FiDi: Polkadot’s Code-Free Intelligence
Self-Service Code-Free Analytics for Polkadot
1. Project
1.1 Overview
We propose the development of a comprehensive analytics platform that will serve as a source of truth for all activity within Polkadot, tailored to both non-technical and technical users. The success is to provide at-a-glance proof of vibrant activity across Polkadot. A complete view of the ecosystem and all of its parachains.
This platform (ideally, hosted at analytics.polkadot.com or similar) will act as a single presentation layer while remaining data source-agnostic and supporting a broad portfolio of data providers, including indexers, oracles, aggregators, and analytics providers within the ecosystem and beyond, and letting users choose the data source they trust the most.
The architectural groundwork for this platform has been laid in a proof-of-concept FiDi: Analytics Data Platform for DotSama grant supported by the Web3 Foundation and delivered in March 2024.
Parts of this proposal serve as a response to the Data Analysis Tools for Substrate-based Blockchains RFP.
1.2 Details
FiDi will serve as a user-friendly presentation layer offering in-depth analytics and insights into the Polkadot ecosystem with a focus on accessibility and ease of use.
1.2.1. Motivation & Pain Points To Be Addressed
With the development of FiDi’s Code-Free Intelligence, we aim to solve the following pain points we’ve observed within Polkadot today:
- Polkadot is not visible. There is no single resource displaying the activity on Polkadot today. As a result, we risk continuing to be excluded from consideration and comparisons to other chains. In reality, Polkadot should lead the pack, and showcasing the magnitude of on-chain activity is the path towards it.
- Analytics is siloed and biased. Within Polkadot, the analytical coverage is partial and often prioritizes only a subset of parachains and metrics. The existing platforms are also often siloed and don’t let users see cumulative impact across all of Polkadot or compare parachains against one other; especially when it comes to EVM vs Substrate. The network’s overall health and dynamics are not visible.
- You need to be technical. Most platforms today require SQL knowledge, data modeling, and/or coding experience for users to access and interpret on-chain data.
- Data integrity is inconsistent. Users need to be able to trust their data, know where the data is sourced from, how the metrics are computed, and what business logic has been applied. There is a critical need for an agnostic platform that can serve as a superset for auditing data integrity within Polkadot and across multiple data providers.
- Analytics is expensive. Polkadot is paying upwards of seven figures on indexing and analytical needs. Yet, much of the processed data is still in a “trapped” state and in need of a powerful visualization layer to unlock existing investments.
- Developer’s journey is still complex. Technically savvy developers in the ecosystem today still rely on multiple tools to gain the insights they need. Analyzing advanced metrics has been a consistent challenge in the ecosystem.
- Data redundancy is lacking. Most of today’s metrics and analytical tools depend on a single, exclusive source. This source is often not open to the public and carries the risk of disappearing if the provider goes out of business, leaving users at a disadvantage.
These community needs have been especially topical in the past several quarters and have been voiced in multiple forums, e.g., the need for dynamic data analysis, large-scale data analysis for Polkadot, and for comprehensive analytical tooling and indexing.
1.2.2. Novelty in Approach
FiDi will offer functionality new to the ecosystem, including:
- Code-Free Analytics: a user-friendly interface that does not require coding or SQL knowledge will make it accessible to the teams in the ecosystem.
- In-depth Metrics in Several Clicks: FiDi will enable users to access detailed metrics with minimal effort, allowing for customization and tailored analysis.
- Data Transparency: for all widgets, users will see the data providers and metrics logic used. Users will also have the option to select data providers they trust, ensuring transparency, reliability, and verifiability in how data is surfaced.
- Sharing and Embedding: Polkadot contributors and ecosystem teams will be able to embed widgets in their projects in a matter of several clicks.
- Cross-Chain and Cross-Provider Comparison: users will be able to compare and contrast key metrics across parachains, chains within and beyond Polkadot, and between multiple data providers, ultimately leading to higher data quality, publicly verifiable business logic, and higher data trustworthiness.
- Creator View: users will be able to organize and publish their own dashboards, i.e., collections of widgets arranged to their liking.
- Slicing and Dicing and Advanced Analytics: FiDi will enable users to build custom widgets with the level of depth and breadth they desire. Contrary to the common approach, the platform’s focus will not be on a limiting set of pre-defined widgets.
- Data Enrichment: users will be able to augment one data provider with another across complementary metrics, leading to higher-order intelligence.
- Data Feeds Consumption: FiDi will surface its raw data via data feeds for further consumption by the likes of Messari, The Block, Token Terminal, and others, further enhancing Polkadot’s current investments in analytics.
- Developer-friendly: We will engage the developer community to rapidly extend the portfolio of data providers, metrics, and consumers; FiDi will also support SQL for its data feeds for defining logic for how custom metrics are derived. GraphQL queries will also be supported with corresponding upstream providers, e.g., data warehouses and indexers such as Subsquid.
- Open-source: FiDi will continue to maintain its core engine open-sourced and enable the community to self-host or access the platform online.
1.2.3. Progress So Far
We’ve successfully delivered FiDi: Analytics Data Platform for DotSama project supported by the Web3 Foundation in response to W3F RFP #1539. This work serves as a proof-of-concept and architectural groundwork for the current proposal.
The live version of the proof-of-concept platform is available here: https://dot.fidi.tech/
The open-sourced engine powering FiDi is available on GitHub at fidi-tech/dotsight and fidi-tech/dotsight-ui.
