Covalent Network Overview

The Covalent Network serves as the universal data model for multi-chain indexing and querying.

The Covalent Network represents the progressive decentralization of Covalent toward a community-owned and community-run protocol.

The Covalent Network will have the following capabilities:

    1. Big data tools compatible
    1. Multi-chain compatible
    1. Storage efficient
    1. Network efficient
    1. Low resource intense to run on commercial / retail infra

Network Operators

Built for Modularity and Extensibility

A multi-sided platform designed to eventually be self-sufficient, the Covalent Network works by capturing and indexing blockchain data and storing it across multiple points on the network. Anyone can then access this data instantly through querying the unified Covalent API.

The supply side consists of both blockchains and the network operators. Both play a critical role in the Covalent Network. For one, blockchains are the source of the data the network is interested in. More blockchains that the Covalent Network indexes, more data thats flows through it. Meanwhile, network operators, who can assume one or multiple roles in the network, are the workers who are rewarded in this process; from extracting granular and historical blockchain data, to refining and indexing it and all the way to returning API queries on the indexed data.

The demand side consists of protocols, developers, analysts and everyone in between who uses the unified Covalent API to power a plethora of use cases. The greater number of API queries, the greater demand that exists on the Covalent Network.

There are other stakeholders involved beyond blockchains, network operators and API users. There are the delegators; those who wish to secure the Covalent Network through delegating their CQT to a network operator. And then there are those who vote on Covalent Network Improvement Proposals via the governance forum. Together all the roles work in tandem to bring multi-chain data utilities and services to anyone who participates in the Covalent Network.

Network Operator Roles

Block Specimen Producers
Technical
A blockchain client that asynchronously exports rich, cryptographically-secure data as block specimens.
Indexing Nodes
 
Technical
An indexing engine to trace, decode and enrich the block specimens into aggregatable traces.
Query Nodes
 
Technical
Compute nodes that serve up the Covalent Unified API to developers requesting blockchain data.
Delegators
 
Non-Technical
Token holders who outsource the responsibility of running infrastructure to others.

CQT Scan

Check out data being pulled in realtime to the Covalent database

CQT SCAN

Latest Updates

September 2022
Covalent Network Staking Dashboard V1.2 is Released
The Covalent Network Staking dashboard V1.2 is here. There are several new functions, bug fixes, and front-end improvements with this release, most of which were inspired by the Covalent community.
August 2022
BSP Geth & Agent Version Update
BSP Geth and BSP Agent have been tested and upgraded to v1.2.1 and v1.2.3, respectively. Included in this update are node updates as well as performance and schema improvements. Some improvements have been designed to tackle the storage bloat issue Network Operators have raised. The Covalent team will be monitoring if this issue continues with this upgrade. With this upgrade, **please note that these versions must be run together. **The links to these releases can be found below, and more detail on what has changed. - [BSP Geth v1.2.1](https://github.com/covalenthq/bsp-geth/releases/tag/v1.2.1-bsp) - [BSP Agent v1.2.3](https://github.com/covalenthq/bsp-agent/releases/tag/v1.2.3) For questions and support on these upgrades, please use Discord and the appropriate Covalent Network channel.
May 2022
Block Specimen Producers are Live alongside Covalent Network Staking
Covalent makes the world’s first proof-based data indexer live with the launch of staking on the Covalent decentralized network. Network staking via the Covalent Query Token (CQT) enables anybody from the community to contribute to governing and securing the decentralized protocol.
Feb 2022
Open Sourcing the Block Specimen
Covalent is excited to finally announce and open-source the Block Specimen, a novel invention that is pivotal to the decentralized Covalent Network. The anticipated Covalent Network roadmap is also live and can be viewed on the new Covalent Network homepage.

Questions?

Join the Covalent community Discord server

Last modified: October 27, 2022: october-changelog-2022 (#243) (b6121bb)