Summary:
PoolTogether is entering the final 4 months of 2022 with strong momentum. The protocol deployment on Optimism coupled with $OP rewards has driven TVL to all time highs. The protocol has reached sustainability for the first time in the 290 days since the V4 launched.
Broadly on-boarding into the crypto ecosystem is getting easier by orders of magnitude. The Coinbase consumer app browser makes PoolTogether accessible to tens of millions of users who 1) already have payment methods installed and 2) don’t need to download a wallet or manage private keys to get started. This is just one example of a general trend 1) better fiat on-ramps, 2) better wallets, 3) better blockchains with lower gas fees.
As using crypto becomes easier, the narrative will shift away from TVL which is driven primarily by large hedge funds / whales seeking yield and more towards dapps that can drive sustainable organic usage. This is especially relevant as stablecoins will compete for usage dominance, wallets want to drive downloads and engagements, and layer 2s want to show off active users.
PoolTogether offers all three of these categories (stablecoins, wallets, blockchains) a highly differentiated and effective method to solve their problems. As one example, look at the top 10 dapps on Optimism.
6 of them are trading apps with near zero differentiation, 1 is a cross chain bridge and 2 are money markets. PoolTogether stands alone as being the only top ten protocol with a uniquely differentiated value proposition. Beefy and Aave are the only two protocols that could be argued to offer a similar value but PoolTogether still is unique by offering high variance returns with greater simplicity and less risk than Aave and Beefy.
Now is the time to build on these natural strengths and market dynamics! There are a few things PoolTogether Inc can do to help:
- We need to tell this story, that means building data dashboards that quantify it, proving this value to existing partners, sharing this value to build new partnerships and using this narrative for marketing. This is an activity both PoolTogether Inc and contributors can take on
- We need to continue to deliver on this narrative, that means ensuring the front-end is simple to use and offering high quality tutorials and other content to get people onboarding
- We need to strengthen the protocols abilities, that means setting up the protocol for more asset types and simplifying expansion by hardening decentralization
Strategy:
Leverage the natural strengths of PoolTogether to continue sustainable growth through 2022. Use this time to build better data reporting. This data reporting will be used to make more informed choices on prize distribution, prove value to partners, and show why PoolTogether is the best on-ramp to DeFi. The hardening of technical infrastructure will enable faster scaling and expansion in 2023.
Themes:
- Leverage & harden the current protocol
- Create proposal for deployment to Arbitrum
- Contribute code for the elimination of Oracles (privileged autotasks)
- Create a bridge layer (ERC 5164)
- Push draws across the bridge
- Eliminate timelock
- Share narrative & improve data & prove value to partners
- Make sure wallets and interfaces are supported
- Tutorials
- Marketing / promotion
- Joint marketing campaigns
- If not, PoolTogether campaigns
- Analytics
- Define analytics with the goal of connecting protocol changes to protocol usage changes
- Regularly update partners on performance using
- Continue to improve API and documentation to make integrations easier
- Use improved analytics to create a viable path for prize growth
- Make sure wallets and interfaces are supported
- Improve onboarding
- Start incorporating new designs into the web app
- Continued iteration & analysis on prize distribution
- Expand HR capabilities & leverage community
- Contribute to the formalization PoolTogether DAO
- Hiring for PoolTogether Inc specific needs