PoolTogether Community Newsletter #11
PoolTogether 2021 in Review, Live on Avalanche, Introducing Pool Explorer, PoolGrants Q3M1, Welcome Wagon arrives
Happy New Year, Poolers 🌊🏆
We always spend a lot of time looking forward but we shouldn’t forget to take a break once in a while to look back and reflect.
A ton has happened in 2021. Our last Community Call and Holiday Hangout brought up a lot of memories from that time.
PoolTogether 2021 in Review
7000 Players on PoolTogether V4
4096 Daily Prizes
43 Community Calls
15 Coordinape Epochs
5 Networks
4 Community Contests
2 Protocol Versions
1 Community
Today the Flippening is at 64% with a total of >$69 Million in deposits. A year ago PoolTogether was still in its V3 with only two prize pools on a single network: Ethereum. Since then we first cracked $100,000 and then $1,000,000 in weekly prizes.
A lot - let me repeat that: A lot has happened in 2021.
The Pool Token has been launched in February: PoolTogether Inc. has transferred the ownership over the protocol to the community, meaning PoolTogether has been decentralised. 14% of total POOL supply was distributed to all POOL depositors across the V1, V2, and V3 protocol up until January 14th 2021.
With the inception of the PoolTogether DAO, the governance framework was released: Governance 101
Prize Pool Builder & Community Pool were introduced, allowing it for anyone to create a prize pool on PoolTogether.
Introduction of the Lootbox & Permissionless Prizes, making it possible to add tokens and NFTs to prize pools by anyone.
The POOL deposit distribution has been turned on for the first time. Anyone with a deposit in any of the four governance managed prize pools (Dai, USDC, COMP or UNI) was now automatically receiving the POOL token.
Zapper.fi integrated PoolTogether to join any V3 prize pool from their UI. Their zap function allowed it to automatically convert your tokens into tickets.
Shortly after the community built an integration for Gnosis Safe Wallet app.
Custom Yield Sources were integrated to the Prize Pool Builder, creating the possibility to permissionlessly utilize any yield source on Ethrereum.
The March was busy as well: the $POOL Pool launched, we had or first Developer Call and a PoolTogether Hackathon.
Our first Governance Proposal passed, after the first one didn’t.
The mechanics of Perpetual Growth: Adding Sponsorships & Reserve to the V3 protocol to grow prizes.
Swim Meets were born to give everyone in the community a space to propose and discuss their ideas and get engaged.
DefiLlama listed PoolTogether.
Nexus Mutual added protocol cover for PoolTogether.
In April Dharma integrated PoolTogether and allow direct bank deposits into the protocol.
We did the Retroactive Airdrop
The Yearn Finance integration went live, kicking off the heavy $POOL farming.
Aave was integrated as a yield source & PoolTogether went live on Polygon.
Sharingnotes created a super helpful dashboard to track the total protocol controlled value.
In May Kames joined the PoolTogether Inc Core-Team.
Governance proposal #7 has passed and POOL / ETH LP incentives have started!
POOL tokens holders have approved the creation of a Grants Committee initially funded with $500,000. This proposal was voted on and passed in proposal 12. Here’s another announcement, if you’re really curious another announcement.
The POOL distribution was revised, after the protocol went further into decentralisation.
Rabbithole.gg had their first PoolTogether quest.
The first PoolTogether NFT pool was introduced.
The proposal for our Treasury Diversification to diversify a portion of the POOL treasury into USDC via a direct POOL acquisition by strategic investors passed. Read the article as well.
To fight high transaction fees and help smallfish win, PoolTogether launched Pods. Those allowed batching of deposits and saved you up to 70% of gas fees.
The community kept growing and many community members kept making valuable contributions to the protocol, so we started into June with adopting Collab.Land on our Discord server. This was the inception of the #hodlers-hangout and finally made $POOL tipping possible.
The first NFT Prize Pool went live.
The PoolTogether Knowledge Base was created.
New research from Harvard and Oxford has been published on the unique power of no loss prize savings.
Building on the work of SharingNotes, PoolTogether made the treasury accessible with the Treasury Dashboard.
PoolTogether launched its first Audit Contest with Code4rena.
The Graph has officially launched their decentralized network, and PoolTogether was a launch partner.
A new rewards section of the app went live, highlighting how people can use POOL.
The Swimming for NFTs-Website launched, showcasing how you can leverage the PoolTogether protocol for an array of use-cases.
Early July PoolTogether made updates to the voting page, to make it easier for POOL pool depositors to vote.
Rari Capital introduced the Rari Fuse pool, which allowed to borrow against your PoolTogether USDC deposits.
A new institutional research report on PoolTogether was published.
Prize Splits were introduced. A powerful new feature that allows to direct a portion of prize pool interest to any address.
Orange App integrated PoolTogether on Polygon.
A new Community Pods user interface was released by sharingnotes.
PT Inc built a new admin interface to track faucets.
The POOL Distribution and buy-back proposal has passed.
With the beginning of August Pods have been integrated into the flagship PoolTogether app, allowing small fish to become a whale.
