunity

We’re kickstarting this week’s competition with a focus on the Avalanche ecosystem which includes the Avalanche C-Chain – a general purpose blockchain – and Avalanche Subnets – a network of purpose built blockchains for a single project/use-case. But, this is just the beginning! The Prompt Master competition will take place weekly, with each week focusing on a different ecosystem.

The race for the ‘Prompt Master’ title starts now! You have until May 30th, 5pm PT to submit your Twitter thread using this google form. Rewards will be distributed to winners on May 31st, so follow our Twitter (@Increment_HQ) as you don’t want to miss out:

1. 🥇 Prompt Master $100

2. 🥈 Prompt Admiral – $50

3. 2 x 🥉 Prompt Commander – $25 each

Everyone who submits a Twitter thread will be a lot more likely to get accepted into the next Data Alchemist Bootcamp, where alumni receive up to $5000.

Why Does This Matter?

At the heart of this initiative is our new, no-code analytics product – Increment – which enables users to answer questions and create prompts that generate comprehensive charts and dashboards.

Our mission is to equip analysts with efficient, effective tools, enabling them to dedicate their time on the action that drives results: data analysis. Analysts should be analyzing, not spending countless hours coding, sourcing and decoding. In a world increasingly reliant on data, better, faster, and more affordable tooling is how we contribute to the vision of Web3!

Build a prompt. Run. Analyze. Watch a 4 minute demo to get start.

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Increment’s Secret Sauce: Data Prompts

Increment is revolutionizing how the Web3 space approaches analytics with its novel no-code solution that can analyze 100+ blockchains. Users can now use simple user-friendly models to build dynamic, custom charts.  Many analytics tools let you write SQL to create charts, but Increment is the only one to encode business logic – Reach, Retention, and Revenue – into an SQL compiler that can write valid SQL for you. The tool takes every possible chart creatable with SQL-based tools and bakes them into a standardized, open-sourced set of dimensions and measures – known as a model.

Interacting with a model is as simple as building a prompt by answering these 6 questions:

1. What model would you like to use?

2. What would you like to measure?

3. What time period would you like to analyze?

4. What chain would you like to analyze?

5. What filters do you want to apply?

6. What do you want to group the data by?

How to Get Started

1. Sign up for Increment here.

2. Watch this quick demo to get an overview of the platform – it’s only 4 minutes.

3. Start exploring our pre-built dashboards:

   1. JPEG Analysis – analytics on NFT sales data across 39 NFT marketplaces, including Opensea Avalanche, NFTrade and ToFuNFT.

   2. Swap Land – analytics on DEX transactions (swaps, add liquidity and remove liquidity) across 76 DEXs, including TraderJoe, Pangolin & Sushiswap Avalanche.

   3. Chain GDP – analytics on blockchain level stats across the 100+ chains we support.

   4. Token Dog Mode – analytics on tokens across 100+ chains.

4. Centre your analysis around any of the four Avalanche blockchains supported on Increment:

   1. Avalanche C-Chain (avalanche_mainnet)

   2. DeFi Kingdoms (defi_kingdoms_mainnet)

   3. Dexalot (avalanche_dexalot_mainnet)

   4. Boba Avalanche (boba_avalanche_mainnet)

5. Build a prompt. Run. Analyze. It’s that simple!

Join us in this exciting weekly competition and level up your skills in data analytics. We are eager to see what you create!

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 110 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

TLDR;

Covalent has launched an array of new wallet-focused features designed to streamline wallet development and enhance the user experience, including:

1. Approvals Endpoint: Receive a list of ERC20 approvals by a wallet, including the authorized amount and value-at-risk.

2. NFT Spam: Check if an NFT has been flagged as part of a spam collection.

3. Transactions Summary: Get the date of the earliest, latest and total transactions by a wallet.

4. Earliest Transaction: Get all the decoded details of the very first transaction by a wallet on a chain.

5. Pretty Quotes: E.g. $123.45. No need to figure out conversions and format raw values into fiat.

New Features

In our pursuit to make wallet development easier and more user-friendly, we’re thrilled to introduce several new features that take the legwork out of building high-performing, feature-rich wallet applications.

Our team at Covalent has been hard at work understanding the challenges developers face in the dynamic world of blockchains and incorporating valuable feedback from the community. These resulting new features aim to address unique pain points encountered by developers, mitigating complexities and reducing the need for custom code.

Let’s get into them!

