Questions and Answers about Type 1 sensors and other important announcements

In this article you will find the answers that our CEO, Claudio Parrinello, gave in the AMA session on June 21.

Before answering your questions, here come some announcements:

·       The first one is about payments. Planet token has been listed on Bitfinex and so there is now a market price for our token. We feel this is the right time to start introducing payments in Planets on our website.

We have two websites, planetwatch.io for European users and planetwatch.us for worldwide users.

 Starting from July 5th, Planets will be the only payment accepted on planetwatch.io. 

On planetwatch.us, for the time being, you can choose to pay in Planets or in fiat. The reason for the difference is that Bitfinex is not available in the US and other countries.

·       Type 1 updates: 50 Airqinos will be available in July and an additional 200 will be available in August.

They will be sold on www.airqualitysensors.shop starting from July 15th or earlier and they will be payable in Planets only. These sensors will be purchasable only in the European Union, because they are only approved to be used in the EU.

Airqinos sensors are made available only to Type 1 license holders based in the European Union, on a first come first serve basis. On the planetwatch.io Type 1 license purchase page, you will see a counter indicating the number of licenses which have been sold.

Airqino sales will start in a couple of weeks. License holders will be notified and they will have 48 hours to buy the sensor.

Unfortunately, for the time being, we’re only able to serve customers in the European Union, due to a mix of challenges including technical compliance and customs duties for other regions of the world.

If you’re based outside the EU, you can still buy a Type 1 license, but be aware that we don’t know when a Type 1 sensor will be available in your region.

We’re putting pressure on the Airqino manufacturer to get their device certified asap for the US and Asia and they are working on it: we’ll keep you updated as soon as there are changes. 

Our current Type 1 (Premium Outdoor Sensor) Airqino monitors NO2, CO, O3, PM2.5, PM10, as well as air temperature and humidity. It’s been developed by a research institute and the price that we managed to negotiate is exceptionally low for the specs. Comparable systems are usually around 5,000€ .

For PlanetWatchers, Airqino  is just 1647 € including VAT.

·       For Type 2  sensors, we’re working with a manufacturer on the release of a new device.

Arianna is great but it lacks a GPS, which is key for PlanetWatch. Obviously existing Ariannas will continue to be supported and earn tokens, but we hope to release a new device with GPS in the Fall. In the meantime, we keep looking for suitable alternative devices.

·       For Type 3 sensors, we’re close to finalizing tests and agreements with 2-3 manufacturers. I believe we’ll be able to indicate at least one approved device in July, hopefully with worldwide availability.

Here you can find PlanetWatchers’ questions to Claudio

1. Will there be additional exchanges?

Giving all PlanetWatchers worldwide the possibility to buy and sell Planets is one of our priorities. We’re waiting for feedback from a major exchange. I know some people don’t like Bitfinex, but you have to start from somewhere and I would encourage all PlanetWatchers who are not blocked from doing it, to give it a try.

As I just said earlier, there are very good reasons to get Planets!

We are also exploring opportunities coming from the DeFi world, as there are a couple of projects looking to establish an Algorand-based DEX. 

2. We’ve received a lot of questions about the PlanetWatch economy (licenses, ROI, token price, etc.)

This is a complex question, let me summarize the key points:

1.    The goal of PlanetWatch is to crowdsource environmental data in domains where deploying a very large number of sensors and/or a high-density network is instrumental to adding value with respect to current data sets. So this is about big, green data.

2. Once we collect a lot of data from our global network, raw data must be validated, aggregated, analyzed and transformed into a research/industry-grade data product.

3. In addition, we are building a global data ledger on the Algorand blockchain and a token-based reward scheme, which all adds to the cost (e.g. transaction costs) and the complexity of the challenge. So, this is a costly project to set up and run and license fees help us cover a fraction of such costs. In the long run, Planet rewards will decrease because of halving events and the increase of the number of sensors in the network, so questions were asked about the long-term viability of the project. Well, as I said this is about green data. We believe this data is valuable for the Planet and can be monetized and we are already working on it and obtaining positive feedback.

4. Ultimately, the value of our project and especially of our token is linked to the value of the data. 

3. Will you have a Discord server?

We’re working on it. It will be released soon.

4. Can you tell us more about the EMRIT Collaboration?

I see that our announcement of a collaboration with EMRIT has raised many concerns.

I would summarize all of them in a word: decentralisation, or the lack of it when a company gets a dominant position in a project.

Let’s be honest about decentralisation: PlanetWatch was created and is run by a company, so it’s not fully decentralized. Some decisions, e.g., business partnerships, are corporate decisions. However, it’s decentralized in the following sense: anyone can join Planetwatch, individuals and corporations, if they buy licenses, connect approved sensors and are happy to earn rewards according to the White Paper. We are also going to put in place a decentralized governance system based on sensor reputation, not on tokens, so everyone will have a say in game-changing decisions. 

