We’re excited to announce that we have partnered with Blockdaemon in order to empower institutional-level participation in our node network! This new partnership is set to bring several key benefits to Pocket Network, the dApps utilizing our decentralized infrastructure, and the institutions interested in a streamlined way to participate in our ecosystem. We've been working towards several partnerships on the institutional front of late, and we're thrilled to have this one go live and unlock a new level of access to our ecosystem!

What the Partnership Brings

For Pocket Network itself, this partnership represents a crucial on-ramp for institutions looking to enter our ecosystem without having to deal with unnecessary overhead and pain points of running nodes themselves. Institutional access like this is a massive next step that we have been working towards for quite some time now, and a pivotal development for larger players to get involved with POKT.With the expansion of institutional access to our ecosystem being such an important part of our ongoing roadmap, Blockdaemon will help us make a big move forward in that direction. Enabling institutions to easily stake POKT, with Blockdaemon's support, is a huge "unlock" for Pocket to tap into larger capital markets and bring bigger players into holding the POKT token and participating in node running. This is a major move for the long term economic health of Pocket and paves the way for other institutional-level partnerships that we're actively working towards (stay tuned for more on that the rest of this month especially!).Furthermore, Blockdaemon is the largest staking solution by volume (thanks to its institutional focus) and, as a result, being in the approximately 60 protocols that they decide to support provides additional credibility and exposure to POKT in the broader market. Their integrated ecosystem of exchanges, custodians, and wallets helps make POKT more accessible, as Blockdaemon and other top staking solutions power most of the "white-label" staking that is seen across exchanges, custody solutions, and wallets. This streamlines the ability for retail and institutions to trade, custody and stake POKT.On Blockdaemon's side, supporting new networks that their customers want (and that their competitors don’t yet support) attracts more flows and helps them to retain those customers.Through this partnership, Blockdaemon will become a Validator on Pocket Network, participating in both the servicing of data relays as well as consensus and block proposing. At launch, Blockdaemon will be supporting Ethereum, NEAR, and Solana, with plans to expand across additional chains in the future.For Blockdaemon’s institutional clients, this means they now have the ability to stake POKT to a node operated by Blockdaemon, and earn POKT rewards for doing so. Blockdaemon takes away the challenges of institutions having to set up and run nodes on their own, and vastly lowers the barriers of entry for these institutions to stake POKT and participate across different blockchain ecosystems. As mentioned above, these institutional clients can also enjoy the benefits of Blockdaemon’s security-first approach and 100% slashing insurance guarantee.For dApp developers, this also brings an even further diversified network to build on, adding to the reliability, resiliency, and redundancy that Pocket has become known for as the top provider of decentralized RPC infrastructure.

Why Blockdaemon?

Blockdaemon is a leading institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure provider, with vast experience in supporting more than 60 different blockchain networks. They provide an easy, secure, and scalable node management platform to enable some of the largest companies and institutions to stake POKT and participate in the network as Validators, and have a world-class team of blockchain engineers with years of experience in providing blockchain-as-a-service solutions.Blockdaemon is also ISO 27001 certified, meaning it abides by the global standard for information security management systems (ISMS) outlined by the International Standards Organization (ISO). This is a first in the staking industry, and was a particularly attractive aspect when entering this partnership, as it demonstrates Blockdaemon’s serious commitment to both data security and infrastructure security for the institutions that it services. Going hand-in-hand with this certification is Blockdaemon’s four-layered approach to risk mitigation:

• Infrastructure built for global security
• Manual failovers when necessary
• Constant monitoring
• Slashing insurance

This combination of industry-leading expertise, technical know-how, positive user experience, and security-first approach made Blockdaemon an ideal partner for Pocket Network to expand its ability to secure institutional-level participation in our ecosystem.We look forward to sharing more with our community as this major new partnership evolves!