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Cosmos-Indexer SDK.

In October 2023, the Defiant Labs team received a grant from Atom Accelerator DAO to develop a generic Cosmos Indexer SDK. With their extensive experience indexing Cosmos blockchains, they envisioned a generalized indexer that any developer could use for Cosmos SDK-based blockchains. Months of hard work and dedication have led to the brink of announcing the general release of v1.0.0 of the Cosmos Indexer.

From Concept to Reality: The Cosmos Indexer SDK​

Alongside the grant, the team committed to building several example indexer applications to showcase functionality and provide starting points for developers. These examples are available here.

As the team prepared to present their work to the Atom Accelerator DAO, they came across the announcement of the Oversight Committee Member Elections. This sparked an idea: why not use the Cosmos Indexer SDK to create a custom indexer for real-time election result tracking? This would demonstrate the SDK's flexibility and power and offer a valuable service to the Cosmoshub community.

The Birth of the Atom Accelerator Elections Dashboard​

Thus, the Atom Accelerator Elections Dashboard was born. In just six hours of development, the core functionality of the backend indexer was implemented. Using the Cosmos Indexer SDK, the team built and began indexing Cosmos Governance Vote transactions with custom parsers and database models.

A simple API was created for querying the indexed data, and a frontend application using React was built to display election results in real-time. After a weekend of intense development and iteration, the prototype was ready for feedback.

Development Timeline: April 30th to May 24th, 2024​

  • April 30th: The idea of a real-time election results dashboard is conceived.
  • May 1st: Core backend indexer functionality is implemented in one day.
  • May 2nd - May 5th: Frontend application and API endpoints are iterated upon.
  • May 6th - May 10th:
    • Enhancements to the indexer for real-world use cases.
    • May 7th: Initial prototype presented to the AA DAO team.
  • May 10th: Final preparations for the site launch.
  • May 11th: Site deployed.
  • May 13th: Official launch of the Elections Dashboard.
  • May 13th - May 20th: Backend functionality tweaks to ensure smooth operation.
  • May 20th - May 24th: Finalization and optimization for the election results.

Technical Specification​

The indexer's code is open-sourced here. The backend, built using the Cosmos Indexer SDK, allowed for rapid development and focused effort on the frontend and API.

Indexer Workflow​

Following the Cosmos Indexer SDK reference docs, the indexer defines custom parsers for:

  1. gov v1beta1/MsgVote transactions
  2. gov v1/MsgVote transactions
  3. authz MsgExec that executed (1) and (2)

These parsers handle transactions and store relevant data in the database, returning custom database models for relational models between votes and proposals.

A custom indexer command wrapper was implemented for pre-index setups, allowing for sidecar processes running custom logic alongside the normal indexer operations.

Proposal Status Calculation​

Emulating the Cosmos SDK tallying process, the backend calculates proposal status using its internal data:

  1. Snapshotting delegations at the voting block height.
  2. Updating cached staking amounts and proposal statuses at configured signal heights.
  3. Updating the proposal status with the final on-chain tally result when the voting period ends.

This ensures accurate, real-time tracking of governance proposals without relying on potentially unreliable tally endpoints.

Conclusion​

The Elections Dashboard demonstrates the Cosmos Indexer SDK's power and flexibility, providing the Cosmos community with a valuable tool for tracking election results. The successful launch of the dashboard stands as a testament to the capabilities of the Cosmos Indexer SDK and opens the door for future election partnerships.

For more details, visit the Elections Dashboard and explore the Cosmos Indexer SDK.