PEP-51: Cryptocorn Asks for Reimbursement of Energies (CARE)

Author(s): Cryptocorn

Recipient(s): Cryptocorn

Category: Reimbursement

Related Proposals: PEP-44: Stake Weighted Servicer Rewards: R&D Reimbursement (300k POKT- approved), PUP-22: FREN, PUP-29: ACCURATE

Asking Amount: 120,000 $POKT (~$700/month for 12 months)

# Summary

A reimbursement request for a year’s work, including 2 passed written proposals, Pocket debates, hundreds of hours of Pocket education & defense, 1000+ tweets and #PoktopusArmy participation.

# Abstract

@Cryptocorn, I hope you are getting paid by the DAO for all the work you put in.” - Vitaly/Srndptme

“Cryptocorn needs to get paid yo ’-Ethen

Over the last year, I have spent roughly 1000 hours working for or helping Pocket Network. This covers a wide variety of activities, from starting the debate to reduce inflation post WAGMI that ended up in the FREN proposal I co-wrote, to speaking at town halls and more recently co-authoring the passed ACCURATE proposal and forwarding the SER proposal. The majority of my time has been promoting, educating and defending Pocket, in Telegram, Discord, the Forums and on Twitter.

While my ‘day job’ is working for a company in the ecosystem, the work I do to help Pocket Network is out of scope of my day job and I do it on my own time. While it’s hard to accurately count and bill hours as some of this time is engaging in normal conversation in ‘The Den’, I have requested a little over ⅓ of what MSA was reimbursed for his work over several months on the PUP-22 and related proposals, and even conservatively counting, I am requesting a dollar amount which would amount to a fraction of minimum wage per hour spent.

# Motivation

Hi! I’m Alex, better known as Cryptocorn. I first bought POKT in November ‘21, started modding for poktpool that December and took a full time job with the pool in April 2022.

My background: I have a degree in Economics & Sociology and a Masters in Chinese Foreign Policy. I spent 10 years running a consumer electronics company in China (we were Made for Apple certified, launched the world’s first solar powered wireless speakers, a successful Kickstarter with 4k+ unique backers and reviews on BBC, Wall Street Journal, Daily Mirror, Engadget, Techcrunch etc etc). I later ran a Fintech/Insurtech that raised an investment round, sold to multiple Fortune 100 companies, gained a full US Utility patent under my name, built video games and launched products on both the App and Play stores.

Within the Pocket community, I’ve co-authored 2 passed proposals, arranged and spoken at multiple open calls/town halls, written overviews, gained a vote and participated in governance and (as part of my day job) co-create the weekly poktpool infographics breaking down governance for the community.

Most notably and controversially I have been an unapologetic defender of Pocket against the multitude of trolls, FUDders and trash talkers. At the same time, I try to educate and engage with those who have valid concerns who want to discuss negative aspects of the project.

I have spent hundreds of hours attempting to educate both our own community and the wider world about Pocket and its workings. Pocket is difficult to understand - I’m still learning - and it’s hard to follow the myriad of governance proposals unless you are involved in the project on a daily basis. Bringing the wider community in to understand Pocket proposals and updates allows for people to feel more confident in their holding/hodling of POKT which should financially benefit the community.


While I am happy to volunteer some time to helping Pocket succeed, I believe that given the amount of work I have committed to the ecosystem, I should be rewarded in some fashion.

I do work for poktpool and so am paid for my time promoting poktpool. This request is only for time spent outside of my work for the pool.

To note:

  1. In my previous career, when I would consult for insurance companies/banks, my billable rate was $300 an hour / $1200 a day. (happy to send invoices to a trusted community member to back this up with invoice evidence).
  2. Given the hours I’ve put towards Pocket and the requested USD amount, I am asking for significantly less than minimum wage in the US/UK.
  3. MSA was rewarded 300,000 POKT under PEP-44. This proposal asks for 120,000 POKT for more hours inputted.