Note – Each sample JSON does not contain the full API response

🔐 1. Approvals Endpoint

Endpoint: GET /v1/{chainName}/approvals/{walletAddress}/

Recently released, the approvals endpoint is a key security feature for wallets. It allows developers to track a wallet’s approvals categorized by spenders, enhancing security and reducing the complexity involved in managing user assets across various blockchains. Notably, the response shows the value of assets at risk (if the spender were to be hacked) and risk factors such as “consider revoking”.

Sample response:

"block_signed_at": "2022-09-27T15:27:47Z",
"tx_hash": "0xba6c16c0acb9dc3b35f39448dceb97756de2be23dc8130396486379409a84f77",
"spender_address": "0x881d40237659c251811cec9c364ef91dc08d300c",
"spender_address_label": "Metamask: Swap Router",
"allowance": "UNLIMITED",
"allowance_quote": null,
"pretty_allowance_quote": null,
"value_at_risk": "647245836",
"value_at_risk_quote": 647.245836,
"pretty_value_at_risk_quote": "$647.25",
"risk_factor": "CONSIDER REVOKING",

Read more about this feature here.

🖼️ 2. NFT Spam

Endpoints: NFTs and Token Balances

To help developers navigate the bustling NFT market, we’ve released an NFT is_spam field which returns true if an NFT has been flagged as part of a spam collection. This makes it easier to identify security risks and filter out spam, simplifying NFT management within wallet applications.

Sample response:

"contract_name": "Braindom",
"contract_ticker_symbol": "BRAINDOM",
"contract_address": "0xdc6d90860c47bc596188511380e47825ca4df205",
"supports_erc":               [ ... 2 items ],
"is_spam": true,
"balance": "1",
"balance_24h": "1",
"type": "nft",

This field is currently supported on Ethereum and Polygon and will soon be expanded to more chains.

See more details here.

🧾 3. Transactions Summary

Endpoint: GET /v1/{chainName}/address/{walletAddress}/transactions_summary/

Getting a high-level overview of your users’ transactions is often impossible without sifting through pages of transaction data. To get context on a wallet address, most people go to a block explorer like Etherscan where they can see the earliest, latest, and total number of transactions for an address.

Our new transactions summary endpoint solves for this exact use case, summarizing the transactions for an address and making it easy to understand and display user activity.

Sample response:

				"total_count": 72904,
				"latest_transaction": {
					"block_signed_at": "2023-05-11T16:36:59Z",
					"tx_hash": "0xe1041e11d966d5b04c41fa1f5f4abc42fb5c47d782b1cc1641e13dc8e79988cc",
					"tx_detail_link": ""
				},
				"earliest_transaction": {
					"block_signed_at": "2021-05-21T00:15:53Z",
					"tx_hash": "0xbe7b222fde8276938e61d4504f0bb61477bf4ef92d19aa8fce8d58d4e26d7e4a",
					"tx_detail_link": ""

⏱️ 4. Earliest Transaction

Endpoint: GET /v1/{chainName}/bulk/transactions/{walletAddress}/

With our bulk transactions endpoint, developers had to set a time bucket to 0 to find the earliest transaction. Now with our earliest transaction endpoint, developers can swiftly locate and navigate to the earliest transaction for an address and then user the next URL to continue bulk fetching the transaction history.

Sample response:

"links": {
	"prev": null,
	"next": ""
},
"items": [
	{
		"block_signed_at": "2017-12-14T18:43:16Z",
		"block_height": 4732618,
		"tx_hash": "0x29d9fbc6368b0fc1d378cff1d30a6d6fca9be239f00a515a7bd6001a4ef84d5b",
		"tx_offset": 51,
		"successful": true,
		"from_address": "0xdb33dfd3d61308c33c63209845dad3e6bfb2c674",
		"from_address_label": null,
		"to_address": "0x91dfe531ff8ba876a505c8f1c98bafede6c7effc",
		"to_address_label": null,
		"value": "0",
		"value_quote": 0,
		"pretty_value_quote": "$0.00",
		"gas_offered": 4000000,
		"gas_spent": 52137,
		"gas_price": 25000000000,
		"fees_paid": "1303425000000000",
		"gas_quote": 0.9034000353649076,
		"pretty_gas_quote": "$0.90",
		"gas_quote_rate": 693.0970599496769

💵 5. Pretty Quotes

No more puzzling over transaction values! We’ve had a “quote” field in our transactions endpoint responses for quite some time, but we just released a new improvement – pretty quotes. The pretty quotes feature converts raw blockchain data into user-friendly fiat amounts, enabling developers to understand the data and integrate it directly into their applications.

