onchainR

onchainR is a package for querying blockchain and web3 data in R

Authors: Brandon Kramer | License: MIT

Installation

You can install the development version of onchainR from GitHub with:

# install.packages("devtools")
# devtools::install_github("brandonleekramer/onchainR")

JSON-RPC

• JSON-RPC: JSON-RPC APIs are the easiest way to read data off of a blockchain. These APIs get basic account, balance, and network data. You can learn more about blockchain JSON-RPC nodes here.
  
• Example: In this example, we check how much vitalik.eth has in their wallet using the eth_getBalance function.
  
• Process: To do this, you will need to pick a JSON-RPC provider. onchainR currently supports Infura, Grove, DRPC, Quicknode, and Alchemy, but these functions likely work with dozens of other JSON-RPC providers too. We’ve tried to design these functions to minimize vendor lock-in. Once you have picked a provider, you’ll need to copy an endpoint and API key from within your account.
  

library("tidyverse") 
library("onchainR") 

vitalik_eth = "0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045"
my_rpc_provider = "https://mainnet.infura.io/v3/"
my_api_key = infura_api_key

eth_getBalance(wallet_address = vitalik_eth, 
               provider_url = my_rpc_provider, 
               api_key = my_api_key, 
               return_format = "ETH")
#> [1] 955.6283

Blockchain Explorer

• Blockchain Explorer: Blockchain Explorer APIs are ideal for getting balances and historical transaction data for specific wallets. Etherscan is the industry leader for blockhain explorers and onchainR’s starting point for this API. We plan to add support for other providers in the coming months.
  
• Example: Below, we provide an example on how to use onchainR to get ETH balances across two wallets on four different chains: Ethereum, Arbitrum One, Polygon, and Base.
  
• Process: To carry out this code snippet for your purposes, you will need to visit Etherscan, Arbiscan, Polygonscan, and Basescan to acquire API keys and then use those keys in the following code snippet.
  

my_wallet_list = c("0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045",
                   "0x50EC05ADe8280758E2077fcBC08D878D4aef79C3")

ether_balances = bind_rows(
  explorerBalances(my_wallet_list, 
                   blockchain_explorer = "etherscan", 
                   etherscan_api_key) %>% mutate(chain = "Ethereum"),
  explorerBalances(my_wallet_list, 
                   blockchain_explorer = "arbiscan", 
                   arbiscan_api_key) %>% mutate(chain = "Arbitrum"),
  explorerBalances(my_wallet_list, 
                   blockchain_explorer = "polygonscan", 
                   polygonscan_api_key) %>% mutate(chain = "Polygon"),
  explorerBalances(my_wallet_list, 
                   blockchain_explorer = "basescan", 
                   basescan_api_key) %>% mutate(chain = "Base")
)

ether_balances
#>                                      account      balance currency    chain
#> 1 0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045 955.62834491      ETH Ethereum
#> 2 0x50EC05ADe8280758E2077fcBC08D878D4aef79C3   1.32350685      ETH Ethereum
#> 3 0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045   1.19636885      ETH Arbitrum
#> 4 0x50EC05ADe8280758E2077fcBC08D878D4aef79C3   1.00531341      ETH Arbitrum
#> 5 0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045 447.16134434      ETH  Polygon
#> 6 0x50EC05ADe8280758E2077fcBC08D878D4aef79C3 879.70136309      ETH  Polygon
#> 7 0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045   0.03519259      ETH     Base
#> 8 0x50EC05ADe8280758E2077fcBC08D878D4aef79C3   0.01321418      ETH     Base

Subgraphs

• Subgraphs: Subgraphs allow users to query data on smart contracts using GraphQL. For example, to query all transactions within a single Uniswap v3 liquidity pool over the last 24 hours, Uniswap simply needs to define their schema, index the event data to create the subgraph, and then use the generated GraphQL API to query their subgraph for flexible and efficient blockchain data. With The Graph, subgraphs can also be published onchain so anyone can use them! Several other blockchain data providers, including Alchemy and Goldsky, allow you to create your own subgraphs. We opted to develop wrapper functions for The Graph specifically because that protocol provides the largest open repository of existing subgraphs to query onchain projects.
  
• Example: In this example, we use the Uniswap V3 subgraph on The Graph Network. To search for subgraphs that index other smart contracts, use Graph Explorer. The Graph also has a free hosted service, but it is set to retire in Q2 2024.
  
• Process: We develop a GraphQL query under the Playground tab, copy the Subgraph ID from the top of the page, and copy both into our R code. Next, we go to Subgraph Studio to get an API key. Note that this subgraph is deployed on The Graph on Arbitrum, which you check by validating the Network Switcher in the top-right corner of the page.
  

uniswap_query = "{ bundles(first: 5) { id ethPriceUSD } }"
uniswapv3_subgraph = "5zvR82QoaXYFyDEKLZ9t6v9adgnptxYpKpSbxtgVENFV"
my_api_key = graph_api_key

query_subgraph(graphql_query = uniswap_query,
               subgraph_id = uniswapv3_subgraph,
               api_key = my_api_key)
#> $bundles
#>                          ethPriceUSD id
#> 1 3585.36345061335950426213087235299  1

• Example: In a second example, we use the Chainlink Prices subgraph. As the name suggests, this subgraph grabs prices from the Chainlink price oracle, so you can plug in an asset to find its price relative to USD. For more custom
  

current_prices = bind_rows(
  c(token = "BTC", current_price = getCryptoPrice("BTC", graph_api_key)),
  c(token = "ETH", current_price = getCryptoPrice("ETH", graph_api_key)),
  c(token = "SOL", current_price = getCryptoPrice("SOL", graph_api_key))
)
current_prices
#> # A tibble: 3 × 2
#>   token current_price
#>   <chr> <chr>        
#> 1 BTC   67354.89     
#> 2 ETH   3588.8765803 
#> 3 SOL   197.4402

Functions, Chains, and Providers

Below provides a list of functions that draw on the blockchain methods for select chains and providers.

Additional Packages

For those interested in other blockchain data APIs in R, please see other projects below:

coinmarketcapr was designed to help R developers and data scientists to extract and monitor price and market cap of various cryptocurrencies from CoinMarketCap by getting their price, 24h trade volume, market cap and much more in USD and other currencies.

etherscanr is an open archive package that offers an easy way to use the etherscan.io API to query information about the Ethereum network.