Polkawatch, Decentralization Analytics, Continued Operation and Development
Hi Community,
We recently released a better Multi-Wallet user Interface and pushed for Polkawatch analytics integration in community projects and resources.
We created a MVP integration with Polkadot Staking Dashboard that allowed us to verify that bringing decentralization analytics closer to were the staking decissions are made is working well, as more nominations are getting analyzed now than ever before by simply linking both services.
On top of continued operation for 2023H2 (50% retroactive), we are also looking to:
Fully integrate Polkawatch Analytics in the Polkadot Staking Dashboard. Furthermore, after reaching for community feedback at sub0 conference, we decided to improve the Staking Dashboard Plugin system (already in development) as part of this cooperation so that other community projects can also be present at the Staking Dashboard too.
We also need to implement a different GeoLocation strategy, the network addressing in the heartbeats events is being phased out in Substrate, which forces us to look into this information at a lower protocol level: p2plib Distributed Hash Table (DHT) instead. Something that is also required for decentralization analytics of AURA parachains. Parachain support will provide further funding options, reducing dependency on the Treasury.
This milestone includes strategic developments but also singles out, and minimizes, continued operation costs, currently at 2.9K USD per month (including archive nodes and promotion), which is the sustainable cost for the community to keep decentralization analytics running in absence of service improvements/developments.
You can download our detailed proposal for further detail.
And please, do not hesitate to reach out with feedback.
See proposal pitch VIDEO on AAG, Oct 19,
Comments (6)
Requested
Proposal Passed
Dwellir will vote Aye to this proposal. Reason: Polkawatch is a powerful data analytics platform for looking at the decentralization of the network. Decentralization is close to Dwellir's heart. This platform helps visualize for both individual stakers and major players how resilient the network is. /Team Dwellir
@gustav Thanks for your support.
Many validators check Polkawatch before choosing datacenter and in terms of IP networks, good progress have been made in this sense.
Gerographical decentralization remains more of a challenge.
Dwellir is one of the validators/node operators that has ventured into new regions, with countries such as Tunisia and Nigeria, and this is something we have a lot of respect for.
We hope to helped you gain visibility about your effort. Placing Polkawatch analytics inside the Staking Dashboard is definitely going to help.
Haven't heard of Polkawatch until this proposal - would be interested to get feedback from the validator mafia if they use your tooling / data. Given the above and the low twitter reach, will NAY until further information is provided.
@birdo thanks for taking your time to vote, and in particular for providing feedback.
Polkawatch is more designed for nominators than for validators. For example, here you can analyse the decentralization of one account delegating vote on you. Some 15K DOT.
I have to say that I think this nomination is better decentralized than most, but please observe that there seems to have some exposure to Hetzner, which forbids blockchain activities, and there is precedent of kicking out validators.
You can use polkawatch to trace which validator may be using stake there, if you wish. You can also email us if you have difficulty interpreting the data, as other nominators did. We recommend nominators pass by from time to time, as validators tend to move, and geographies keep discussing legal proposals.
Also note that by advocating for decentralization we are implying that "validator mafia" should be more fair. Please check our 2022 State Of decentralization for details/overview.
I agree that our twitter reach is not too big, but note that the Nominator community is not that big, less than 30K, and we see 4.9K coming to our service. Still more needs to be done.
In previous proposals we decided that community application integration would be the most efficient way to reach the whole community. In this proposal we are aiming at integrating in the staking dashboard, so nominators like your delegates don't need to know about us, just get the information required to decide. We have done a minimal app linking test, and shows viability. We also provided a minimal integration for technical viability.
Again thanks for providing the feedback, without it is difficult for us to address concerns.
And do not hesitate to raise more issues or feedback.
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