PoolTogether went live on Binance Smart Chain.
The Pod Builder was introduced.
PoolTogether was not just featured, but also on the cover of Fortune Magazine.
Polygon and Ethereum operation teams were created.
Smallfish.win got a fancy redesign.
And just before the end of August the PoolTogether protocol deployed on Celo as a part of the DeFiForThePeople-Campaign. $1 million in CELO rewards!
In September we kept expanding on Polygon.
We revisited the PoolTogether narrative, and how V4 makes that narrative stronger.
The first ever Community Contest was hosted.
Steak Wallet added support for PoolTogether.
The October was a lot about stirring up the Hype for V4.
3,3 Together was launched by the OlympusDAO, integrating PoolTogether into their UI.
We released the first articles on the PoolTogether Community Substack.
Chainlink released a case study on how PoolTogether uses Chainlink VRF to increase usage by improving upon existing prize-linked savings accounts—leading to more fair, transparent, and exciting ways to save money.
Layer3 launched a campaign with PoolTogether bounties, distributing 870 $POOL tokens to contributors.
October 15th was the day: V4 was officially live! The New PoolTogether is here.
Introduction of the TWAB contract & the Prize Pool Network.
Where’s the Drip launched, to show the effective APY on PoolTogether deposits.
The gang met in Lisbon and Brendan talked about V4 on Liscon.
We hit $1 Million in weekly prizes for the first time.
PTIP-40: Olympus Pro Bond Program & POOL incentives passed and continued our path of ending the POOL distribution to farmers and using it more effectively. This was the end of pool farming for whales.
October was crazy already, November even more:
Our Olympus Pro Bond program went live.
The Pooltogether Merch Store was opened. No Loss hats for everyone at https://pooltogether.store/
The Odds came back! Odds were added to the V4 UI. Shortly after we got gifted with the Prize APR.
The community built a powerful DuneAnalytics Dashboard.
Another Rabbithole.gg campaign brought Celo users to PoolTogether.
The PoolTogether Community Substack grew and was now translated into Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese.
We started thinking more about our DAO Onboarding Process.
We got a Probability Calculator.
We’ve strengthened our partnership with Code4rena, showing again that safety is one of the most important values of PoolTogether.
The Other Internet Research Report on PoolTogether came out. A must read for everyone who has interest in the DAO. PoolTogether Research Report: Vibes, Labor, Constituencies
PTIP-47 adjusted the Prize Distribution for the first time.
The PoolGrants program was extended for another 6 months.
December was kicked off with a 401% increase in daily prizes. From 817 to 4096!
The Treasury Management Working Group was founded. The TMWG is community driven project with a focus on research and analysis. The TWG will provide value by exploring changes to tokenomics, incentives, and capital management strategies for treasury funds, primarily the POOL within the treasury.
The PoolTogether Christmas Card was announced & delivered! Two awesome PoolTogether Christmas Card NFT versions, with a twist that shows one of the endless use-cases for the newly integrated delegation function.
I started to work full-time as a freelancer for PoolTogether. Still the best day of the year for me.
The Treasury Management Working Group released their first report on the FEI / Ondo LP Partnership.
We now have a Prize Claims channel on Discord. Brrrrr!
The DAO held it’s first DAO Onboarding Call. There will be many to follow in 2022 - join us every Wednesday.
The UI was updated again, enabling weekly odds and total winnings.
https://v4the.win/ joined the list of awesome community-made tools.
The TWAB rewards contract audit contest was completed!
Our Treasury Management Working Group followed up with a repot on 30 Day Analysis on the Olympus Pro Bond Program
French has been added to the PoolTogether Community Substack network.
Leighton sponsored a special Coordinape epoch and distributed 1,500 POOL! 🎄
We got the Pool Explorer: https://poolexplorer.win/
... and just before Christmas we went live on Avalanche.
PoolTogether has hosted pools for Barn Bridge (BOND), Rari Capital (wETH), BadgerDAO (BADGER), Index Coop (DPI), SushiSwap (SUSHI), OlympusDAO (sOHM), USDC, USDT, DAI, COMP, UNI, GUSD, cUSD, cEUR, CAKE & wBNB.
PoolTogether was featured in Fortune Magazine, on Nasdaq, the Financial Times, Bankless, Cointelegraph, Messari, Decrypt, Accelerated Capital, Coindesk, A16z, einvestidor, iProUp, ConsenSys & many more.
That’s something to chew on. I still can’t believe how long this list of achievements and contributions has gotten. I applaud all of you who contributed in any kind in 2021. You are amazing and outstanding. Thanks for being true poolers!
Let’s keep this vibe machine running, revisit what we’ve done already and pick things up from where we left them. LFG 2022!
As if that’s not enough, here’s your Newsletter:
We are live on Avalanche! 🔺
Oh, I’m excited about PoolTogether and Avalanche, and Avalaaaanche! This song won’t leave my head. We’re now almost two weeks into the launch on Avalanche. Right now 375 players have more than $1.1 Million USDC deposited, winning daily prizes!
