Weekly Relay Recap #6
Over the last week (11/26 to 12/02), the Pocket Network has served 26,156,492 relays, the Pocket team introduced wPOKT, and much more!
Since the mainnet launch, Pocket Network node operators have served and validated over 440M relays (API requests) from both Ethereum applications and native Pocket applications.
We are getting even closer to the half a billion total relay running count!
Weekly Relay Recap
11/05 to 11/11: 56,003,358
11/12 to 11/18: 56,015,150
11/19 to 11/25: 29,496,660
11/26 to 12/02: 26,156,492
For the week of 11/26 to 12/02, the average relays per day were 3,736,641.71 M relays per day.
Total Relays from 11/05 to 12/02
167,671,660.00
AVG Relays Per Day (11/05 to 12/02)
5,988,273.57
AVG Relays Per Week (11/05 to 12/02)
41,917,915
Over the last four weeks, applications using the Pocket Gateway have driven a total of ~167.671 million requests.
In this timeframe, that means nodes have minted a total of 1,676,716.6POKT, with 89% going to the service nodes (1,492,277.77 POKT), 10% going to the Pocket DAO (167,671.66 POKT), and 1% going to the block producers (16,767.166 POKT).
187,169,314.00
AVG Relays Per Day in NOV
6,238,977.13
AVG Relays per Week in NOV
43,672,839.93
Most Relays in NOV
8,748,736
In the month of November, applications using the Pocket Gateway have driven a total of 187,169,314 million requests. Since 0.01 POKT is minted for every relay served and validated that means nodes have minted a total of 1,871,693.14POKT, with 89% going to the service nodes (1,665,806.90 POKT), 10% going to the Pocket DAO (187,169.31 POKT), and 1% going to the block producers (18,716.93 POKT).
Total Staked Nodes
597 (-74)
For the latest month to month total relay comparison, check out the latest issue of our monthly newsletter.
Analysis by Alberto | @DisruptBanksy
Node count went down by 74 Pocket Nodes this week. This has been correlated with a decrease in the average relays per day seen over the last two weeks. Less relays = less POKT rewards.
However, the opposite is true too:
More relays = more POKT rewards = more nodes.
So, what happened? One of the applications using Pocket removed our load-balanced Pocket Gateway endpoint because of the additional latency.
Pocket Network is a permissionless protocol that connects applications pseudo-randomly with a global network of full nodes. With this randomness, any of the five nodes an application is connected to in a session may be on the other side of the globe.
If an app were to connect to Pocket Network directly, then it would only experience an extra 10ms of latency because of the additional hop. That isn’t a big deal for most applications. However, most of our applications use Pocket Gateway, our centralized “switchboard operator” that abstracts the network behind a single load-balanced endpoint. Using the Gateway instead of a direct integration adds an extra hop, which means what may take .5 seconds with Infura might take .8 to 1.2 seconds with the Pocket Gateway.
At least right now, there’s a tradeoff between performance and the benefits provided by Pocket Network (resilience, censorship-resistance, and cost-minimization). Pocket’s performance will continue to improve as more and more protocol upgrades are approved by the DAO and refinements are made to the Pocket Gateway. We expect latency to be on par with legacy centralized providers, and then even better, as the protocol and ecosystem tooling improves throughout the next year.
We’ve already seen improvements with Pocket Core RC-0.5.1 and the Pocket Core RC-0.5.2 protocol release candidate is slated to come out of beta soon. This will bring about performance upgrades, especially around resource allocation and distribution. With RC-0.5.2, node operators will be receiving a nice QoL improvement, too. They’ll be able to log relay errors, which will help them diagnose and debug their node operation(s). (Side note: We are also getting ready to publish our Zero to Node video tutorials, which will help establish a baseline quality of service across all of our node operators)
For more details on RC-0.5.1 and RC-0.5.2, see the Pocket Core section under Developer Updates in the November newsletter.
We are confident that these upgrades will enable the Pocket Network protocol to handle more than 100M relays per day and the upcoming Pocket Core RC-0.6.0 protocol upgrade in early 2021 is sure to surpass this.
