On-Chain Analytics - How to Get Started
Beginner's guide to get you writing your first on-chain analytics queries
The purpose of this article is to provide a beginner’s guide on how to get started in on-chain analytics.
By the end, you will have enough information to start investigating and querying on-chain data.
In this article, the following topics will be covered:
What is On-Chain Analytics?
Where to Find On-Chain Data?
How to Get Paid for On-Chain Analytics?
Conclusion
What Is On-Chain Analytics?
On-Chain Analytics is the process of using data and information that is stored on the blockchain to extract useful insights and signals.
Examples of this could be:
Investigating the number of users of a particular protocol (e.g MakerDAO)
Calculating the swap volume of an exchange (e.g Uniswap) in the last 24 hours
The advantage of on-chain data is that it is available to anyone to investigate and analyse. This is a contrast to web 2 data sources that are often private and held internally by companies behind paywalls.
This means that anyone that is able to understand and analyse on-chain data has access to a huge, almost real time dataset* to extract meaningful insights from (*analytics tooling is generally 1 or 2 blocks behind).
How to Get Started in On-Chain Analytics?
Once you’ve decided to dive into On-Chain Analytics, the next question will inevitably be where to start.
Thankfully, there are some tools that have made this process much easier and enabled new users to access on-chain data quickly.
The following tools are the ones that I used in the beginning and still continue to use to this day.
Etherscan
Etherscan is a blockchain explorer tool for the Ethereum blockchain.
This allows the user to search by addresses, transaction hash, block or token address and Etherscan will show the related blockchain activity for the item searched for.
For example, a user could enter a transaction hash to view the amount of gas used for that particular transaction.
Etherscan is a good entry point to understand what kind of data is available and captured on the Ethereum blockchain.
A good starting point would be to enter the address of your own Ethereum wallet and check the transaction history.
Website: https://etherscan.io/
Dune Analytics
Dune Analytics is a SaaS (Software as a Service) that enables users to query, build and share dashboards of blockchain data.
Users are able to submit smart contracts for decoding to get the required data into the Dune database.
The best starting point for Dune Analytics would be to look at some dashboards already built by other users and investigate the queries behind them.
After this, select a protocol or project you are interested in and start writing some of your own queries.
In addition to this, I recommend joining the community on discord to talk with other users (“wizards”).
Website: https://dune.xyz/home
Discord: https://discord.gg/ErrzwBz
Flipside Crypto
Flipside Crypto is a SaaS that provides on-chain data.
Flipside provides the ability for users to build analytics reports by plotting visualisations of data queried from their database.
There is also an API available to query data and have it returned, for example, to a Google Colab notebook.
Flipside run weekly bounties where users are able to complete analytics tasks in exchange for payments in crypto.
The best starting point for using Flipside would be to select one of the weekly bounties that appears interesting and attempt to solve it.
Not only will you have the opportunity to get payment for your efforts but Flipside has a team of dedicated reviewers that provide feedback on submitted bounties.
Website: https://flipsidecrypto.xyz/
Discord: https://discord.gg/ZmU3jQuu6W
How to Get Paid for On-Chain Analytics?
Flipside Crypto & Metrics DAO
Flipside Crypto & Metrics DAO both run “bounties” for a number of blockchain projects weekly. Users answer questions and perform analysis in return for crypto payments.
This is a great way to get started earning with on-chain analytics. This also comes with the added bonus that Flipside & Metrics DAO both have experienced and dedicated grading teams. This is a great way to get feedback on your analysis and bounty submissions.
Flipside Crypto Bounties: https://flipsidecrypto.xyz/earn
Flipside Crypto Discord: https://discord.gg/ZmU3jQuu6W
Metrics DAO Bounties: https://metricsdao.xyz/
Metrics DAO Discord: https://t.co/pSvCgIRnYg
Dune Bounties
Dune Analytics has a channel in their discord dedicated to bounties along with a bounty bot on Twitter.
Unlike Flipside and MetricsDAO where the bounties are run as programs that users can claim each week, Dune Bounties require you to reach out to the creator of the bounty (usually a project or protocol) to pitch creating a Dune dashboard for their needs.
In this case, it helps to show some past examples of your work when pitching for a bounty. These bounties often are larger in scope and as a result pay out more.
Discord: https://discord.gg/ErrzwBz
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dune_Bounties
Gitcoin
Gitcoin is a platform where freelancers can find all types of web 3 work including on-chain analytics bounties. Gitcoin runs both bounties (where you need to apply to work on a piece of work listed) and hackathons (where anyone can pick up a piece of work and submit it - usually the submissions are graded and the top X submissions get payouts).
This is a great way to get paid doing on-chain analytics particularly for beginners as you can get experience solving real business problems and there are no permissions required to take part and submit a piece of work for hackathons.
Gitcoin issues and hackathons are not exclusively for on-chain analytics so it will require searching and investigating to find bounties that are relevant.
Gitcoin Hackathons: https://gitcoin.co/hackathons
Gitcoin Issues: https://gitcoin.co/explorer
Unigrants Community Analytics
Uniswap runs a “Unigrants Community Analytics” program where users can complete bounties in exchange for payment in $UNI. There are new bounties posted every 2 weeks.
Users are free to use any reliable data source to complete the bounties.
Bounties: https://unigrants.notion.site/Unigrants-Community-Analytics-b09bbb16579d4a569b7e2d393afc4459
Conclusion
On-chain analytics is still a field in its infancy however there are plenty of tools available to help anyone interested to get started and earn some crypto while doing so.
If you enjoyed this newsletter then hit the share button below.
Follow me on twitter for more on-chain analytics content !
And if you haven’t already subscribe for more on-chain analytics content
thanks for article, I really enjoyed the read
thanks for the article, really appreciate it