While the default currency is USD, developers can change this with the query parameter quote-currency!

Sample response:

"type": "stablecoin",
"balance": "358014500",
"balance_24h": "358014500",
"quote_rate": 1,
"quote_rate_24h": 1,
"quote": 358.0145,
"pretty_quote": "$358.01",
"quote_24h": 358.0145,
"pretty_quote_24h": "$358.01",

See more details here.

The Full Suite of Wallet Endpoints

Navigating blockchain development can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to building comprehensive and user-friendly wallet applications. Recognizing this, Covalent has designed a suite of wallet endpoints that are expertly categorized to cater to every aspect of a wallet interface. This deliberate segmentation allows us to deliver bespoke services, meeting the diverse needs of developers and ensuring a seamless, efficient experience. Here’s how we break it down:

• Balances: Keeping track of token balances across multiple chains is a critical part of wallet functionality. Covalent’s balances endpoint allows developers to easily query native, ERC20, and NFT token balances across 100+ supported chains. Also in this category, we offer historical portfolio value, token holders, and ERC20 transfer endpoints.

• NFTs: With the burgeoning interest in digital art and collectibles, Covalent’s NFT endpoints help developers easily integrate NFT features into wallet applications. These include detailed metadata, cached images, traits, and ownership endpoints for NFT verification.

• Transactions: Every transaction forms an essential part of a user’s wallet activity. Our suite of transactions endpoints provide detailed historical transaction data by address. From high-level address summaries to recent transactions to detailed, bulk transactions, we cover the entire spectrum of interactions for any wallet.

• Security: Ensuring the security of digital assets within a wallet is paramount. The approvals endpoint enables developers to identify potential threats such as unlimited approvals, offering users better control over their assets.

• Base: The base endpoints cover essential functionalities such as retrieving block data, log events, and more. These core services are foundational for wallet applications.

• DeFi Endpoints: Covalent’s DeFi endpoints are tailored to help developers integrate users’ DeFi-related activity into the wallet.

  • Constant Product AMMs: For constant product AMMs like Uniswap and its clones, we offer the XY=K suite of endpoints that provide a standardized request and response format to get balances, transactions, liquidity pool information, and more on 40+ supported DEXs.

  • Lending and Others: For lending protocols like Aave and other DeFi protocols that have their own complexities such as Curve and Balancer (and more), we offer our Class C endpoints which return wallet activity and market data for 10+ protocols.

This suite of wallet endpoints provides a comprehensive solution for developers, bridging the gap between the complexities of blockchain technology and the creation of intuitive, user-friendly wallet applications.

Available to All

Covalent’s philosophy is to bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3 so that decentralization should not be a barrier but a bridge, connecting diverse ideas and individuals. By offering a REST interface on top of blockchains, we’re demystifying the intricacies of Web3, making it more accessible to developers from all backgrounds. Our endpoints are perfect for wallet developers looking to improve their users’ experience; and, of course, there are many more possible use cases with the data.

Check out our wallet building series and others for step-by-step guides on integrating our API!

What’s Next

Stay tuned for more exciting features! We’re currently working on enhanced, human-readable DeFi Transactions that will allow you to see labeled actions such as “add liquidity” on any supported exchange.

Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just getting started in the Web3 space, Covalent is here to support you on your journey, making Web3 development easier, more user-friendly, and more efficient. If you haven’t got an API key yet, sign up for one here!

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 110 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

;

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 110 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

;

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 110 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

TLDR

• We’re launching Prompt Master, a weekly competition that rewards $250 in prizes for the best data analysis on Twitter. Each week we focus on a unique ecosystem, and this week, it’s all about the Fantom ecosystem. 🏆

• To participate, leverage the power of Increment, our no-code analytics product, to create the best data prompts. What’s a prompt? Read more down below.

• With Increment, you can delve deep into everything from Fantom’s chain level statistics to individual DEX trades on Spiritswap. It’s entirely up to you.

• Kickstart your data exploration journey by signing up for Increment and experimenting with our diverse range of dashboards. Remember, no coding is required; it’s data analysis made easy!

• The race for the ‘Prompt Master’ title starts now! You have until May 23rd, 5pm PT to submit your Twitter thread using this google form. Ready, set, analyze! Good luck.

