State of Stake is a series of curated news, research, updates, and events in the Proof-of-Stake ecosystem. Stay informed with the biggest PoS networks and all things Staking. Now weekly! This is our 28th report that we are happy to release it in collaboration with Staking Rewards! Staking Rewards provides trusted access to all passive income opportunities with regard to digital assets. They are curating knowledge and data to build a healthy staking and DeFi ecosystem. Staking Rewards’ core focus are Proof-of-Stake Protocols which enable passive returns through staking. They also cover Masternode Coins, Dividend Tokens, and Lending Protocols.
In this update, we examine the period from 14th August – 20th August with a general overview of the market, highlighted research in the space, news on all launched staking networks, updates on all the upcoming PoS networks, the latest developments from staking infrastructure providers and a handful of staking-related events.
Global Market Overview
The current Staking Market Cap (valuation of all projects that have staking mechanism) slightly decreased since our last update and now is about 39,7 billion USD.
Source: stakingrewards.com
PoS Dominance is now about 25,3%, the Average Reward Rate is nearly 13%.
EOS is back to top-2! Now, the leading projects by locked in staking are Tezos, EOS, Algorand, Cardano and Polkadot accordingly.
Current Value in Staking by Asset
Think & Stake
Staking Academy is a content aggregation platform for everything staking related. While there’s lots of great content out there about staking & the overall ecosystem, it is often scattered across different platforms, so that it’s easy to get lost in translation. This makes it hard for new users to get up to speed & comfortable with entering this exciting space. The Staking Academy provides new users with an information source to get started & more seasoned stakers can browse through a variety of articles, podcasts & events.
[SKALE Network]
Contributor: Jack O’Holleran, CEO & Co-founder of SKALE Labs
Mainnet Launch: The SKALE Network is in the midst of a 3-phase launch for its public mainnet. Phase 1 began in June and consists of over 25 smart contracts running on the Ethereum mainnet. These contracts control critical network functions for SKALE such as chain creation, validator registration and management, node selection, node rotation, staking, bounty payment, slashing, and more. Therefore, SKALE serves as an Ethereum-based execution layer that is deeply rooted on L1.
Incentivized Testnet: Prior to mainnet, SKALE ran a comprehensive testnet with 20 initial validators. The goals of the testnet were to test and verify the setup of validator nodes and confirm the proper performance of validator and delegator operations, node operations, and network monitoring. The testnet ran at an accelerated epoch time set at 2 hours, and has been running with no downtime since May 20th having lived through over 1000 epochs, which equates to over “80 years” of network life.
[Tezos]
Contributor: Alexander Eichhorn, Founder at Blockwatch Data
Custodians: The first spikes of account growth from October to December 2019 were initiated by exchanges like Coinbase and Binance who introduced custodial staking services. Today custodians secure 25% (166M) of the entire Tezos network (680M, 80% staking ratio) and managed 20% (166M) of the total supply (846M). Although custodial growth has slowed recently, they still grow 8% month over month combined, Binance alone even 42% in July.
Non-Custodial Staking: The success of custodians ignited a tremendous interest in Tezos staking overall which spread across all the 120+ public staking services and 250+ private staking operators. The past three months since May 2020 saw the strongest growth in new delegators ever recorded (+7,500) and almost the lowest churn rate (7%). Looking at total delegated volume it can be concluded that the majority of new users are small investors. In fact accounts between 1 and 1000 tez grew by 10% (+6,200) in July suggesting that everybody who invested in Tezos also staked.
Live Networks Updates
Polkadot Transferability and Redenomination Public Notice
Token transferability was enabled, exactly at block number 1,205,128 on August 18th at 16:39 UTC. This will not change the denomination of DOT (old) which still represents 10**12 Planck. The redenomination will occur approximately at around 16:40 UTC on the 21st August, exactly at block number 1,248,328 where each New DOT will represent 10**10 Planck, 100 times less of an amount.
Multiple bugs in code resulted in nodes dropping out from Kusama network and losing the database that stores which blocks they validated. Consequently, the same nodes double-signed those blocks on restart. The slashes caused by this issue have been reverted via Kusama Council motions. On Friday July 31, two Kusama validators on runtime version v2019 started crashing every few minutes giving two distinctive errors, reporting an issue. At a first glance, the problem seemed to be related to the validators’ keys. It was subsequently found that this was not the cause, as the validators affected confirmed they did not change keys in the process. Additionally, the issue seemed to be present solely on Kusama network, not on Polkadot. Going a bit further down the rabbit hole, the team realised that the issue seemed to have started as a result of a GRANDPA equivocation causing a slash event in Kusama, originally triggered by a file descriptor leak that caused nodes to crash. This leak prevented nodes from writing the GRANDPA voter state (the votes at a given round) to disk and caused the nodes that lost this data to vote again after restarting, this time voting for a block newer than their original choice. This led to an equivocation. Read more in the article above!
