A Definitive Circulating Supply (and Market Cap) Figure

Proposals
1

There has been a lack of consensus both internally and in our community about how we should calculate POKT’s circulating supply. This stems from a lack of consensus in the wider crypto industry about whether staking lock-ups should be included in the circulating supply. Until now, our circulating supply endpoint has been subtracting staked POKT from the total supply, even though many in our community disagree with this methodology.

Now that we are listed on several exchanges and we have a live price listing on CoinGecko (with CoinMarketCap to come), it is important that we achieve consensus on the size of our circulating supply and thus our market cap.

To resolve this open question once and for all, we are updating our circulating supply endpoint. While this is not a formal governance proposal, since there’s nothing on-chain to change, we are posting this in the governance category of the forum to invite debate and build soft consensus.

https://supply.research.pokt.network:8192/circulating

Staked tokens will now be included in the circulating supply with one exception (Staked App Tokens, explained below) and we have compiled comprehensive data about treasuries and token lock-ups, which will be excluded from the circulating supply.

These are the accounts which hold all treasuries or contractually locked tokens:

  • DAO Treasury: 6386713deb27b609daad5e2e32ee6591753e5f4e
  • Employee Pool: 48d09634b4ca1ba8e7f6a2e70aace5c6f08580ab
  • Pocket Network Inc Token Sale 1: 78efc41141dce053db497377de12bb04170b0a1e
  • PNI Token Sale 2: 408d1421bd4bdab716bfce77f395195405fa0d1a
  • Pocket Network Foundation Token Sale 1: 186afc505903e7c7aa97d5f7f1c555111e2ae2ce
  • PNF Token Sale 2: 6c2e570489dd1362a450c0cdc0b658cc0c1fe1fa
  • PNF Token Sale 3: 258f98b18dff36c58155caf6092f242760d40967

Once the changes in PUP-9 are implemented, we will also be excluding many of the current Staked App Tokens that are currently used for the Portal free tier, since the excess POKT freed up from these stakes will be returned to the Foundation treasury.

Keep in mind that this endpoint is a snapshot in time. It will tell us at any point in time how much is circulating but won’t tell us anything about the future unlock schedule. We aim to provide greater transparency on the full token unlock schedule in due course.

This definitive approach aligns with what we understand of CoinGecko’s preferred methodology, and CoinMarketCap is less strict, so we expect this endpoint to be accepted for our listings on those sites.

12 Likes
2

I agree with this, especially the point about including staked tokens.
I’d basically say: including everything is best

For the purpose of overall market cap, I’d say “Include everything”

One thing I might add is:

Including staked tokens is analogous to the way the Federal Reserve (and other central banks) calculate the M2 money supply. (source: Money Supply Definition)

Taking the analogy above, it might be useful to report everything, while splitting out circulation by what kind of activity it is facilitating.

For example, something analogous to M0:

  • Treasury
  • Employee Pool

Something analogous to M1:

  • Everything in M0
  • Any sort of de-fi activity that kicks in with wPOKT

And M2:

  • Everything in M0/M1
  • Any staked POKT

Having this sort of tiered approach would provide visibility into the whole picture and go a long way in educating, measuring, and managing all aspects of Pocket Network. More thinking for the community than CoinCecko, CoinMarketCap, etc.

3 Likes
3

Earlier today, we submitted new endpoints to CoinGecko and Coinmarketcap to update the figures for POKT’s circulating and total supply. They should go live in the next few days.

TLDR:

  1. Everything apart from the DAO’s Treasury is now included in the circulating supply. We note that many exchanges and investors actually believe that the DAO’s Treasury should be included in the circulating supply as well, but as POKTscan - and others - exclude the DAO Treasury from the circulating supply, that is what this endpoint shows. We ask the community to come to their own conclusions by reviewing the wallets listed in our official documents here.
  2. The total supply is the total supply. App stakes, DAO treasury, staked tokens, the lot. Every single POKT in existence should be accounted for.

See here for the new circulating supply endpoint and here for the new total supply endpoint.

5 Likes