According to PYMNTS.com, on Monday, December 29, Rezolve Ai’s subsidiary SQD Network unveiled a new “Revenue Pool” model designed to support its blockchain data infrastructure. The service provides high-performance data to major enterprise and institutional clients, including Deutsche Telekom and DeFi protocols like Morpho and PancakeSwap. In this model, large customers pay subscription fees for continuous, large-scale access to real-time and historical blockchain data. To help fund the required infrastructure, SQD token holders can temporarily lock their tokens, which are then immobilized. When customers pay for the service, a portion of that revenue is shared with these participants, who are compensated in stablecoins. The company argues this creates a direct link between customer usage, infrastructure funding, and long-term ecosystem sustainability.
How the revenue pool works
So, here’s the basic mechanics. SQD has these big, demanding clients who need insane amounts of reliable blockchain data—think of it like a utility. Providing that at scale isn’t cheap; it needs serious, committed server capacity. Instead of just raising venture capital or dipping into reserves, they’re turning to their token holders. You lock up your SQD tokens, which basically acts as your stake or your “proof” that you’re helping secure the network’s capacity. Your tokens aren’t gone, but you can’t trade them while they’re locked. Then, when Deutsche Telekom or PancakeSwap pays their bill, a slice of that cash flow gets distributed to the lockers. The key detail? You get paid in stablecoins, not more volatile SQD tokens. That’s a big deal. It means participants are earning what looks like actual yield on a real service, not just speculative token rewards.
The bigger picture and challenges
Now, this is a fascinating attempt to solve a core crypto infrastructure problem: sustainable funding. Blockchains generate tons of data, and someone has to index, store, and serve it reliably. For enterprises betting on this tech, that service is becoming “mission-critical,” as Rezolve says. The old model often involved token emissions or grants to fund these node operators or data providers. This model tries to tie revenue directly to customer payments. But let’s be skeptical for a second. The success hinges entirely on two things: a constantly growing stream of paying enterprise customers, and token holders willing to lock capital for what is essentially a share of that revenue. What if customer growth stalls? The yield for lockers could plummet. And locking tokens is a classic liquidity trade-off—you’re betting the stablecoin rewards outweigh the opportunity cost of not selling your SQD if its price shoots up. It’s a clever alignment of incentives, but it’s not without its risks.
Rezolve’s broader AI pivot
It’s worth noting that this blockchain infrastructure play is just one part of Rezolve’s story. The same CEO, Dan Wagner, has been vocal about a completely different problem: the broken state of eCommerce. He told PYMNTS that when you walk into a physical store, you leave with a product 7 out of 10 times, but on a digital platform, you leave empty-handed 7 out of 10 times. His argument is that AI needs to fix that by making online shopping as intuitive and conversational as in-store. So what’s the connection? It seems Rezolve is building a dual-track future: one arm (SQD) providing the robust, paid-for data backbone for the blockchain economy, and the other focused on AI-driven consumer interfaces. One fuels infrastructure, the other aims to revolutionize the front-end experience. It’s an ambitious, two-pronged approach that shows how sprawling the company’s vision really is.
