Quicksilver is the Interchain Liquid Staking zone for Cosmos, an ecosystem of sovereign and interoperable zones (blockchains), interconnected via the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC). Quicksilver protocol enables users to delegate any IBC-compatible Asset to the validators of their choosing and receive a liquid staked voucher, or qAsset, allowing them to retain capital liquidity and freedom to pursue Defi opportunities while securing the native chains. 

QCK is Quicksilver’s native token, used to determine the future of the protocol and chain via governance, to incentivize network participation, and for paying transaction fees on the network.

Quicksilver offers a different liquid staking model than traditional liquid staking:

**Quicksilver: A New Model for Liquid Staking
**
**- Unrestricted Validator Set -** All validators on a native chain are available for staking through the protocol; users can choose any validator instead of just from a whitelist.
**- Staking to a Preferred Validator -** The Signaling Intent feature (launching 2023) allows the user to tell the protocol where it would like them to allocate stake on their behalf. The protocol distributes stake based on the collective intent of all users.
**- Governance Participation -** The Governance by Proxy feature (launching 2023) will allow users to vote on native chain proposals directly in the Quicksilver dApp without unstaking their assets.

The Quicksilver liquid staking protocol operates as follows: users stake their native tokens on the platform, and in return, they receive a qAsset, or a voucher representing their staked assets. 

These liquid staking tokens can be used for various DeFi activities, such as participating in governance, providing liquidity to automated market maker (AMM) pools, and engaging in lending and borrowing. The protocol delivers autocompounded staking rewards, resulting in a slightly higher base APY for native assets staked on Quicksilver versus standard staking.

**The QCK Token**
The QCK token is the native utility token of the Quicksilver ecosystem. It serves three main functions:

**1. Governance:** Quicksilver is owned by its token holders. QCK token holders can participate in the governance process by proposing and voting on protocol upgrades, modifications, and other essential decisions. 
**2. Incentivization: **QCK tokens incentivize community participation, including rewarding users who stake QCK to secure the Quicksilver blockchain, liquidity incentives for AMM pools, and airdrops. This incentivization mechanism helps to encourage user engagement and grow the Quicksilver community.
**3. Platform fees:** QCK tokens pay for various services within the Quicksilver ecosystem, such as transaction fees. Transaction fees are redistributed to validators as compensation for including a transaction in a block.

The genesis supply of QCK is 200,000,000 and the current total supply of QCK is 400,000,000. Inflation rates & incentives distribution are determined by community governance.

Quicksilver is committed to a fair and transparent distribution of QCK tokens. The protocol employs a continuous airdrop mechanism to ensure that all participants have an opportunity to benefit from the platform's growth. This approach promotes a fairer of assets among token holders and fosters a strong, engaged community.


**About the Quicksilver Chain**
The Quicksilver Chain is a decentralized, permissionless blockchain designed to support the protocol's liquid staking functions. It is secured by a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, which relies on validators to produce blocks and maintain the network's security. Validators enter the active set based on the amount of QCK tokens they have staked and their reputation within the ecosystem. 

Built on the Cosmos SDK, Quicksilver leverages the high-speed Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol for seamless interactions between different blockchains. As more chains adopt the IBC, Quicksilver will scale to meet demand, expanding its utility and applicability across various ecosystems.

Quicksilver

Osmosis

Celestia

dYdX (Native)

Akash Network

Dymension

OmniFlix Network

KYVE Network

pSTAKE Staked ATOM

Onomy Protocol

Levana Protocol

Stride Staked JUNO

Stride Staked SOMM

Stride

IRISnet

Stride Staked ATOM

Bostrom

Stride Staked STARS

Stride Staked OSMO

Source

Sentinel

Persistence One

BitCanna

Carbon Protocol

Osmosis (OSMO) is a decentralized exchange (DEX) for Cosmos, an ecosystem of sovereign, interoperable blockchains all connected trustlessly over IBC, the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol. Osmosis also offers non-IBC assets bridged from the Ethereum and Polkadot ecosystems. Originally based on Balancer-style pools, Osmosis is moving to a more sustainable concentrated liquidity model that provides a superior trading and liquidity provision experience.

