Persistence: Innovators of Liquid Staking and Re-Staking in the Cosmos Ecosystem

Persistence is one of the first application chains in the Cosmos ecosystem to enable IBC, CosmWasm, and liquid staking modules. By deeply engaging in POS and liquid staking related products, the project has built a complete framework for liquid staking and restaking in the Cosmos ecosystem.

On December 5, 2023, the Cosmos community voted to allocate 600,000 ATOM for the growth of liquid staking for pSTAKE. pSTAKE will share 15% of the liquid staking revenue with Cosmos Hub.

Persistence Ecosystem Overview

According to official data, the TVL of the Persistence ecosystem reaches $14.78 million, with an IBC trading volume of $15 million in the past 30 days and an average transaction cost of less than $0.005. The data shows that Persistence has established 121 channels with 44 other regions in the Interchain network, reflecting its high connectivity.

Currently, 74.7% of the $XPRT tokens are staked, with an annualized yield of 16.7%. A high staking rate typically indicates strong network security and participation. The infrastructure of Persistence consists of 6 nodes and 100 validators, working together to maintain the decentralization and security of the network.

In the past 24 hours, the IBC trading volume of Persistence reached $260,800, with a total of 4,955 transactions, of which 616 were IBC transactions. There are 932 active addresses and 86 IBC active addresses. IBC inflows continue to exceed outflows, indicating that more and more value is flowing into Persistence and participating in stake.

Technical Support

Persistence supports the CosmWasm framework, allowing developers to write secure and interoperable smart contracts using the Rust language. DApps developed based on CosmWasm can operate across chains through IBC, providing convenient, secure, and efficient technical support for liquid staking.

Persistence connects 54 Cosmos application chains through IBC, enabling trustless communication, transfer, staking, and re-staking of tokens. Additionally, by utilizing Interchain Accounts (ICA) for ICA Liquid Staking, it enhances the efficiency and flexibility of staking and re-staking.

liquid staking

In the Cosmos ecosystem, liquid staking involves two roles: validators and delegators. Stakers can choose the validator nodes they delegate to, while validators are responsible for running hardware and blockchain applications based on the Cosmos SDK, reaching consensus with other validators, and proposing and validating new blocks on the chain.

If a validator exhibits negative behavior, the delegator's stake deposit may be destroyed or reduced. For example, accidental or malicious offline behavior by the validator may lead to a 0.1% reduction in the delegator's stake deposit, while extremely malicious acts such as double signing may result in a 5% reduction.

This mechanism prevents malicious behavior through economic incentives and potential penalties, where validators and delegators share responsibilities to maintain network efficiency and security, while also earning token rewards.

pSTAKE stake

pSTAKE provides a streamlined staking process for the Cosmos ecosystem. Users only need to select the token to stake and the chain to stake on. After staking is completed, the pSTAKE protocol issues corresponding staking reward tokens to the user's wallet, such as stkATOM for staking ATOM.

The features of pSTAKE include:

1. Automatic Compound Interest: Taking stkATOM as an example, the user's daily staking rewards are automatically added to the stake, continuing to generate returns. This results in an increase in the staked ATOM corresponding to each stkATOM, allowing users to receive more ATOM when they unstake.

2. Unstaking: Users need to wait 21-25 days to cancel their stake, or pay a 1% fee to unstake immediately. When retrieving the stake, the corresponding stk assets will be destroyed.

3. Stake yield: pSTAKE supports staking for various assets, each with different current yields. The estimated annualized compound yield is calculated based on the daily yield remaining constant.

Notes

pSTAKE currently supports the following 5 tokens: ATOM on Cosmos Hub, OSMO on the Osmosis chain, DYDX on the dYdX chain, STARS on Stargaze, and HUAHUA on Chihuahua, as well as those minted on the Persistence chain.

When users choose to stake native chain tokens, the pSTAKE staking process includes two steps: transferring assets cross-chain to the Persistence chain via IBC, and then calling the liquid staking module of the Persistence chain to stake the assets.

Therefore, regardless of which chain's assets are staked, a certain amount of $XPRT is required as GAS fees, but the GAS fees on the Persistence chain are very low.

stake derivatives

Persistence and the Cosmos ecosystem have launched more stk asset derivatives. For example, in certain DEX products, stkATOM can be exchanged for ATOM directly, without the need to unstake or pay additional fees. In addition, stk assets combined with native assets can also add liquidity in DEX, yielding higher returns.

$XPRT stake

As an independent blockchain, Persistence also requires staking to enhance network security. Users can conveniently stake $XPRT on the official Persistence platform or certain wallets. The process involves selecting the Persistence network and then choosing the validator node they wish to stake with.

stake security

Persistence and pSTAKE are both open-source programs, which is an important guarantee of security. The pSTAKE program involves 72 developers, with the most recent code submission made two days ago.

In addition, Persistence and pSTAKE collaborate with multiple security organizations to provide comprehensive support for the security of staking and liquid staking. These organizations include well-known blockchain and cryptocurrency security audit firms, global security research and consulting companies, smart contract security audit agencies, DeFi vulnerability bounty platforms, and blockchain security real-time monitoring networks.

Re-stake

Persistence is building a Restaking infrastructure in Cosmos, allowing users to deposit liquid staking tokens into Persistence for restaking, securing additional chains and earning extra rewards. Persistence's restaking module supports staking requests for various assets, including staking equity tokens, stablecoins, and LP tokens.

Re-stake Alliance

The re-staking module of Persistence is developed based on the Alliance module, allowing assets to be staked from one blockchain to another, forming a mutually beneficial relationship. Stakers of different assets who join Persistence's re-staking asset alliance can earn re-staking rewards and $XPRT.

Re-staking alliance shares staking rewards, and stakers of various assets distribute according to the reward weight of the assets. The reward weight for $XPRT is 1, while the reward weights for other assets are determined and adjusted through decentralized governance.

Source of re-staking earnings

The tokens used by users for re-staking are locked and native tokens are minted in proportion. These minted native tokens enter the staking module to be staked to validators in the role of a delegator. The staking rewards obtained are distributed to holders of various stake tokens.

This mechanism is not only a source of income for the re-staking of Persistence but also further strengthens the security and liquidity of the Cosmos ecosystem.

Summary

Persistence provides an effective and secure economic infrastructure for liquid staking and re-staking within the Cosmos ecosystem. Through liquid staking products, Persistence is gradually deepening its influence in the Cosmos ecosystem, bringing higher security, asset liquidity, and ecological participation to the ecosystem.

The innovative re-staking scheme establishes an economic alliance for re-stakers, forming a cross-chain community of shared interests among them. This not only enhances mutual security guarantees but also increases the level of decentralization of the Cosmos ecosystem within the re-staking alliance.