#Needs Being Met

While I’m certainly not a ‘gigabrain’ who has committed highly technical or economic theory like MSA, PoktBlade, Shane, Ramiro or others, I’d like to believe that I have had a meaningful impact on Pocket and the community at large, and my time spent working through proposals and educating helps Pocket Network financially - having been instrumental in lowering inflation by 85% and bringing trust in the future of Pocket Network…

  • Proposals dealing with inflation were some of the most impactful we have had in Pocket.
  • I’ve written multiple proposals around Demand/Supply cap/Burn that have not been publicly released, but have hopefully helped demand side thinking and surfaced information that I have disseminated into the community.
  • People deal with the low price of POKT in different ways. Unfortunately some go on the attack, blaming the Pocket team or outright harassing them. It helps to both calmly explain more nuanced issues to members to deal with their frustration, or make a spirted defense if education/reason fails. I believe I am one of, if not the most active members in doing this in the public channels.

# Budget

A one off 120,000 POKT reimbursement for time spent helping the Pocket Network. (~10,000 POKT per month of work).

# Rationale

I have asked for a little over ⅓ of what MSA was granted for his work, but at a significantly lower cost per hour, which is under minimum wage. I appreciate my contribution to Pocket should not be compensated anywhere near the level of the engineers and developers, my request is for a 95% discount on a per hourly charge: ~$7/hr

The PNI has recently requested 45M POKT to increase their employees compensation from the current average of 400k each. This request is for less than ⅓ of the team’s average before they receive significant increases from PEP-49, which I support.

I’d like to believe that I have demonstrated that I am a passionate believer in Pocket Network. This request is hopefully an acknowledgement of the energy and time I’ve put into helping in a small way contributing to build the project. The points above should give credence to the fact that I am primarily motivated to help Pocket because I believe in it, the monetary compensation is a small amount of the opportunity cost of the time put in, I do so because I want the project to succeed.

# Dissenting Opinions

“It’s too much money”

*I’m requesting a little over ⅓ of the budget given to MSA for his work in PEP-44. While I appreciate my contribution is worth far less than his on a per hour basis- i’ve reflected that in the significant lower amount of POKT asked for, for many more hours engagement.

“Don’t you work for Pocket?”

  • I work for potkpool, a private company in the ecosystem. My contributions to Pocket Network are done on my own free time and outside of my work for poktpool. Additionally, I am a member of ‘GRIP’, and as such can bill some hours of work to Pocket Network for my work there. I am yet to receive payment for any work at GRIP and I did not include my work or (future) compensation for GRIP in this proposal. I have received 2 Dework bounties under the IDEAS program and an approved short form content submission. This work and hours spent was also not included in the above.

“You just hang out in the socials, you should do that for free.”

  • I’d certainly agree that chatting with Pocket friends in the social channels is not work and shouldn’t be compensated. I however spend an awfully large amount of my time in the socials replying to questions about Pocket, educating members or defending the project where needed. Even in a more conservative count of my time spent actively working for POKT it would still amount to hundreds of hours over the last year+.

“You’ll dump the POKT on the open market, depressing price.”

  • I’ve never sold any of my $POKT and took 100% of my salary at poktpool for the first several months in only $POKT. The only time I have ‘sold’ any POKT was in an arbing strategy where I immediately bought more wtPokt with the sale proceeds. I first did this in Jan 2023.

“The DAO just spent 45M on PNI, they have nothing left!”

  • Even with the granting of 45M POKT to PNI (assuming PEP-49 goes through), the DAO would still have ~75 Million POKT left and is receiving ~70,000 POKT daily in emission rewards.

“Only technical people should be compensated.”

  • I think it’s wrong to judge that only those who contribute with technical products should be compensated. While I am in awe of some of the technical work done and have supported paying high bounties to our technical contributors, helping the community is a positive activity and I believe should be compensated to some degree. I believe that technical contributors should be paid more per hour than community helpers, but that community help is worth more than zero.

“You should call this proposal SCARE!”

  • I have to give credit to the person who reviewed this proposal and suggested the above - it’s rather good. However, if we don’t pay our contributors, they’ll stop volunteering and leave the ecosystem.

“Only forward looking work should be agreed to in advance to be paid”

  • While I have sympathy for this statement and have argued previously I think it lowers risk for both those putting in tens/hundreds/thousands of hours and the DAO, the current set up is generally to do the work and then ask for reimbursement. I am following that strategy. Discounting ~1000 hours work on a technicality would be severely demotivating.