Rainbow Validator (July)| IRISnet Validator Grants Program
IRIS Foundation launched Validator Rewards Program, which aims to support and reward validators, further boosting the participation of newly-joined validators, encouraging active community outreach by validators, and incentivizing active engagement in the IRISnet ecosystem for increasing bonded tokens. “Rainbow Validator” is a monthly award in this program. IRIS foundation will select up to 3 validators from the validators who applied every month and reward them each with 10,000 IRIS.
Daily Cosmos Outpost – Inflation 7.0% Bonded 70.5%
DELEGATIONS:
- Delegate: 142,512
- Redelegate: 12,685
- Undelegate: 103,835
REWARDS: 19,337
CosmWasm Launches Its Permissioned Testnet, GaiaFlex
GaiaFlex testnet will demonstrate the usage of a governance-permissioned contract system for the Cosmos Community. GaiaFlex functions much like Coralnet, but the main difference is that GaiaFlex is permissioned meanwhile Coralnet is permissionless. They configured GaiaFlex such that the on-chain governance must approve all contracts uploaded and instantiated except their execution. This will look like many other Gaia testnets including cosmos prefix, muons, and the binary except that this is updated to launchpad and with the CosmWasm module added. Staking and fee token is muon, like the last Cosmos Hub testnet.
Staking for Waves’ Neutrino Dollars Comes to the Ethereum Network
The Neutrino protocol, a price-stable multi-asset protocol running on major blockchain platform Waves, is introducing the Neutrino dollar on Ethereum. The Neutrino dollar, an algorithmic stablecoin collateralized by the Waves native token, is now available for all Ethereum users as the token has been ported to the Ethereum blockchain, Waves announced on Aug. 18. With the porting, Neutrino USD becomes accessible on Ethereum, enabling Ethereum users to stake rewards by just holding USDN in their Ethereum wallets. Pegged to the United States dollar on the 1:1 ratio, Neutrino USD is used as a payment token in various decentralized apps, and can also be traded on different markets. The token yields 8% to 15% annually when staked, Waves representatives say.
Algorand Upgrade Paves the Way For Sophisticated Applications across Defi and Traditional Sectors
Algorand Foundation and Algorand Inc announced the launch of comprehensive smart contract capabilities that will enable the creation of DeFi solutions and dApps that can scale to billions of users, tens of millions of daily transactions, with negligible transaction fees, all while taking advantage of the layer-1 benefits of the Algorand protocol. The key element of the launch is the addition of stateful smart contract functionality integrated into layer-1, joining existing capabilities such as Atomic Transfers, stateless smart contracts and Algorand Standard Assets (ASA1s).
This is the wallet where you’ll store the Elrond tokens, so it’s of the highest importance that you guard it safely.
- Economics change: eGLD is the new Elrond token
- 1000 ERD (old) = 1 eGLD (new)
- Send & receive is enabled
- Token swap to begin in 1st week of September
It’s not possible to send ERC20 or BEP2 ERD tokens to the mainnet wallet – they are incompatible. You will be able to swap ERD tokens for eGLD starting with the 1st week of September.
Bluzelle Guide for Token Conversion & Staking – How You Can Stake In Phase 1 Soft Mainnet
In this article, they explain how you can convert your ERC-20 BLZ Token to the Bluzelle BNT Token which will be used for staking all other transactions, including staking on the Bluzelle network. While Bluzelle is having own chain, they have to maintain the ability for BLZ tokens to be exchanged with other. Therefore they will still remain as a dual-token system. Take into account that they only support Metamask at the moment and will add more wallet support (such as Ledger, Wallet Connect) in later stage. Moreover, you can only convert between 10 — 250,000 BLZ for each transaction.
Upcoming Networks Updates
Major upcoming events by CryptoDIffer
Graph’s Mission Control is live!
Over 200 Indexers have deployed Graph Nodes and are getting ready to index subgraphs & stake on the protocol.
Skale Network auction is delayed
Users were required to complete a quiz on their knowledge about Skale to participate. More info on the token distribution event is accessible via the link above.
Quick Takes by Figment Networks:
- Inflation set at 9.3% for the first year
- No tokens will be liquid at genesis
- Consensys activate participants must stake at least 50% of their tokens for 90 days in order for them to become unlocked
- Total supply of SKL at genesis is 4.14 billion
- Maximum supply of SKL is 7 billion
- Estimated reward rate between 9.9% – 29.71% based on participation and staking duration
- Genesis block scheduled for September 8th
NEAR team built a bridge, called Rainbow Bridge, to connect the Ethereum and NEAR blockchains, and they created the lowest possible trust level one can have for an interoperability solution — you only need to trust what it connects, the NEAR and Ethereum blockchains, and you don’t need to trust the bridge itself. There is no authority outside Ethereum miners and NEAR validators.