As an appchain DEX, Osmosis has greater control over the full blockchain stack than DEXs that must follow the code of a parent chain. This fine-grained control has enabled, for example, the development of Superfluid Staking, an improvement to Proof-of-Stake security. Superfluid staking allows the underlying OSMO in an LP position to add to chain security and earn staking rewards for doing so. The customizability of appchains also allows for the development of a transaction mempool shielded with threshold encryption, which will greatly reduce harmful MEV on Osmosis.

Osmosis's vision is to build a cross-chain native DEX and trading suite that connects all chains over IBC, including Ethereum and Bitcoin. To build out the trading functionalities, Osmosis has invited external developers to create a bespoke DEX ecosystem that includes lending, credit, margin, fiat on-ramps, Defi strategy vaults, NFTs, stablecoins, and more – all the functionalities of a centralized exchange and more, plus the trust-minimization of decentralized finance.

IRISnet is a service protocol and cryptocurrency, which was officially launched on Mar. 1, 2019. The primary purpose of the IRISnet protocol is to provide a blockchain-based, open network to small and medium businesses that are offering a wide variety of services.

According to the official IRISnet Whitepaper, the protocol aims to employ different public and consortium blockchains to bring the power of decentralized, open networks to thousands of businesses and freelance service providers. Interestingly, IRISnet was named after Iris, the personification of the rainbow and the messenger of the Gods in Greek mythology.

Neutron

Secret (SCRT) is a privacy-oriented blockchain built on Cosmos. Its smart contracts are called Secret Contracts and allow DApps to use private data on Secret, similar to how smart contracts operate on other blockchains. However, Secret Contracts transfer encrypted inputs into encrypted outputs without exposing data. This is made possible thanks to the encrypted contract states during the execution.

Data privacy is guaranteed by combining encryption protocols and key management within a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). This allows Secret Contracts to compete for several privacy-related use cases that traditional blockchains have found difficult to accommodate. For instance, private voting mechanisms or credit scoring applications become possible since they do not expose sensitive user data on-chain with Secret.

Secret

GoldeNugget

Axelar claims to deliver “secure cross-chain communication for Web3.” The project provides a decentralized network and tools to help builders of decentralized applications (dApps) with seamless cross-chain communication through its protocol suite, tools and APIs.

Axelar features three core components – a decentralized network, a software development kit of protocols and APIs, and a set of gateway smart contracts for cross-chain connectivity.

Powered by a decentralized network of validators, anyone can join the network, build on it, or use it. Apps builders can interact with a simple API atop a permissionless network that routes messages and ensures network security via proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.

AXL is the native token of the Axelar network. The protocol also supports the cross-chain transfer of several native tokens via their wrapped ERC-20 versions, including AVAX (Avalanche), ETH (Ethereum), FTM (Fantom), GLMR (Moonbeam), and MATIC (Polygon).

Meanwhile, Axelar has raised capital from top-tier investors, including Binance, Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, Polychain Capital and others.

Axelar

CoinClaim

Quotient

Ycash

Saga is a Layer 1 protocol that allows developers to automatically spin up VM-agnostic, parallelized and interoperable dedicated chains, or “Chainlets,” that provide applications with infinite horizontal scalability. Each Chainlet is a replica of the Saga Mainnet, with the same validator set and security model.

Saga’s mission is to enable the next 1000 chains in gaming and entertainment as part of the growing Saga Multiverse.

For a deep dive into Saga, visit their website.

Mass adoption of blockchain is imminent, and developers need base infrastructure that is infinitely scalable, interoperable and cost-effective to support consumer applications. By allowing developers to spin up dedicated blockspace on demand that elastically scales with performance needs, opens fast bridging to other ecosystems and is priced at commodity levels, Saga provides the E2E infrastructure that developers need to build the next generation of applications on blockchain.

Saga

MyToken

Tratok

Tachyon Protocol

EOSDT

Kava is a Layer-1 blockchain that combines the speed and interoperability of Cosmos with the developer power of Ethereum.

Kava was built from the ground up to optimize its resources for protocol growth, strengthened by its Cosmos EVM technology that enables maximum scalability, speed, security, and developer support.

Builders on Kava earn a share of Kava Rise's $750M developer incentive fund via the program's blockchain-based distribution method, designed to reward the top protocols every month based on usage.