Gate.io AMA with POKT-Open Access to Any Blockchain

Time: Feb 10th, 2022, 13:00 UTC
Gate.io hosted an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) session with Adam Liposky,COO of POKT in the Gate.io Exchange Community.
Official Website: https://www.pokt.network/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/POKTnetwork
Follow POKT on Telegram and Discord

Guest

Adam Liposky — COO of POKT

Q&A from Gate.io

Q1: So let’s start by knowing your project. Can you give a brief introduction of Pocket Network, you, the team and tech?

Adam: Pocket is a decentralized protocol for incentivizing full node operators to support any blockchain. Much like our network we have a global, diverse and distributed team, with hubs in North America and South America and node runners all around the world.

Since our mainnet launch in July 2020, we have served billions of “relays” across our customers of 30+ blockchain mainnets & testnets. We are trusted by some of the most used tools/projects in the Ethereum ecosystem, such as EthersJs, Scaffold.Eth and MyCrypto, as well as by Blockchain Foundations themselves such as Harmony, IoTeX and others.

And Integrations with Algorand, Solona, Avalanche and a lot of other well-known protocols and DApps.

Q2: So how did it all start? Why was Pocket Network founded? What is the goal of Pocket?

Adam: Our goal is to do Web3 Infrastructure the right way, so that the vision of a more fair and inclusive ownership economy is secured for decades to come. Pocket Network was founded after identifying a centralized bottleneck in the DApp development tech stack, where Ethereum was relying heavily on a single service SaaS provider to provide accurate API data. Like a lot of crypto projects they are decentralized at the protocol level but rely heavily on centralized service providers to fetch data - we solve for full decentralization meaning the software and how it is hosted and DApps administration also becomes decentralized. 100% uptime!

We are already a key part of the multi-chain world servicing much of the crypto industry and growing fast.

Q3: And so now let’s move on to tokenomics. What is your token economics and what are its advantages in terms of utility and allowing the network to grow?

Adam: In the last 90 days developers have routed ~16+ billion relays. Which means the network generated over $215+ million in total protocol revenue and distributed 89% to node runners. Pocket generated approximately $191M USD for node operators in total token incentives in the month of January.

On one side of the protocol App Developers stake POKT in order to gain access to an allotted amount of API calls (relays) in perpetuity. If they decide to leave the network, they can unstake and resell that POKT on an open-market. This brings their costs to near 0 over time compared to a consistent (likely increasing) monthly bill over time.

This means that there is no sunk cost. POKT turns infrastructure into an asset.

On the other side of the protocol, Node Runners stake POKT in order to participate in serving the network. Node Runners must provide quality of service to the blockchains networks they choose in order to be rewarded for their service.

Q4: And I also noted that Pocket is listed as No. 2 revenue generating protocol on Token Terminal. How did Pocket achieve this? What differentiates you from the others?

Adam: Pocket achieved this through achieving its protocol/market fit this past year by being the leader in decentralized multi-chain infrastructure.

Pocket differentiates from the others because it provides a base level, fundamental need to all blockchains, RPC node data. Pocket Network runs full nodes so in actual fact can be a service provider to them. In addition, most of these projects are not built to support the medium/small size blockchains or new chains at their launch, which Pocket is perfectly positioned for. As a recent example, Pocket Network is the default infrastructure provider and launch partner for Evmos, which is the first EVM compatible chain in the Cosmos IBC ecosystem.

There are some important nuances in how the numbers are ranked though our on-chain metrics speak for themselves and exponential growth over the last 6 months is testament to our team and natural need for our place in the industry.

Q5: And looking into the future. What does Pocket look like 1 year from now? Describe the future of the token liquidity, industry expansion and product.

Adam: We expect Pocket Network in the next year to process many billions of relays per day, right now we are doing 1 Billion per week and still growing rapidly, this also translates into real revenue and accrued value for our holders.

We expect that liquidity channels will open up as our protocol becomes more undeniable in terms of industry utility, where we are replacing middlemen with middleware and continue to eat up the inherent inefficiencies in the current way the crypto industry is supported by cloud computing and hosting providers. Being cheaper, faster, better is a winning formula that we will continue to execute and scale.

As far as the product, this a bit longer timeline, but the current research is aiming for Pocket Network to have the ability to support trillions to quadrillions of relays, across million+ nodes - there is no conceptual limit to Pocket Network, it just will take careful engineering to scale correctly but The future is exciting and we have all the right things in place.