The Opportunity

In Web3, the tools we use to interact with on-chain data and the way we approach analytics are evolving at an astonishing pace. To champion this evolution, we are thrilled to launch Prompt Master, a weekly competition that rewards $250 in prizes for the best data analysis on Twitter. We’re kickstarting the competition with a focus on the Fantom ecosystem, a powerful, high-performance, scalable, and secure smart contract platform. But, this is just the beginning! The Prompt Master competition will take place weekly, with each week focusing on a different ecosystem.

The race for the ‘Prompt Master’ title starts now! You have until May 23rd, 5pm PT to submit your Twitter thread using this google form. Rewards will be distributed to winners on May 24th, so follow our Twitter (@Increment_HQ) as you don’t want to miss out:

1. 🥇 Prompt Master $100

2. 🥈 Prompt Admiral – $50

3. 2 x 🥉 Prompt Commander – $25 each

Everyone who submits a Twitter thread will secure automatic admission into the next Data Alchemist Bootcamp, where alumni receive up to $1000.

Why Does This Matter?

At the heart of this initiative is our new, no-code analytics product – Increment – which enables users to answer questions and create prompts that generate comprehensive charts and dashboards.

Our mission is to equip analysts with efficient, effective tools, enabling them to dedicate their time on the action that drives results: data analysis. Analysts should be analyzing, not spending countless hours coding, sourcing and decoding. In a world increasingly reliant on data, better, faster, and more affordable tooling is how we contribute to the vision of Web3!

Build a prompt. Run. Analyze. Watch a 4 minute demo to get started.

Increment’s Secret Sauce: Data Prompts

Increment is the solution to several common challenges in accessing reliable blockchain data, such as fragmented solutions, technical hurdles, and the inherent complexity of blockchain data. Offering a one-stop shop with the complete historical dataset of 100+ blockchains, Increment provides an extensive and diverse volume of blockchain data, incorporating every smart contract, event, transaction, and block. What’s more, it dramatically simplifies the use of this data, empowering non-technical users to build actionable insights with a few clicks.

Building a prompt is as simple as answering these 6 questions:

1. What model would you like to use?

2. What would you like to measure?

3. What time period would you like to analyze?

4. What chain would you like to analyze?

5. What filters do you want to apply?

6. What do you want to group the data by?

How to Get Started

1. Sign up for Increment here.

2. Watch this quick demo to get an overview of the platform – it’s only 4 minutes.

3. Start exploring our pre-built dashboards:

   1. JPEG Analysis – analytics on NFT sales data across 39 NFT marketplaces.

   2. Swap Land – analytics on DEX transactions (swaps, add liquidity and remove liquidity) across 76 DEXs.

   3. Chain GDP – analytics on blockchain level stats across the 100+ chains we support.

   4. Token Dog Mode – analytics on tokens across 100+ chains.

4. Build a prompt. Run. Analyze. It’s that simple!

Join us in this exciting weekly competition and level up your skills in data analytics. We are eager to see what you create!

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 110 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2ZlHR-opoY

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 110 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

TLDR;

• Covalent has released a new approvals endpoint that shows you all the approvals across all token contracts categorized by spenders for a wallet’s assets.

• This new endpoint shows you the value of assets at risk for a wallet. Basically, if the spender were to be hacked, the value at risk is how much they could stand to lose.

• Get approvals is currently available on Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain and Polygon and will be added to all remaining supported networks in a few weeks.

Background: What are Approvals?

In the context of Web3, approvals are an essential part of the ERC20 token standard, which is the most common standard for creating and managing tokens on Ethereum and other EVM-based blockchains. Approvals are a mechanism that allows a token holder to grant permission to another account or smart contract to spend a certain amount of tokens on their behalf. So when do you use approvals? Here are some examples:

1. Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs): When trading tokens on a DEX like Uniswap or SushiSwap, users must approve the smart contract to access and swap their tokens. This is done to ensure that the DEX contract can execute the trade on the user’s behalf without having direct access to the user’s wallet.

2. Staking and Yield Farming: In DeFi applications that offer staking or yield farming opportunities, users need to approve the staking or farming contract to access their tokens. This enables the contract to lock up the user’s tokens and distribute rewards accordingly.

3. Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs): In DAOs, users often need to approve a DAO’s smart contract to access their tokens for voting on proposals or participating in governance decisions. This allows the DAO to manage token-based voting systems securely and transparently.

Image source: Metamask

While approvals are a critical component in many decentralized applications, they can also pose certain risks for users, especially when they grant unlimited access to their tokens.

