Sommelier, a decentralized finance (DeFi) blockchain protocol and Ethereum bridge that acts as a co-processor to the Ethereum world computer, has announced a $1M Research and Development grant from The Graph Foundation.
The grant will fund ongoing Research and Development of indexing performance, protocol optimizations, and improvements to the Graph Node. The Graph is a critical data layer to Sommelier’s multichain protocol and its decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, expected to launch in Q2 of 2021.
Sommelier consists of the Cosmos Stargate SDK, its Tendermint-based consensus layer, and a decentralized, bi-directional Ethereum bridge, managed by a global network of validators. Sommelier’s validators leverage Ethereum transaction data to analyze DeFi decisions on behalf of Liquidity Providers (LPs). Validators will use Graph Protocol for indexing on-chain DeFi data, to acquire and process thousands of transactions in real-time. Liquidity Providers (LPs) will use Sommelier to author and execute complex, automated financial transactions, such as portfolio rebalancing, limit orders, and other features token holders expect from centralized finance (CeFi), but not available in DeFi.
“As DeFi grows in transaction volume, timely market response requires the ability to process tens of thousands of software transactions, each second. The Graph protocol is the standard indexing and querying protocol for DeFi and our grant allows the Sommelier team to enhance the Graph’s performance to match world-class financial data centers. We are excited to bring high-quality engineering to the Graph Protocol so our validators can be part of the growing Graph network.”
– Zaki Marian, Co-Founder, Sommelier
The Graph is a decentralized protocol for indexing and querying data from blockchains, that supports Ethereum and 10+ other EVM-based chains, expanding to non-EVM compatible multi-blockchains later this year. The Graph makes it possible to query data that is difficult to query directly and eliminates redundant development work. The Graph’s data model is currently the standard for DeFi projects on Ethereum and provides queries and answers to market data, such as trade volumes and balances. The Graph Foundation builds and expands the ecosystem, funding the most critical additions to the protocol and tooling, including the development of useful dapps and subgraphs and expanding the community.
“We are incredibly excited to have Sommelier dedicated to improving The Graph and collaborating with Indexers to optimize node performance. Sommelier has a strong vision for democratizing DeFi data access in real-time and building on the Graph Protocol will help make that happen.”
– Eva Beylin, Director at The Graph Foundation