Updates to Pollen Rewards: (Part I of II): Bee Attach

Update: When this post was published we outlined four options for the Attach Decay. The choice is to introduce a gradual decrease to the attach reward at a factor of 0.8, or 80%. This applies for both Bumblebees and Honeybees. We have also changed the uptime requirement for Flowers from 85% per day to 95% for the whole week.

We launched Pollen in February 2022 and it has been a wild, fun ride. We started out not knowing what would become of our idea to create a network that makes it easy for anyone to bring connectivity where they need it. We weren’t even sure we’d sell any radios. But the results have been amazing! Since our launch in February, the Pollen community has deployed radios across the United States — each providing real coverage — with paid data and exciting partnerships just around the corner.

The future of Pollen Mobile is bright!

To realize that future, we are at a pivotal moment that requires us to make some changes to keep the growth of the network balanced.

In our current stage, on the eve of paid data, Pollen’s rewards system was designed to incentivize the deployment of Flowers to high-value locations that cover as much area and / or population density as possible. For providing this coverage, Flower owners (as detailed in our white paper):

• Earn 10 PICs per unique Hex validation per day, subject to a maximum number of validations based upon Flower type (e.g. Buttercups receive up to 25 hexes)
• Earn one PIC for every unique Honeybee attachment per day
• Earn two PICs for every unique Bumblebee attach per day

This setup was designed to provide an analog for Flower earning potential once paid data begins.

However, to ensure that the network is growing in a way to support long-term sustainability across all regions, we are introducing several changes.

Rewards Changes

On December 19, 2022, the following changes will be introduced to the Pollen Mobile network:

• Weekly Validations: Rewards will be distributed on a weekly, instead of daily basis, for work completed in the week prior (discussed here).
• Uptime Requirements: Flowers are required to be connected to internet and power for at least 95% for the week in order to receive rewards. These measurements are reported by the radio itself to the Pollen network.
• Flower Location Requirements: Flowers can not move more than 3 adjacent hexes within a day.
• Bee Attach Rewards: Adjust the rewards Flowers receive from Bees attaching.

In a separate post, we outline these other changes and discuss how they will impact network and activity.

Here, we’ll talk through the rationale behind one change that, in particular, one has sparked lively discussion — Bee Attach Rewards.

Bee Attach Rewards

Under the current design, a Flower receives 2 PICs for every Bumblebee that attaches to it, and 1 PIC for every Honeybee that attaches to it. On its nose this is pretty straightforward, but the community has raised concerns that this structure overvalues the incremental benefit that each additional Bee brings to the network. For example, the 100th Bee to attach to a particular Flower delivers less value to the network as compared to the tenth Bee at the same Flower.

Take, for example, the ongoing discussion within the community about the earnings activity in two of the densest cities in the Pollen network over October.

The four graphs above show the difference in earnings by Flower type across San Francisco, Houston, and their larger surrounding areas. What’s notable is the long-tail in both of the San Francisco area graphs, suggesting outsized rewards going to a handful of Flowers. While prominent locations and good placement will result in more rewards, the deviation of these rewards is significant, particularly when we then consider the composition of those rewards as shown below.

This graph illustrates the composition of the rewards earned by Flowers: attach (blue) and validation (red). Here, the long-tail we saw in the San Francisco graphs now show that a significant number of the rewards in those tails is due to Bee attachments, not validations.

Validation rewards are earned when a Flower’s coverage is seen in the hexes surrounding that Flower, and as such are seen as more valuable because they reflect usable coverage. Initially, we had uncapped validation rewards but quickly moved to a cap (1 BB per hex per day) to tweak an overindex in validation rewards. Today, we see a similar pattern with attach rewards; seen as a proxy for data transfer, attach rewards are currently uncapped but now require a tweak to support continuing growth.

We’re implementing the following changes.

• Reduce the Flower <> Bumblebee attach reward from 2 PICs per day to 1 PIC per day to standardize attach rewards across all Bees
• Introduce a “Bee Attach Adjustment” that reduces the incremental PIC per attach a given Flower will receive as the number of attaches grows over time.

The intent behind this change is to clearly align the rewards incentives with our network plan to build usable, dense coverage. The importance of this change will become even more apparent as, alongside paid data, we launch bouquets — clusters of Flowers in adjacent hexes that earn additional “bouquet rewards” for attaches to any Flower inside the coverage zone formed by the bouquet. We’re super excited about this, and the Attach Reward Adjustment, along with additional rewards changes is the critical leap forward.

Bee Attach Adjustment Options

The graph above represents four options for the Attach Adjustment, calculated as—

              1 PIC x (0.9^(ROUNDDOWN(Bee Attach/10,0)-1))

• The blue curve shows how Bee attach rewards are currently distributed
• The orange curve shows how attach rewards can be adjusted at a factor of 0.9, or 90%
• The green curve represents a gradual decrease at a factor of 0.8, or 80% (this is the one we’re implementing)
• Lastly, the red curve outlines an adjustment at a factor of 0.5, or 50%

Next Steps

These changes are in effect as of Sunday December 18th, 5pm PST. We’ll monitor the network and make tweaks as necessary, and appreciate additional feedback and engagement to help us get this right.