Alchemy acquires subgraph startup Satsuma

Alchemy has acquired subgraph platform Satsuma for an undisclosed amount to bolster its endeavors in the blockchain indexing space.  

Blockchains house a distributed ledger, and often, that requires storage for a massive amount of raw data. Plus, the advent of layer-2 protocols mean more data is being stored on-chain than ever before.

Engineers spend lots of time indexing and querying — i.e. transforming, processing and storing — the portions of the data set they need in order to build their Web3 apps, Satsuma co-founder and CEO Jonathan Kau told Blockworks. 

That time consuming process developers slog through was a key factor in Kau and fellow co-founder Dan Li starting Satsuma in 2022. Their solution? Subgraphs. 

Subgraphs eliminate the need for developers to build their own data pipeline from scratch, which can be costly. And for those developing more complicated apps that need to store and display more dynamic information — perhaps something like daily total transaction volume — subgraphs make that much simpler, Kau said. 

“Subgraphs make it 10 times easier for an engineer to build a data pipeline without running infrastructure, and without writing a ton of code,” said Kau. 

According to Kau, The Graph made open-source subgraphs the norm. Satsuma’s subgraphs will be folded into Alchemy’s existing product suite as Alchemy Subgraphs, which will be using a combination of The Graph’s open-source code and its own proprietary code to create a unique product for developers.

Kau mentioned two clients that have already used Satsuma’s subgraphs, including GMX, a decentralized spot and perpetual exchange with over $475 million in total value locked. 

“One of the things that they need to display is a chart that shows ticks or prices over time, and this is really hard to get if you’re trying to use the raw pieces of data,” Kau said, referring to GMX. “They write a subgraph so that they don’t have to write a data pipeline to get all that data.”

“It saves them a ton of time for their development,” Kau continued.

Treasure, a crypto-enabled gaming ecosystem, is another of Satsuma’s clients. One of its games uses a Satsuma subgraph to display players’ loot and quests while interacting on-chain. 

Kau said that operations will continue normally as Satsuma’s services have been folded into Alchemy Subgraphs as of last month. 

“The main things that we focus on are improving an engineer’s day to day. Saving them time, saving them money, and of course improving the end users experience — reducing the lag for data to show up and making things faster on the front end interface,” Kau said.

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