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Leilani Ledingham
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Identify Address Activity Across 100+ Chains

TL;DR

  • As Web3 expands, it becomes increasingly difficult for users to manage their assets and data across multiple chains.

  • Covalent’s new address activity endpoint enables you to locate where a wallet is active across 100+ chains with a single API call and returns the last active timestamp. https://api.covalenthq.com/v1/address/{contractAddress}/activity/?key={APIKEY}

  • Address activity > multi-chain balances. This endpoint is designed with developer values in mind, ensuring you only pay for the data your users request rather than generating excessive amounts of data with multi-chain API calls.

  • With the rapid innovation of Rollups like zkEVMs, Covalent expects to support hundreds more chains in the next 18 months, providing new opportunities to improve the developer experience.

  • The address activity endpoint spends 0.5 credits per call.

Background - Multi-Chain Mania

In the early days of Web3, the concept of "multi-chain" primarily referred to a select few Ethereum alternatives (”alt L1s”) that offered advantages such as improved performance, reduced fees, or specific applications that were exclusive to their respective networks. Fast forward to the present, and the blockchain ecosystem has experienced remarkable growth and diversification, with the advent of L2s and now hundreds of chains now in existence, each boasting specialized use cases, innovative consensus mechanisms, and other unique features. This expansion has opened up a wealth of opportunities and incentives for users to engage in cross-chain transactions while simultaneously introducing a new set of challenges when it comes to managing and tracking digital assets across multiple networks.

What it Means for Wallet Applications

As Web3 continues to flourish, the demands placed on wallet applications are evolving rapidly. In the past, users were able to manually keep track of their assets across a limited number of chains. However, with the burgeoning growth of the blockchain ecosystem, this task has transformed into an increasingly complex and overwhelming responsibility. As a result, wallet applications must now shoulder the burden for users, providing them with a seamless and intuitive experience that allows them to manage their digital assets across numerous chains effortlessly.

Our New Address Activity Endpoint

This is where our new address activity endpoint comes in - a scalable and efficient solution for consolidating address activity data across multiple chains! This endpoint scans Covalent’s 100+ supported networks for activity and returns the last active timestamp so you know where and when a wallet was active.

This is what a request looks like:

https://api.covalenthq.com/v1/address/{contractAddress}/activity/?key={APIKEY}

And this is a sample response:

{
  "data": {
    "updated_at": "2023-05-12T02:21:34.916062868Z",
    "address": "0xdafea492d9c6733ae3d56b7ed1adb60692c98bc5",
    "items": [
      {
        "name": "eth-mainnet",
        "chain_id": "1",
        "is_testnet": false,
        "db_schema_name": "chain_eth_mainnet",
        "label": "Ethereum Mainnet",
        "category_label": "Ethereum",
        "logo_url": "https://www.datocms-assets.com/86369/1669653891-eth.svg",
        "black_logo_url": "https://www.datocms-assets.com/86369/1669619544-ethereum.png",
        "white_logo_url": "https://www.datocms-assets.com/86369/1669619533-ethereum.png",
        "is_appchain": false,
        "appchain_of": null,
        "last_seen_at": "2023-05-12T02:19:23Z"
      },
      {
        "name": "matic-mainnet",
        "chain_id": "137",
        "is_testnet": false,
        "db_schema_name": "chain_matic_mainnet",
        "label": "Polygon Mainnet",
        "category_label": "Polygon",
        "logo_url": "https://www.datocms-assets.com/86369/1677870347-property-1-polygon-zkevm-icon-white.svg",
        "black_logo_url": "https://www.datocms-assets.com/86369/1677870457-property-1-polygon-white.png",
        "white_logo_url": "https://www.datocms-assets.com/86369/1677870452-property-1-polygon-colour.png",
        "is_appchain": false,
        "appchain_of": null,
        "last_seen_at": "2023-04-09T15:40:44Z"
      },
      {
        "name": "bsc-mainnet",
        "chain_id": "56",
        "is_testnet": false,
        "db_schema_name": "chain_bsc_mainnet",
        "label": "BNB Smart Chain",
        "category_label": "Binance",
        "logo_url": "https://www.datocms-assets.com/86369/1670003808-binance-smart-chain-icon-white.svg",
        "black_logo_url": "https://www.datocms-assets.com/86369/1670003836-biance-smart-chain-white.png",
        "white_logo_url": "https://www.datocms-assets.com/86369/1670003837-biance-smart-chain-colour.png",
        "is_appchain": false,
        "appchain_of": null,
        "last_seen_at": "2023-04-27T09:00:00Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "error": false,
  "error_message": null,
  "error_code": null
}

While some data providers have chosen to implement multi-chain balance endpoints, which query token balances for a wallet across multiple chains simultaneously, there are some potential drawbacks of this approach that we see. These include generating excessive amounts of data and struggling to meet response time Service Level Agreements (SLAs), such as delivering sub-second balances. Consequently, these multi-chain balance endpoints may not adequately address developers' requirements.

In contrast, the address activity endpoint has been specifically designed with developers' priorities in mind. This endpoint ensures that you only incur costs for the data your users actually request, fostering a more cost-efficient solution.

What We Think Your Users Will Love

A common pain point for users is the need to manually add networks to their wallets in order to view their assets and activities across various chains. This process is not only user-unfriendly, but also becomes increasingly cumbersome as the number of chains multiplies. By incorporating the address activity endpoint, you can automatically display all the chains on which a user has been active, eliminating the need for manual network additions.

Save time and resources by employing this single endpoint to query multiple chains, rather than submitting individual requests for each chain. The following flowchart illustrates the streamlined process for building a wallet application using Covalent:

Moreover, the address activity endpoint plays a crucial role in enhancing user security. By utilizing the address activity endpoint, you can detect and alert users to potential security threats, such as unauthorized transactions, suspicious activities, or risky token approvals, helping users maintain better control over their digital assets within the wallet. Check out our approvals endpoint which provides detailed information about approved transactions and value at risk.

What’s Next?

As the blockchain ecosystem marches forward, Covalent is committed to staying ahead of the curve and adapting to the ever-changing needs of both users and developers. Today we support 100+ chains with hundreds more to come. By continually refining our API offering and expanding its scope to include the latest advancements in blockchain technology, we’re striving to equip developers with the most comprehensive and accurate data available.

About Covalent:

Covalent provides the industry-leading Unified API bringing visibility to billions of Web3 data points. Developers and analysts use Covalent to build exciting multi-chain applications like crypto wallets, NFT galleries, and investor dashboard tools utilizing data from 229 + blockchains. Covalent is trusted by a community of 40,000+ developers and powers data for 5,000+ applications, including 0x, Zerion, Rainbow Wallet, Rotki, Bitski, and many others.