Introduction to the Pocket Network

Networks are fragile. Pocket is unstoppable.

On Unstoppable Open Data & The Crypto-Native API Layer

APIs are the bridges that connect applications and their users to the data and services they need. Whether you’re checking the weather in your phone’s app or using sophisticated AI agents or swapping stablecoins, one or more APIs are quietly doing the work behind the scenes.

In Web3, this layer is often missing a key piece to be truly unstoppable: a crypto-native way to access open data and services without relying on centralized intermediaries. Pocket Network coordinates the actors needed to fill that gap. Without a trustless API layer, your apps and services are still at risk of censorship, shifting political scenarios and other force majeure events that can lead to interruptions of service. Pocket allows for the data that fuels value creation on the blockchain to be as unstoppable as the consensus layers that they inform.

Simply put, Pocket is a broad, permissionless registry of public APIs. The goal is to allow anyone; developers, enterprises, or autonomous agents, to access public data sources (from blockchains to geospatial datasets) and open-source services (like AI models or live data feeds) without gatekeepers.

It works in two ways. First, it creates a permissionless registry, a decentralized directory, where anyone can list an API for a public service or dataset. Second, it incentivizes independent operators to run and maintain these APIs, rewarding them for reliability and performance, and penalizing bad actors.

This ensures the network stays online and trustworthy without needing a single company in charge. As long as the network actors continue to perform their roles, all open data it supports will remain unstoppable.

Top links for all Pocket Docs sections:

Pocket Network Basics

Contributing to Pocket

Growing with $POKT

Businesses on Pocket

Building on the Pocket Network

Welcome to Pokt Roll

PATH Welcome Page

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Next, let’s look into those actors and help you go on your own journey with The Pocket Network...