The current web3 ecosystem is a complex maze of Dapps, blockchains, and tokens that are often difficult to differentiate. Given the decentralized and open source nature of the industry, it is expected that there will be hundreds if not thousands of additional protocols launching over the next 5 to 10 years.

While this is great for consumers of these services, it presents a challenge for traditional businesses that seek to navigate this space in order to deploy capital or deliver services of their own on-chain. 

Today, products like Google are the primary source of information for nearly all sectors of the traditional economy that is represented online, particularly the tech sector.  

What makes Google so valuable is that it centralizes and indexes all of the web’s information in such a way that anyone can find the website they’re looking for, no matter what hosting service it uses or what category it falls under (e.g news, image, videos, research papers, etc). 

In the same way that Google has made web2 less complex to users, the web3 space needs its own search engine for individuals and companies to navigate the rapidly expanding ecosystem.

An ADI Enabled Data Index

As a universal communication, identity, and audit layer, one of the most promising potential use cases for the Accumulate Network is to create a data index and search engine for the entire crypto ecosystem. 

This web3 search engine would enable individuals and traditional companies to better understand where to find the best yield-generating opportunities, the largest liquidity pools, and the most vibrant communities. It would also allow them to avoid the riskiest or least secure protocols.

The way this solution would work is by linking each blockchain, sidechain, or L2 block explorer to an Accumulate Account chain, then having ‘data providers’ on each account chain import and authenticate data from their assigned blockchain explorer, which would then be represented as a series of ADIs and sub-identities. 

One example of this could be a group of Account chains that each aim to catalog the top 10 largest transactions each day from their assigned network. 

Data providers would stake ACME as collateral to ensure honesty as they collect this data. They could then use APIs or manual processes to pull in the data and create a new entry on the Account chain. Other validators would need to verify the entry to ensure it is accurate before it is accepted and assigned an ADI. The provider that submitted the entry would then be rewarded with ACME tokens for their contributions. 

This is similar to the Chainlink model where requests for data are sent out to the public and then service providers must then stake the LINK token to retrieve and submit the requested data. 

Over time, Accumulate can build a fully transparent and authenticated index of multi-chain block explorers, which can then serve as the backend to a powerful web3 search engine. 

Filtering for Risky Addresses and Protocols 

The benefit of an ADI-enabled web3 search engine is that it can create the necessary filters for companies looking to interact with low-risk, regulatory-friendly protocols. 

Data providers can flag protocols that have recently been hacked, or addresses that have been blacklisted on various blockchains to create a centralized directory for companies to reference. 

Data providers can also aggregate whitelisted addresses from multiple networks, making it easier for businesses to market their products and services to compliant customers. 

All of this data would be registered as ADIs and continually updated to provide the latest record of whitelisted and blacklisted addresses or protocols. 

This would provide a safer and more convenient way for enterprises and other highly regulated institutions to navigate the public blockchain space while minimizing the contamination that comes from transacting in liquidity pools or protocols where addresses associated with criminal behavior may reside.

Conclusion

Our industry is in critical need of a search engine and indexing solution that can aggregate information from block explorers to provide a clear and concise map of the crypto ecosystem. 

Accumulate Network has the potential to provide this solution through its decentralized community and audit layer built using ADIs as the key format for representing data from multiple blockchains on the Accumulate Network.