PEP-13: POKTscan app

Proposals Ecosystem
1

Attributes

  • Author(s):
  • Recipient(s): Michael O’Rourke, Jorge Cuesta
  • Category: Reimbursement
  • Fulfills: Link to other PIPs/PEPs
  • Related Installments: Link to other PEPs
  • Asking Amount: The equivalent to $75,500 to cover current costs. We will be submitting incremental PEPs for the next milestones.

Summary

POKTscan (poktscan.com) is a platform that provides access to up-to-the-last block Pocket Network data via web, mobile, and API. Data is the first of a number of building blocks that will allow POKTscan to provide analytics, alerting and node management functionality. In later versions we intend to provide predictive analytics functionality for some aspects of the ecosystem.

Abstract

POKTscan intends to be the go-to platform for Pocket Network data analytics and node management. We intend to enrich the Pocket Network data with other data sources and technology to provide analytics and insight into the network performance.

POKTscan uses a parallel database that is always in-sync with Pocket. The database contains historical data dating back to genesis. The database provides full text search capabilities across all entities.

POKTscan transforms all Pocket data into better-organized structures that allow both humans and software easy access and use. During the transformation process, POKTscan filters, aggregates, and summarizes data to create new entities that contain, for example, paid relays at a block and node level, account history, app history, node history, fee history, and transfer history.

POKTscan also enriches the data by adding entities such as node geolocation to provide visibility into node distribution, and node version for consensus information. POKTscan also tracks relay errors using the Pocket gateway data.

POKTscan generates notifications for new blocks, 6hr + daily summaries, close to jail and jailed nodes. These notifications are done through web, email, and Discord integrations, and Discord bots.

POKTscan has also addressed data issues associated with API endpoints as well as correcting missing account state query endpoints.

We intend to provide:
API that will allow for other platforms to connect.
Webhooks and Notification systems such as Discord, Slack, Telegram or any other that we see are usable by the community.
User custom settings, like a list of nodes, accounts or apps to been tracked
Integration with Pocket node validation using Pocket Network tools and Discord bots.

We are targeting the needs of node-runners, investors/potential investors, the DAO, and developer et al.

From an analytics perspective and on the first phase of this project, we intend to provide comparison functionality that will analyze chain profitability, node profitability, and node-runner profitability comparisons. We intend to provide query and data download capabilities.

Motivation

We believe that the Pocket Network data aggregated and combined with other sources can be invaluable to Pocket Network stakeholders. We are enthusiastic about the possibilities and impact we can have on this and other ecosystems. We currently have a one year technology roadmap which we will use to create our three year plan by the end of 2021.

Needs Being Met

Simple access to data, data analytics, via web, mobile, api.

Budget

We have two full time resources working on POKTscan since July 2021, with part-time work starting in Jun 2021.

For phase I of this project and through October we have spent $51,500 in labor and $2000 hardware for a total of $53,500. Since the time we started working on this PEP we have burned $11.5K. Based on community suggestion, we would like to include a UX designer for two months. This will have a cost of $10K. The total ask for this phase is $75K .

We will be submitting additional incremental PEP’s for every mayor milestone.

Our burn rate is $12,500 per month. We will spend $100,000 between November 2021 and June 2022. The total expected twelve month spend is $153,500.

Rationale

We believe that two full time resources will be enough to complete this project. We also have contributors that offer their time for free.

Dissenting Opinions

TBD.

Deliverable(s)

Phase I will be available to the community on November 15.
Phase II on December 15 that will contain an external API.
Phase III on March 15 2022 will contain mobile and notifications.
Phase IV is still being planned but has a target date of Jun 15 2022.

Contributor(s)

Jorge Cuesta is a senior software architect and developer.
Michael O’Rourke is a 30 year software veteran and investor.
Both will take the lead in driving and delivering this project.

Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.

5 Likes
2

I regularly copy and paste links for key resources into our #lobby and #node runner channels in our discord. Alongside the project Docs and C0d3r’s great data visualizations, this tool has quickly become a must-have for community members to understand our network. For that reason alone, this proposal is pretty much a “sure-fire win”.

If anyone needs additional reasoning, this tool will be critical for Node Runners as they start to ramp up new chains to support up to the 15 chain limit. This is a serious R&D tool and it has the advanced functionality to help Node Runners make key operations choices. Plus the API. Poktscan unlocks a lot of data availability for the growing community.

As far as the costs to development, this is an investment that could easily produce accretive value to the ecosystem and enable others to build/research for POKT. Pocket Network Inc would spend more money scoping/building/maintaining a tool like this, so I find the cost given what is already built and what will be built is acceptable. Even more so given it is work being done in parallel to our aggressive product roll out.

2 Likes
3

I believe you mean to say “June 2022”, not “June 2021”. Is that correct?

4

I had no idea who was behind POKTScan until now, so well done to @michaelaorourke and @jorgito for a fantastic product :slight_smile:

Presumably, this would all be paid in POKT?

