Hi Pocket Network Community,
This is Taha Abbasi, I serve as the CSO at Ferrum Network leading our engineering teams and business strategy as well. I’m writing this update with Nick Odio our EVP of Partnerships and Growth on behalf of the Ferrum Network team.
As supporters of interoperability and a multichain world, we are always in favor of more ways to allow value and data interoperability. So we commend this proposal. We would like to take this opportunity to share some updates that may help shed some light on the progress of the Pocket Network bridge that Ferrum has been building.
Communication
Let's start by addressing a core issue which is communication. Communication issues are generally at the core of the most frustrating experiences. In this case, we believe the lack of communication and updates shared with the Pocket Community has amplified concerns and left the community looking for answers that no one seems to be answering. We will take full responsibility for this from Ferrum Network's side. We have been in regular weekly communication with the Pocket Network team, with weekly calls, progress updates, and tasks both from technical and operational standpoints.We are strong believers, and supporters of the mission Pocket Network is set out to do, which is why our first Pocket Network payment was staked to run nodes on the network. In that same essence, we understand from the conversations with the stakeholders on the Pocket Network team that there is a prioritization regarding marketing and communication from Pocket Network's side. Currently, there is a major update coming to the Pocket Core, and all communication, updates as well as initiatives are directed towards that effort. This is something we are also very excited about as supporters of Pocket Network. However, we feel that this is an area we can step up and support the Pocket Network team by directly posting updates in the forum and chats of the Pocket Community rather than communicating in private groups.
Progress
The Bridge and Pocket Core
After almost a year of effort, we are now submitting our PR to the core for all the updates finalized and demo'ed to the Pocket Network stakeholders last week. The demo included a functioning Bridge Pool Module as well as a Fee Distributor Module with the ability to Add Liquidity, Remove Liquidity, Initiate Swaps, Withdrawals, Setup mapping of POKT to ERC20 versions on Polygon, BSC, Ethereum, and any other network POKT decides to go live on in the future. This means that all the module work related to core functionality is now complete.In the PR, we'll include all the detail regarding the architectural approach, the reasons for choosing to update and extend the core vs off-chain solutions, and all of the code for the update. Per the guidance of the Pocket Network team, after the PR is created it will be sent for DAO approval before merging.
Security Concerns and Scope Adjustment
When we initially engaged with Pocket Network on the integration the scope did not include updating the core simply because this would have been a much larger undertaking than integrating with Ferrum's node Infrastructure and just launching a dApp to take care of the front-end. However, upon a detailed review of the architecture, we identified security concerns with the original approach which introduced an element of centralization and would have taken elements of the core integration off-chain. These were unacceptable compromises in our view thus we adjusted the scope to keep all core elements of the integration on-chain by building modules that extend the Pocket Core. This is something we wish was communicated to the community months ago as it significantly increased the scope of work which impacted our timelines. Nevertheless, we will rectify the communication issue starting today and work to turn this shortcoming into our strength over the coming days and weeks.Pocket Wallet JS Client
Another element that wasn't in the initial scope was extending and upgrading the Pocket JS Wallet client. This is required to give users the ability to interact with a dApp through a user interface and conduct swap / withdraw transactions. Our understanding at the beginning of the engagement was that there are teams and community initiatives working on enabling this functionality for the Pocket Wallet. When it came time to integrate the Pocket Wallet into the dApp UI, we learned that this was not the case. At this time we had to determine our options which were limited.- Wait and hope someone updates the Pocket Wallet to enable this functionality as it wasn’t in scope
- Adjust the scope again and build the required functionality for the Pocket Wallet ourselves
Once again, being strong supporters and investors in the Pocket Ecosystem, we took on the task of updating the wallet. The exciting thing about this undertaking is the fact that once we complete the update to the wallet, other developers can utilize what we’ve built to enable dApp interaction through a UI using the Pocket Wallet. This can include staking, unstaking, and even interactions with a DEX could be possible with some additional modules to the core.
We are giving a demo for the Pocket Wallet update to the team along with its interaction with the bridge UI the week of 29th August. This will be an end-to-end demo of swaps being conducted from Pocket Network to Polygon and back.
Operational Items
In order to securely set up management and ownership of the POKT token on EVM compatible networks, we requested 9 signatories to be placed in a multisig governance safe for all critical functions of the token contract such as updating supply, ownership-related functions, admin functions, and more. This has taken some time, and we are still waiting to receive an update from a few signatories identified by the Pocket team per their last update. This process has been pending for about 2 months so we're hoping to finalize it as it will block launching the token on PolygonThe Finish Line
After nearly a year of effort, we are now preparing for an Alpha Launch. Giving up on this integration now would mean walking away from all the work, time, and resources that have gone into making it a secure and lasting solution for POKT’s interoperability.
I’d like to focus on correcting the communication issue which includes sharing our Jira board, holding AMA’s, and sharing the entire plan along with weekly updates and regular communication as we prepare for Alpha Launch.
Ferrum is and always will be a strong backer of Pocket Network, which is why we are not interested in a transactional relationship. We believe this is the beginning of many more opportunities to collaborate with Pocket Network. As such, we are happy to do whatever it takes to support the team and the community to ensure the success of Pocket Network.
CC: @FerrumNetwork