FAQ
StreamingFast Firehose frequently asked questions
Firehose is an extremely efficient blockchain data indexing solution. Rich data is extracted from blockchain nodes and saved to simple flat files providing capture and processing speeds previously thought to be impossible. Firehose is primarily written in the Go programming language and takes full advantage of the parallel computing aspects available. Firehose makes paramount improvements in the speed and performance of data availability for any blockchain.
Firehose is available for developers creating decentralized applications, creating blockchain data-related solutions, or wanting to capture data from non-Firehose instrumented blockchains.
Substreams and Firehose can be used together and typically are. The two complement each other in terms of the functionality they provide. Substreams uses blockchain data extracted and provided by Firehose. Firehose is responsible for extraction and provision and Substreams handles transforming and manipulating the data.
Firehose does not work directly with GraphQL. Subgraphs use GraphQL and Substreams can be used with subgraphs. Firehose extracts data from blockchain nodes and provides it to Substreams.
Yes, Firehose provides data for subgraphs through the Graph Node and subgraphs. Substreams can also be used between Firehose and subgraphs to provide features and functionality that are not available using only subgraphs.
Firehose was created by StreamingFast working as a core developer with The Graph Foundation.
Firehose is currently in development and the source code available is provided as a developer preview. Fully deployed Firehose setups are not recommended or supported at this time. The StreamingFast team is diligently working to bring production support to Firehose.
Authentication tokens are required to connect to the public Firehose endpoint provided by StreamingFast made available to developers for testing. Full instructions for obtaining a StreamingFast authentication token are available in the Substreams documentation.
The StreamingFast team is available in Discord to assist with problems related to obtaining or using authentication tokens.