ICON P-Rep Update #5 | APR 2020
P-Rep Status:
The Pocket/Figment P-Rep node ranks at 43 on the ICON Governance Tracker with a performance rate of 97.13%.
Our joint P-Rep has 0.4% of the total ICX votes. If you are aligned with ICON’s vision of decentralization consider voting for the Pocket/Figment P-Rep. We are doing the trench work to bring actual sustainable decentralized infrastructure to the ICON Network.
Development Status:
We have created an ICON Pocket Provider (similar to our Web3 Provider) as an independent package that developers can use inside their current ICON application.
We always strive to integrate and collaborate with existing projects first because, although it often requires more effort, it is what most aligns with our sustainable decentralization mission, but in some cases, we need to make a difficult decision to go at it ourselves in order to ensure that our promises don’t slip farther into the “empty-words” category. Many thanks to the teams who were as responsive and helpful as they could be, giving these weary times.
What does this mean for ICON developers?
You can now easily integrate your application to decentralized infrastructure via the ICON Pocket Provider, which abstracts PocketJS for ICON.
To get started using the ICON Pocket Provider, go here. And check out this live running example integration of an ICON application using Pocket.
We have gone through multiple rounds of quality assurance (QA) to ensure the stability of this integration, but would consider any bug catches or actionable feedback in part of our “Incentivized Testnet” program for rewards (more info below).
However, from doing internal testing, we noticed that Pocket can not support the ICON testnet (Yeouido) for developers. At this moment, the ICON Foundation controls all of the testnet nodes. We assume this was an early decision to make the onboarding of test applications run smoothly, but at this point, there’s only one testnet endpoint for DApps. Although it is only testnet(s), it still represents a single point of failure and decentralizing the testnet may be something the community would like to consider as well.
How can you help decentralize ICON’s testnet?
Petition the ICON Foundation to let us and others run testnet nodes to minimize those single points of failure. There may be coordination costs, but it is worth it for developers to confidently test their applications on a decentralized network of ICON nodes.
In order to ensure maximum value is delivered, we have determined to hold on building mobile SDKs until after the mainnet launches. Our team believes that focusing on battle-hardening testnet and launching the mainnet will deliver a better, more stable product in the end. From that point forward, we will revisit building iOS and Android SDKs, as well as, integrating Pocket into community mobile tools, common ICON applications and the onboarding of ICON citizen nodes through the ICON-DI efforts.
Earlier this month, Pocket launched its incentivized testnet. It opens the door for P-Reps and Citizen Nodes, at any scale, to earn POKT prior to the launch of our mainnet. This gives node operators (and application developers) the opportunity to subsidize their staking cost come mainnet. At mainnet, node runners will be compensated in POKT for providing the service of relaying API requests for decentralized applications.
What to Expect Next:
- Support for any Citizen Nodes and ICON P-Reps that wish to participate in Pocket’s Incentivized Testnet in order to ensure ICON decentralization.
- Onboard ICON applications once the protocol is sufficiently stable.
Connect with Pocket:
As an open-source project, you can keep up with our progress on Github.
To get started with integrating Pocket, visit our developer portal.
For updates, follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our monthly newsletter.
Join us on Discord to coordinate with the team and community.
