Last month, Notion — the popular productivity and "all-in-one workspace" tool — introduced charts, a long-awaited feature that opens up new possibilities for data visualization and analysis within the platform.
In this guide, we'll show you how to create a self-updating dashboard for visualizing and monitoring USDC activity across multiple blockchains: Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Base, and Optimism. This dashboard will provide real-time insights into USDC movement, providing another way to identify trends and analyze cross-chain activity.
Table of contents
Here’s a preview of the dashboard we’ll be creating today:
Here's how we'll build our dashboard:
To start sending on-chain USDC activity data to Notion, you'll need:
Note: While Zapier offers a free plan, the webhooks feature used in this guide requires a paid plan. Consider starting with a trial to test the setup before committing to a subscription.
For those of you interested in similar setups using different tools, we recommend our guide: Automatically log on-chain activity to Google Sheets without code.
Because we'll be switching between Dispatch, Zapier, and Notion to set up this workflow, it's a good idea to organize your browser tabs. We recommend using one browser window for Dispatch, another for Zapier, and a third for Notion.
Follow these steps to create and configure your Notion dashboard:
Set up the following columns:
Now your Notion database is ready to receive data. Keep this tab open.
Next, we'll set up Dispatch to start collecting the on-chain data we need for our dashboard.
Start by logging into your Dispatch account. If you're new to Dispatch, sign up for an account.
Choose the "Smart contract activity" Trigger and "Webhook" as the action.
A "Patch" in Dispatch is an on-chain data stream or automated workflow. It consists of two main components:
In our case, we'll be setting up a Patch to monitor USDC activity and send the data to a webhook.
To start, we’ll choose the “Base” network (we’ll add the others later). Once you’ve chosen the network, search and select “USDC” in the smart contract section.
For example, here are the events we selected:
You don’t have to select this many events, but it’s cool to see the different activities happening in your Notion charts. Please keep in mind that you should select the same events and/or functions for all networks.
Tip: If you're just starting out, consider focusing on 'Transfer', 'Mint', and 'Burn' events to track the most common USDC activities.
Click "Continue" to move to the Action setup.
After completing these steps, your Dispatch Patch will be ready to monitor USDC activity. In the next section, we'll set up Zapier to link this data to your Notion dashboard.
First, let’s get Zapier ready to connect with your Notion database.
To begin integrating your data flow, open a new tab, log into Zapier, and click "Create Zap" to start setting up the automation that will link Dispatch with your Notion database. Name your Zap something descriptive like 'Dispatch to Notion USDC Tracker' to easily identify it later.
In the Trigger section of Zapier, select 'Webhooks by Zapier' to catch data from Dispatch. Then, choose "Catch hook" as the Trigger event.
Click 'Continue' to proceed.
Note: This URL is unique to your Zap. Keep it secure, as anyone with this URL can potentially send data to your Zap.
To link Dispatch with Zapier, follow these steps to ensure your data flows correctly.
Return to Dispatch to complete the setup and ensure the webhook is configured correctly. You should be on the 'Action Details' page of your Patch setup.
Make sure you’ve copied the Zapier webhook URL from your Zapier account. Paste this URL into the "Webhook URL" field in Dispatch, and choose a descriptive name for your webhook to easily identify it later.
Click the 'Test' button in Dispatch to send a test payload to Zapier. This verifies that Dispatch is properly connected to Zapier. You should see a confirmation message indicating that the data was sent successfully. If you don’t see this message, check that the Zapier webhook URL is correctly pasted and that your internet connection is stable.
To wrap things up, ensure the webhook is properly connected and configure the action in Notion.
Return to your Zapier tab and click "Test trigger".
If successful, you'll see the sample webhook payload with example data from Dispatch.
If you don't see the payload, double-check your Dispatch setup and try sending the test payload again.
Click "Continue with selected record".
Map the incoming data from Dispatch to the appropriate Notion database properties:
When you’re done mapping the data, your Zap setup should look something like this:
Tip: Ensure that the field names in your Notion database match exactly with the ones you're mapping in Zapier.
Return to Dispatch and give your Patch a name (e.g., "USDC activity on Base").
Click the "Turn Patch on" button.
Once both your Zap and Patch are activated, your Notion database should start populating with data.
Tip: Experiment with different chart types (bar, line, pie) to find the best visualization for your data.
Now that you've got the basics down, let's explore some cool ways to take your cross-chain monitoring to the next level:
Set up new Patches for other networks like Arbitrum, Polygon, Ethereum, and Optimism.
Tip: You can easily copy the existing Patch and change the network and Patch name for each new setup.
Apply the same webhook URL for all Patches to ensure data from every network flows into your Notion database seamlessly.
Create various views and charts in Notion to compare USDC activity across all the networks you're monitoring. This will help you visualize and analyze cross-chain transactions effectively.
By using Dispatch to create data streams for on-chain activity, you've built a powerful USDC monitoring system without writing complex queries or creating subgraphs. This approach not only saves time but also allows for quick iterations as your needs evolve.
We encourage you to experiment with this dashboard and customize it to fit your specific requirements. Consider monitoring for balance changes, tracking other tokens, or integrating this data with other tools in your workflow.
If you found this tutorial helpful and want to explore more automations, sign up for a free Dispatch account.