December 8 AMA session with PlanetWatch CEO

In this article you will find the answers that our CEO, Claudio Parrinello, gave in the AMA session on December 8.

Before answering your questions, let me first start with some announcements.

Data Streams and Rewards Issues

There is no hiding from the fact that there are some technical problems regarding data streams from Type 4 sensors Awair Element and (to a much lesser extent) Type 3 sensors. Let me explain in detail what the problem is and how we are looking to solve it.

As you know, your sensor streams data via the Internet and this is what we reward with tokens. With current Type 4 (Awair Element) and Type 3 (Sensedge Mini) sensors, data travels first from the sensor to the manufacturer’s cloud system. Then we launch API requests to the manufacturer’s cloud system to retrieve this data for PlanetWatch. Given the very fast growth of the number of sensors onboarded in our network, it is challenging for all IT systems involved to keep up with our pace. In some cases, the manufacturer’s cloud could not fulfill all our requests so data streams were not retrieved and rewards could not be issued. We are working on these challenges together with Awair.

We want to achieve a stable solution as soon as possible. This might take a little more time. Let me remind you that we have already taken some measures acknowledging this situation: people owning Awair Element sensors will enjoy two months of free license when their current license expires. Also, let me remind you that whenever you do not earn PLANETS, we do not earn either, because as stipulated in the White Paper, 20% of the issued rewards go to PlanetWatch. So our interests are fully aligned. I am very sorry for the situation so I tried to explain to you as clearly as possible what is actually happening.

Governance Vote

The second important topic I wanted to mention today is our Governance vote. I strongly encourage you to read a recently published blog post.

Let me summarize the issue: as discussed in the White Paper, indoor air quality sensors which are approved as RESET Air Accredited Monitors are classified by PlanetWatch as Type 3 devices. Such devices are extremely reliable and they are required in all indoor projects aiming to obtain the prestigious RESET indoor air quality certification for a venue. Recently we realised that the level of global interest for data from RESET-compliant devices is even higher than we anticipated, so we believe that current reward rates for Type 3 sensors do not fully reflect the future value of such data. Therefore, in order to properly incentivise the correct deployment of Type 3 sensors, we suggest that reward rates should be permanently increased by 50%. Since this would amount to a change in the White Paper, we are submitting to the PlanetWatchers community a proposal for such an increase and we are asking you to vote on it.

Please note that what Type 3 sensor owners are earning today already reflects this proposed increase, as we decided some time ago to fund out of our company’s budget a 50% bonus for Type 3 sensors until Dec. 31st 2021. 

All the details on how you are going to vote and when are in the blog post on our website. Please read it as soon as possible and decide if you want to participate in the governance exercise and how you want to vote. 

You will be offered a choice between two voting options:

• Option A supports our proposal. If this wins, Type 3 rewards will be increased permanently, making the current 50% bonus a permanent feature;
• Option B rejects our proposal. If this wins, Type 3 rewards rates will drop by 33% on January 1st as they will go back to White Paper values.

Whatever the outcome is, there is no impact on rewards for other sensor categories.

New Listing

A new PLANETS listing is coming soon, apart from Emirex. The new listing will be on a very good exchange platform and I think as early as next week we will be able to disclose the details. Incidentally, Emirex is quite late, we are talking to them to try to get a firm listing date.

Miscellaneous Issues

Despite all the challenges in global markets, I believe we will be able to receive and sell some decent lots of Type 1 and Type 3 sensors maybe as early as next week. I am quite optimistic regarding sensor supplies for next year, so I believe we will be able to reduce waiting times.

There is a fairly large number of open tech-related tickets and people are complaining because they are not being answered timely. Most of these tickets point out issues on which we are working to solve technically. Tickets are not being answered but we are working to solve the problems.

