Lack of indexing slows Web3 apps to 20 seconds

Web3 applications are facing significant delays in performance compared to their Web2 counterparts due to insufficient data indexing, according to Pangea CEO Maxim Legg.

Legg explained that decentralised applications must process extensive data from various blockchain sources, such as RPC nodes and smart contracts, often amounting to hundreds of terabytes on high-throughput networks.

"Indexing is the process of organising this raw blockchain data in a way that it can be effectively recalled later. This is not something you want your developers to be dealing with. This is a real infrastructure problem. It can be solved once. It does not need to be solved individually by every single DApp developer," Legg said. 

Without efficient indexing, developers are compelled to create custom solutions, which are often inefficient and time-consuming.

The need for indexing is becoming more critical as blockchain throughput increases.

For instance, Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) aims to scale its network to handle over 100,000 transactions per second (TPS), as highlighted by co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

Layer-2 solutions like Starknet (CRYPTO:STRK) and ZKsync (CRYPTO:ZK) are also working to enhance their throughput, with Starknet planning to quadruple its TPS in the coming months and ZKsync targeting 10,000 TPS by 2025.

Solana (CRYPTO:SOL), which currently processes between 800 and 1,050 TPS, has attracted attention as a high-throughput ecosystem.

According to Legg, higher TPS generates more data that decentralised applications must efficiently index to avoid performance bottlenecks.

The lack of proper indexing not only hinders the user experience but also slows the adoption of Web3 technologies.

Experts believe that addressing these bottlenecks through advanced indexing solutions is crucial for improving DApp performance and scalability.

By streamlining the data processing infrastructure, developers can focus on building innovative applications instead of resolving recurring indexing issues.