Block Generator staking is now live on Dusk Network
Stakers share in a monthly 250,000 DUSK reward pool. During the ERC-20 stage, minimal technical knowledge is required to identify as a Block Generator. Staking is a vital mechanic within Dusk Network. On the technical side, the act of staking powers the Segregated Byzantine Agreement (SBA), Dusk Network’s very own Consensus Algorithm. By staking, participants show their dedication and willingness to further support Dusk Network.
The Biggest University Program on a Layer 1 Network Just Launched on the Oasis Network
Oasis Foundation partners with over 25 top universities and university clubs from Cambridge, Oxford, and Berkeley to further enable its mission of building a responsible data economy. With over 25 founding members, the Oasis Network will have an active pool of passionate University teams helping to support the network, run nodes, and further vision for a better, more responsible data economy.
Orion Protocol Continues Pre-Staking Initiative with 39% APR
Orion Protocol is the DeFi platform building B2B and B2C solutions on the most advanced liquidity aggregator in the market. The protocol aggregates the liquidity, order book depth, and price discovery from every centralized and decentralized digital asset market. Orion has built an array of industry-critical solutions for traders, blockchains, exchanges, and crypto projects on the protocol, powered by the ORN token. On July 22nd, Orion developed an initiative to facilitate and incentivize staking of its ORN token prior to public Main Net launch in Q4. In just three weeks, 70% of circulating ORN has been staked. Due to the huge success of the program so far, the 39% APR will be continued for another month.
Microtick Proposal 1: Post-Genesis Validator Rewards
In the lead-up to Microtick’s genesis block, external validators (those not related to Microtick or ShapeShift) were incentivized at a rate of 20,000 TICK per validator. The resulting genesis distribution can be seen here. Left undefined, however, was how new validators would be incentivized. If Microtick is to meet its goal of achieving maximal consensus security, it’ll require a large and diverse validator set – ideally, something eventually approximating that of the Cosmos Hub. If this vote passes, the following will apply to the next 20 onboarded validators:
1) New validators who are not ShapeShift employees will be incentivised at the rate of 5,000 TICK.
2) ShapeShift employees serving as new validators will receive 1,000 TICK, the number of such validators not to exceed 10 under this proposal.
3) New validators will be funded 1 TICK for their initial account creation, and then delegated the appropriate amount (4,999 for non-ShapeShift validators; 999 for ShapeShift validators) . After six months, the TICK will be undelegated, and the actual TICK tokens (4,999 for non-ShapeShift validators; 999 for ShapeShift validators) will be sent to the account that was used to create and self-fund the validator initially.
Staking Providers Update
Stkr by Ankr: Staking. Reimagined.
Stkr is an Ankr powered decentralized protocol that will change staking, forever. Stkr is a decentralized protocol and platform that combines staking and DeFi, implementing elements from traditional staking with non-custodial staking, Micropools and decentralized governance. The protocol will bring benefits to staking, in a way that Ankr has done for node hosting: it removes barriers of entry, simplifies participation and opens Staking up to everyone, without depending on any centralized authority. Keep in mind, Stkr is NOT a new token. The Stkr protocol is built by Ankr and relies 100% on the ANKR token.
Swap Market is a building block on smart contracts for tokenized staked Tezos yield swapping in the DAO Baker ecosystem. Yield Baker is an instrument serving stake-related yield returns. It will function as an automated market maker with a composable yield balancer as opposed to a general-purpose DEX. By providing the rails for liquidity and market-making for tokenized staked assets. Yield Baker users can earn a yield matching 25% APY from day 1 on their dXTZ even if their staked XTZ is in a queue for baking qualification (~21 days). SLOT owners get access to a sovereign capital to issue their SLOT to the market for users to buy, sell, or trade.
Elrond to offer Yield Stake Farming for eGLD via RAMP DeFi
The startup will offer Elrond Validators the chance to borrow against their staked collateral and use the liquidity to participate in DeFi opportunities. RAMP DEFI will build a series of smart contracts on the Elrond mainnet which will enable their usecase. When using RAMP DEFI, staking participants will get 1:1 wrapped tokens proportional to their stake. The wrapped tokens are used to collateralize a stable coin pool. The pool is collateralized at a 2:1 ratio to start with, meaning for $200 USD worth of eGLD tokens, participants can get $100 rUSD. This stable coin is then usable on native Elrond DeFi scenarios, or transferable to Ethereum and usable in DeFi scenarios there.
