Initial DEX Offerings (IDOs)

IDOs emerged with decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and automated market makers, allowing projects to launch tokens by listing them directly on a DEX or via a smart contract auction.

IDOs take token sales straight to decentralized exchanges, offering immediate on-chain liquidity and a process shaped by the community with no centralized oversight or approval.

Anyone can trade as soon as the pool is live, and no single entity controls participation, which aligns with DeFi’s open-access culture.

The downside of IDOs is their notorious volatility and chaos.

With no gatekeepers or coordinated mechanism, launches often turn into gas wars and bot attacks – everyone races to buy the token the moment liquidity is added, and tokens can swing wildly in price within minutes.

Liquidity is usually small at first, exacerbating price impact. It’s common for popular IDO tokens to experience extreme price spikes and dips on launch day.

In short, IDOs deliver decentralization and speed, but at the cost of high price fluctuation and technical barriers for newcomers (managing DEX trades and high fees).

PoG addresses some of these challenges by structuring the distribution as a measured competition rather than a first-come free-for-all.

Instead of a single moment when trading opens (where fastest bots win), PoG’s gas competition can be conducted over a longer window (hours or even days) to allow broader participation.

The immediate liquidity of IDOs is still achieved once PoG tokens are distributed (since participants can then provide liquidity on DEXs or the project can facilitate it), but the initial allocation is done via a transparent auction-like process rather than a sudden scramble.

Effectively, PoG takes the gas war aspect that often accompanies IDOs and makes it the explicit, fair battleground for token distribution.

Everyone can decide how much to spend on gas according to their desire for the tokens, and while gas prices may indeed spike, that dynamic is directly tied to how many tokens one can claim (unlike an IDO where a spike in DEX price might simply mean latecomers get fewer tokens for their money).

In summary, PoG retains the permissionless, on-chain nature of IDOs but replaces the unpredictable rush with a rule-based competition.

It’s like turning an unruly crowd rushing the doors into an orderly (if heated) auction.

The outcome is still market-driven – those who value the token most (as evidenced by burning gas) end up with the largest share – but there’s less chance of complete exclusion due to technical speed or insider knowledge.

Notably, both IDOs and PoG involve users spending gas as part of the process, but PoG makes that the core feature (and reward mechanism) rather than an incidental cost.