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

Stride Staked EVMOS

Bostrom

Stride Staked ATOM

Sentinel

Levana Protocol

Neutron

XPLA

Source

OmniFlix Network

pSTAKE Staked OSMO

Stride Staked OSMO

Stride Staked SOMM

Persistence One

Stride

Odin 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.

WHEN Token

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

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

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.

IRISnet

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.

Kava

StaFi

Badger DAO is an open-source, decentralized automated organization that is dedicated to building products and infrastructure of simplifying the use of Bitcoin (BTC) as collateral across many smart contract platforms.

The platform is a shared space where the developers, known as Badge Builders, have the ability to collaborate and implement Bitcoin as collateral to as many blockchains as possible. A developer can earn a percentage of the fees and BADGER tokens from the developer mining pool for every implementation. The mainnet was launched on December 3, 2020.

A builder can be a single developer, a group of developers, or even a company. There are no fixed obligations to participation requirements, and anyone can create. The pillars of Badger DAO include the Badger Builders, the community-created products, the Dedicated Badger Operations team, the fairly initial distribution of the BADGER tokens for governance and the fact that all of the code is open-sourced.

Badger DAO

Injective is a blockchain built for finance. It is an open, interoperable layer-one blockchain powering next-generation DeFi applications, including decentralized spot and derivatives exchanges, prediction markets, lending protocols and more.

Injective uniquely provides powerful core financial infrastructure primitives that applications can leverage, including a fully decentralized MEV-resistant on-chain orderbook. In addition, all forms of financial markets such as spot, perpetual, futures and options are fully on-chain. The decentralized cross-chain bridging infrastructure is compatible with Ethereum, IBC-enabled blockchains, and non EVM chains such as Solana.

Injective also provides a next-generation, highly interoperable smart contract platform based on CosmWasm, with advanced interchain capabilities. Injective is custom built with the Cosmos SDK and utilizes Tendermint-based Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, providing instant transaction finality with the ability to sustain lightning-fast performance (10,000+ TPS).

The Injective ecosystem includes 100+ projects and over 150,000 community members globally. Injective is backed by a group of prominent investors such as Binance, Pantera Capital, Jump Crypto and Mark Cuban.

Injective’s core exchange module provides state-of-the-art capabilities including an advanced on-chain order book and matching engine for spot, perpetual, futures and options markets, resistance to Miner-Extractable Value (MEV) through frequent batch auction order matching, and zero gas fees for users.

Injective natively uses IBC and is highly-interoperable with multiple layer 1s, including, but not limited to, Polygon and Solana (through an upcoming Wormhole integration). It is also uniquely built to be interoperable with Ethereum, through its own decentralized ERC-20 token bridge, making Injective the first network within the Cosmos ecosystem to natively support Ethereum assets.

Smart contracts are implemented on Injective through CosmWasm, allowing for multi-chain smart contract transactions to occur seamlessly. Injective, however, is the only blockchain that enables automatic smart contract execution. This capability serves as a powerful building block for developers to create novel use cases that would not be possible on any other chain.

The use cases intended for INJ include but are not limited to: protocol governance, dApp value capture, Proof-of-Stake (PoS) security, developer incentives and staking. Further details regarding each of these use cases can be found below:

Protocol Governance: The INJ token governs every single component of Injective, including chain upgrades. Since its mainnet launch, the Injective community has actively contributed to governance, with all proposals passing through a DAO governance vote. The comprehensive governance page is available here.

Protocol Fee Value Capture: 60% of all fees generated from dApps enter an on-chain buy-back-and-burn auction to maintain the deflationary nature of INJ. The burn auction page is available here.

Tendermint-based Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Security: INJ is used to secure the Injective blockchain using a proof-of-stake mechanism. Validators and delegators can both participate in staking.

Developer Incentives: 40% of fees generated by users on dApps built on Injective go directly towards incentivizing new developers building on Injective which brings an ever growing funnel of builders to Injective.

Injective

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

In a nutshell, Cosmos bills itself as a project that solves some of the “hardest problems” facing the blockchain industry. It aims to offer an antidote to “slow, expensive, unscalable and environmentally harmful” proof-of-work protocols, like those used by Bitcoin, by offering an ecosystem of connected blockchains.