Let me say one word about cheating. As you know, the focus of our project is generating data which are scientifically sound and valuable, even in business terms. Those who are trying to bend the rules of the White Paper by setting up what we can call “sensors farms” are cheaters, breaching our Terms and Conditions. Some people are even posting pictures on social channels where they are showing proudly that they are cheating. We are taking actions and devoting some resources to detect anomalies in the data flows. Cheaters beware – as you know, with the KYC system we have a person’s name on each sensor, so when we find a cheater, at the very least we ban him for life and in some extreme cases we might even take legal action.

Last point: since we are using licenses as placeholders on waiting lists for our sensors, you should know that there is no way to jump the queue by manipulating licenses. We will be strictly enforcing the waiting list and there is no way to go around it other than taking the risk of buying devices on the open market.

Here you can find PlanetWatchers’ questions to Claudio

Thank you very much for your hard work! Sensors are great for detecting pollution, but when will PlanetWatch onboard devices which remove pollution from the water and air? Perhaps some devices which spray particles to clean the air? Or water disinfecting/cleaning devices which will also yield rewards?

We need to do things in the right order. In the future we will onboard new environemntal use cases. We even have some technology ready, but first we need to make an impact on air quality. 

Please, can you add some countdown or queue time for the live streams so we can join when it begins? The stream only shows up when Claudio starts talking. I miss the first minute of this.

I will check this out with the Technical Team.

What week are we receiving purchase emails for Q4 kaiterra?

Delays are related to manufacturing and procurement challenges so it is hard to make forecasts. I am just very optimistic for next year and when the time comes, I will tell you in detail why.

Hello Claudio, I’m proud to be a planetwatcher. What are the next Milestones for PlanetWatch?

We did publish a broad Road Map, but let me spell it out now:

• Full-scale outdoor air quality deployments in a number of major cities worldwide (Miami and more);
• PLANETS listing on major exchanges;
• Releasing new standards for onboarded sensors to add security and reliability and also for business partnerships. We will spell out rules on what we expect from all our partners. 

How can we help create more PlanetWatch partnerships like the one in the City of Miami?

We will select business partners in terms of their potential to help us achieve goals in our Road Map. If you believe you can add value to this process, write to [email protected]

Will the recent partnerships with Miami/Borderless Capital impact the queue times for sensors for “normal” customers? Will the corporate partnerships skip the current queues or do they have to wait in line too?

We manage separate processes for PlanetWatchers and for corporate partners. We believe that PlanetWatch needs both to grow, so we take the responsibility to manage streams in the way we deem best.

I recently tried to purchase an Atmotube as they temporarily came back in stock but they sold out in seconds because of bots. As more 3rd party sensors are onboarded to the Planetwatch Ecosystem, how will you protect PlanetWatchers who have patiently held licenses for months from being beaten by bots when purchasing 3rd party sensors?

Once again if you buy from us, you might wait longer but you will not have nasty surprises. There is no way for us to block third parties from selling PlanetWatch-approved sensors. But I can tell you one thing: if any entity claims to be a PlanetWatch approved reseller, they are lying. As of today, we have no reselling agreements, also because the hardware is not produced by us. This might change in the future.

What happened to the Technical AMA’s? 

Good point. We will resume it as soon as possible as well as the science one.

Non-PlanetWatch related, how was Decipher & which project/discussion (other than your own) had you most excited for the future of the Algorand network?

Great question. I see a lot of potential in the fact that the ecosystem is supporting all sorts of great projects. Algorand Foundation, Borderless Capital, etc, are great partners and supporters of PlanetWatch and other projects. One project which is very close to us is ClimateTrade, as we recently announced. 

I believe a revised White Paper has been previously mentioned, is there a general ETA for that at this time?

Good point. I believe we will be able to release it in January, and it will incorporate the outcome of the governance vote.

Congrats on 1 billion streams! Keep it up.

Thank you, we did not find the time to announce it! We are beefing up our communications team, with a young in-house dynamic person and the support of a leading PR agency.

Keep watching the Planet and get ready to help us make it greener by staking your Planets!