An Introduction to Nibiru Chain

Nibiru

Nov 23, 2023

7 min read

An Introduction to Nibiru Chain

Nibiru Chain is one of the latest blockchains to emerge within this Cosmos ecosystem. With its mainnet launch approaching soon, we’ll give an overview of the network, features, and its promise within Web3.

What is Nibiru Chain?

Nibiru is a proof of stake blockchain that is focused on creating a universal Web3 hub that brings all the ease of an improved user experience that can be found in more traditional alternatives. While Nibiru by nature is itself a sovereign proof of stake blockchain, it’s built with the Cosmos SDK on Tendermint Core consensus. This in turn allows Nibiru to communicate with other similar blockchains through a special method called Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC).

Nibiru provides a searchable index of blockchain data that can be easily queried and analyzed, allowing Web3 projects to track user behavior, monitor network activity, and make data-driven decisions. Additionally, with a robust Oracle Module, Nibiru will have the ability to offer a secure and efficient blockchain solution that addresses the limitations of current platforms. For developers, Nibiru proposes an improved incentive model that ties rewards to the time-weighted Total Value Locked (TVL) in smart contracts, ensuring alignment with the ecosystem's growth and reducing the potential for manipulation. 


Nibiru's Layer 1 blockchain (as they mention) showcases advancements like ~1.4s block times and instant finality. The network's capacity for high transaction throughput, potentially exceeding 40,000 TPS, marks a significant leap over traditional Tendermint consensus chains.

Addressing Fragmentation in the On-Chain Crypto World

The blockchain space is marked by a fragmentation of applications, each operating in its own ecosystem. This diversity, while fostering innovation, also complicates user interaction across multiple platforms and hinders wider Web3 adoption. Traditional standards, such as ERC-20, aid protocol compatibility but fall short in ensuring seamless product integration and user experience.

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Nibiru Chain presents a solution to this challenge with its 'Super App' model. This innovative approach integrates a variety of functions, including decentralized oracles, exchanges, stablecoins, data indexing, and smart contract royalties, into a single, user-friendly platform. By consolidating these diverse features, Nibiru aims to streamline the user and developer experience, paving the way for broader acceptance and usage of crypto technologies.

A Growing Ecosystem

Nibiru Chain leverages CosmWasm for its smart contract platform, providing a robust and secure environment for external developers to build and deploy dApps. This approach offers enhanced security compared to traditional Solidity-based smart contracts.

To further support and incentivize developers, Nibiru has implemented a unique royalties system. Developers receive a portion of the gas fees from transactions involving their smart contracts. This innovative model not only rewards developers but also encourages the active use and development of the chain's ecosystem. Nibiru plans to expand these incentives, incorporating additional criteria like Total Value Locked (TVL) for a more comprehensive rewards system.

Expertise Behind Nibiru Chain
The team at Nibiru comprises individuals with diverse backgrounds in blockchain, Web3 architecture, major technology companies, cryptocurrency marketplaces, and traditional financial institutions. Their collective expertise in areas such as protocol engineering, infrastructure, data science, and business development is pivotal in shaping Nibiru Chain's strategic direction and technological advancements.

For a complete overview of all partners, you can explore the details on Nibiru's ecosystem webpage.

As we explore the Nibiru Chain further, let's start with a bit of context. Nibiru is more than just a blockchain network; it's a solution to some of the common hurdles in the decentralized world. The products we're about to discuss – from innovative trading platforms to advanced Oracle systems – are designed to tackle specific challenges in the Web3 space. They aim to simplify the user experience while enhancing functionality for developers.

Let's take a closer look at what Nibiru Chain has to offer.

A Fully On-Chain Perpetual Futures DEX

Nibiru Chain presents Nibi-Perps, a perpetual futures decentralized exchange (DEX). This on-chain platform allows for up to 10x leverage trading on a variety of digital assets, both within and beyond the Cosmos ecosystem. What sets Nibi-Perps apart is its ability to tackle common DEX challenges:

Reduced Latency: Addressing the volatility of crypto markets, Nibi-Perps minimizes the delay in trade execution, crucial in fast-moving market conditions.
Market Imbalance Solution: It effectively manages imbalances between buyers and sellers, ensuring smoother trading experiences.

These features position Nibi-Perps as a user-friendly platform, enhancing the trading experience in the crypto world.

