SQD (fka Subsquid) - Public Data Indexing Infrastructure for Polkadot and Kusama (Q4 2024)
Beneficiary:Summary
Proponent: Subsquid Lab Official - 13bfKSQXoBn3AMLtZaW6BKv797fqZzsD3PYF6xpJDir3tdoE
Beneficiary: Subsquid Lab Official - 13bfKSQXoBn3AMLtZaW6BKv797fqZzsD3PYF6xpJDir3tdoE
Contact Details:
Subsquid Labs GmbH
6300 Zug, Switzerland
Short description: Ongoing development and maintenance costs for public SQD Archives, providing critical data infrastructure for Polkadot and Kusuma and other public Substrate-based chains in Q4 2024.
Archive raw data: Archive Infrastructure metrics - October, November, December
Requested amount: $308,704 USDC
Previous proposals: https://polkadot.polkassembly.io/referenda/1526
Motivation
A) Archives
SQD Archives are a vital component of the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystem’s data infrastructure, offering scalable access to historical on-chain data for public Substrate-based chains. These archives serve as performant data pipelines for major dApps, APIs, and developer tools, supporting critical ecosystem projects such as:
- Tanssi Network
- Talisman Wallet
- Polimec
- Polkassembly
- Apillon
- Hydration
- Giant Squid API (maintained by LimeChain, see details below)
- SubWallet
- FiDi
- KodaDot
- RMRK
- ChainSafe (in particular the Multix multi-sig, as well as other projects)
- Phala Network
- Stellaswap
- Polkascan
By providing free indexing services for the following public chains, SQD lowers barriers for developers and projects building on Substrate, fostering innovation and adoption:
- polkadot
- kusama
- asset-hub-kusama
- asset-hub-polkadot
- bridge-hub-polkadot
- collectives-polkadot
- Westend
Despite transitioning to a fee-based model for private data services to ensure sustainability, SQD remains committed to covering infrastructure costs for public archives, ensuring open access to indexed Substrate Events, Extrinsics, Storage Items, and EVM logs. This commitment aligns with Polkadot’s vision of a decentralized, accessible ecosystem.
B) Contribution
During Q4’2024, we made significant contributions to the Polkadot ecosystem:
- Infrastructure Scaling: Expanding archive capacity to meet growing data demand.
- Squid SDK Enhancements: Introducing advanced indexing features, including support for new Substrate pallets and improved error-handling mechanisms.
- Decentralized Network Growth: Increasing SQD Worker Node participation to enhance network resilience.
Achievements
Growth in Archival Data Demand, Network Expansion and Further Decentralization
In Q4 2024, demand for archival data grew steadily, rising from 11.35 TiB to 11.68 TiB. At the same time, the number of active Worker Nodes in the SQD network increased from 1,139 in October to 1,600 by the end of December—a 40.47% increase. This expansion strengthens the SQD network’s infrastructure, contributing to greater decentralization and resilience across the Polkadot ecosystem.
By the end of 2024, the SQD network had scaled to approximately 1,600 active Worker Nodes, securely storing around 900 TB of data and serving roughly 11 TB daily. This robust, decentralized infrastructure significantly enhances data processing and storage capabilities, delivering improved security, fault tolerance, and scalability for the Polkadot network.
Squid SDK improvements empowering Polkadot Developers:
- Additional unique support for Revive pallet: Enabling the tracking of contracts deployed to the PolkaVM.
- Indexing efficiency upgrades: Implementation of a novel mechanism to skip and log problematic blocks-those containing invalid or non-decodable data on Substrate based chains, ensuring uninterrupted indexing and improved resilience of the data pipeline.
Statistics and data
Over the course of Q4 2024:
- Served a total of 11,668,177,888,249 (~10.06 TiB) of data from substrate based chains.
- Served 2,336,249 archive requests from substrate based archives.
- The highest daily total data transfer recorded for Substrate was 382.57 GiB within a single 24-hour period (2024-10-05).
Cost Breakdown
This proposal encompasses the combined costs for running Archives for Polkadot, Kusama, and other public chains, along with the development contributions, amounting to a total of $308,704 USDC Raw data can be seen here
The proposal is submitted towards the Polkadot treasury. Here is a summary of the running costs for Archives, in a tabular format:
| Service | Cost | VAT 8.1% | Subtotal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compute Engine (GCE) | $92,630.90 | $100,134.00 | $100,134.00 |
| OVHCloud | $28,419.03 | $30,720.97 | $30,720.97 |
| Networking | $2,963.02 | $3,203.02 | $3,203.02 |
| Kubernetes Engine (GKE) | $436.23 | $471.56 | $471.56 |
| Cloud Storage (GCS) | $63.21 | $68.33 | $68.33 |
| Cloud SQL | $396.38 | $428.49 | $428.49 |
| Cloud DNS | $18.01 | $19.47 | $19.47 |
| Cloud Logging | $13,506.84 | $14,600.89 | $14,600.89 |
| Cloud Key Management Service (KMS) | $2.99 | $3.23 | $3.23 |
| Artifact Registry | $336.01 | $363.23 | $363.23 |
| Engineers & Maintenance* | $144,000.00 | $155,664.00 | $155,664.00 |
| Total | $305,677.20 |
Contribution costs:
| Service | Cost / h | Quantity | VAT 8.1% | Subtotal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revive pallet support | $100.00 | 16.00 | $1,729.60 | $1,729.60 |
| Indexing efficiency upgrades | $100.00 | 6.00 | $648.60 | $648.60 |
| Product management | $100.00 | 3.00 | $324.30 | $324.30 |
| Project management | $100.00 | 3.00 | $324.30 | $324.30 |
| Total | $3,026.80 |
Comments (4)
Voting has Started
2
of 3Decision Period
16 / 28 days
Confirmation Period
0 / 4 days
Summary
0%
Aye
0%
Nay
Aye (18)0.0 PAS
Support0.0 PAS
Nay (30)0.0 PAS
Comments (4)
PolkaWorld votes NAY
We appreciate the continued work and effort put into maintaining and supporting the network. That said, we have some concerns regarding the scale and clarity of the proposed budget for Q4, which totals approximately $310,000. This includes cloud infrastructure and engineering costs — with $155,664 allocated to engineering and maintenance (including tax), and around $135,000 to server and network expenses.
From our perspective, a $100/hour rate for ongoing maintenance appears to be on the higher end. For reference, other Treasury-funded maintenance proposals — such as Referendum #1640 — have operated at a much lower rate (around $23/hour) while still ensuring reliable delivery.
We also believe that the “Engineers & Maintenance” cost would benefit from more detailed breakdowns — for example, how many engineers are covered by this budget and what specific tasks or responsibilities are included.
We share this feedback with respect and in the spirit of constructive discussion.
You can view our full feedback [here].
🏛️ REEEEEEEEEE DAO
REEEEEEEEEE DAO is a decentralized collective body committed to serve Polkadot Opengov. Our mission is to provide high-quality assessments on referenda to ensure outcomes that strengthen the Polkadot ecosystem. Each referendum is reviewed carefully by our DAO members through the scope of technical, strategic, and governance.
📋 Community Feedback
Our members have unanimously voted Aye on this ref. Members express high interest in the continuation of infrastructure building for the public space. This resonates with our DAO's general voting principal and aligns with what we call a good spend with Treasury fund.
💬 Open Communication Channel
For further discussion and detailed feedback, please engage directly with our DAO members on our secured, on-chain authenticated communication platform
👉 Continue discussion with the DAO
This feedback represents the collective voice of REEEEEEEEEE DAO members participating in Polkadot governance.
PolkaWorld votes NAY
We appreciate the continued work and effort put into maintaining and supporting the network. That said, we have some concerns regarding the scale and clarity of the proposed budget for Q4, which totals approximately $310,000. This includes cloud infrastructure and engineering costs — with $155,664 allocated to engineering and maintenance (including tax), and around $135,000 to server and network expenses.
From our perspective, a $100/hour rate for ongoing maintenance appears to be on the higher end. For reference, other Treasury-funded maintenance proposals — such as Referendum #1640 — have operated at a much lower rate (around $23/hour) while still ensuring reliable delivery.
We also believe that the “Engineers & Maintenance” cost would benefit from more detailed breakdowns — for example, how many engineers are covered by this budget and what specific tasks or responsibilities are included.
We share this feedback with respect and in the spirit of constructive discussion.
You can view our full feedback [here].
🏛️ REEEEEEEEEE DAO
REEEEEEEEEE DAO is a decentralized collective body committed to serve Polkadot Opengov. Our mission is to provide high-quality assessments on referenda to ensure outcomes that strengthen the Polkadot ecosystem. Each referendum is reviewed carefully by our DAO members through the scope of technical, strategic, and governance.
📋 Community Feedback
💬 Open Communication Channel
For further discussion and detailed feedback, please engage directly with our DAO members on our secured, on-chain authenticated communication platform
👉 Continue discussion with the DAO
This feedback represents the collective voice of REEEEEEEEEE DAO members participating in Polkadot governance.