# Deliverable(s)

Deliverables have been listed above as prior work. I expect to continue to add value to the Pocket Network in the future.

# Contributor(s)

Cryptocorn.

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.

11 Likes

I refrain from directly commenting on budgets but this is a special case because I am privy to a few things concerning @Cryptocorn

I started in H1 2022 as a casual shit poster in TG and in H2 I became more involved in the community, hopefully a bit more meaningfully. I have to admit that as a true patron of this project @Cryptocorn was “one of the” community members who encouraged me to get more constructive, as he saw shared benefits. He challenged me to do the readings and learn more about Pocket beyond just the investing side.

Just as many of us, I have a few credentials of my known and therefore I will confess that I am not the easiest to be steered (specially in this wild wild west of our space) unless done in a righteous way. And here I am, spending more and more of my personal time trying to share and learn in this community.

To anyone wondering why this is relevant to PEP-51. Well it absolutely is because it’s a strong testimony to the claims that @Cryptocorn is making about his time and efforts in the Pocket community, that are not easily measurable but have inherent value.

I have been primarily vocal on- a) Narrative building, b) Shared Mission, Values, Goals, Accountability and c) Inflation & Tokenomics. While I was not active during other initiatives, I have been partnering with @Cryptocorn and a few others on SER, and in general on the contentious subject of POKT’s tokenomics.

I would love to see @Cryptocorn incentivised and appreciated so that he stays motivated to do what he has been doing for Pocket and its community.

I support PEP-51 in my limited capacity.

6 Likes

@Cryptocorn has been a strong supporter of our protocol, and has done above and beyond what anyone would have asked. When he saw areas where he could contribute more, he didn’t hesitate to reach out.

As mentioned, he has touched many areas of our ecosystem, from community engagement and support, business support of a pool, content support of governance proposals, and of course governance supports on proposals and economics itself plus more. These are all things many of us can see first hand. He is what we should consider as a ‘Gold Standard’ contributor (and yes, there are more of you out there!).

I fully support this proposal.

7 Likes

I have seen first had the time and effort @Cryptocorn has put into helping Pocket Network and its community; hence my support for this proposal as I believe he deserves compensation for his contributions to the community as a positive force and for his dedication in educating and helping others. His actions have had a positive impact and I believe it is fair for him to be rewarded for his efforts.

7 Likes

I fully support this proposal, and am grateful for the time and energy you lend to our community.

4 Likes

Very fair proposal. I support PEP-51.

2 Likes

Having worked closely with @Cryptocorn on several proposals, I can attest to the care (no pun intended), commitment, reasoned approach and collaborative spirit he brings to his contributions. I support this proposal

3 Likes

You are one of the most valuable member of our community as such it would be interesting if the DAO compensates those members that provide value to the discussions.

I think that the requested amount is not too high and the fact that it will need to pass a DAO vote is more than enough validation of your work. What I disagree with some concepts that you slip:

Even though you address this point in the Dissenting opinions to some extent, I have the feeling that the you are still putting the technical people on a different level while you should not.
This proposal is for reimbursement in community participation, as such it will be evaluated by DAO members weighting how they feel about your contributions. If you were a technical member and gave technical advising, the DAO would evaluate your work in the same way.

7 Likes

Thank you for this thoughtful message.

3 Likes

Thank you. That’s very kind and I appreciate it :relaxed:.

I look forward to working with you and the other dedicated members well into the future.

6 Likes

Glad to see this. I support this.

I’m hoping that PNF will be able to set something up like Coordinape, so non-grant contributors can be supported in a streamlined and consistent manner. For the time being, submitting proposals is the way to go, so good on you :+1:

8 Likes

“Cryptocorn needs to get paid yo ’-Ethen

Def got my support!

4 Likes

Cryptocorns are magical and rare. I fully support taking CARE of ours. Thank you for all you do! Hope to see this proposal pass.

6 Likes

This proposal is now up for voting Snapshot

3 Likes

This proposal passed with 19 yays and 1 nay. Snapshot

4 Likes