Monetization of Pooltogether

I have seen alot of discussion for and against the monetization of the POOL. Some have mentioned they don’t want to have that added during this growth phase.

I believe that monetization needs to happen right away to keep the momentum going. Adding revenue to the platform will only accelerate the growth. The #1 incentive to add funds into a pool is not the prize you can win, it’s the POOL you earn. If POOL rises in value it boosts the APY you are getting from being deposited in a POOL. If we monetize all POOL we are giving utility to POOL, boosting APY, and rapidly accelerating the growth of the pools.

My vision of monetization is 1-4% of the interest earned being collected as a fee on all POOLS. Maybe this revenue could be split between a treasury for future contests/projects and rewards directly to POOL holders. You would have to stake your POOL to be eligible for the rewards.

I put a little bit of DAI into pooltogether 6 months ago just because I thought it was a neat project. With the addition of POOL token I think it has the potential to be a top 100 or greater project in terms of market cap if we do this right.

Furthermore, I would like to hear from Delegates who would make this a priority as I think many are still deciding to delegate their votes.

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I’m heavily against any monetization of $POOL right now, as I feel it goes against the original vision of PoolTogether

Over 80 billion dollars are spent on lottery tickets each year in North America alone. At the same time, 40% of Americans do not have more than $400 of cash saved. PoolTogether wants to change these economics by turning money spent into money saved. We believe this is crucial to the economic safety and well being for millions of people around the world.

How does monetizing $POOL and giving those who hold it extra financial gain help those who struggle to save $400?

In contrast, these are the kind of proposals we should really come together as a community and implement: 2% of rewards for charity

I agree with you that the #1 incentive right now for people to enter pools is to earn the $POOL token which makes me nervous for how the pools will look once the liquidity mining is over after 14 weeks and something needs to be done to help ensure there is still good prizes after the 14 weeks.

Though even if implemented, I’m not sure if increased financial gain for those entering the pools is actually going to increase the prize pool massively, there must be a point of diminishing returns where the more whales who deposit will actually act as a disincentive to deposit because you will earn less from liquidity mining and have less of a chance to win the prize from the pool.

Kind of ironic how speculators who are convinced the $POOL token will be very valuable in the future and are gambling on this bet with their money in the pools which in turn could benefit someone who has spent very little to enter.

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I don’t think there are many people struggling to save $400 who are in crypto. “Okay, I’ve finally saved $200. I’ll just go spend $100 on gas and now I’ve got $100 in a no loss lottery”.

I would be in favour of some revenue going to charity as well. The best way to make more revenue to give to charity is to have a profitable platform.

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I understand you point of view. However I dont think the lottery has ever been a means of charity. It’s something the poor participate in but it makes them poorer. The benefit of POOL Together already is that the poor never lose money. The problem is with gas fees right now it doesn’t make sense to participate unless you have a lot more than $400. Eventually gas will be fixed. However adoption is key. If you want to help a charity give your money to charity. Poor and rich we’re both here to make money. If we provide a way for POOL to grow in utility it will increase the demand and the price which means it will equally distribute value appreciation amongst all POOL holders not just the “winner”. It’s literally the best way to spread wealth creation. I run a nonprofit that builds schools in refugee camps. Charity ideally should be sustainable and able to touch as many people as possible and this is done as we build a solid foundation for the token utility and value.

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That’s not actually true that the lottery has never been a means of charity, part of the money raised from the purchase of every lottery ticket is giving away towards good causes in the UK
https://www.national-lottery.co.uk/life-changing/where-the-money-goes

For every £1 the national Lottery receives, through lottery tickets, scratchcards and online interactive games, 24p of that is said to go to ‘good causes’.

Source: https://prizeprovision.com/how-much-lottery-money-goes-to-charity/

There’s no reason why PoolTogether couldn’t follow a similar model and it’d be a nice way to give back to those in need whilst also having the chance to have financial gain for yourself.

The gas problem will be fixed with a L2 solution which will make it cheaper for people to enter and save their money with PoolTogether.

I’m not sure I agree that adoption is key, I think actually think the biggest key is achieving more and more sponsored deposits - these will increase the overall prizes available in the pools without having a chance of winning themselves.

With more sponsored deposits you could actually end up having a big pool prize for an equal odds prize pool.

Perhaps in the future, companies will get widespread media recognition for acting in a philanthropic manner in the form of becoming sponsored depositors which in turn might actually lend itself to the company getting more users and growing as a result.

Monetization already started the moment a token was created and it has kickstarted some major growth.

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i agree ! If I can’t make money from your pool token, why do I hold it?

I’ll concur that the initialization of the token did spur explosive growth. But I’m struggling to get on the same page in terms of monetizing the POOL token. I think there’s many other ways the pools can be incentivized to provide additional growth, the Charity post or borrowing a portion of this proposal where a pool splits the reward, 75% to prize winners and 25% split amongst all pool party-ers. Please correct me if I’m off base or misunderstanding something.

Additionally an aside, from an operations stand point we need to get PoolTogether more newbie friendly during this growth.

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