What is API and how does it work?

6 min readJan 7, 2022

What is API?

API is the abbreviation for “application programming interface” — an API is the connection between disparate web servers, applications, or databases on the internet.

APIs permeate throughout Web2, with Google universal log-in, Plaid and Stripe’s credit card and bank account integrations, Facebook’s advertising marketplace, and Twilio’s real-time text services acting as some of the most utilized features of the modern internet.

APIs allow developers to offer third-party services or information in their applications, using only the API’s code itself, not needing to worry about the operation of additional services or the maintenance of additional databases. In doing so, APIs significantly speed up the development of cloud-based technologies, helping businesses provide optimized customer experiences at a much faster rate.

How do APIs work?

An API is a set of defined code that tell computers or applications to communicate with one another in specifications. APIs sit between web servers, acting as an intermediary layer that processes real-time data transfer between systems.

For a physical metaphor, an API works similarly to how a waiter or waitress acts as an intermediary between the kitchen and customer in a restaurant. The working steps as follow:

A customer visits a restaurant and places an order (A client application initiates a request to retrieve information. This request is processed from an application to the web server via the API’s Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).)
The waiter (our API) translates and relays the order from the customer to the kitchen (After receiving a valid request, the API makes a call to the external program or web server.).
Then, the kitchen prepares the meal, and hands it to waiter (The server sends a response to the API with the requested information).
The waiter delivers it to the customer as requested (The API transfers the data to the initial requesting application.).

When a user visits the website of a SaaS product and log in via a social media account, an API relays that user’s request to the chosen social network (Google, Facebook, Twitter, Github, etc), verifies their identities, and then returns that verification to the back-end services of the application. The APIS is a leading API provider for public blockchain data, both on layer-one main chains (such as Ethereum and Bitcoin) and layer-two scaling solutions (such as Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, and, soon, Arbitrum).

What is the API token?

The API Token is the native token of The APIS protocol, deriving its utility from:

Staking by APIS Nodes and APIS Gateways: Nodes and gateway operators are required to stake a number of API tokens in order to establish their network presence. This will be subject to slashing, should the actor be proven to act maliciously;
Dispute resolution: This mechanism allows API holders to determine whether Nodes or Gateways acted maliciously (similar to Augur’s dispute resolution mechanism);
Staking by Optimistic or Zk-Rollup validators: We anticipate this feature will be in place within a year, and;
Governance: Numerous ways to decide on new APIS contracts and upgrades through a voting system.

Our New Token Address:
https://etherscan.io/token/0xfd4168e642ebd04c3684a6cdb3a5e86de85d3908

How many API tokens are there in circulation?

The APIS Protocol launched its mainnet on January 2022 with 50 million API tokens created at genesis. We are ready to launch our Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool (LBP), and so would like to re-post the API’s current distribution, as transparent token distributions are crucial for long-term incentive alignment and value creation in Web3.

Our token economy: We conducted a token split, adjusting the total supply of API from 100mn to 1bn. There will be 1 billion API Tokens released, unless the community votes to inflate the supply via additional incentivization programs or deflate the supply via token burn programs. 79% of the token supply is allocated toward the community, with 50.34% to the users of the network via a usage mining program, and 17% to API Foundation (established for strategic partnerships, namely prominent Web 2.0 or Web 3.0 applications). The remaining 21% is allocated for the founding and future team.

Why does API stand out?

Our market is one of the strongest on the internet. APIs have been widely embraced by firms and developers globally over the last decade, to the degree that many famous apps cannot work functionally without them. They save developers significant time and resources, with the products offered being very scalable (i.e. an API for one NFT project can be easily re-purposed for another) and thus garnering high margins. In slightly more depth, APIs offer:

Cooperation improvement: Enterprises can automate workflows and improve workplace cooperation with simple API integration. API’s coordinate the Web, both in Web2 and, soon, in Web3 by the APIS and our competitors.
Innovation simplification: The flexibility offered by APIs enables companies to make new connections and offer new services based on existing products and services, and, ultimately, access new markets that can generate massive returns and drive digital transformation. Because of the APIS, developers do not need to maintain their own nodes or databases, saving both human and financial applications.
Data monetization: In addition to the benefits that APIs offer businesses through the software development process, they also provide a chance for companies to leverage their data and internal tooling into new revenue streams and business opportunities.
Security reinforcement: APIs create an added layer of protection between users’ data and a server. Developers can further strengthen API security by utilizing tokens, signatures, and Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption.

What does API mean for the crypto industry?

The blockchain space is rapidly growing, with traditional Web developers spending significant time learning new schools, such as how to write Solidity, manage full nodes, and construct databases on top of their full nodes. The APIS will remove this barrier immediately for NFT gaming projects, by synthesizing public blockchain data and converting it into easily accessible, understandable and actionable information. Consequently, we will allow NFT application developers globally to integrate highly performant user interfaces into their applications, which would otherwise require months of development. Soon, we will offer write solutions too, thus reducing the need for these developers to learn Solidity or additional programming architectures.

Outside of The APIS, APIs have already permeated throughout decentralized finance (DeFi), a market we are not initially focused on due to our belief that our edge in the NFT market will garner us greater market-share, but a market we are very excited about entering next. Professional traders and hedge funds utilize algorithmic trading to execute automated trading strategies, in which both price and trade execution APIs are integral and thus highly valuable. Real-time pricing and live execution APIs are required for trading bots to operate in a fully-automated “hands-off” mode. Since the rise in popularity of algorithmic trading, even individual traders are using APIs to manage their portfolio. Automating both the read of pricing data, as well as creating write tools to allow investors to automate their portfolios, will prove to be highly valuable services in Web3.

👋 About THE APIS:

The APIS is an indexing protocol for reading and writing to open networks. Making APIs open and accessible to power a decentralized world.

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