Approvals: A Liability for User Funds

Granting approvals, especially unlimited ones, can cause users to lose control over the management of their tokens. This is a vulnerability that hackers have come to exploit. Here are a few reasons why users should be concerned about their approvals:

1. Smart contract vulnerabilities: If a smart contract that has been approved to spend a user’s tokens contains a vulnerability, an attacker could exploit it to drain the user’s funds.

   1. Proxy contracts and future vulnerabilities: Many modern smart contracts utilize proxies, which enable developers to upgrade or modify contract logic without changing the original contract’s address. When users approve a token allowance on a proxy contract, they may inadvertently become susceptible to risks if the underlying contract logic is updated with flawed or malicious code.

2. Rogue spenders: Approving an untrusted address or a malicious contract can result in unauthorized token transfers or misuse of funds.

Some might think that using a hardware wallet like a Ledger protects them from vulnerabilities, but they do not inherently protect users from approval-related hacks. Hardware wallets’ security features do not extend to the smart contracts or token approvals themselves. When a user grants approval using their hardware wallet, they are still trusting the smart contract to act on their behalf.

Additionally, while approval-related hacks typically exploit the approval mechanism of ERC-20 tokens, they also affect other token standards like NFTs, which also require approvals to interact with various smart contracts. A well-known example is the NFT marketplace, where users approve NFT transfers to facilitate trades or auctions. If a marketplace’s smart contract or an NFT-specific contract is exploited, attackers can potentially transfer or steal approved NFTs

Here are some real-world examples of hacks and lost funds from approvals that have had disastrous consequences :

• SushiSwap hack: Recently, in April 2023, SushiSwap was exploited for $3.3 million. The security breach was due to an issue with SushiSwap’s approval contract (RouterProcessor2) which was responsible for handling trade routing on the platform. Approximately 1,800 ETH tokens, equivalent to around $3.3 million, were drained from a single user. SushiSwap’s team immediately urged users to revoke their approvals as soon as possible.

Image Source: PeckShield Tweet

• Bancor hack: In July 2018, the Bancor decentralized exchange was hacked, and the attackers stole approximately $23.5 million worth of tokens. The hack was possible because the attackers gained access to a wallet with approved tokens and used it to perform unauthorized trades.

How Covalent is Solving for Approvals Risk

To help protect users and prevent loss of funds, Covalent has built an approvals endpoint that provides users and developers with crucial information on token allowances and potential risks. The API response includes all token approvals across various contracts and spenders for a specific wallet’s assets, as well as a value-at-risk analysis, which estimates the potential loss a user could incur if a spender is hacked or compromised.

Additionally, Covalent has included risk factor assessment. Approvals are categorized by risk factors with three different flags based on the spender’s status and the value at risk: “low risk,” “consider revoking,” and “high risk, revoke now.” Information on how these risk factors are calculated can be found on our API reference or approvals guide. This feature helps users quickly identify potentially risky approvals and take appropriate action.

Here is a snippet of the API response:

            "block_height": 10975120,
            "tx_offset": 166,
            "log_offset": 267,
            "block_signed_at": "2020-10-02T06:51:00Z", 
            "tx_hash": "0x2f63cc4971d6371b5360c2a1c16e9f805e8dfea1dfcb578fda37446e39d026b9",
            "spender_address": "0x7a250d5630b4cf539739df2c5dacb4c659f2488d",
            "spender_address_label": "Uniswap V2: Router 2",
            "allowance": "UNLIMITED",
            "allowance_quote": null,
            "value_at_risk": "776680261",
            "value_at_risk_quote": 779.010301783,
            "risk_factor": "CONSIDER REVOKING"

For developers, integrating Covalent’s new approvals endpoint into their wallet applications can significantly enhance security and provide users with greater control over their assets. Here is a guide on how to implement this endpoint, including a code snippet for how to revoke certain approvals.

This marks a significant step forward in providing users with unparalleled transparency and control over their digital assets. We want to empower users to make informed decisions, creating a more secure and confident Web3 experience.

Tips for Minimizing Potential Losses

By granting approvals only for the required amount, users can minimize their potential losses in case of a security breach. Here are some things you can do to mitigate your risk and protect your assets from potential threats:

• Only approve trusted smart contracts and addresses.

• Set specific allowances instead of granting unlimited access.

• Regularly review and revoke unnecessary approvals.

Here is some additional information on how to revoke approvals.

What’s Next?

