PEP 68: Blockworks Research DePIN Report Co-Sponsorship

Proposals Ecosystem
1

Name:

PEP 68: Blockworks Research DePIN Report Co-Sponsorship

Attributes

Author(s): Ren Yu Kong, Senior Research Analyst - Blockworks Research

Recipient(s): Blockworks Research

Category: Contract

Asking Amount: $20,000 in stablecoins if the proposal is passed

Summary

We are proposing that Blockworks Research provides POKT DAO the opportunity to co-sponsor a general DePIN report. This would allow POKT Network to gain valuable exposure to our research subscriber base and the wider Blockworks audience. More importantly, this offers POKT Network the ability to reach a new audience (both crypto native and non-crypto), and to further establish themselves as a DePIN thought leader.

Problem

DePIN as a sector has shown lackluster growth in terms of real world demand, sustainable profitability, and optimal GTM strategy. However, many projects are cognizant of these dynamics and are actively working towards crafting innovative and sustainable solutions.

There are a few projects, such as POKT Network, that have managed to turn the tide and launch new products, fix tokenomics issues, and more. However, there has traditionally been a communication gap between what projects were last cycle, and what they have transformed into today. The goal of this PEP is to kickstart the process of minimizing that communication gap.

Solution

We will be publishing a DePIN report in late March/early April that covers Blockworks Research’s thoughts on the DePIN sector. The report will include sections such as

  • What is DePIN?
  • What are the critical implications and opportunities in DePIN?
  • Supply and demand side of DePIN
  • Optimal DePIN GTM strategy

We wanted to give the POKT DAO the opportunity to place its brand on an industry-leading DePIN thought-leadership piece and fuel the general interest in POKT Network.

This report will be distributed to a wide crypto native audience through the Blockworks Newsletters (200K+ readers), our social accounts (450K+ followers), our research platform, and other external platforms including but not limited to Factset and Refinitiv, which will amplify the reports reach.

Contributor(s)

Ren Yu Kong - Senior Research Analyst, Blockworks Research

Deliverable(s)

  • Blockworks Research will write a research report covering the Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) sector, to be published in 2024 at a pre-agreed upon date with the Sponsor.
  • Sponsor’s name and/or logo will be included on the report landing page with acknowledgment that the report has been unlocked by the Sponsor; Sponsor acknowledges that other Sponsors may be included in the same report up to a maximum of three total Sponsors.
  • Inclusion of POKT network, where appropriate/on an earned basis, within the report.
  • Report will be unlocked and placed in front of our paywall on the research platform.
  • Report will be uploaded on Factset and Refinitiv under the Blockworks Research account.
  • Report will be linked within a section in our Blockworks Research newsletter for a minimum of one day.
  • POKT Network will be tagged in the report announcement tweet/thread on X (formerly Twitter), and said tweet/thread will be amplified across Blockworks’ socials.

Budget

We’re proposing $20,000 in USDC for co-sponsorship of the DePIN report, to be paid upon a Snapshot vote passing for the above services.

Dissenting Opinions

Price is too high

As we’re headed into a bull market, with DePIN being a forefront narrative amongst both retail and institutional investors, it is critical that projects are able to generate general brand awareness and establish their unique selling proposition. As one of crypto’s largest media and information platforms, Blockworks has one of the best distribution networks in crypto, with an audience at every stage of the information funnel, and ranging from deeply crypto-native individuals to new retail participants.

Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0 .

4 Likes
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Thank you for sharing this, @kongrenyu!

I’ve been speaking with Ren and the team at Blockworks for a little while now and saw Ren’s thoughtful approach and questions first hand when he moderated our DePIN panel at the recent event in Denver.

IMO this would be a great platform for us to share more of our experience and point of view within the broader DePIN narrative. The timing should work well as we begin to ramp up awareness towards Shannon and it will fit with the broader media strategy that we’re working on with Serotonin (more to follow soon!).

Thank you for bringing it to the DAO. :slight_smile:

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3

This proposal is now up for voting on Snapshot

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4

Tentatively, I’m for this proposal. I realize that it has already moved to a vote; however, it would have been helpful if we had some information about what we are expecting to gain from this spend. And better to have that information late than not at all.

I gather from the few comments that the intent here is to (finally) have a DePIN-related report that features POKT front and center, and I’m on board with that. But I do have some questions that hopefully @Adrienne can answer -

  1. How are we measuring the success of this initiative? Page clicks? Tweet impressions? Some other metric?

  2. How does this fit into the broader media strategy you mentioned? I think it would be helpful to know the high-altitude overview here, as it would help inform our votes.

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5

What does “earned” basis mean? Is it synonymous with “where appropriate”? Or are those different criteria? Please clarify what is meant by “inclusion” here. And is it possible that POKT will not be mentioned in the report?

How prominently will the name & logo be displayed? If there are other Sponsors, who gets first billing?

Are the other Sponsors potentially POKT competitors? And don’t you mean “included on” (the landing page) - not “in” - the report?

This looks like a $20K ask to have POKT’s name and/or logo appear on a report landing page with an acknowledgment that the report has been unlocked by the Sponsor (possibly alongside names & logos of two more Sponsors) and POKT’s tagging in the report announcement on X (presumably together with the tagging of up to two more Sponsors).

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6

Hey zaatar! Appreciate the comment and these are great questions.

“Earned basis” does mean where appropriate. We want the inclusion of POKT in the report to be as organic as possible, for example, that could be where POKT can be utilized as a case study to drive home certain points and arguments we are trying to make in this report. To set expectations, what it won’t be is a full length deep dive about all of POKT’s products and the technicalities/future plans/etc in the report.

None of the current sponsors are POKT competitors and we can guarantee that there will be no POKT competitors that are also sponsoring this report. Other co-sponsors will be included on the “landing page” (cover image, announcement tweets, etc) and may also be talked about/referenced in the report to a similar extent and nature as POKT.

Hope that answers your questions!

1 Like
7

It sounds like POKT will be discussed, however briefly, in the report on Blockworks Research’s thoughts on the DePIN sector. Please confirm.

Since the report is coming out next week or shortly thereafter (“end of March, beginning of April”), you must know by now what’s in it. Can you tell us what aspects of POKT it discusses, or if that’s under wraps till publication, how many lines of copy are devoted to POKT?

(The vote is pretty close at this point: 6 in favor, 4 against.)

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There might be a lot of things going on currently within the network and the DAO at large but I think this would play well into the whole marketing efforts especially considering we are gearing for a tier 1 listing…

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Hi zaatar,

Confirming that POKT will be discussed, however briefly, in the report, if this proposal is approved by the DAO.

As of right now (and this is up to change for full transparency), POKT will be discussed in two areas. The first is the DAO being very active in inflation/emission discussions and successfully lowering emission rates, and the second is DePIN specifically built for crypto-native use cases (e.g. RPCs).

3 Likes