Monthly Update (Feb 21)
Acquiring Cryptium validators, joining Injective, The Graph governance process, Cosmos Stargate and AMM, Solana staking.
Cryptium Validator Acquisition
Last week, we announced that we would acquire and continue operating Cryptium Labs validator nodes on Tezos, Near, Polkadot, and Kusama following their announcement to terminate their services to focus on other ventures. This first of its kind acquisition will enable Cryptium’s delegators staking over $125M worth of assets to continue earning rewards through a similar Swiss-based staking provider. We thank Cryptium for their outstanding effort and contributions to the staking community as they move on to a new exciting project currently in stealth mode. We are looking forward to overtaking Cryptium’s operations and getting started with operating our first node in the Tezos ecosystem.
Onboarding Injective’s Incentivized Testnet
Injective Protocol is the first layer-2 decentralized exchange protocol that unlocks the full potential of decentralized derivatives and borderless DeFi. Injective Protocol enables fully decentralized trading without any restrictions, allowing individuals to trade on any derivative market of their choosing. We have joined Injective’s Equinox Staking testnet as a genesis validator. We are pleased to provide infrastructure alongside staple validators across the globe for a non-custodial decentralised exchange (DEX) advancing frictionless trades.
We are hiring for the following roles:
See more at: https://chorus.one/careers
Network Updates
Total Assets Staked with Chorus One: $789,524,722
Lido is coming to Terra with the Anchor Protocol launch and the liquid staking solution is also expanding its validator set for ETH2. The Lido Node Operators Sub Governance Group, consisting of members from us, Certus One, P2P, stake.fish and Staking Facilities are now reviewing candidate applications that were submitted in February individually and will provide recommendations to the DAO, which will then decide if it agrees with the shortlisted validators. More information can be found here and here.
The Graph had their first Town Hall on Feb 23 2021. The core focus was on the new proposed governance process:
Graph Improvement Proposals (GIPs)
GIP 0001 defines the process for future graph improvement proposals. GIPs focus on improvements and changes to protocols and processes related to the ecosystem and will be hosted on Radical, a decentralised version of Github.
Graph Request for Comments (GRCs)
Similar to ERCs on Ethereum (e.g. ERC-20), these are application layer standards. For example, there is not a lot of standardisation for how to build subgraphs yet. In the future, having a level of standardisation will make it easier for subgraphs to compose with common interfaces.
Graph Request for Proposals (GRPs)
GRPs will help the community find the most valuable problems to work on at any given time. Formalises and defines problems, other contributors in the ecosystem can jump into more structured problems (e.g. mutations in subgraphs or efficiencies in delegation markets).
The Graph also highlighted that they will be using Snapshot as the tool for token-based governance voting to make decisions on specific GIPs. Learn more on the official forum and support us by delegating to our public indexer (chorusone.eth).
Stargate is Live!
The internet of blockchains is officially here. The Stargate upgrade brings the original vision of Cosmos set-out in the whitepaper to life. Stargate is a set of upgrades that brings significant new capabilities and performance improvements to blockchains built with Cosmos software developer kit (SDK). One of the most critical upgrades introduced by Stargate is the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol. IBC introduces interoperability by allowing blockchains to talk to each other — creating a new standard for cross-blockchain coordination and exchange. Make sure to also check out the excellent piece explaining the vision for the Cosmos Hub as a port city.
An Innovative, Front-Running Resistant AMM on the Hub
A new governance proposal to signal support for an AMM on the Cosmos Hub has been issued. To ensure liquidity in Cosmos' interconnected universe, an Automated Market Maker (AMM) in the forum of liquidity Cosmos SDK module has been proposed by both Tendermint and B-Harvest. The design of this AMM is taking into account various shortcomings of other AMMs, e.g. by using batch-style swap execution. Chorus One is supporting this initiative! Learn more about it in the proposal linked above.
On February 10 the Solana community passed a vote to enable inflation on mainnet. SOL holders delegating their tokens to validators on the network will now start to earn staking rewards. Currently the APR for staking SOL is around 15%, check out our Solana economics primer to learn more.
In February, Solana hosted a DeFi Hackathon. There were 85 submissions made in the hackathon. Judges are now reviewing projects and a winner will be announced in coming days.
Chorus One had the node with the most staked assets on it during the month of February!
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