Happy weekend everyone! We’re back with another Relay Recap. In the time frame covered here, Pocket Network relays made a slow and steady climb upwards, with 6 days in a row of relay growth (beginning on July 8th). This period also wrapped up with 2 days in a row with more than 1 billion relays.Throughout the week, the network serviced an average of951 million daily relays, with the daily high for this time period recorded at 1.04 billion on July 13th.

Overall, 6.7 billion relays were serviced during the week, representing a 1% increase over the 6.6 billion relays the prior week.

Chain Highlights

This was another week where we saw growth at the top - namely, from Harmony and Polygon. Each of these chains grew both their total number of relays and their proportional share of relays across the network this week. Harmony finished the week with a commanding 34% share of network relays, while Polygon wrapped up with about 22%. These two chains added about 200 million relays combined (up 6%) compared to last week’s figures.Ethereum also posted nice week-over-week gains, boosting its relay totals about 18 percent compared to last week. This was thanks to a steady uptrend that started on July 9th and grew each day until the end of the period on July 13th. With this growth, Ethereum was able to gain in its proportional share of relays (from 12% to 14%) and hold down the #3 spot this week, behind Harmony and Polygon.Evmos had yet another strong week, adding to its recent trend of explosive relay growth. After growing its relays 62% compared to last week, Evmos is now a Top 10 relay chain (currently in the #10 spot). In fact, the recent move up the relay charts has also placed Evmos in the Top 5 average daily earnings per node, as you’ll see in one of the graphics below. Evmos finished this week with four straight days over 12 million relays, a figure that the chain did not reach in any day in the prior week.Note: If you haven’t heard, the Evmos community recently passed a proposal to launch a public RPC endpoint through Pocket Network! We’re thrilled to deepen our ties with this chain. After a brief dip a couple of weeks ago, Avalanche put together a string of steady growth from July 2nd through July 12th, including a 2-day spike over 18 million relays to finish out this period. Thanks to this incremental growth and jump to end the period, Avalanche relays were up about 15% compared to the prior week.After a spike upwards and subsequent dip last week, DFKchain has been steadily climbing again since July 8th. With this consistent daily growth throughout the week, DFKchain was able to add to its weekly relay total by about 26% compared to the prior period.Lastly, OEC continued its strong upwards trend of late. OEC exceeded last week’s daily high in every day this period except for the last one. Thanks to this steady performance above last week’s numbers, OEC relays were up about 15% this week.Remember to visit the Pocket Portal to get set up with RPC endpoints for these and other chains that Pocket Network supports!Note: for any node runners that haven’t heard, non-custodial staking will be coming to Pocket Network. Be sure to check out our blog post on the topic to get up to speed with all the details and next steps.

New Chains Supported on Pocket Network

Pocket Network continues to support more blockchains on its “Road to 100 Chains.” During the time frame covered here, we announced support for another new chain: Osmosis Mainnet (0054).Osmosis is a leading decentralized, interchain exchange in the Cosmos ecosystem. Osmosis has its own grant program, as well as a growing ecosystem of dApps focused on DeFi, payment infrastructure, wallet management and tooling, trading features and strategies, and more.Endpoints are available now in the Portal!Note: interested in the next set of chains that we're eyeing for support? Pocket’s upcoming claimed chains include: Klatyn, Aptos, Cosmos, RSK, Concordium, and Manta. On the TriForce side, we’ve got: Meter (Claimed), Aurora (Claimed), Astar (Unclaimed), and Metis (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 7th through July 13th, there were 4 chains whose nodes earned more than 1 million POKT, with Harmony setting the pace at 3.4 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 week saw Ethereum jump up 2 spots on this list, while Gnosis - xDai bumped down one spot. Also, Evmos made a new appearance in the Top 5, with BSC dropping off the list compared to last week.

Node Infrastructure

As of July 13th, Pocket Network’s decentralized infrastructure included 36,560 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

• Osmosis is allow-listed.
• More growth at the top, as Harmony, Polygon, and Ethereum increase relays.
• Evmos continues its push into the Top 10.
• Several chains post 15 - 30% gains in relays.

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!