Hi, fellow blockchain-enthusiasts👩💻,
The past weeks have been very eventful for Stakin and the Proof-of-Stake blockchain ecosystem in general. Here are some of the highlights that we’d like to share with you:
- Cosmos Stargate Launch
- Althea Gravity Bridge Testnet
- Terraform Capital Announcement
- Mirror Protocol Live On Binance Smart Chain
- Binance Becomes An ICON P-Rep
- Something Is Brewing At Osmosis
- Solana Staking Rewards Are Live!
- Tezos EDO Goes Live!
- ICON Community Airdrip
Cosmos Stargate Launch
In great news for the Cosmos Ecosystem, on the 18th of February, the upgrade, Stargate went live after so much effort of all the developers, validators, and of course, all other stakeholders involved. We’d like to thank the team for their actions and are excited to see what the next months will bring.
And in other Cosmos ecosystem news, we’re happy to announce that Stakin has been included in the ecosystem overview of The Block. See the image below for the full overview.
Althea Gravity Bridge Testnet
Recently, Althea Network announced Gravity, an Ethereum-Cosmos bridge created for the Cosmos Hub, and Althea Peggy’s evolution (leaving behind the ‘peg zones’). The Gravity Bridge aims to be the most secure, efficient, and decentralized cross-chain bridge to Ethereum.
And on the 16th of February 2021, the Testnet for Gravity launched with over 20 validators participating. This first Testnet aims to keep it running through multiple upgrades and code changes, working towards Althea Gravity Incentivized Testnet (the last test net before the Althea chain launch).
- For more information on Althea’s Gravity and Peggy bridge, read our full article.
Terraform Capital Announcement
On February 4th, 2021, Terra announced the strategic investment arm of the Terraform Labs called Terraform Capital. The new component will expand the ecosystem by funneling resources into promising community projects that add value to the Terra ecosystem. And that’s not all; the initial fund will be seeded with $10 million. For more information, check the website here, or if you’d like to sign up for a project, click here.
Mirror Protocol Live On Binance Smart Chain
Binance Smart Chain, the sovereign parallel blockchain to Binance Chain, has integrated the Mirror Protocol to bring synthetic assets to the Binance Ecosystem. The integration means that any Terra, Ethereum, and Binance Smart Chain users now have direct access to mAssets and tokenized stocks such as those of Tesla and Apple.
Binance Becomes An ICON P-Rep
But that’s not the only great news regarding Binance this week; on the 16th of February, Binance also announced that they’d become a P-Rep for the ICON Network. Being a part of the ICON Ecosystem ourselves, we’re always happy to have another P-Rep join the ecosystem. However, as the ICON Foundation pointed out in their newsletter, this one is fascinating because of the weight that Binance carries within the blockchain industry.
Something Is Brewing At Osmosis
Those of you with a sharp eye might have already noticed that Osmosis let out a small hint as to what has been brewing at their company, and we’ve heard that it might be a new AMM with a potential airdrop on non-custodial wallets for $ATOM holders? Curious to see what the next few months will bring!
Solana Staking Rewards Are Live!
It can’t be a bi-weekly newsletter without having something extraordinary to share about Solana. This time, we are happy to share that Solana Mainnet Beta’s staking rewards are now live!
- If you’re not familiar with staking on Solana, have a look at our guides here.
Tezos EDO Is Live!
On February 13th, the Tezos blockchain successfully upgraded the EDO adaptation in a joint effort with Nomadic Labs, Marigold, Metastate, and DaiLambda. EDO is the fifth Tezos upgrade and follows the Delphi upgrade three months ago.
To summarize, the following changes have been made with this new upgrade: minor bug fixes, improvements to performance and gas consumption, the addition of a new period (adoption period) to the upgrade process, and two important new features called Sapling and Tickets. For the full article on Tezos EDO, click here.
ICON Community Airdrip
In celebration of the upcoming launch of Balanced, they’ve partnered with ICON to distribute Balance Tokens to $ICX holders! As Balance said: “We wanted everyone with ICX to benefit from Balanced, even if they’re not ready to use it themselves”. And thanks to the ICON Community Airdrip Program, that’s now possible. See here how you can be a part of the program!
DISCLAIMER: This is not financial advice. Staking, delegation, and cryptocurrencies involve a high degree of risk, and there is always the possibility of loss, including the failure of all staked digital assets. Additionally, delegators are at risk of slashing in case of security or liveness faults on some protocols. We advise you to do your due diligence before choosing a validator.