The new approvals endpoint is available on Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain and Polygon to begin with, and Covalent will follow up with additional support on the rest of its supported networks in the coming weeks. The Covalent team is hard at work building new products, stay tuned for more exciting updates this quarter. If you haven’t signed up for an API key yet, click here to get one!

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 108 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.

Setting the Stage

Let’s discuss the latest buzzword in the world of crypto and web3: zkEVM. It’s the latest upgrade to zero-knowledge (zk) rollups, an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) solution. While the discourse around zkEVMs has been filled with announcements of announcements, it’s now becoming more tangible as zk rollup development teams are starting to take concrete steps to implement it. This is an exciting breakthrough for the entire industry, as general-purpose zkEVMs have the potential to significantly improve the scalability of Ethereum.

The month of March has seen major milestones for zkEVMs, with the introduction of new projects and significant progress made by existing ones. Below are a few key events from the past month:

• March 3: Scroll launched the Alpha version of its zkEVM on Ethereum’s Goerli Testnet.

• March 27: Polygon launched the Mainnet Beta version of its zkEVM, making it available to a wider audience.

• March 28: ConsenSys unveiled its own zkEVM, Linea, and opened its Public Testnet to developers and users.

As we can see, zkEVMs have made impressive strides, and Covalent has been on a roll integrating with them as they are widely regarded as the ultimate scaling solution for Ethereum. Today, we will explore the different types of zkEVMs, the top teams developing zkEVMs with EVM-equivalence, and the onchain data behind their adoption and traction. By the end of this blog post, you will have a better understanding of why zkEVMs are gaining eyeballs as a game-changing technology for the future of Ethereum.

zkEVMs Have Entered the Chat

To understand why zkEVMs are the holy grail of scaling Ethereum, we first need to take a step back and look at the current state of Ethereum L2 solutions. At present, there are two main types of L2s: optimistic rollups and zk rollups. Both aim to increase throughput and lower transaction fees by processing transactions off Ethereum’s L1, while still leveraging Ethereum for settlement and data availability. This allows for computation to take place offchain while proofs of the computation happening accurately are uploaded onchain. The primary difference between optimistic rollups and zk rollups lies in how they validate transactions:

• Optimistic rollups: assume all transactions are valid by relying on other actors to submit fraud proofs during a one-week settlement period to the Ethereum Mainnet.

• Zk rollups: validate all transactions by using mathematically verifiable proofs that can settle on the Ethereum Mainnet immediately.

Compared to optimistic rollups, zk rollups are often regarded favourably due to their advantages in transaction finality and withdrawal times (no one-week settlement period), allowing users to bridge faster between rollups or back to the Ethereum Mainnet. However, optimistic rollups have gained more adoption in the L2 space because they were initially easier to implement and compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), enabling the easy porting of code and toolings from L1 to L2 – which is great UX. In contrast, zk rollups started with custom virtual machines that were application-specific, making it challenging for developers and users to adopt them. However, with the launch of zkEVMs, the landscape is now changing.

The zkEVM represents a significant breakthrough for Ethereum L2s. By enabling zk rollups to be EVM-compatible and general-purpose, developers and users can enjoy the same functionality as Ethereum’s L1, while reaping the benefits of zk technology. This puts zk rollups on a path to challenge their optimistic rollup counterparts, aligning with Vitalik Buterin’s 2021 prediction that zk rollups, with their inherent advantages, would eventually outcompete optimistic rollups. As the technology continues to evolve, zkEVMs are expected to gain significant traction in the coming months.

Types of zkEVMs

There has been an ongoing friendly rivalry between optimistic and zk rollup teams to develop the best Ethereum scaling solution. However, another race is brewing within the zk rollups sector itself – an informal competition to see which team can be the first to develop Type 1 and Type 2 zkEVMs.

In August 2022, Vitalik Buterin introduced classifications to map out zkEVMs based on EVM-compatibility. According to Buterin’s classification:

• A Type 1 zkEVM: is fully equivalent to Ethereum. It can reuse 100% of the EVM infrastructure, and it can even be used to upgrade Ethereum itself. However, this type of zkEVM has the longest prover (part of the code that generates zk proofs) times, as no modifications are made to speed up zk proof generation.

• Type 2 zkEVMs: are fully EVM-equivalent. However, they trade full Ethereum-equivalency for faster prover times and easier development. While a few Ethereum dapps may be incompatible with this type of zkEVM, improved prover times are crucial for faster finality of rollup transactions.

