Pyth has a mission of becoming the single source of truth for all prices. A true price layer for the entire system. In order to achieve that goal it requires that the Pyth Network scale up both in price feeds and feed requests in a time limited manner. Both, require a common ingredient, usage growth. With a corresponding impact on revenue growth. Therefore, the most suitable system to achieve said goals is the development of a Pyth mobile application for the mass market.
Rationale
Current revenue streams stem mainly from the crypto community which goes through cycles of boom, bust, and possibly stagnation. Limiting the growth rate of the Pyth Network.
The new Pyth Pro product will take time to grow in adoption among traditional finance. Furthermore, the number of institutional subscribers must be in the 1000s to produce significant monthly recurring revenue. It could take many years to reach those numbers.
In order to become the single source of truth requires an expedited process for growth. The most appropriate system to achieve that goal would be the development of a Pyth mobile app targeting the mass market. This is the means which will grow Pyth Network 10,000x in a timely manner.
Proposed Plan and Feasibility
The proposed plan would utilize Douro Labs in a design, build, sell agreement similar to that for Pyth Pro. Keeping it in house. There are other apps in that space, but the Pyth network is different. Users are likely to gravitate towards better technology and value.
Questions and Uncertainties
I’m uncertain about the costs involved here. Or any details of the design. That is something that I think Pyth network can work out with Douro Labs
I would love to understand your idea in more depth.
What would a mobile app look like in terms of use? What would be the functionality?
Given the current and historic client base, how would a mobile app change this experience for them?
If this is targeting new clients, what clients are these, and what is the USP a mobile app could provide?
Developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and launching on Apple and Android stores can vary between $30,000 and $500,000, (depending on the complexity) which is quite a large range. This does not include the ongoing maintenance and development thereof.
Before undertaking any more progress down this path, I am curious what your MVP for this mobile app is? Could you please explain in more detail what your idea for the app is?
USP would be the high accuracy price feeds, comprehensive and exotic underlying instruments.
I imagine the user would see various subsets of the Pyth data set according to categories or market segments and be able to view the feeds in each subset by choosing that option. Within the subset or watch list the user would have the option to view historical charts on any given price feed. The app should have some charting capabilities that users want.
Possibly having a ‘buy’ button to buy the underlying within the app or linking to the vendor site. Buying the underlying within the app might be problematic due to legal and regulatory restrictions. The easiest path would be a referral program linking to vendor sites. An interesting idea would be using prediction markets on underlying instruments as a means of income within the app. A user would not need to buy the underlying but can wager on the price. A user who has placed a wager will be repeatedly requesting the price feed because of their stake. Kalshi takes the risk of the wager win/loss plus pays a commission for the transaction a true win-win partnership. The truly funny thing is you can wager on the price of a car in Asia or a TV in Europe.
The feeds must be somewhat differentiated from Pyth Pro feeds, perhaps on the grounds of reduced resolution or speed of updates. It would be for single licensed client vs multiple licensed clients as in Pyth Pro.
The price feed subscriptions could be modular in the sense that the user could subscribe to 1 or multiple subsets depending on their need.
I’m not sure about the MVP.
A possible source of funding might be venture capital with an ROI agreement from app proceeds. Or through the sale of Pyth tokens to venture capitalist or other investors. Another option would be a combination of Pyth ownership via tokens and agreements on proceeds from the Pyth mobile app.
I think that a good milestone to reach would be 10,000,000 downloads with $10 subscription revenue per month each. In addition to the prediction markets commissions.
Now for the virtuos cycle, a portion of commission revenue is paid to the price publisher. Allowing any approved price publisher to gain access to the potential revenue for doing nothing but publishing their price data. Which would make it substantially easier to bring new publishers on the network.
These are just a few thoughts and I’d love to hear from others thoughts about this topic.
Let’s entertain the idea of $1 billion ARR. With a solid business foundation the Pyth token should be viewed as trustworthy collateral recognized by the top banks worldwide.
The Pyth reserve having stored today’s cash is able to push prices up to ridiculously high numbers and obtain loans in any currency at a future time.
Another consideration could be the purchase and use of Pyth tokens to make wagers or purchase subscriptions in app. Users could use the app to buy and hold Pyth tokens as an investment with the potential for capital gains. Though, that would require capital gains/loss reporting.
Users could be offered some Pyth tokens to wager for signing up.