While the engineering team prepares these upgrades, the rest of us are tending the garden so that this next growth phase will be sustained and lasting.
Web3 Apps
After the public release of RC-0.5.2, we’ll be able to open the floodgates for application requests. There’s a handful of applications across several blockchains in the pipeline that have expressed interest in using Pocket Network in their development stack.
Developer Tools
There are two developer tools that are going to be using Pocket Network.
EthersJS: Pocket will be added to the default list of Ethereum network providers in EthersJS. The SDK load-balances work by taking all the free tiers from node providers and rotating them evenly for developers.
The PR was actually submitted already, and we’ve gotten confirmation that the repo owner will approve and merge it when we are ready. We created a “free tier” by staking POKT on behalf of Ethereum developers. It’s expected to drive anywhere between 5M to 10M relays per day!
Web3API: You may have also noticed an announcement on Twitter from an exciting new Web3 integration standard. We can’t wait to work with them to improve the Web3 developer experience!
Blockchains (NetworkIDs)
As more blockchains are officially whitelisted, Pocket Network will be able to support an increasingly diverse set of web3 applications and to unlock new revenue streams for the node operators serving those applications.
Here’s a recent proposal to whitelist the Ethereum Archival NetworkID.
By serving the long-tail of blockchains (and layer 2 solutions), as well as their respective applications and developer tools, we expect to capture the API request markets that lack mature node infrastructure providers.
wPOKT: A Data Farming Program
We’ve introduced an exciting specification for wrapped POKT ($wPOKT), a fully collateralized wrapped representation of the Pocket Network’s native cryptocurrency POKT, and a novel yield farming program (Data Farming) that would kickstart app adoption of Pocket Network by incentivizing Ethereum users to stake wPOKT (subsidize application stakes) on behalf of their favorite Ethereum applications.
An Ethereum bridge between POKT and wrapped POKT (wPOKT) will create a virtuous growth cycle for Pocket Network. wPOKT would tap into Ethereum’s composable DeFi ecosystem, bringing greater programmability and liquidity to POKT, while simultaneously funding a free tier for Apps.
For more details, read the wPOKT introduction in our Discourse forum.
What can you do to drive relays and add nodes to the network?
Join the Discord to play POKT Arcade, the gamification layer of our community server. Through participating in path-orientated quests, you’ll learn the ins and outs by interacting with the protocol/ecosystem.
Use any of these apps listed in this forum post (you can also earn a skill for dogfooding apps).
Last week, we highlighted MetaMask. This week we choose to feature ERCGraph:
ERCGraph is a real-time historic graph showing ERC20 transfers across the Ethereum Network. It leverages MetaMask and Pocket Network to get the ERC20 data, as well as, the Graph to fetch Uniswap, Sushi Swap, and Balancer pool information. Plus, ENS to reverse lookup addresses.
It would be an excellent tool to add to your arsenal, especially if you are a data researcher/enthusiast. Imagine tracking the flow of ERC20s from a hacker’s address going into DEXs next time there is another CEX hack.
Explore here → ERCGraph
Don’t know how to run a node? Don’t worry, a community of node operators has you covered.
Check out the forum for a list of node providers offering their services to people interested in participating in the ecosystem.
When you are ready to take the step forward in supporting decentralized node infrastructure and earning Pocket’s native cryptocurrency POKT for serving application requests then visit the community-established OTC run by Subzero, which is the best way to buy or sell POKT and helps nodes cover the cost of their infrastructure. Join the private telegram channel (requires telegram) and message the admin to get started. Note that there are fees associated with the OTC to help cover their costs and that neither Pocket Network, Inc., the Pocket DAO, nor the Pocket Foundation receives any of these fees nor any proceeds from the sale of POKT through the OTC.
Connect with Pocket:
🦜 Follow Pocket on Twitter at @POKTnetwork
💬 Chat with the Pocket team and community in Discord
🏗️ Get started with running a node or deploying an app
🛰️ Sign up for the 1M Relay waitlist