Deploying on Avalanche also means entering a whole new ecosystem of DeFi protocols, NFTs & people from all around the world. Now what? We all can help make PoolTogether an indispensable part of this ecosystem in many ways. You can do your part by talking about the launch on socials like Reddit & Twitter, writing articles & producing content, sharing memes, showing your artsy side, being active on Discord servers of other Avalanche projects, and in many more ways.
Introducing the Pool Explorer 🔍
Do you remember Elated Kowalevski? It’s back under a new name and better than ever. We can now proudly present https://poolexplorer.win, just another project by community legend underthesea.
The Pool Explorer supports all networks from the Prize Pool Network (namely Avalanche, Ethereum & Polygon) and allows you to browse depositors, winners & prize claims.
PoolGrants
The Grants Committee is one of the drivers of the PoolTogether DAO. Lots of the great stuff that happened around PoolTogether in 2021 was only made possible due to funding by PoolGrants. They have just published a blog post to keep us updated about their recent doings:
PoolGrants Holiday Hot Tub — Q3M1
Call for Applications and RFPs
If you have an idea that could bring value to PoolTogether, please apply for a grant using the application form on PoolGrants.org
If you don’t have any ideas yet, maybe you can be inspired by browsing through the RFP page, the Governance Forum or joining one of our weekly Community Calls & Swim Meets.
Welcome Wagon arrives 🚂🎁
Christmas is the time to be grateful and give back. What a perfect timing for the Welcome Wagon to arrive! The Welcome Wagon is a community effort to support the DAO Onboarding and enforce positive behaviours on the Discord server. If you do good - you shall be tipped!
The idea originated from the Other Internet presentation on November 24th and is funded by the Grants Committee.
Passengers of the Welcome Wagon: Oops, BRONDER, Mkkoll, Torgin, Tjark, DaBoom, underthesea, Taliskye, Andy Kaufman
How to use the Avalanche Bridge 🌉
Got all those funds sitting on Ethereum but don’t want to pay for those nasty gas fees? Why don’t you transfer some of that 🍞 to Avalanche via their Bridge? I’ve posted a quick how to on Twitter:
PoolTogether Community Podcast 🎙️
We all know Smart Investor from his Community Interviews and his active participation in the PoolTogether DAO. He is now bringing us the The PoolTogether Community Podcast: a weekly recording of conversations between SmartInvestor and guests from the PoolTogether community and ecosystem.
Listen to the first episode on Substack and join in live on Wednesday’s at 6:30pm GMT / 1:30pm EST.
Avalanche Hype & Vibe Launch Contest 💃🕺
We had an impromptu Avalanche Hype & Vibe Launch Contest on Discord and loads of great submissions came out of it. Here’s the winners:
Memes
1st Winner: tim 🌊🏆
2nd Winner: JD📈
3rd Winner: BRONDER 🌊🏆
4th Runner Up: Kote 🌊🏆
5th Runner Up: neken🌊🏆🍀
Artwork
1st Winner: Bambi
2nd Winner: StarTreeTV🌊🏆
3rd Winner: Noxe
4th Runner Up: Leo 🇦🇷 🌊🏆
5th Runner Up: Torgin 🌊🏆
All participants who sent in a submission but did not win received 1 POOL for being awesome! No Loss! Let's keep the vibe machine going, my people.
Protocol Coverages at Armor.Fi, Insurace.io & Nexus Mutual
I’d personally say PoolTogether is one of the safest DeFi protocols there is. If you’re a person that still likes to be on the safe side, you now have the agony of choice between three great Smart Contract Risk Insurance Covers: Armor.fi, Insurace.io & Nexus Mutual
To learn more please check out each protocol’s respective documentations.
PoolTogether is now tracked on DeBank.com
Another one on the adoption side. Track your PoolTogether deposits on DeBank!
What’s DeBank?
DeBank is a DeFi portfolio tracker that supports the largest number of DeFi protocols across 17 chains.
Listen 🎧
🌊 PoolTogether Community Call & Swim Meet #41
📻 All PoolTogether podcasts in one playlist
Read 📚
⁉️ PoolTogether Community Interview #11: Neken
⁉ PoolTogether Community Interview #12: Diego Chippi.eth
⁉ Diretamente do Direito para DeFi by Diego_Chippi & Gustavo Barros
🎲 PoolTogether: The story of the no-loss lottery where everyone wins by TokenBrice
💡 PoolTogether: Combining Lotteries and Savings Accounts by Ohhh, I get it now...
🔮 No-loss Lottery is the Future! by Jack White
🎲 PoolTogether : L'histoire de la loterie sans perte où tout le monde (y) gagne by TokenBrice
Watch 📺
Como usar o PoolTogether no Avalanche | Tutoriais de Avalanche Português by Avalanche - Português
How Does Pool Together Work? DeFi Savings App with Daily Prizes! by Lightbulb Moment
Prize Talk 🏆
Youuu knooow what time it iiiiiis? It’s time for some winners! If you want to be on here just make sure to share your luck with others & tag @PoolTogether_.
Stay wavy & see you all around the pool 👋🌊🏆