Happy weekend everyone! We’re back with another Relay Recap. Relays stayed very consistent during this week, mostly hovering between 1.0 and 1.1 billion daily, before closing on a weekly high above 1.1 billion. Throughout the week, the network serviced an average of1.07 billion daily relays, with the daily high for this time period recorded at 1.12 billion on August 3rd.

Overall, 7.5 billion relays were serviced during the week, representing a 7% increase over the 7 billion relays the prior week.

Chain Highlights

This week brought us growth at the top in 3 different chains: Polygon, Ethereum, and Gnosis - xDai. Polygonboosted its weekly relays by 13% during this period, thanks to a jump over 260 million relays on July 29th, followed by steady daily performance around 250 million relays for the remainder of the week. This helped Polygon to reclaim the #1 spot from Harmony.Ethereum took the #3 spot this week, thanks to a 27% surge in relays compared to the prior period. Ethereum spent the entire week above 160 million daily relays, with a jump up to nearly 260 million relays on the final day. Ethereum was also able to grow its share of total Pocket Network relays, moving from a 16% proportion up to 18% this week.Meanwhile, Gnosis - xDai also posted an 18% gain in relays this week, helping the chain hold on to the #4 spot. After a steady climb up to 146 million relays on August 1st, the chain took a dip for the remaining two days. Still, the 18% gain in total relays was enough to grow Gnosis - xDai’s proportion of total Pocket relays from 11% to 13% for the week.Osmosis had a huge week, growing its relays by 175% compared to the prior period. The chain approached 500,000 daily relays with consistency this week, after spending most of last week below 200,000. Thanks to this relay growth, combined with a relatively low number of nodes servicing the chain, Osmosis was able to vault all the way into the #3 spot in terms of average daily POKT earnings per node, claiming a spot between the likes of Polygon, Harmony, and Ethereum.Boba also continued its strong recent run, increasing weekly relays by another 131% during this period. This chain is now averaging around 500,000 daily relays, and has been on a tear of late.Moonbeam and Moonriver saw serious surges in relays this week, posting 226% and 214% gains, respectively. Moonbeam had a steady climb approaching 1.5 million daily relays, after spending all of last week below 0.5 million daily relays. Moonriver also had a steady uptrend, with a spike above 2.5 million daily relays on July 30th and four consecutive days around 2 million relays following that.Three other chains posted solid gains in relays this week, each clocking in with more than 30% growth. Solana relays were up 39%, staying consistent around 600,000 daily. NEAR was also up 36%, maintaining daily relays around 250,000 after jumping above that figure to end the prior period. Finally, Optimism also gained 32% in relays for the week, thanks to a steady uptrend that included a peak above 10 million daily relays on July 29th. Optimism is knocking on the Top 10 door, as it occupied the #11 spot for total relays across all supported chains this week.Remember to visit the Pocket Portal to get set up with RPC endpoints for these and other chains that Pocket Network supports!

Node Earnings

From July 28th through August 3rd, there were 4 chains whose nodes earned more than 1 million POKT, with Polygon setting the pace at 2.1 million in POKT earnings. This week featured a swap of the top 2 chains, as Polygon’s relay growth allowed it to take the #1 earnings spot from Harmony.

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

• Polygon
• Harmony
• Osmosis
• ETH
• Gnosis - xDai

This ordering of the top 5 saw a complete reshuffling from last week, with Polygon taking the top spot from Harmony, Osmosis vaulting into the 3rd spot (thanks to a relatively low number of nodes servicing its huge weekly boost in relays), ETH and Gnosis - xDai being bumped down a spot to make room for Osmosis, and Evmos falling off the Top 5 list.

Node Infrastructure

As of August 3rd, Pocket Network’s decentralized infrastructure included 32,689 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

• Growth at the top, including Polygon (reclaiming the #1 spot), Ethereum, and Gnosis - xDai.
• Osmosis nearly triples its relays, and vaults into the #3 spot in average daily earnings per node.
• Boba more than doubles its relays, and continues a strong run.
• Moonbeam and Moonriver each triple their weekly relays compared to last recap.
• Several other chains grow by more than 30%, including Optimism’s bid for a Top 10 spot.

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!