Ganesh Swami is the founder of Covalent, a blockchain data platform, providing a unified API to bring full transparency and visibility to assets across all blockchain networks. Ganesh shares more insights on Ethereum data with us in this interview.
Could you introduce yourself and perhaps share more details as to why you started Covalent?
Hey guys, my name is Ganesh Swami, and I’m a serial entrepreneur and a physicist by training. I’ve spent the bulk of my career in the data space from industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to cloud computing to now blockchain technology. In 2017, Levi and I found this opportunity to build Covalent to tackle the challenges of dealing with messy blockchain data.
There are so many different protocols, chains, projects, and products, each producing data in various formats, rarely following any standard, causing unnecessary complexities that prevent the industry’s growth.
What is Covalent?
We are a technology company that solves data infrastructure problems that prevent the blockchain industry from growing and becoming widely adopted. Internally, we implement various solutions to develop an index of blockchain data, standardize it, and make it externally available to developers in the industry through the Covalent API.
Our vision is to empower the pioneers of tomorrow by providing the richest and most robust data infrastructure for the entire blockchain ecosystem. And ultimately, bring data transparency and visibility to digital assets.
What are some key features and functions of the Covalent API?
The Covalent API contains the richest blockchain data on the Internet today. Developers can use Covalent to access over 25 billion rich transaction data indexed since the genesis of Ethereum. They can access more than 30,000 price feeds for fiat and crypto pairs and access approximately 215,000 smart contracts.
We work closely with developers to learn about their needs and improve the product, so the features and functions are continually growing and becoming better. For now, we provide easy standardized access to price data, Ethereum name services, block data, historical rates, token balances, and much more.
Could you share with us some practical use-case examples of the Covalent API that are available at this given time?
Data is the lifeblood of software, so any developer creating a product in blockchain today can benefit from the Covalent API. For example, wallets can use the API to aggregate data regarding DeFi protocols and provide their users with accurate information regarding their portfolio value.
Institutional funds could use the Covalent API to ensure their taxes are in order, as every DeFi transaction is a taxable event. If you’ve ever traded on Uniswap, used Compound, or other protocols, you know how quickly the market changes and how confusing it is to calculate your P&L.
Another excellent use case is for network analysis, where platforms such as Dune Analytics can pull data from the API on-demand and develop new types of information. The Covalent API can provide much more than is easily accessible. We dive into in-depth data and give the developers the tools to find the answers they need.
What differentiates you from leading competitors?
We are a data-rich solution. Given that we have indexed the entire Ethereum blockchain, we are capable of providing complex and granular digital asset data in a manner that is simple and effective. Not only this, but we support a wide range of data services that come from this. Our use cases are diverse ranging from wallets, exchanges, custodians and taxation. Furthermore, we are the only no-code, zero-config solution that does not require an engineer.
What does Covalent have to offer to developers?
We are all about making developer’s lives easier. We take care of the bulk of the work, and the developers using the API receive a standardized package that is easy to adapt to and requires no specialized knowledge. Project leads that have used Covalent are amazed by the effectiveness of our solution. And if your employer’s profits rely on data accuracy and speed, developers are bound to use Covalent’s solution in their process.
What are some practical business use-cases that Covalent has to offer?
Everytime there’s movement on a blockchain and you need that exact transaction details to make a business decision – that’s a use-case for us. In more specific terms, here are some use-cases that have been built over Covalent:
- Taxes – figuring out every single transaction that can create a tax liability
- Validators – you can figure out if your share of delegated tokens are growing
- Wallets – show your users detailed stats like swap prices and slippages
- Blockchain games – show the NFTs your users have in their wallets
Could you give a quick-walkthrough behind the technology of the Covalent API?
Absolutely. The Covalent API provides blockchain data internally organized for our users in an easy to implement standard. Without turning this interview into a tech conference, the simple version is that we collect the data from the blockchain, which is usually unstructured, index it in our databases, and make it available to developers via the API.
Share with us your experience in helping businesses make use of Ethereum data using the Covalent API?
Some of our early-adopter clients are already using the Covalent API to power their products and provide meaningful experiences for their users. That is as much as I can share at this specific junction in time. However, I hope that we will present additional use cases to the public soon, based on the work that we are doing right now.
Are there opportunities to collaborate & partners, also? Do you have anything to share with those interested in the Covalent API?
We are an inclusive company that is willing to speak with anybody to find common ground, whether this is regarding our vision and mission or the actual product. We already have many partners in the industry with whom we collaborate to ensure that our work provides the maximum amount of value. Covalent is closely aligned with Loopring, Consensys, CoinGecko, SKALE, Matic, Cryptosheets, InstaDapp, Frontier, and Authereum.
If you are keen on leveraging the power of structured blockchain data, feel free to jump on a call with one of our product experts. Just visit our website at www.covalenthq.com, click on the relevant button on the homepage, or just send us an email and we can take it from there!
