Node operator survey

Ecosystem Economics
1

TL;DR:

The Pocket Network Foundation (PNF) is conducting a survey to demystify the current economics of node operation, to better inform economic policies and upgrades that will reduce node operating costs and make Pocket’s supply-side more efficient. As this is overlapping with our research on web3 infrastructure tokenomics, 1kx will support in conducting the survey and evaluating the responses.

Motivation:

To remain competitive, Pocket Network relies on its node operators to find the most efficient setup while still providing high-quality RPC service. However, as a decentralized network, the information about the economics of node operation is siloed between different node operators, who don’t often have an incentive to share the economic details of their setups with their fellow node operators. This puts Pocket at a disadvantage relative to centralized RPC providers who have full knowledge about the cost base for all areas of their stack with which to optimize their ROI and plan resource allocation.

This survey aims to demystify the current economics of node operation of the Pocket Network, to better inform economic policies and upgrades that will reduce node operating costs and make Pocket’s supply-side more efficient.

Specification:

The survey seeks to understand your perspective as a node operator and to demystify the economics of your setups.

Any response received via this survey will be CONFIDENTIAL. Identities will not be shared with anyone except for the surveyors, which is

The data we collect will be anonymized and aggregated before being published to the community to aid with economic policy discussions and strategy formulation. Any information that could be used to reverse engineer your identity will not be disclosed. If not indicated otherwise, we will delete your inputs after aggregating all responses (target date 30/09/2023)

Links/process:

We would like your input by 31/07/2023.

It is a detailed survey, out of necessity, so we appreciate your efforts in answering these questions:

We’re also offering individual calls where we will talk through and fill the survey questions with you, if this would be preferred. In case you’d like to setup a call, please reach out to Robert.

2 Likes
2

I’m somewhat confused, I thought that this survey was going to be conducted by PNF and be for their eyes only. Is there some kind of agreement between you and PNF? I would like to hear it directly from them in that case.

It s already a sensitive subject the disclosure of node running services economic data, adding a third party to this will generate even more friction IMO.

P.S. Please use standard date format (DD/MM/YYYY)

1 Like
3

PNF pulled 1kx in to collaborate on the survey effort because they reached out to us separately to express interest in doing a survey as part of their economics research into DePIN networks (they were unaware of our efforts). To be clear, they are not just third-party researchers, they are also stakeholders in Pocket and so they have an interest in helping us with our efforts to demystify the economics and optimize the supply-side.

PNF does not have the bandwidth to conduct the survey process ourselves so we appreciate the support from Robert and Peter (who will be the only members of 1kx who see the survey data).

3 Likes