Polymarket brings blockchain indexing in-house with rindexer for faster data

Polymarket has moved its primary blockchain indexing infrastructure in-house, cutting the time needed to surface some onchain events by as much as 14 blocks, or roughly 28 seconds.

Polymarket Vice President of Engineering Josh Stevens said the prediction market platform built the new system internally using rindexer, an open-source indexing tool written in Rust. The infrastructure can index data within 0 to 10 milliseconds of a block being broadcast, according to Stevens.

“We now see onchain data events up to 14 blocks (28 seconds) faster, and we index within 0-10ms of block broadcasting, making it nearly instant,” Stevens said.

The change means trades, user positions and balances can update more quickly as blockchain events reach Polymarket’s systems. Stevens said Goldsky, which previously handled important parts of the platform’s real-time blockchain data infrastructure, will remain as a backup while Polymarket primarily operates its own indexing stack.

Polymarket indexing system moves to rindexer

Rindexer is an open-source EVM indexing tool built in Rust. Its documentation describes the software as compatible with EVM chains and designed to let developers index blockchain events through a YAML configuration without requiring additional code for basic deployments.

Developers can extend the framework for more complex indexing pipelines, while rindexer provides a GraphQL API for querying indexed data. The project remains under active development, with its documentation warning that changes and bugs should be expected.

Indexers are used to organize blockchain activity into data that applications can retrieve efficiently. For Polymarket, the indexed information includes data behind trades, positions and balances, making the speed between a blockchain event and its appearance in the application part of the platform’s data infrastructure.

Goldsky had played a central role in that process. The data infrastructure provider said in a Polymarket case study that its subgraphs supplied real-time indexing while its Mirror product connected onchain activity with offchain information stored by the prediction market platform.

Polymarket used those systems to combine trades with information such as usernames and comments, while dashboard features including recent activity, top holders and leaderboards relied on the resulting data pipelines.

Stevens’ latest statement changes that arrangement by putting Polymarket’s internally operated rindexer system on the primary data path and retaining Goldsky for backup.

Faster data follows Polymarket infrastructure expansion

The indexing change comes as Polymarket has been building more of the infrastructure supporting its trading products.

Earlier in September, the company launched perpetual futures for eligible international users across an initial group of 10 markets covering crypto assets, equity indices and commodities. The service offers leverage of up to 20 times, while U.S. users remain excluded from the international perps product.

The initial lineup includes Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and Hyperliquid alongside gold, silver, oil and U.S. equity indices. The product expanded Polymarket past the event contracts for which the platform is best known.

Polymarket has made infrastructure changes elsewhere in its core prediction market business. In April, crypto.news previously reported that the company introduced onchain surveillance through a partnership with Chainalysis to monitor trading activity for possible insider trading and market manipulation.

The monitoring system applies blockchain analytics to trades, positions and settlements. By late August, Polymarket said its trade surveillance systems were prepared for increased activity around the U.S. midterm elections, using blockchain analytics, machine learning and other monitoring tools to identify anomalous activity.

The company said at the time that it had referred more than 100 cases to law enforcement, including cases involving suspected use of sensitive government information.

Polymarket has been building more of its technology stack

Other changes have targeted how users and automated systems interact with Polymarket.

In July, the platform enabled Bitcoin Lightning deposits through Spark, allowing users to fund accounts through the Lightning Network instead of waiting for conventional Bitcoin onchain confirmations.

The company has expanded its technical stack through acquisitions as well. Polymarket bought DeFi infrastructure startup Brahma in March, bringing programmable smart-account and automated execution technology into the company.

Brahma’s technology was intended to support functions including wallets, deposits, asset routing and redemption of tokens representing prediction market outcomes. The acquisition followed Polymarket’s purchases of derivatives exchange QCEX and prediction-market data infrastructure company Dome.

Trading activity has meanwhile placed heavier demands on prediction-market infrastructure. Polymarket processed roughly $5 billion in World Cup trading as the tournament drove substantial activity across event markets in June and July.

Goldsky has continued developing its own blockchain indexing products during that expansion. In August, the company added datasets covering Polymarket positions, order fills and balances to its data platform, alongside average-price and realized-profit-and-loss information.

Polymarket’s latest infrastructure change does not remove Goldsky from its architecture. Stevens said the service will remain available as a data backup while the company relies primarily on the rindexer-powered system it now operates internally.