Quicksilver is a liquid staking system that acts as a go-between for users and other staking methods.
The degree to which stakeholders value decentralisation will determine whether it takes off.
Joe Bowman felt a strong impulse to start constructing in space again after returning from the Cosmoverse conference, a community conference focusing on Cosmos held in Lisbon late last year.
He was an engineering manager at Chorus One at the time, and he had been working on a liquid staking concept for some time, but Chorus One had decided not to pursue it, unlike many other top staking firms. As a result, Bowman decided to build it himself, as he told The Block in an interview.
Along with two other Chorus One team members, he founded Ingenuity to develop the liquid staking protocol, today known as Quicksilver. When Chorus One did a tiny seed round, it also invested in the initiative, confirming the fledgling venture’s relationship to the mothership.
Chorus One spun off Quicksilver on February 1st, and the company has issued their whitepaper. In the second quarter, it intends to launch its testnet. It will be trying to expand support across multiple zones in the Cosmos ecosystem once it is operational as a native Cosmos blockchain.
Liquid staking is a novel type of staking that aims to release the value locked up in the staked tokens. Someone who uses a traditional staking protocol cannot access their staked tokens, whereas someone who utilises a liquid staking protocol obtains a set of tokens worth the same as their staked tokens, freeing up liquidity that would have been frozen otherwise.
Lido Finance, which launched on Ethereum and currently has the bulk of the market share, is the most liquid staking system. Quicksilver, on the other hand, is concentrating its efforts on the Cosmos environment, where it wants to gain a larger portion of the market. While the Cosmos ecosystem contains several liquid staking methods, such as Persistence’s PStake and Lido’s expansion to the Luna blockchain, the field is much more open.
What distinguishes Quicksilver from the competition?
Quicksilver isn’t your average liquid staking system; it takes a unique approach.
Rather than providing liquid staking as the primary service, it aims to act as a go-between for those who want to stake their tokens and existing staking services.
Currently, when you stake tokens using a liquid staking protocol, the protocol issues the tokens to you. As a result, when protocols absorb the bulk of staked tokens, they gain significant control over governance decisions.
Quicksilver allows users to stake their tokens with their preferred staking service while also issuing a liquidity token – all while remaining independent of the staking provider. As a result, tokens are staked across numerous staking providers, while users are satisfied with the liquidity.
Quicksilver also intends to provide stakeholders the power to vote on governance suggestions. It has a system that allows users to vote on suggestions and then automatically sends these decisions on to the next person, allowing their votes to be filed.
As a result, it is unable to accept a 10% (or so) reduction in staking payouts, as other staking systems do. It hasn’t stated how much its fee will be, but it is expected to be in the half-percentage level.
While many staking firms are shifting to liquid staking, Quicksilver intends to buck the trend by handling the liquid staking aspect and allowing staking firms to focus on what they do best. However, how much stakeholder value decentralisation and the opportunity to exercise governance rights will determine if it takes hold.
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.
