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Pocket Network: solve the problem of Web3 | in the form of Web3 projects is introduced

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The growing prosperity of middleware enables people to more effectively enjoy the convenience and advantages brought by Web3 applications

Looking back to 2020, more than 3,000 decentralized applications have enabled Ethereum to dominate the clearing layer, which also demonstrates that the clearing layer has matured and that there is a greater focus on middleware.

Different Web3 middleware serves different needs. Some middleware solves the need for capacity expansion, some solve the need for storage, and some solve the need for cross-domain interaction. The continuous prosperity of the middleware field enables people to more effectively enjoy the convenience and advantages brought by Web3 applications. Recently, there have been a lot of solutions in the decentralized API space, which has laid a solid foundation for the complete decentralization of Web3 applications. However, from the perspective of the underlying network, one area that has not received enough attention is the issue of full node excitation.

The middleware that cannot be vacated in the Web3 world

As the model of distributed ledger technology, the blockchain network cannot be controlled by a single individual, which is greatly admired by believers. Behind the decentralized nature of blockchain network, the support of the number of nodes is needed, that is, the number of nodes in the network is proportional to the degree of decentralization.

There are three types of nodes in a blockchain network: mining nodes, full nodes, and light nodes. While mining nodes are responsible for generating computing power in exchange for the right to create new blocks, full nodes and light nodes perform a similar function: disseminating and verifying block information to further enhance network security.

The token economics of each network is generally clear about the reward mechanism for mining nodes (block rewards), whereas full nodes and light nodes are largely unrewarded in the network. Full nodes are usually run by volunteers or stakeholders (service providers), and since light nodes (wallets) only store blocks, all data validation of light nodes depends on the full nodes to which they are connected.

In general, there is no shortage of mining nodes in a network where the profit of mining is greater than the cost of mining, but it is not so optimistic for the whole node. Although the security and privacy of on-chain operations can be fully guaranteed by running full-node for users, the cost of running full-node is higher than its advantages due to the lack of original economic incentive mechanism in the network, so most users choose centralized full-node service providers. Also, the cost of running full nodes for developers forces them to use a centralized full node to support the application's back end.

The first-mover advantage of Bitcoin and Ethereum, which have a solid and diverse infrastructure to provide services to developers and users on the network, gives the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks an absolute advantage over other networks. However, over-reliance on centralized full-node operators means that the degree of decentralization of the network has to be compromised, and the attendant problem is that the network will face the risk of centralization and single point of failure.

From the perspective of decentralized applications, it is almost impossible for developers to self-build nodes in the face of the high cost of node operation and maintenance. Most developers today choose to use a node service provider to retrieve data. However, due to the centralized nature of node service providers, the resulting centralized risks and single point of failure make the dimensions of data acquired by on-chain applications not so decentralized.

As in November 11, 2020, due to Infura, the famous centralized node service provider, not running the latest version of the Geth client, some special transactions triggered bugs on the older version of the client, eventually causing many applications using Infura to temporarily go down and many exchanges to stop charging. For blockchains, especially permission-free public chains, the compromise of decentralization will greatly affect the limit of the value that the entire network can carry.

Ultimately, Web3 native issues require Web3 native middleware protocols to solve. Pocket Network provides a complete whole-node excitation of the underlying Network and a decentralized data acquisition solution for Web3 applications, providing a coordination layer with decentralization as the core for Web3 infrastructure and upper-level applications.

Web3 coordination network in the form of application chain

Under the trend of multi-chain ecology, Pocket Network gives up the implementation form of smart contract, but chooses application chain, so as to build a relay Network to coordinate Web3 application and any underlying infrastructure.

In contrast to a generic smart contract, a separate application chain retains full protocol sovereignty. The protocol implemented in the form of application chain can be updated democratically and effectively at any time according to its own conditions and requirements. At the same time, the general smart contract cannot be customized according to the application protocol, which limits the selectivity of the protocol. However, the protocol implemented by the application chain can meet all the requirements of the protocol from the lowest level and ensure the bifurcability of the protocol.

From the internal point of view of the agreement, Pocket Network provides a bilateral market composed of the supply and demand end of the whole node, and the agreement itself is responsible for promoting the more efficient operation of the data demand of the application layer and the underlying Network data supply market.

