With our new flagship products being prepared for launch, the PARSIQ Network is on the road to becoming the go-to, “one stop shop” for all Web3 data needs.
The Tsunami API — which is slated for launch in July 2022! — will stand as the foundation for our suite of products, providing instant real-time and historical data on numerous blockchains.
Currently in the final stages of its testing phase, the Tsunami API is already performing well and receiving great feedback from those using it. Its official release will mark the beginning of our setting a new standard for Web3 data.
In the previous post in this series, we discussed some of the large-scale, data accessibility problems that the Tsunami API solves. The problems (and PARSIQ’s solutions) described there had to do with fundamental infrastructural problems faced by blockchain platforms of all kinds.
In this post we’ll narrow down the topic even more, explaining how the Tsunami API can be strategically positioned within a project, laying out the kinds of use cases it has, and outlining how a business can extract value from it.
Let’s take a look!
When looking at the Web3 industry today, there are two basic types of companies making use of blockchain technology.
On the one hand, there are native Web3 projects.
- These companies began as blockchain projects and are building dApps, protocols, and other decentralized products.
- Very often, the core services offered by these companies are built around the Web3 philosophy of decentralization, trustlessness, individual ownership, etc.
- For examples, think: UniSwap, Opensea, Dextools, etc.
On the other hand, there are traditional, ‘real-world’ businesses.
- These companies either have a high level of digital maturity or have been around long enough to have proven their success in the Web2 space.
- They understand that the transformations taking place in Web3 represent the future, see the advantages of blockchain technology, and want to integrate aspects of Web3 into their existing offerings.
- Think: Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Shopify, etc.
When it comes to building on the blockchain, both types of companies face their own challenges:
- A challenge for native Web3 platforms is maintaining optimum user experience while, at the same time, adding extra functionality that does not negatively impact the platform’s performance. Users want to easily operate a dApp, for example, while also having access to all of the statistics and information that relates to their history on the platform.
- Traditional companies invest a lot of time, money, and energy into the architecture of their work flow, including how their data is accessed, enriched, and utilized. So, when expanding into Web3, these companies face the challenge of finding sources of data that can easily fit into their already existing technology stack.
These are both serious challenges that many companies struggle (and, sadly, oftentimes fail) to overcome.
Thanks to our Tsunami API, PARSIQ offers solutions for both types of companies that will enable them to grow and succeed.
Ultimately, both types of challenges can be boiled down to issues of linking blockchain data to one’s business logic — with connecting blockchain data to the realworld.
But rather than diving straight into that, let’s consider the example of how to maintain user experience…
Maintaining User Experience
Many crypto traders and developers have been around blockchain technology for numerous years, and meme coins and NFTs have gotten a lot of mainstream attention — so, it’s easy to forget just how young blockchain technology really is.
Most Web3 platforms do not yet have the luxury (or resources!) to start building the infrastructure needed to support wide-scale adoption, which means onboarding non-Web3 customers and users. Instead, they’ve still got to focus primarily on the basics: core functionality and platform security.
The core functionality of an NFT marketplace, for example, could be offering NFTs and NFT collections to users to buy, sell, trade, or even rent to one another. Making sure these functionalities run timely and efficiently is the primary goal of the marketplace. And their platform’s security is equally important, as it is what safeguards them from exploits or bad actors.
Yet, as the industry matures, this bare bones approach won’t cut it! As broader adoption comes along, the average user will expect the same user experience they’ve grown accustomed to with Web2 apps and services.
What is missing?
The user experience of even the biggest NFT marketplaces today pales in comparison to the easily navigable interfaces found on Web2 apps. For instance, providing users with clear and easy-to-read overviews of their purchase history is not something readily available. Neither are elements of social commerce that saturate our Web2 lives, nor are good recommendation engines, suggesting to users NFT collections they might like based on their personal purchase and search histories.
Now, compare this to your experience on, say, Amazon or Spotify. On these platforms, the whole process is designed to be as streamlined as possible, all while targeting users based on their shopping or listening preferences.
Of course, we can all agree that these aren’t things that should be part of the core functionality of a protocol. That is, the purchase history and recommendation engines that are important for a user’s experience don’t have to be coded into the core functionality of the platform.
Instead, what is needed is an additional layer — a “business logic” — that can be built on top of the core functionality of the platform and supplement the platform’s offerings.
But wait a moment…what exactly is a “business logic”?
- While it may not seem interesting or exciting to everyday users of an app, online service, or protocol, business logics are a vital part of what makes your user experience on those platforms run seamlessly.
- Most basically, a business logic is the set of rules or algorithms that channel a platform’s data into something usable on the platform.
- Or, put differently, business logics are what handle the exchange of information between the data source and the user interface.