• A Type 3 zkEVM: has further changes to improve proof generation and make building on it easier. While this type of zkEVM could be compatible with most Ethereum dapps, some may require rewriting.

• A Type 4 zkEVM: can only compile some EVM code and be compatible with some Ethereum dapps, but not the EVM itself. However, it has the lowest costs and fastest prover times of all zkEVM types.

EVM-compatibility enables blockchain compatibility with Ethereum, but the developer experience may differ, requiring the rewriting of smart contracts or the reimplementing of lower-level code. On the other hand, EVM-equivalence ensures full bytecode (executable code on EVM) compatibility with Ethereum, meaning that any smart contract or developer tool from the Ethereum ecosystem can be used on the EVM-equivalent network too – which is a big advantage for developers. EVM-equivalence also simplifies the migration of Ethereum-based dapps and enables easier interoperability with EVM dapps on other L1s or L2s. Therefore, the goal of a zkEVM is to have full EVM-equivalence or a Type 2 zkEVM, while the truest form of a zkEVM is to reach full Ethereum-equivalence or a Type 1 zkEVM.

Although a Type 1 zkEVM may take some time to develop due to its complexity, several teams are currently working on Type 2 zkEVMs. Polygon zkEVM, initially a Type 3 zkEVM, is undergoing upgrades to become a Type 2 zkEVM. Similarly, Scroll is also working towards achieving a Type 2 zkEVM, having started as a Type 3 zkEVM. In contrast, Linea already falls under the Type 2 zkEVM classification, being fully bytecode-compatible with Ethereum and allowing developers to easily port their code without any major changes.

Teams Working on zkEVMs

Now, let’s take a closer look at the development teams leading the way for zkEVMs, which include Polygon zkEVM, Scroll, and Linea. While these zkEVMs are not an exhaustive list, they are the ones currently supported by Covalent and offer a good representation of the general-purpose zkEVMs that are aiming for greater EVM-equivalence and not just compatibility. As you read on, I encourage you to dive deeper into any projects that pique your interest, as new advancements are constantly emerging in this rapidly-evolving field. The table below summarizes the latest information on Polygon zkEVM, Scroll, and Linea as of April 2023:

Polygon recognized the limitations of its Proof-of-Stake (PoS) sidechain and has been working towards a more efficient zk-based blockchain. In August 2021, Polygon announced a $1 billion strategic fund to invest in the development of zk-related technology. The same month, it acquired Hermez Network for $250 million to collaborate on building a zkEVM, which was later rebranded to the current Polygon zkEVM. On March 27, 2023, Polygon launched the Polygon zkEVM Mainnet Beta, meeting its targeted launch date of Q1 2023 and making it accessible to all developers and users. Polygon zkEVM uses SNARKs to verify the accuracy of STARKs, combining the speed of STARK proofs with the compact size of SNARK proofs to combine multiple proofs into a single proof. This not only reduces costs and latency but also improves scalability.

While Scroll may not be as well-known as some of the other development teams, it has been collaborating with the Ethereum Foundation’s Privacy and Scaling Explorations group and making considerable progress. In March 2023, Scroll announced a successful $50M fundraising round at a $1.8B valuation. On March 3, 2023, Scroll took a major step forward by launching the Alpha version of its zkEVM on Ethereum’s Goerli Testnet. One of Scroll’s key differentiators is its use of a modified version of ZCash’s “Halo2” code, which allows protocols to harness the benefits of SNARKs’ small proof size and quick proof verification, while removing the need for a trusted setup – the Achilles’ heel of SNARKs. In addition, Scroll is committed to decentralization and already has plans in place to decentralize its prover network and sequencer after the launch of its Mainnet, aligning with the ethos of the Ethereum community.

Linea is the newest zkEVM to enter the playing field. It’s been in development by ConsenSys R&D since 2019 and is powered by ConsenSys – the software giant behind several of the most widely used products in crypto, including MetaMask, Infura, and Truffle. On March 28, 2023, Linea introduced its Public Testnet to the world. Linea runs on SNARKs but utilizes a unique stack resulting from years of research by ConsenSys R&D. Their internally-generated and lattice-powered prover helps to circumvent the key flaws in SNARK technology, allowing for the quick generation of SNARK proofs without requiring a trusted setup. Linea also aims to tackle the rollup training wheel problem by implementing a multi-prover rollup, which involves multiple prover implementations generating validity proofs at varying security levels. This approach mitigates the risk of a single point of failure present in single-prover rollups, resulting in enhanced security and reliability.