I’m all for this proposal but would suggest that it is paid out in milestones:

  1. $53,500 on delivery of Phase 1
  2. $X on delivery of the external API (Phase II)
  3. $Y on delivery of the mobile and other notifications (Phase III)

I’m open to thoughts from the authors as well as from the rest of the community wrt payment for phase IV. My instinct is that payment for Phase IV should only be confirmed once it is fully specc’d out. It may be the case that Phase IV is more ambitious, and requires more resources - which isn’t necessarily a bad thing - so it would seem strange to me to stick to an amount upfront before the ultimate output is known.

Rewarding community members on a retroactive basis for work done is good practice IMO.

One other question to the authors - is there more you could do with more resources? Whether that be more $ or more support - back-end, front-end, design, or otherwise - from the broader community?

4 Likes
5

I’m absolutely down for supporting and expanding this tool.

POKTscan is frequently updated and new feature are added regularly, so I am for paying their burn rate up-front. That will alleviate funding pressure each phase instead of requiring the work to be finished before being paid.

As a regular practice, I do believe it’s wise to only pay after work has been completed, but if it’s a project that has a solid track record of consistently delivering value, I think up-front pay is acceptable.

Would the payout happen prior to each phase, or is this proposal asking for payout now for all phases? That is what is not clear.

1 Like
6

100% - these tools are invaluable and an API exposed by POKTscan will slow for new tools to be built :slight_smile:

1 Like
7

Thanks for the feedback. Below comments and answers:

  1. Yes we would like to be paid in POKT. We are not opposed on a pay-per-milestone approach. If all agree, we would like to get paid the $53.5K plus an additional $11.5K ($65K total) we have burned since we did our estimates.
  2. We are working towards a milestone schedule. We will have this schedule in the next several weeks. We are working towards launching an improved version of the current UI in the next few days.
  3. At this point in time we do not need extra resources. We have two full time engineers working on this, Jorge being one of them. I have access to additional internal resources if needed. We are getting great support from the Pocket team.
  4. We intend to continue to invest in the product beyond what we have described within. We have a high-level plan we will be sharing 1Q22.
    @Jorge_POKTscan @Dermot
4 Likes
8

Thanks for the feedback. We will be working shortly to expose an API to the community. We want to make sure the backend does not choke with volume and have the right HW behind it. @Jorge_POKTscan @ArtSabintsev

1 Like
9

Thanks Shane. I would rather be paid prior to each phase, however as I’ve done to date, I can finance the development. One area that is important we cover and perhaps even separate are the HW costs. Although not implemented, we intend to have a fully redundant, monitored and balanced app. @Jorge_POKTscan @shane

10

Thanks @RichCL. One of the areas we are planning to improve is functionality that is more geared toward node-runners. Today the app provides insights into what happens within Pocket, however we have not yet implementes functionality that will make it easier to manage nodes. This will be added into the product roadmap and later scheduled. @Jorge_POKTscan

1 Like
11

POKTScan has become an invaluable resource for everyone in the community; I know that on my team we consult it multiple times per day to get a handle on different aspects of chain performance.

One caveat I’d like to see included before a vote is that if the hosting of POKTScan becomes too much of a burden or you intend to sunset the service, that the code be made open source or transferred to the DAO so that it could continue operation on another domain.

2 Likes
12

I would suggest adding one more – a UX designer or consultant – and I would encourage an increase in the grant amount requested if necessary to support this. I believe the new home page I’ve previewed on the alpha version is a step backwards in terms of presentation even if it is a huge step forwards in functionality.

1 Like
13

Thanks @AlexF. We do not intend to sunset poktscan. If there is a need support financial or otherwise, we will reach out to the community. We are fully committed to keeping and enriching poktscan for the the community. @Jorge_POKTscan

1 Like
14

Thanks @AlexF know that usability and design are basic. I would take your suggestion and increase the grant amount to focus earlier on the UX. @Jorge_POKTscan

2 Likes
15

Echoing the above points

We use POKTScan all of the time.

Retroactive Funding is a nice standard we are setting in our community.

Milestones make sense and I am excited to see the expanded vision document in 2022.

I would not object to you appending for the additional 11.5k of burn since the proposal began.

If you feel comfortable sharing, do you and your team also run nodes?

1 Like
16

@Patrick727 I run 1 node currently under overlordyorch.com domain.

1 Like
17

@michaelaorourke do you want to edit the proposal to include the increased amount for the UX (as suggested by NachoNodes)?

Let me know once you’ve edited the proposal (or if you opt not to) and I’ll put the proposal up for voting.

18

+1 on UX. It can make a big difference. More pokt for better UX and design would be money well spent IMO

19

I’m a big fan of poktscan in its current state, and in some of the future features I’ve heard @jorgito speak of. I support this initiative.

20

@Jinx thanks for those words. My user is @Jorge_POKTscan

1 Like