Proposal: Canton Index

OPENPull Request
by Web3Slimchance08-05-2026Needs Revision
canton-apisSecurity/ready for vote
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Development Fund Proposal Submission

Proposal file: /proposals/canton-index.md

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Summary

Canton Index reduces the time from "I have a validator" to "I can query my data" from weeks to minutes. It gives every Canton builder a shared, open-source primitive for accessing ledger data. Instead of every team hand-rolling JSONB SQL pipelines, they can focus on actual application logic.

Canton Index sits alongside a validator running PQS, applies developer-defined filters to ledger events, materializes them into application-ready documents, and exposes them through a document-query HTTP API.

This proposal is scoped to stateless projections. The proposal outlines a roadmap with follow-on work:

  • A Scan connector covering network-level data, cross-validator views, and historical data that the local validator may have pruned.
  • A stateful filter runtime supporting roll-ups and aggregations.
  • A strongly-typed GraphQL API.

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Checklist

  • [x] Proposal file added under /proposals/
  • [x] Milestones and funding amounts defined
  • [x] Acceptance criteria included
  • [x] Alignment with Canton priorities described

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Notes for Reviewers

  • This proposal is championed by Bernhard Elsner (CPO at Digital Asset) and has been pre-reviewed by both Bernhard and Curtis Hrischuk (Principal Technical Product Manager at Digital Asset). Thank you both for the in-depth feedback.
  • The proposal is authored by The Graph Foundation and InfraDAO. The Graph has pioneered and continues to advance multiple high-performance indexing systems used by tens of thousands of developers. InfraDAO has led the onboarding of 20+ networks into The Graph Network, covering integration, tooling, documentation, and performance optimization. This proposal brings that experience to Canton.
  • Design partners are engaged from Milestone 1 to validate the filter format and query patterns against real workloads, ensuring the design is shaped by actual developer needs.
  • See the full proposal for the detailed specification, milestones, acceptance criteria, and risks.