The project’s other goals include making blockchain technology less complex and difficult for developers thanks to a modular framework that demystifies decentralized apps. Last but not least, an Interblockchain Communication protocol makes it easier for blockchain networks to communicate with each other — preventing fragmentation in the industry.

Cosmos’ origins can be dated back to 2014, when Tendermint, a core contributor to the network, was founded. In 2016, a white paper for Cosmos was published — and a token sale was held the following year. ATOM tokens are earned through a hybrid proof-of-stake algorithm, and they help to keep the Cosmos Hub, the project’s flagship blockchain, secure. This cryptocurrency also has a role in the network’s governance.

Cosmos

Rocket Pool is a decentralized Ethereum staking pool offering up to 4.33% APR for ETH2 staking. Users can join the Rocket Pool with its decentralized node operator network or run their own nodes with only 16 ETH. In the latter case, they can earn a commission from staking ETH and earn additional RPL rewards from providing RPL collateral, amounting to up to 6.36% APR for ETH and the additional RPL rewards.

Rocket Pool provides liquid staking, meaning users benefit from an increasing exchange rate instead of adding on to their initial staked collateral, which would be a taxable event. Furthermore, Rocket Pool offers smart nodes: a custom node software allowing anyone to run a node on its network. With losses from bad nodes distributed across the network, individual users minimize their risk of facing penalties. This is supported by the pool’s open-source and audited smart contracts, which guarantee fully non-custodial staking and a maximum degree of decentralization.

Rocket Pool

Maple

The dYdX Chain is a proof-of-stake blockchain network built using the Cosmos SDK and leveraging CometBFT for consensus. The DYDX token is the L1 protocol token for the dYdX Chain, as agreed by the dYdX community through dYdX governance (Snapshot vote and an on-chain vote)

Holders of the DYDX token can use their tokens to run a Validator or stake their tokens to a Validator in order to participate in securing and governing the dYdX Chain network.

OriginTrail is an ecosystem building a trusted knowledge infrastructure for artificial intelligence. It addresses the challenge of misinformation in the AI era by ensuring the origin of information and enabling discoverability of the world's most important knowledge and real world assets (RWAs).

OriginTrail is creating a Verifiable Web for decentralized AI by empowering world class brands and builders. It utilizes its unique Decentralized Knowledge Graph and OriginTrail Parachain to deliver AI-powered search and solutions for enterprises and individuals worldwide.

OriginTrail has gained support and partnerships with world-class organizations such as British Standards Institution, SCAN, Polkadot, Parity, Walmart, World Federation of Hemophilia, Oracle, and the EU Commission's Next Generation Internet. These partnerships contribute to advancing OriginTrail's trusted knowledge foundation and its applicability in trillion-dollar industries, while providing a verifiable web of knowledge important in particular to drive the economies of RWAs.

The best way to see the technology in action is by checking ChatDKG, which is an experimental, question answering bot on X (Twitter) based on trusted Knowledge Assets in OriginTrail Decentralized Knowledge Graph. The ChatDKG provides answers based on OriginTrail trusted AI.

The Metcalfe phase of the updated roadmap pursues an ambitious goal of creating the world’s largest verifiable web for AI consisting of 100 billion Knowledge Assets, bringing a 100.000x scalability increase. As the name of the phase suggests, it will seek to produce network effects across the OriginTrail DKG and use novel techniques to pursue autonomous DKG growth based on the genesis knowledge foundation being created by organizations and individuals alike. The genesis part of the Metcalfe’s phase also introduces knowledge mining and knowledge signaling capabilities to drive constant growth of the Verifiable Web.

Following the Genesis stage and the transition to an AI-native V8, further capabilities will become available in the Convergence stage. By leveraging the advancements in AI and the DKG, we will unlock autonomous knowledge mining which in turn leads to an autonomous DKG. At that stage, new knowledge gets added to the DKG with very limited human involvement. Services such as AI agents will be performing knowledge inferencing directly on the DKG to find any “blind spots” in the knowledge they can fill as well as search for new knowledge and bring it to the DKG in accordance with knowledge signaling.