This week DIN spotlights Grove, the protocol-native team that spun out of Pocket Network to build unstoppable infrastructure coordination. Grove has been decentralizing access since 2017; now the team is preparing a major leap forward with the Shannon upgrade, a new Cosmos SDK blockchain (launched June 3, 2025) that turns Pocket into a sovereign chain built for permissionless gateways and open-data services.

From Pocket Network to Grove: Seven Years of Infra R&D

Pocket Network began as a relay marketplace serving billions of JSON-RPC calls. As the ecosystem matured, the founders of Pocket Network formed Grove to reflect a broader mission: coordinate any service (blockchain or otherwise) through a protocol-first design.

• Shannon migrates Pocket from Tendermint Classic to the Cosmos SDK, introducing on-chain fee markets, permissionless gateways, and light-client suppliers that lower node costs.

• PATH, Grove’s open-source SDK, lets developers spin up sovereign gateways with smart QoS rules, load balancing, and enterprise-grade SLAs on top of the new chain.

Shannon and PATH set the stage for Grove to support hundreds of services, not just blockchain RPC. This is exactly the type of modular future DIN envisions.

Why DIN Fits Grove’s Long-Term Arc

Web3 infra choices often feel binary: centralized SaaS that sacrifices sovereignty or rough-edged decentralized networks that struggle with UX. DIN blends both worlds by turning decentralization into a product with structured onboarding, performance-based routing, and transparent incentives. Grove sees DIN as validation that large providers like Infura are ready to integrate third-party protocol networks rather than build closed silos. For a team obsessed with coordination layers, that alignment is impossible to ignore.

Network Footprint on DIN

Grove has given its full catalogue of 53 services to DIN, but not all of them are live and serving traffic. They are focusing first on high-demand chains:

• Ethereum for mainstream DeFi and NFT traffic

• Polygon for low-fee consumer apps

• Solana for high-throughput use cases

As Shannon goes live and PATH gateways mature, Grove will light up additional chains (from Bitcoin and Base to emerging modular L2s) to mirror both DIN’s roadmap and Pocket’s expanding supplier ecosystem.

Operational Impact and New Economics

DIN’s marketplace funnels traffic to the lowest-latency endpoints. Grove’s globally distributed suppliers routinely top latency charts, so the network quickly became a meaningful demand source. More important than the revenue bump is proof that protocol-aligned participation can be profitable when linked to open demand channels. Metrics such as uptime, proof submission, and relay success map neatly onto DIN’s staking and slashing logic, reinforcing Grove’s internal performance goals.

Early Lessons and Wins

• Aligned incentives: DIN’s decision to open its gateway stack created fast feedback loops and shared observability dashboards, fostering rapid trust.

• Marketplace effect: New chains like Mantle, Blast, and Scroll saw immediate traffic spikes once listed, demonstrating how neutral discovery accelerates adoption.

• Supplier interest: Grove reports increased inbound interest from node operators who want to serve both Shannon and DIN, citing smoother monetization than traditional white-label models.

Practical Decentralization for Web3’s Next Wave

Grove argues we are shifting from ideological decentralization to practical decentralization. Builders need verifiable guarantees that their access will not be throttled, censored, or surveilled—while still scaling to millions of users and autonomous agents. DIN plus Grove delivers that promise by combining protocol-level coordination with enterprise-grade performance.

What’s Next

1. Shannon mainnet on 3 June 2025 has already unlocked permissionless gateways and new fee markets.

2. PATH 1.0 will streamline gateway deployment for DIN operators seeking multichain coverage.

3. Cross-network experiments will explore relay settlement between DIN’s AVS contracts and Pocket light-client suppliers, aiming for deeper liquidity and redundancy across both ecosystems.

Grove believes decentralization thrives through collaboration. By pairing Infura’s reach with Pocket’s protocol DNA, DIN and Grove can push the frontier of resilient, inclusive infrastructure.

Explore More

• DIN Gateway Program → din.build

• Grove roadmap and Shannon details → https://grove.city

• PATH SDK docs → https://path.grove.city