The Web3 startup The Grid has recently launched a structured and verification system aimed at providing a more accessible "map" of data for the blockchain world. After seven years of effort, The Grid has finally come into the public eye, becoming a meta-standard that helps data platforms connect more effectively to the blockchain.
This means that the user interface will be more user-friendly, allowing users who are less familiar with Web3 to easily explore this field and ultimately increase investment.
Co-founder Jonathan Knegtel said in an interview with Decrypt: "You can see this as an evolution, not a revolution. The Grid provides ecosystem metadata."
"Currently, you come to the Web3 city, surrounded by signs and lights, but with almost no other information. The Grid will provide more information about these services, just like Google Maps provides detailed information about services, not just names."
The current ecosystem is like Google Maps with only names and no other information, making it impossible to distinguish between a coffee shop and a hospital. The Grid aims to transform this system into a more informative one.
The Grid's first partner is Solana, which means it has already indexed its projects and metadata. Although the other 60 specific Web3 partner companies have not yet been announced, its potential has already attracted attention beyond the Solana platform. In an initial angel funding round, The Grid raised 600,000 euros, marking a key moment for the standardization of the Web3 ecosystem.
So, what makes The Grid unique? It extracts information from these sites and provides data to the front-end ecosystem. Knegtel admits that this is also something many large language models (LLMs) can do.
"What sets The Grid apart is that we use the four-eyes principle. This means using LLMs in the tedious work of data cleaning, but we also have human reviewers to check and confirm the extracted data. The end result is a higher quality dataset," he said. "In an era filled with untrustworthy AI information, The Grid offers a high-quality service that ensures reliability."
The Grid aims to meet the needs of the system. This means that current block explorers, wallets, and exchanges can use this data to provide clear product and service descriptions. Therefore, Knegtel says, The Grid does not need to compete but rather helps enhance existing services. In fact, it can work both ways, providing assistance.
"We have actually received requests from the blockchain side, asking how best to achieve standardization," Knegtel said. "We are able to provide guidance to help achieve blockchain-level recognition, helping ecosystems that may have previously been difficult to notice."
While The Grid has already started working with Solana, it has also provided its browser and open-source reference implementation.
The open core model and GraphQL API allow platforms to use The Grid's dataset to build their own ecosystem pages. This enables companies to update and control how data is managed within their ecosystem.