[PoS Round-Up] YAM Implodes, Prysm Bug Crashes Medalla Testnet by Stake.Fish
Read a focused biweekly report on the major news in and around the Proof of Stake ecosystem, including Ethereum Prysm Bug, YAM Finance, Skale and Polkadot recent announcements.
Also watch, How to stake Solana by Stake.fish – an explainer video from a leader staking provider.
Bi-Weekly Newsletter Vol. 9 by Stakin
Find more info on:
- ICON Foundation Revision 9 Proposal
- Tour de Sol Stage 7
- Solflare Wallet for Solana
- Stakin part of Skale Ecosystem!
- Binance Chain Stake Wars
- Polkadot Denomination Day
- Stafi Stake Drop
- Tezos Delphi Review
Kyber Network staking is now LIVE on Unagii in beta
Unagii is one app for your digital asset yields. Going live today marks only the first leg of one yield product – Stake. More staking projects, product features, and a comprehensive portfolio view will be shipped progressively. Kyber Network is a fully on-chain liquidity protocol that aggregates liquidity from a wide range of reserves, powering instant and secure token exchange in any decentralized application.
Staking on SKALE with Chorus One and Anthem
In addition to operating nodes on SKALE, Chorus one will be adding support for SKALE to their staking platform Anthem in the coming months. Anthem will allow SKALE users to stake, as well as track their portfolio and transactions history.
RAMP DEFI — Unlock Liquid Capital from Your Staked Digital Assets
RAMP DeFi proposes that the staked capital on the non-ERC20 staking blockchains be collateralized into a stablecoin, “rUSD”, which is issued on the Ethereum blockchain via a gateway bridge. Similarly, users on the Ethereum blockchain can mint “eUSD” by depositing their ERC20 stablecoins into RAMP’s eUSD liquidity pool. rUSD holders and eUSD holders can borrow, lend or exchange rUSD/eUSD freely, creating a seamless capital “on/off ramp” for users with capital locked into staking arrangements.
Upcoming Staking Events
- 20th August, 2020 – CertiK AMA
- 22nd – 23rd August, 2020 – #FutureProof Technical Summit
- 24th August, 2020 — TezTalks Radio #8 — Cryptonomic
- 27th August, 2020 — TezTalks Live #10 — Payzos
- 28th–29th, August 2020 — Chainlink’s Smart Contract Virtual Summit
- 2nd-30th, October 2020 — EthOnline hackathon
- 6th–7th, November — virtual Trufflecon
Citadel Updates
Citadel is a multi-asset non-custodial platform for the management and storage of crypto assets established by Paradigm Fund. One of the main functions of the service is participating in the PoS consensus. The platform allows you to delegate crypto assets, analyze market conditions and transaction status, as well as create several cryptocurrency wallets using a single seed phrase. Moreover, the software part is configured so that all private keys are stored encrypted on your device. Currently, the Citadel project is under development.
According to the last biweekly update:
As part of the latest development report, the Citadel team has shared what they’ve been working on at this stage. Firstly, they set up a gateway to buy cryptocurrency for fiat, optimized sending transactions and displaying data for different networks, and updated documentation for application structure and API. As for frontend tasks, the team renewed design of the navigation menu and messages after the operation, adapted the interface for the networks, and updated the landing page and optimized its loading. Currently, the Citadel developers actively work with the feedback they are getting from the first Citadel.One users. They push out builds on a regular basis to satisfy all the needs of the Citadel community. Furthermore, in a fresh-published article, Dmitriy Shekhovtsov, Citadel Lead Analyst describes how Citadel.One can improve staking experience for the users. A must-read!
As for the social side, the team attended EDCON (Community Ethereum Development Conference) and Ethereal Session 003, they participated in 11th CosmWasm biweekly community call, and presented the freshly released Citadel public beta to TokenPocket, Metanyx, and NEOPLY/EOSeoul teams. Forby, the Citadel founders and developers answered all the community questions associated with the product and just chatted for fun during the second community gathering in the official Citadel Telegram chat.
On top of that, the first-ever video-interview with Anton Pavlutsky, CEO of Citadel.One, appeared! During the conversation, Anton, an experienced developer and crypto skeptic, spoke about his role in the Citadel project, the current crypto weaknesses, and possible ways of market development. Additionally, Anton disclosed some features to come to the Citadel, so make sure to check it out! Find the full interview on the Citadel Youtube channel.
As you have gleaned, the biggest event from July was the long anticipated launch of Citadel beta! We welcome you to test Citadel out as much as possible and give the team feedback so that they could make you experience much better!
Learn more about Citadel:
- Citadel Telegram chat
- Citadel Twitter page
- Citadel Facebook
- Citadel Reddit
- Citadel Medium
- Citadel Instagram
- Check the recent biweekly updates on PoS Networks, created by Paradigm Fund: