Infrastructure

dYdX Testnet Indexer

Funding amount

$330,000 (cap)

Start date

July 2023

Execution

Funding Based

Description

The Indexer is a core component of the dYdX v4 protocol architecture. The service will enable read-only querying of protocol data, giving clients (e.g. Frontend, Mobile application) more efficient access to orders, trades, accounts, and other important data points. You can read more about the Indexer here: https://dydx.exchange/blog/v4-deep-dive-indexer. The grants program will be funding Imperator to run an Indexer on the dYdX Testnet for three months. The grant will include a best effort to meet the following SLAs: 99% uptime, 24/7 response time, 100% response within 30min of pagerduty alerts, and redeploy readiness at least three times a week. The funding for this grant is split between fixed manpower costs and variable infrastructure costs. $30,000 will be paid each month for manpower. Imperator will bill the Grants program each month for the costs of running the Indexer, with a cap of $80,000 per month.

Purpose

Running the Indexer requires a good amount of technical resources, including high bandwidth servers, databases, and other tech stack services (e.g. pagerduty, bugsnag, and more). We can expected the costs for running an Indexer to be significant (e.g. $50k or more). At the moment, there is no incentive for running an Indexer, it's strictly a public good that the protocol is dependent on. As such, the community should expect to fund professional teams and service providers that will run the Indexer on their behalf to support dYdX.

To improve the testnet experience, and to help the community scope out the role of the Indexer, the grants program is running a trial period of three months to run a live Indexer. Imperator have tremendous experience in the space, with expertise in data and APIs across other Cosmos protocols.

Payment structure

Useful Links

Impact & Metrics