March 30 PlanetWatch AMA recap

In this article you can find a recap of the 30th of March AMA with our CEO, Claudio Parrinello.

Main announcements

🟢 Awair Element update

Please read: 
– Official statement (March 30th).
– Contingency plan (March 31st).
– Response to Awair’s statement (April 1st).

🔵 Type 1 data sales

Data from over 100 Type 1 sensors deployed in Italy and in France is going to be monetized. The contracts are mostly related to local governments/municipalities and the revenue streams from these sensors will enable us, according to the White Paper terms, to add roughly $40,000/year in PLANETS to the Type 1 recycle bin. 
This is definitely an important milestone towards market validation.
The first recycle bin topping will occur in April and then we will probably do it on a quarterly basis.

🟢 Stake for the Planet

The Stake for the Planet initiative is live. You are now able to stake your PLANETS on Algostake to earn PW:Forest tokens in return.
Once you accumulate 1,000 PW:Forest tokens you are entitled to swap them for a tree within PlanetWatch’s forest, planted in partnership with Treedom.
The redemption process will kick off later this month. A blog post with more details will be published very soon. 
This is a strong use case for our token and it is aligned with our mission. By monitoring air quality, we are protecting people’s health. By generating resources to plant trees, we are contributing to climate change mitigation.

🔵 Type 4 licenses

We assessed the requests from people who bought a Type 4 device before January 27th – which is when we paused selling Type 4 licenses – to obtain a Type 4 license issued until March 18th, 6pm CET and, unfortunately, only a small fraction complied with the requirements set.
Therefore, we gave all those who applied a last chance to review the information provided and update it. The procedure to follow was shared as a ticket response on March 25th. 
The deadline to double-check the documentation and modify the request was March 30th at 11:59pm CET. 
We will be processing Atmotube PRO requests first while we implement the contingency plan for Awair Element. 

🟢 New Type 2 device

There are new devices coming up, namely two new Type 2 devices.
For one of these outdoors sensors, we can already disclose some specs:
– The data streams will be sent directly to PlanetWatch;
– It uses Wi-fi connectivity;
– It relies mainly on solar power and has a backup power supply.
Delivery times will be announced as soon as the new waiting list management system is ready.

Q&A with Claudio

When will the Q1 batch be completed and does that mean all other batches will be delayed by 1-2 months?
Some people who belong to Q1 2022 will only receive their purchase emails in April/May, as we are still trying to recover from delays related to the pandemic and the worldwide shortage of components.
In order to add transparency to the process and keep you better informed about the status of your order, we are developing a new waiting list management system, due to be implemented in April with our new Explorer interface. We will move from quarterly to monthly delivery estimates, so you will be given a precise estimation of how long you need to wait before you receive your device.

Can we prepay for the sensors to speed up the process?
We will be introducing a 30% down payment on the sensor price (for all orders scheduled to be fulfilled in the following three months), once the new waiting list management system is in place. Soon we will provide more information.
This measure will give us extra purchasing power to buy large sensor stocks as soon as they become available and keep up with the delivery schedule. At the same time, we believe it will also discourage some people who were buying licenses only to get a placeholder in the waiting list.
Thus, the down payment is meant to reduce waiting time and speed up the process. However, at the moment, we do not envision any additional down payments or full prepay. That would most likely create unnecessary competition amongst the community.

Is outdoor data more valuable than indoor data?
When people talk about air quality, most of them think of outdoor air quality first. However, health experts explain that indoor air quality is more critical for human health than outdoor air quality, since we spend most of our lives indoors and, in indoor spaces with poor ventilation, pollutants can stagnate and get higher concentration levels than outdoors.
We believe – and that is the reason why we set up PlanetWatch in the way we did – that both indoor and outdoor air quality data are valuable for public health protection.
At the moment, there is less spotlight on indoor air quality but, in fact, we see that as an opportunity because we are trying to build a very large dataset of indoor air quality data worldwide.
A few weeks ago we announced the beginning of monetization for Type 3 data (indoor air quality data) and now we are announcing the beginning of monetization for Type 1 data (outdoor air quality data). This is evidence that both have market value.

When do you expect to close deals in cities with good sensor coverage like Berlin? 
Indeed we have very good sensor coverage in Berlin and in at least a dozen other large cities worldwide.
We are working towards data sales and we have been making progress. Definitely Europe and the US are our two top markets as our network’s density is more relevant there. Yet, such deals take time and are fairly complex. We will keep you posted. 

Keep watching our Planet and help us make it greener by staking your PLANETS! 🌍