All great projects are brought together by visionaries, and for Subsquid, that person is Dmitry Zhelezov. Prior to founding Subsquid, Dmitry had amassed a wealth of knowledge and experience as an esteemed mathematics scholar, as well as a developer, helping to build some of web3’s leading products.
Yesterday, Dmitry was interviewed by Anand Houston, our Ecosystem Development lead, in a conversation meant to kick off our new AMA series. During the hour-long live stream, Dmitry provided some fascinating insights into his plans for Subsquid, his personal motivations, and the philosophies behind the decentralised internet that we are all building together.
While it’s certainly worth giving the whole conversation a listen for yourself, here’s a quick list of ten quotes that we think everyone should be paying attention to:
On the challenges of data in web3
“Everyone tells us that data is the new oil and that whoever owns this data owns the world. The beauty of blockchain is that this data is open to everyone. But it’s only open so long as you are able to decode it… it’s really like a goldmine, and it belongs to everyone… having a tool is essential.”
On building complex Dapps
“If we look at the Dapps that are around, they are still very simple… I believe that the future is actually closer to the Web2 world, but built on blockchain… building such systems requires very powerful middleware. I believe Subsquid is uniquely positioned here because it actually grew up building very complex APIs… this is always how Subsquid was built, from day zero”
On Subsquid’s multilayer architecture
“The competitors just download data, block by block… if you want to support very complex APIs you really need speed for your synchronization times… That’s why it was a very natural decision to have a powerful pre-indexed node that would contain everything that your blockchain has and [that] would simplify access to the very base layer.”
Why Subsquid Archives are superior
“This pre-indexed node actually shields the developer from all the complexities of Substrate itself, like runtime upgrades and changes to data. You’re communicating not with the [Substrate] node, but with the Archive node, it simplifies things a lot, and it speeds up your development process a lot."
On extracting value from blockchain data
“Unlike in web2, data in Web3 is open to everyone. As long as there are tools to decode this data, someone will find the value. People will always extract this data because it’s sitting [right] there”
On the importance of community
“We are really proud of our community, and it’s very important to be very personal there. And even our developers are very open, with the SquidDev chat. I think being open is the key difference between a crypto startup and a web2 startup… [in Web3] having a community actually improves the quality of the startup.”
On the difference between oracles and Subsquid
“Oracles were originally invented as a means to bring the outside world into the world of blockchain. For example, if you have a smart contract - which is a program running inside of a blockchain - you need some input from outside, like the current price of Bitcoin. We’re doing it ‘inside-out.’ …we basically look into the smart contract, see what’s happening there, extract all these internals and convert it into something that the outside world can consume.
On Subsquid's relationship with oracles
We can also bring in the data that is not originating from the blockchain, like from CoinGecko, so we can actually enrich this data in any way. Oracles are very tangential to what we are doing...”
On the SQD token
Right now, we run the Archive node by ourselves. This is very good, and it works so far. But it is a single point of failure. In a nutshell, the Subsquid token is a way to eliminate [this point of failure]. People who run these Archive nodes on their own will get rewarded in the Subsquid token. And at the same time, developers and ‘data consumers’ will have to stake tokens to get access to this data.
Why a token?
It’s not just brining in a token just because we want to have a token. The main reason is [that] having natural incentives makes the network robust and anti-fragile… the final goal is to make it autonomous, [with the DAO].”
About Subsquid
Subsquid is an on-chain data processing solution that enables Web3 builders to gain access to on-chain data on their own terms. Featuring multi-layer architecture and decentralised governance, this is the most developer-friendly and resource-efficient way to build, test, and deploy customised APIs for all blockchain-facing applications.
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