Innovations in Perpetual Contracts:
Nibi-Perps introduces three pioneering elements to perpetual contracts:

Automation Liquidation Protocol (ALP): Autonomously liquidates non-viable positions, leveraging Nibiru’s Layer 1 technology.
Dynamic Optimizations: Incorporates strategies from Curve's crypto pools for rebalancing and liquidity, ensuring fairer trading prices.
Decentralized Oracle Solution: Aligns validators and traders' interests, minimizing risks associated with centralized oracles.

By tackling some of these key issues experienced by other exchanges and offering a number of different digital assets, Nibi-Perps brings a fresh and seamless trading experience for users of the DEX. 

The Nibiru Oracle Module

One of the most fundamental problems within smart contracts is finding a means of accurately and securely bringing real-world data onto the blockchain. Since smart contracts inherently cannot interact with data and systems outside their blockchain environment, the use of an oracle provides the means to access this information. 

A blockchain oracle refers to an entity that connects blockchains to external systems, thereby enabling smart contracts to execute based on the provided inputs from these entities. Although having a fast and reliable Oracle solution is important, it often comes at the cost of reduced security. 

The Nibiru Oracle Module is a cornerstone of the Nibiru ecosystem, linking real-world data securely to the blockchain. It provides a reliable and fast oracle solution without compromising security, playing a vital role in:

  • Indexing prices on the Nibi-Perps DEX.
  • Ensuring accurate pricing for NUSD minting and redemption.
  • Aligning incentives among validators and oracle nodes bolsters the network’s security.

This economic alignment presents a distinct and compelling case for validators on the Nibiru network. By providing the ability for validators themselves to become oracles, they will be able to receive additional rewards by doing so and can potentially pass off some of them to delegators. This in turn creates a system whereby delegates seek to only delegate to the validators engaging in this activity, enhancing economic alignment. 

A New AMM for Spot Trading

In addition to the Nibi-Perps futures DEX, Nibiru also features an automated market maker (AMM) protocol for spot trading called Nibi-Swap. Users of the application can access swaps for multichain assets, access liquidity pools, and utilize bonded liquidity gauges. 

Since DeFi activities rely on smart contracts, users of DeFi protocols have the ability to lock their digital assets in these smart contracts so others can be able to use them. These are called liquidity pools and in the case of any sort of economic activity to take place in DeFi, that crypto needs to somehow be supplied. Liquidity pools offer just that and are an important component of a fully functional DeFi ecosystem.

Under the current architecture, Nibi-Swap supports two different liquidity pool types. The first of those is stableswap pools. This pool facilitates trades between tokens with a 1:1 targeted exchange rate. The second is a constant product pool. This pool is useful for trading normal crypto markets as it provides liquidity for all possible prices of a token and is subject to market fluctuations. 

Nibiru's spot liquidity center features a constant product spot Automated Market Maker (AMM) and stableswap, which, when combined with Nibiru's other basic components, unlock distinctive functionalities. In future developments, its Liquidity Provider (LP) tokens could serve as collateral for other features like perpetual contracts or lending. Collateral from stableswap can be utilized in the perpetual contracts AMM for added earnings. The stableswap also supports various forms of USDC (like axlUSDC, and Gravity USDC), which can be used to create NUSD. Broadly, Nibiru’s native spot AMM operates as a utility for the public good, enhancing user experience and offering foundational services to the community.

Moreover, Nibiru's native stablecoin, NUSD, is a capital-efficient medium for swaps, drawing liquidity from Ethereum to Cosmos. It achieves this by providing advanced tools for consistent yield generation and cross-exchange arbitrage. A key aspect of this is Nibiru's Rust-based smart contract framework atop its protocol, offering improved security against common Ethereum vulnerabilities. This structure also enhances flexibility and speeds up development for creators who value interoperability with other blockchains.

Final Thoughts

As Nibiru Chain advances in the blockchain field, its focus extends beyond technological enhancement to creating an integrated, user-friendly Web3 environment. With cutting-edge solutions like Nibi-Perps and Nibi-Swap, Nibiru aims to advance decentralized trading and liquidity offerings. The network’s integration of various functionalities, including oracles and stablecoins, promises a seamless DeFi experience. The diverse and skilled Nibiru team positions the platform as a significant player in the Cosmos ecosystem and the broader Web3 space. Nibiru Chain stands as a driving force for innovation, poised to significantly impact the blockchain and DeFi landscapes.

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Stakin serves institutional crypto players, foundations, custodians, exchanges as well as a large community of individual token holders. Driven by demand from institutional customers and the community, Stakin provides services for a wide range of networks including leading ecosystems such as Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Near, Polygon, Polkadot, Aptos, Sui, and more.

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