Happy weekend everyone! We’re back with another Relay Recap. To start off this timeframe, relays stayed very consistent just below the 1 billion daily mark. However, an Ethereum-fueled jump took the relay count over 1.1 billion for each of the last two days of the period. Thanks to this particularly strong two-day performance, we’re proud to officially hit another milestone that we’ve had our eyes on: an average of 1 billion daily relays for the week!

Throughout the week, the network serviced an average ofalmost exactly 1 billion daily relays, with the daily high for this time period recorded at 1.15 billion on July 26th.

Overall, 7.03 billion relays were serviced during the week, representing a 1% increase over the 6.95 billion relays the prior week.

Chain Highlights

Ethereum had a mixed week of relay performance - although relays from this chain were down overall week-to-week, Ethereum nevertheless had a major two-day jump to close out the period on the 26th and 27th. On those days, relays increased from around 150 million earlier in the week to more than 250 million. This surge helped Ethereum to leapfrog Polygon and move up to the #2 rank out of all chains during those days.DFKchain put together yet another strong week to add to its recent run of relay growth. This week, relays were up 82%, and stayed steady between 30 and 35 million daily relays. Thanks to this performance, DFKchain moved up another spot on the ranking list, coming in as the #7 chain for this week.Gnosis - xDai, the #4 ranked chain for relays, showed a steady uptrend of relays throughout the week, finishing with relays up 16% compared to last week. This chain closed out the period by putting out its best daily relay performance of the week, with about 129 million relays on July 27th.Optimism has been putting together a strong multi-week trend of relays, and finished this period with relays up 30%. Like several other chains this week, Optimism closed out the period with a daily high in relays, clocking in at about 8 million relays on July 27th.After starting the week with relays mostly staying flat, Boba closed out with a rapid rise and finished the week on a high (approaching 500,000 daily relays). Overall, relays were up about 60% compared to last week.Moonbeam and Moonriver both had eventful weeks of relay action, with volatile action but overall strong results. Moonbeam started the week with a steady climb up to a peak on the 23rd, before taking a dip for the next 3 days. After that dip, relays from Moonbeam jumped back up to hit a weekly high, closing the period approaching 500,000 daily relays. Meanwhile, Moonriver started out on a dip compared to its huge two-day spike last week, but a nice uptrend throughout the week helped the chain to finish the period by breaking 1 million daily relays again.Osmosis was another chain that started off largely flat for most of the week before a large spike on the last day of the period. After relays were hovering around 150,000 per day, the chain bumped all the way up to nearly 500,000 daily relays on the 27th. This helped Osmosis to grow relays by 33% week-over-week.Lastly, Evmos had another solid week to solidify its relatively new spot as a Top 10 relay chain. Overall, relays were up 16% for the chain this week.Remember to visit the Pocket Portal to get set up with RPC endpoints for these and other chains that Pocket Network supports!

New Chain Support Incoming

Pocket Network continues to support more blockchains on its “Road to 100 Chains.” During the time frame covered here, we announced preparations to allowlist another new chain on August 1st: Klaytn Mainnet (0056).Klaytn describes itself as “the blockchain for all who wish to build, work, or play in the metaverse.” The chain is working on Klaytn 2.0, aimed at further improving performance, decentralization, scalability, and interoperability within its metaverse focus. The Klaytn ecosystem has an emphasis on entertainment and games, with a number of projects built by creatives, studios, and enterprisesAs we shared in the announcement:

“We advise node runners who wish to support this chain to begin making their own preparations by deploying their own nodes, getting up to sync, and simulating relays to ensure that everything is working as intended.

DO NOT add the new chain to your pocket node stake until you have ensured your new chain node is working correctly, otherwise your Pocket node will be slashed.”

Note: interested in the next set of chains that were eyeing for support? Pocket’s upcoming claimed chains include: Aptos, Cosmos, RSK, Concordium, and Manta. On the TriForce side, we’ve got: Meter (Claimed), Aurora (Claimed), Metis (Claimed), and Astar (Unclaimed).See more here, including how to apply for TriForce and start earning rewards for onboarding new chains and growing relays.

Node Earnings

From July 21st through July 27th, there were 4 chains whose nodes earned more than 1 million POKT, with Harmony setting the pace at 2.5 million in POKT earnings.

In terms of average daily POKT earned per node, the top 5 chains at the end of this time frame were:

• Harmony
• Polygon
• Ethereum
• Gnosis - xDai
• Evmos

This ordering of the top 5 stayed the exact same from last week, with no chains moving up or down the list.

Node Infrastructure

As of July 27th, Pocket Network’s decentralized infrastructure included 36,136 active nodes across approximately 30 different countries, allowing the network to provide constant uptime and resiliency while supporting more than 50 different chains.Note: PIP-22 and PUP-19 are bringing big changes to the incentives that shape Pocket’s node infrastructure, by way of introducing stake-weighted servicer rewards and increased validator rewards. We’ll likely see a consolidation of nodes in the near future, as node runners and providers combine stakes to take advantage of the new incentive structures. Be sure to catch up on the discussions in the Forum, and stay tuned for more from us on these important topics.

Wrap Up

• Ethereum’s two-day surge plays a major role in helping Pocket achieve a 1 billion daily relay average.
• DFKchain keeps moving up the charts, now taking the #7 spot.
• Moonbeam and Moonriver show solid signs of growth.
• Gnosis - xDai builds on its Top 5 position.
• Evmos, Optimism, Boba, and Osmosis all put together strong weeks, growing their relays by between 15 and 60%.

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!