Pollen has reached a milestone this week: 5,000+ Pollenators have now signed up to the Pollen Pre-Release on testnet and started building their trading reputation.

This is, of course, vital to the project as it puts the finishing touches on Pollen Virtual — the first module of the Pollen ecosystem, due on mainnet at the end of this month. The feedback Pollenators provide at the beta stage will be reflected in the final product, and their trading decisions will form the first strands of collective intelligence that jumpstart Pollen’s ecosystem.

Here are the key elements for why active participation in the Pre-Release is important to you, the participant:

1. Test the ground: This is your chance to test your trading strategies entirely risk-free, by simply staking the 500 test PLN that every subscriber to the Pollen Pre-Release receives. Considering the market conditions today, trying before buying can save you a pretty penny. 
2. Fame and glory: You can showcase your trading capabilities to your fellow Pollenators and share your scores with the community. Take it as a form of marketing yourself, if you will — Pollen provides you with the tools to build your reputation and attract a following on the platform and beyond.
3. Reputation, reputation, reputation: Pollen may be on testnet, but every decision counts, because the reputation score you earn now will be DIRECTLY ported to mainnet. This means that in joining Pollen’s 5,000 early-bird Pollenators, you get a head start up the Pollen leaderboard, thus increasing your chances of earning more real PLN as the project goes live this month.

Ready to join? Follow the instructions below, or visit beta.pollen.id to check out the platform.

Pollen’s goal is to decentralize asset management. To achieve this, users of the protocol need an indicator to help them choose who should be managing their assets. This is where reputation scoring comes in.

“Reputation” within the Pollen ecosystem measures the ability of a Pollenator to make good trading decisions. Pollenators are ranked on the Pollen leaderboard based on their reputation score, allowing potential delegators to easily see who the most reliable and trustworthy traders are.

Reputation scoring is among the things Pollen is most proud of, and the key to a classic problem investment funds face: How do you distinguish a skilled portfolio manager from a lucky portfolio manager?

The answer lies in the project’s proprietary PollenSkill algorithm.

In a nutshell, PollenSkill estimates the trading skill of players through the use of the Bayesian inference, assuming that investing skill follows a normal distribution. A user’s skill is described as both a mean and a variance, and is updated whenever they rebalance. The more a user rebalances, the more certainty Pollen has around estimating their skill. The final reputation score is then measured in points based on the comparison of a user against all other users.

The skill estimation for users that rebalance less often will be reduced, with their reputation score gravitating towards zero. Users that rebalance more will accrue more points, as well as have their skill more accurately estimated by the algorithm.

The PollenSkill algorithm thus creates a constant tension between determining how other users will perform and forecasting one’s portfolio performance. This will eventually lead the protocol to a dynamic adaptation, as users adjust their trading styles to better demonstrate their skills.

Want to learn more about PollenSkill? Read Pollen’s litepaper.

Accessing the Pollen Pre-Release takes a few simple steps:

• Make sure to complete the sign-up form here
• Click here to access the app directly
• When prompted, connect your Metamask wallet (the Pre-Release is currently only available via Metamask)
• You will then receive 500 testnet PLN
• You can now set up your virtual portfolio and start earning your reputation

If you need further guidance, have any questions or feedback, please contact the Pollen team directly via Discord.

Happy pollenating!

About Pollen DeFi

Pollen DeFi, is a first of its kind decentralized asset index where the community holds all the power. Decentralized finance is designed to be by the people, for the people, and Pollen DeFi is acknowledging this by building the first, truly decentralized platform for managing tokenized asset pools. The merit-based DAO provides a reputation-based governance protocol with incentives that leverage the community’s collective wisdom to curate asset pools. In this system, all users of the platform stand to benefit from the contribution of the best-performing participants.

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