@PoktNews I think my main takeaway here is that Shannon is built on the COSMOS stack and that opens a whole world of building opportunities when it comes to building tools + SDKs for the new protocol.
For anyone tuning in, there’s a lot of opportunity to build tools for the protocol, and @shane listed a few in the call. On our end, we’ve got ERA budget available for building these tools. As a community we should be thinking about what tools are crucial to have as we move into the summer, and a much hotter market than we have over the last few years.
My question is what will we be upset we didn’t build if we hit another bull market? Are they defi tools, are they smart(er) wallets, are they ways to engage with NFTs or other culture-focused movements?
This is an opportunity to fund some of these things and take a few ‘moonshots’ as it were in anticipation of what could set us up for success, and i’d love people to start thinking about & pitching those ideas.
Currently, for every one POKT burned by gateways, 135 POKT is minted for nodes. This setup could lead to self-dealing, with Gateways potentially directing traffic to their own nodes for a 13,000% gain. Crazy!
But the burn-to-mint ratio isn’t all bad, as it creates a staking economy where stakers can earn up to 9%. This incentivizes holders to lock up their POKT.
But we are a long way away from 25 billion daily relays at Shannon launch. Having a 1:1 Burn/Mint ratio with only 400 million relays currently, stakers would receive significantly reduced rewards, which would essentially kill the staking economy.
How do we roll out Shannon with an economic model that ticks all the boxes – permissionless gateways, self-dealing checks, and staking rewards that keep stakers from day one?
One proposed solution to solve it is “Useful QoS” (working title), proposed by @shane.
Useful QoS:
Useful QoS is about penalizing nodes that are not useful for app/gateways. If a node can’t operate in a manner that is useful for apps and gateways it is jailed. Gateways are incentivized to find the best nodes and nodes are incentivized to meet their quality requirements.
Useful QoS would:
- Distribute rewards equally to all nodes in a session, eliminating the incentive for Gateways to target own nodes.
- Jail nodes that constantly perform poorly or do not perform at all in multiple sessions.
It would also delay rewards for 6 sessions to ensure that only useful nodes are rewarded. This delay allows the network to identify and penalize underperforming nodes before rewards are distributed.
A more inclusive reward model is also being explored. The model would introduce a revenue stream for data sources (the clients or the underlying chains that nodes connect to). For example, Polygon Foundation would receive a portion of the rewards generated from Polygon’s traffic.
This would incentivize Chain foundations to integrate with POKT and ensures they benefit from their own developments and maintenance efforts. It would also incentivize new Data Sources on POKT.
Shannon:
– Shannon’s private testnet has launched. Focus is on establishing the basics of Shannon. Tests are already ongoing, with some suppliers submitting claims.
– Public testnet scheduled for April.
Morse Update:
– SPACE proposal approved by the DAO. This allows us to increase the block size and also increase the amount of relays required to submit a claim to reduce bloat.
So initially, POKT aimed to let devs access decentralized RPC via an SDK to interact with Ethereum. Due to early SDK challenges, the Pocket Portal (the first Gateway) was launched as a temporary fix.
Why? Because Web3 often struggles with poor UX, complex onboarding, slow updates, and unpredictable costs—issues not found in centralized Web2 services. POKT tackles these with Gateways.
Typically, services have a simple setup: users interact with a UX layer that connects to a backend. POKT’s Gateways enhance this structure with customizable interfaces, letting users tailor their experience.
Gateways serve as real businesses within the UX layer, linking users to the network with services similar to centralized systems but more robust and adaptable.
In the Shannon upgrade, Gateways will be fully on-chain and permissionless, allowing anyone to set one up without PNF’s permission. Shannon will also introduce tools and features to simplify life for new Gateway operators.