The team at Dora is building the first multi-chain search engine for on-chain and online applications. By bringing easy access and searchability to Web3 information, the platform fosters greater understanding and mass adoption of on-chain ecosystems. To get one step closer to this mission, Dora teams up with SimpleHash to index and contextualize NFT data across numerous ecosystems.

The Challenge

Indexing NFT data in-house is pricey and time-consuming

Bunny, Co-Founder & CEO of Dora, doesn’t mince words: “[Web3] is a very fragmented landscape.” There are countless providers handling NFT data and metadata in the ecosystem. However, thorough decoding, indexing, and labeling of data (having to do with tokens, state changes, etc.) across ecosystems is rare. Providers may track the initial minting or image of the NFT — but none of its associated traits. 

To build a widely accessible and informative multi-ecosystem search engine, the Dora team needed the most comprehensive indexing of cross-chain data. The state of the industry just wasn’t cutting it. When they attempted to allocate resources to build an NFT data solution in-house, the process turned out to be expensive, time-consuming, and too immense of an engineering effort. 

"There are many services providers out there. However, not many of them specialize in providing comprehensive NFT data and metadata. It's a very fragmented landscape."

The Solution

SimpleHash enables faster, cheaper, and easier indexing than an in-house build

Bunny and their team could take one of two approaches to this challenge: 

1. Spend several months putting in the internal work to build a data indexing solution

2. Partner with a data provider to affordably get this done for them within a few days.

Outsourcing seemed to be the clear winner. Soon after, “SimpleHash came to us as an amazing partner,” explains Bunny. They emphasize SimpleHash’s impact and effectiveness — having indexed NFT data from every major blockchain and providing an API with easy-to-use endpoints for instant access to this cross-chain information. 

Most importantly, SimpleHash delivers that impact while being faster, cheaper, and easier than indexing data in-house. The documentation was so impressive that even Bunny, who comes from a statistical analysis background (not engineering), could leverage SimpleHash without any notable hurdles. 

Soon enough, the team at Dora was working far more efficiently. Rather than dedicating three developers to indexing data, they simply have one person act as the go-to point of contact for all data indexed by SimpleHash. 

The Results

With SimpleHash, Dora can offer a far more competitive product

Since teaming up with SimpleHash, the Dora team has seen impressive results: 

• 1–2 months saved per chain integration — For every chain integration, SimpleHash saves Dora approximately 1–2 months of indexing and development work. By the end of 2023, Dora currently has about 80 chains on the pipeline of integration.

• $500,000 saved in personnel costs — By outsourcing to SimpleHash, Dora has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in personnel and hiring costs (i.e. the cost of annual contracts for three full-time developers dedicated to chain integrations, data indexing, and storage). 

• Dora beats competitor pricing — The average competitor charges anywhere from $1.5 million to $2 million per chain integration. Thanks to SimpleHash’s efficiency, Dora charges a fraction per chain, which is more appealing to nascent chain teams & well established ones looking to optimize costs.

On top of competitive pricing, SimpleHash enables Dora to deliver faster results to customers. Where competitive providers can take up to seven months to provide a chain integration with live NFT data, SimpleHash powers Dora to do the same in a matter of weeks. 

With SimpleHash behind them, Dora is ultimately able to provide more competitive pricing, a more holistic package of offerings, and a more satisfactory customer experience. 

The Future

SimpleHash helps Dora shape the future of on-chain applications

Looking forward, the Dora team is thrilled to have an infrastructure partner who is deeply aligned with their vision for the future of Web3. As more and more players enter the ecosystem, Bunny anticipates that the backend work of on-chain applications will increasingly be abstracted away — enabling teams to focus on building and productizing the apps that consumers want to use. 

In Bunny’s words: “To get there, we’ll need many companies doing that tedious but also incredibly important infrastructure work.” Fortunately, Dora can count SimpleHash among that cohort of innovators who bring the functionality and the vision to the table, making that future possible.