The fact that PlanetWatch is run by a company has some advantages, because we can leverage the power that comes from our PlanetWatcher community when negotiating with hardware suppliers. There’s no way you could get the special PlanetWatch price for Airqinos or the discount on Atmotube PRO as a single buyer. So this gives real benefits to the community. 

PlanetWatch is a company that has its own goals and policies and is committed to protecting the interest of the PlanetWatchers community. We are open to collaborate with anybody, but we call the shots in terms of policies. I am personally the largest shareholder in the company and the CEO and that’s the way I see it: we are not going to be pushed around by anybody, as long as we continue to grow and the community supports us.

I believe that today’s announcement in terms of the large lot of Airquino sensors reserved for PlanetWatchers substantiates my words.  

I also heard: “More sensors harm the project as the big guys will scoop all the rewards”. Frankly, this is nonsense – as long as everyone has access to Planetwatch, growing the network is in everyone’s interest.

5. Is the PlanetWatch data stored on a blockchain or on the Cern C2MON system?

The short answer is on the blockchain. At the moment we use C2MON to monitor our systems. 

6. When can we use Planets to buy products?

Licenses immediately, purifiers and other products coming next. I suspect, but have no control on that, other players in the Algorand ecosystem are also keen to accept Planets, but we’ll see in the future.

7. Do you accept business collaboration enquiries?

We welcome all inquiries from businesses of all sizes, from Google all the way down to individual entrepreneurs. Please, send ideas, proposals, etc. to [email protected]

8. When will you publish the Road Map?

It will be released on our website in July.

9. What do you believe is the best piece of news that has been released today?

I think that securing a large lot of Type 1 sensors at a very competitive price is probably the best piece of news.

10. According to the Terms and Conditions, the Atmotube product provides estimates only, could you please explain how this data could be useful to companies?

PlanetWatch uses sensors which obviously don’t have the same specs and precisions as governmental ones, which cost 100 times more. However, our data adds value because of the high spatial density of sensors and close real-time streaming. The measurement from a single sensor is not very useful, however aggregate data are. There are a number of official documents, including the ones from the European environment agency, advocating the relevance of this type of measurements.

It’s like the difference between watching a VGA image that refreshes once per second or a 4K image that refreshes 20 times per second. The latter, even if it contains some noise, does deliver way more information than the former. So, if you have good algorithms to filter out noise, you are creating value. This is the argument for Type 1 and Type 2 sensors. As for wearables, their data can be very useful to assess the actual exposure to pollutants throughout a typical day.  

 Very soon we will publish a Scientific paper with PlanetWatch authors.

11. In the White Paper there is a paragraph about PlanetWatch buying carbon credits. How will this help projects fighting climate change?

We’re discussing with a partner on how to implement this. Buying carbon credits helps  support projects fighting climate change.

12. Is the project scalable?

As explained in the White Paper, we have a deployment strategy which is highly scalable while optimizing coverage of densely populated areas. If we manage to build a network of vendors who can supply sensors everywhere, then all we need to turn a city into a PlanetWatch city is a local citizen association, influencers, etc, who can engage people to get and deploy sensors.

13. Will the price for the licenses always stay the same? Or are you planning to raise it?

We have no immediate plans to raise or decrease the price of licenses. However, this could change depending on the evolution of the project, just like for any business.

14. Can you talk about the general rules about sensor location?

The general philosophy is that we want to generate data that is useful and not redundant. In practice, the general rule is that two sensors of the same Type should not measure “the same air” all the time. If in a family you want to have two Atmotubes for two people who spend the daytime in different places, that’s fine. It is also fine to have different Types of sensors in the same house because they measure different data or, if they measure the same data, it is useful for us to cross-check the measurements. If our algorithms find sensors which appear to measure the same air, we won’t  shut you down immediately, but we’ll get in touch with you first to discuss the situation.

15. What is the current supply for PLANETS? Also, what is the current market cap? 

The current circulating supply is about 228 M as you can see on our explorer. 

Maximum supply is 4.5B. Tokens are released gradually over time as explained in the White Paper.

16. Can you unveil any more details?

I should not, but I’ll tell you that we’re currently working on the following (no ETA for now):

–  We’ll soon release a new app;

– We want to set up a “Refer a friend scheme”. If you help us to grow the network in a sensible way (not spam people), this will be rewarded;

– We want to set up a loyalty scheme (based on sensor reputation) to make you earn even more than 80%;

– The last thing that I’ll disclose is about license transferability. This means that, if your sensor breaks down, you will be able to transfer the license to your new one. If you want to quit PlanetWatch, you can sell your license (before expiry!). The buyer will be able to use the remaining time. Please note that once you start using a license, the time counter cannot be paused. So if you have a 1-year license, you use it for 6 months and then do nothing for 6 months, the license will lapse.

Keep watching our Planet and stay tuned for more announcements coming soon!