Polygon zkEVM Adoption

While Polygon zkEVM Mainnet Beta just launched last month, it’s already experiencing significant growth in usage. According to Covalent data, users have bridged slightly more than $5M in funds to Polygon zkEVM.

The future looks bright for Polygon zkEVM as it continues to attract popular DeFi protocols such as Uniswap, Balancer, and Hop to its network. In addition to this, it will also be used to underpin Immutable zkEVM’s infrastructure, which aims to revolutionize web3 gaming. With these developments, we can expect Polygon zkEVM to play a significant role in DeFi and gaming moving forward.

After 1.6M transactions processed on its Pre-Alpha Testnet, Scroll released its Alpha Testnet, and it’s seeing very healthy traction so far. According to Covalent data, the Scroll Alpha Testnet has gained over 3M unique wallet addresses since its launch. However, it’s worth noting that the surge in unique wallet addresses could be due to speculation around an upcoming token launch, as Scroll has hinted at creating an incentive mechanism to encourage network participation.

Scroll has distinguished itself by its commitment to developing its zkEVM transparently and collaboratively. The Scroll Alpha Testnet offers a great opportunity for developers and users to contribute to Scroll’s development as it marches toward its Mainnet launch.

Linea Adoption

Linea’s Public Testnet is now live, with external users being onboarded at a rapid pace. According to Covalent data, the Linea Goerli Testnet has seen over 600K unique wallet addresses sign up.

Developers are deploying dapps on Linea using familiar tools such as MetaMask, Infura, and Truffle, just as they would on Ethereum. On top of this, ConsenSys’ established reputation in the crypto space has enabled it to secure partnerships with protocols such as Lens, Celer, and Cashmere, among others. These partnerships are expected to contribute to Linea’s future growth.

The Dawn of a New Blockchain UX Era

For years, the Ethereum community has embraced the idea that zk rollups are the most promising scaling solution. However, it was not until recently that a general-purpose zkEVM capable of running all current Ethereum dapps became available. The introduction of Polygon zkEVM, Scroll, and Linea has provided developers and users with a new frontier to explore.

As Ethereum progresses toward its goal of scaling, the introduction of a Type 1 zkEVM remains on the horizon. In the meantime, zkEVMs ranging from Type 2s to Type 4s offer unique customizations and UX enhancements for developers and users alike. As these solutions continue to mature and the dapps on them continue to grow, there is potential for zkEVMs to outcompete optimistic rollups and become the leading scaling solution for Ethereum. Now the race is on to see which of these first-movers can implement their zkEVM at scale and onboard developers and users as quickly as possible to generate network effects.

Are you ready to explore these cutting-edge zkEVM platforms? Covalent’s Unified API offers developers easy access to onchain data and enables integration with 100+ chains, including Polygon zkEVM, Scroll, and Linea. With our API, you can streamline your development process and stay ahead of the curve. Get your Free API Key and start building the next generation of dapps today!

Quote from Grace Torrellas, Product Lead at Polygon zkEVM

“General-purpose zkEVMs are the trailblazers for scaling the Ethereum ecosystem in a trustless and censorship-resistant manner that inherits Ethereum’s security. The Polygon zkEVM team has shipped a fully functional zkEVM with a working and open-sourced proving system that has been battle tested. We are proud to be amongst the firsts advancing the use of the zk tech focusing on scaling Ethereum.” 

Quote from Declan Fox, Product Lead at Linea

“At Linea, we’re dedicated to pushing the boundaries of blockchain scalability and efficiency. Our zkEVM rollup solution leverages the power of zero-knowledge proofs and the EVM to enable highly scalable and secure smart contracts. By integrating with Covalent, we’re able to provide developers with a seamless data-driven experience, empowering them to build the next generation of decentralized applications. We’re thrilled to be working alongside Covalent, as together we can drive Ethereum’s scalability to new heights and unlock unprecedented opportunities for the global web3 developer community.”

Quote from Ganesh Swami, Co-Founder and CEO at Covalent

“Ethereum’s ongoing efforts to achieve scaling through protocol upgrades can often face significant delays due to their technical complexity. Fortunately, our partners Polygon zkEVM, Scroll, and Linea are actively addressing pain points for Ethereum in its quest for scalability, security, and enhanced functionality. As a core infrastructure provider for the Ethereum ecosystem, Covalent is honoured to collaborate with these visionary teams. We look forward to seeing the exciting possibilities that will unfold in the years ahead.”

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 108 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.