Blockchain API Service The Graph (GRT) Adopts Polygon (MATIC) For Billing

Blockchain data application programming interface (API) service The Graph GRT/USD adopted the PolygonMATIC/USD Ethereum ETH/USD scalability system for its billing system.

What Happened: According to an announcement shared with Benzinga, The Graph now offers near-instant and low-cost transactions for users and developers thanks to its adoption of Polygon.

The service's users are now able to bridge their Ether and GRT, set up the new billing contract, and instantly see a drastic reduction in transaction fees over the hefty Ethereum operational costs.

The Graph allows developers to create APIs that simplify reading data from numerous blockchains called "Subgraphs."

Those APIs can then be used to develop decentralized applications (DApps), Web 3.0, or blockchain analytics solutions without worrying about setting up dedicated blockchain infrastructure.

Most "old school" blockchain and cryptocurrency proponents would point out that delegating blockchain data queries to third parties should be avoided for mission-critical — or even all — applications since it puts trust into a third party.

What It Means: The introduction of Bitcoin BTC/USD was meant to enable transactions that are "trustless," transactions that do not require to trust an intermediary such as a bank or payment processor.

Traditionally, blockchain developers ran their own blockchain nodes but — now that the infrastructure is in place — many decide to instead rely on third parties to run nodes and relay the data to them, acting as an intermediary.

Part of the reason is that as the software underlying blockchains became increasingly complex, with the introduction of smart contracts and other innovations, the requirements to run a node increased.

This increased the cost of operating a node and pushed such infrastructure into the hands of a few when it comes to networks such as Ethereum when compared with previous ones such as Bitcoin BTC/USD.

Price Action: According to CoinMarketCap data, the news did not push Polygon's price any higher. The coin's price lost 1.31% of its value over the last 24 hours and is currently trading at $1.00.

The Graph was trading at $0.5619, down 8.98% over the past 24-hours.

Read next: Why is Polygon?