Giant Squid Phase 2

With Referendum #618, LimeChain took over the development and maintanance of GiantSquid (fka as Subsquid), which is an indexing tool in the Polkadot ecosystem, providing access to on-chain data in the form of GraphQL gateways. Since then, we have delivered on the treasury proposal, proactively talked to users and ecosystem members, and published a detailed delivery report. More details on community feedback can be found in the progress report of Referendum #618 .

Based on user feedback, we’ve scoped out a list of upgrades in a new proposal which we’re calling a “Phase 2 for Giant Squid”.The full proposal document for Giant Squid Phase 2 can be read here in google docs.

TLDR:

In Phase 2 we plan to implement XCM transaction indexing, making cross-chain transfers easily searchable. By indexing nomination pools and conviction voting, we enable detailed tracking of staking and governance participation. A new “History Elements” table will consolidate all account-related events into a single dataset, simplifying queries for wallets and applications. Staking analytics will be improved with APR calculations and validator selection insights. NFT indexing will allow users to retrieve owned assets, while a feasibility study will explore cross-chain NFT tracking. Additionally, we will research real-time mempool indexing to provide better transaction visibility before finalization. Giant Squid will also boast a new homepage that greatly improves usability. These upgrades will make Giant Squid a more powerful and user-friendly indexer for the ecosystem.

The total treasury request for this proposal is 169,520 USDC, of which 94,520 are development costs and 75,000 are estimated infrastructure costs from March 2025 till December 2025 inclusive. The infrastructure estimation is based on historical infrastructure expenses (currently at about $7.5k a month)  + an usage growth assumption from the delivery of Phase 2 onwards. The infrastructure up until now is being covered with remaining funds from Referendum #618.

Any additional feedback or ideas for the upgrade of GiantSquid are greatly appreciated. We would love to hear the community feedback on this and potentially move it to a treasury proposal.