1.3 Ecosystem Fit
1.3.1 Target Audience
A broad set of audiences, within and beyond Polkadot, e.g., in no particular order,
- Media, Journalists, and Content Creators
- Market Analysts
- Financial Analysts
- Researchers & Academics
- Developers, Data Analysts, and Builders
- Enterprises
- Crypto Natives (outside of Polkadot)
- Newbies to the Polkadot ecosystem
- dApp users, stakers, and lenders
- Parachains’ and networks’ core teams
1.3.2. Complementary to Existing Investments
FiDi will complement existing investments in the Polkadot ecosystem by:
- Integrating Data from Existing Data Providers: FiDi will aggregate data from providers and common indexers, oracles, and aggregators common within Polkadot, ensuring comprehensive redundant data coverage and maximizing ROI on existing investments.
- This includes support of data from Colorful Notion, Parity (DotLake), Public BigQuery, and future sources central to Polkadot’s success
- Unlocking Path to Visualization for Existing Data Platforms: FiDi will unlock access to existing data platforms and datasets, providing valuable insights to investors and decision-makers.
- “Superset” for auditing: FiDi will enable the community to compare-contrast metrics available from existing data providers and, in turn, raise the data quality and trust within the ecosystem.
1.3.3. Complementary to Polkadot’s data efforts
FiDi complements the existing data efforts within the ecosystem by:
- Democratizing Data Insights: Aligns with the overarching goal of democratizing data access.
- Enhanced Data Accessibility: Aggregates data from various sources, lowering barriers to understanding Polkadot.
- Comprehensive Coverage: Provides insights into broad and diverse components of the ecosystem.
- Maximizing ROI on Data Investments: Unlocks access to datasets from existing data platforms that currently have limited visualization or comparison analytics.
- Facilitating Collaboration and Growth: Fosters collaboration and growth within the data pillars in the ecosystem.
1.3.4 Advisory Council
Additionally, we’ve started assembling an advisory council of experienced data professionals within Polkadot, its media and research arms, and ambassadors from the network’s parachains. The council will shape the set of viable metrics and analytical primitives available for the community as part of this project. We welcome anyone who’s able and likes to contribute to the council to reach out to the team.
1.4 Six Months Vision
In six months, media companies, content creators, and crypto natives are publishing quality insights all across their socials, research blogs, and media, highlighting the vibrance of Polkadot’s ecosystem. They gather the insights from analytics.polkadot.com – Polkadot’s Code-Free Intelligence.
Businesses such as Messari and Token Terminal start consuming redundant, highest-precision data. Users all across the community gain access to the high-level overview of Polkadot’s activity and start evangelizing it, comparing it with other networks, researching total-aggregated metrics, and, in turn, telling the true story of what Polkadot is, and it is leading the pack.
1.5 Future Plans
FiDi will evolve into a tiered platform. Polkadot’s self-serviced analytics will be free, while high-volume usage, API access, or access to paid data providers will be available with monthly subscription plans. Upstream data providers will be paid correspondingly for every query against their platforms, i.e., we will profit-share with everyone upstream.
As for continuity, the project includes product support, data support, and infrastructure covered for the first 12 months of usage to prove viable and self-sustainable for the ecosystem.
Our goal is to evolve FiDi into a decentralized data marketplace where data providers can offer feeds and get paid at their corresponding token-driven price point, and users are empowered to influence a fair market value for analytics. Part of the vision also includes evolving the core products into a fully decentralized on-chain analytics platform. Transparency for how the data is derived and where it’s sourced from will pave the way for high-quality analytics and superb user experience within Polkadot.
2. Team
2.1 Team members
Core Team
- Roman Dovgopol — CTO, Architect
- Shaun Saylor — CEO, Product
- Anton Ryabov — Engineering Lead
- Kirill Suvorov — Frontend Lead, Web/Mobile
- Finn Marten — Design Lead
Contributors
- 2 QA Engineers, 2 Data Engineers, 1 UX/UI Engineer, 0.5 Smart Contract Developer
Advisory Council
- Pavla Mijic — Parity Technologies
- Karim Jedda — Parity Technologies
- Katie Butler — Distractive
- TBD - participants from Polkadot’s ecosystem: ambassadors, influencers, builders, indexers, oracles, and wallet providers
2.2 Team’s experience
FiDi brings together a team of builders, data experts, and venture-backed operators with a track record in data analytics, infrastructure, and web3. Prior to FiDi, our team members have built systems at the largest scale in the world’s top tech companies such as Twitter, Meta, Google, Netflix, and Yandex, to name a few.
FiDi is the team born and raised within Polkadot. We’ve made a meaningful impact on the ecosystem by providing a free Portfolio Analytics product with advanced analytics for both EVM and substrate.
FiDi is a proud member of Astar’s dApp builders program. Additionally, for the last 10 months, FiDi has been a part of the Lunar Gaming effort, an ongoing collaboration between FiDi, Collators in the Moonbeam/Moonriver ecosystem, and the gaming projects within the ecosystem to accelerate adoption within the gaming sector.
Most recently, FiDi is the team behind the FiDi: Analytics Data Platform for DotSama project supported by the Web3 Foundation and delivered in March 2024.
2.2.1 Team Code Repos
2.2.2 Team LinkedIn Profiles
Core Team Members:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaun-fidi-2a973324a/
- Roman D. - FiDi | LinkedIn
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/anton-ryabov-ab98241aa/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/finn-marten-16b792208
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirill-suvorov-93597863
2.3 Communication and Reporting
Our work is done in open source and we welcome everyone to follow the progress in the corresponding Githib repos and pull requests. In addition, the team will publish regular updates of our progress to a Polkadot forum post to make sure the community is able to easily follow the progress and engage with the team with suggestions.
3. Complete Proposal
See the rest of the proposal, including milestones here: FiDi: Polkadot’s Code-Free Intelligence — Decentralized Futures - Google Docs
We’re looking forward to everyone’s feedback!
Your FiDi Team