- At the risk of oversimplifying it: a business logic takes data and makes it applicable to the real world.
The trouble, however, is that the kind of infrastructure needed to support a highly refined user experience — that is, highly refined business logic — is not something you build natively on a blockchain.
Not all business logic can or should run on a blockchain.
Blockchain purists may take offense to this admission. But it’s important to realize that this fact does not represent a failure of blockchain technology!
The blockchain is a powerful tool, but this does not mean it should be used to accomplish every task at hand. The sooner we realize this, the sooner we will be able to press even further into the future of Web3 and all it has to offer.
In order to create the kind of sophisticated user experience that is sorely lacking in the world of Web3, platforms will need to build that additional layer — their own business logics — on top of the blockchain, at once leveraging the wealth of data found there and creating additional value for your platform.
How can Tsunami API help?
We thought you’d never ask!
Bringing the Blockchain to the Real World
All of the examples above about maintaining optimum user experience require Web3 data. But at the same time, they involve Web2 styles of business logic.
For example, in the case of providing information about a user’s order history you’d need to be able to quickly query a user’s TXs and enrich that data within the required context so that the user can make sense of it.
How about the case of the recommendation engine? Here, you’d have to get a bit more specific — a developer might want to push all transactions in a graph database and run something like a “next best offer,” or some kind of general propensity model in a cloud stack.
This last point, about accessing cloud-based data, is very important!
Most supporting business logic runs in traditional cloud environments (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google). But the problem is that these cloud environments don’t have native access to blockchain data.
How can they gain access to all that data?
Currently, and to the dismay of developers across the globe, there is no happy answer to this question.
If you want to integrate Web3 data into your business logic — or, for traditional companies, into your data pipeline or data warehouse — you would have to set up and run your own nodes for each supported blockchain. This is a laborious and technical process that most developers won’t look forward to (nodes have a nasty habit of finding some way of glitching or running into errors).
And that’s not even the whole story! You’d then have to build the required business logic on top of these nodes. All in all, this is a hugely expensive and resource-heavy operation; one that involves a lot of trial and error, taking precious time away from focusing on your main concerns, namely, the core functionality of your platform!
The Tsunami API solves all this.
Upon beginning to use the Tsunami API, it’ll take just a few short hours to integrate Web3 data into your existing cloud infrastructure! You’ll have instant access to multiple blockchains’ data.
Because of the way the Tsunami API solves the ease of access problem and the access efficiency problems (described in the previous post in this series [link here]), it also provides immediate relief to any kind of company seeking to bring Web3 data to their platform, or to the real world.
Let’s sum it up…
How does PARSIQ help native Web3 projects?
- Web3 native projects can use the Tsunami API as an instant data feed into whatever business logic they’d like to build atop their platform.
- This means that all of the important features that allow for great user experiences are now easily possible and creatable with little to no wasted resources or dev time.
- When it comes to sophistication, Web3 dApps and protocols will soon be able to compete with their Web2 counterparts!
And how does this help traditional, Web2 companies?
- At the same time, traditional companies — ones that have invested large sums over the last decade to build out their cloud architecture — will also benefit immensely, because the Tsunami API will fit readily and neatly within their already-existing tech stack.
- This means that traditional companies will face far less friction when it comes to expanding into Web3 terrain.
- Traditional companies can now, more easily than ever, bring blockchain data to the real world!
With the Tsunami API working as the foundation for your Web3 data needs: this is how long-term value is created.
How much easier could it be?!
In the post above, we’ve considered the two kinds of companies in need of easy access to Web3 data: Web3 native projects, on the one hand, and traditional Web2 businesses, on the other. Both of these types of companies face their own challenges not just in accessing, but also in creating value out of this data.
As we’ve seen, PARSIQ’s Tsunami API provides elegant solutions for both types of companies.
Importantly, the Tsunami API is only the foundation of what we are building! For many projects, this API would stand as a crowning achievement of their offering to the blockchain community.
What do you mean that the Tsunami API is only the foundation? Isn’t this your new flagship product?
Great question!
Yes, it is a new flagship product. But it is not the only one! Upon the creation of our Data Lakes and Data Hubs, an even bigger set of solutions are not only possible; they will be made simple.
To learn more about what we mean when we say the Tsunami is only the foundation, be sure to read the next post in this series!
About PARSIQ
PARSIQ is a full-suite data network for building the backend of all Web3 dApps & protocols. The Tsunami API, which will ship in July 2022, will provide blockchain protocols and their clients (e.g. protocol-oriented dApps) with real-time data and historical data querying abilities.
Website | Blog | Twitter | Telegram | Discord | Reddit | YouTube