Application developers using full-node services obtain API services through resource demand pledge Pocket Network native token POKT and Network interaction. The initial amount of each pledge POKT is 1.67 relays per segment (about 60 minutes per segment), and the amount of relays in each subsequent phase can be changed through POKT governance.

While pledging tokens to access services may seem burdensome to developers, it actually avoids the need for developers to continue paying fees to a centralized node service provider. Infura, for example, costs $50 a month for developers to use. For developers using Pocket Network, the longer the usage time, the lower the average usage cost, because each application using Pocket service only needs to pledge the POKT token once. With the increase of the usage time, the usage cost approaches zero.

When the developer does not need to use Pocket Network, the pledged token can be raised at any time, and the final cost of use can be partially covered by the selling price of Time Coin. Initially, Pocket Network will deliver value to the service provider in the form of a diluted percentage of pledged tokens through a fixed amount increase.

The full node operator guarantees the quality of the data relay service by pledging the POKT. The minimum amount of pledge for each node is 15,000 POKT, and each node with the minimum amount of pledge will be given the opportunity to provide service with the same probability. With the increase of pledge nodes, the maximum amount of pledge can be adjusted through community governance. Full node providers in the network will receive additional block rewards, but the difference from traditional block rewards is that the amount of rewards is proportional to the number of data relays in the block and transaction fees. At the beginning of network start-up, nodes will receive 0.0089 POKT per relay, and block producers will receive 1% medium block reward. The probability of node block is proportional to the amount of node pledge.

The economic model of Pocket Network will maintain continuous inflation before the Network enters the maturity period, and when the Network enters the maturity period, the Network will start "application destruction" mechanism. As mentioned above, at the initial stage of the network, the application tokens will be diluted to cover the network costs in a disguised way, but when the network matures, the application tokens will be destroyed to offset the side economic effects of inflation on node pledges. So at this stage, the application needs to increase the number of pledged POKT to maintain the original relay throughput.

Pokt token allocation

· Total amount of initial POKT tokens: 650,000,000

· Coin seigniorage: 0.01POKT/ effective information relay

· Block reward: 89% for node operators, 1% for block producers, and the remaining 10% for Pocket DAO Treasury

· Minimum pledge amount of the whole node: 15,000 POKT

· Minimum amount of pledge applied: 1POKT

· Minimum unbinding period (applied and full node) : 21 days

As shown in the figure, since the circulation plate of POKT depends on the amount of information relayed in the network, when the amount of information relayed is small, the growth rate of circulation plate will be very slow (red line). The blue line in the figure indicates that the amount of information relayed in the network is very large and the network utilization rate is very high. After the application of the destruction mechanism is introduced during the network maturity period, the rate of destruction will fully offset the inflation rate to protect the value of the node pledged tokens.

conclusion

The excessive dependence of Web3 applications on Web2 infrastructure will surely leave behind many problems of the Web2 era. The underlying infrastructure and upper-level applications that should be decentralized will lose their most valuable characteristics, and the high coordination cost in the Web2 era will surely affect the wide promotion of Web3 applications.

As the coordination and incentive protocol of Web3 infrastructure, Pocket Network minimizes the coordination cost for Web3 applications and paves the way for the transition from Web2 era to Web3 era. In 2021, the golden age of middleware, there will be more Web3 native middleware to bring more vitality to the whole ecosystem.

There are a number of mature Web3 projects that have joined Pocket's community, including Avalanche, XDAI, MyCrypto, Saturn Network, Fuse, Metacartel Ventures, and many more. Recently, in order to improve the liquidity of POKT tokens, Pocket Network has launched the ERC-20 standard Wpokt token in the Ethereum Network, and will launch the LBP event in Balancer.

References:

Classification and importance of nodes in a Blockchain network:https://www.seba.swiss/research/Classification-and-importance-of-nodes-in-a-blockchain-network

Should I Run My Own Node:https://medium.com/bitstamp-blog/should-i-run-my-own-node-13c3f6a21627

Ethereum Infrastructure Provider Infura is down, crypto exchanges begin to disable ETH withdrawing als:https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/84232/ethereum-infrastructure-provider-infura-is-down