If Q1 2023 was characterized with a ‘rollout’ phase, we can say that Q2 2023 was the quarter of the kickoff for traction, expansion, and growth in the Persistence ecosystem. In the last 3 months, Persistence’s on-chain TVL grew by 2x as adoption of Persistence Ecosystem dApps, pSTAKE & Dexter, grew steadily.
In this quarterly recap, we look back at all the key highlights and milestones for the Persistence Ecosystem in Q2 2023.
Persistence On-chain Traction
Most of the things that were accomplished in Q2 can be traced back to the release of the 2023 Liquid Staking Roadmap Update we posted in April.
- Core-1 developers have worked tirelessly to bring the Liquid Staking Module by Iqlusion & Zaki Manian, Cosmos SDK v47, and Packet Forwarding Module by Strangelove Labs on the chain. The core-1 team opened active talks with Skip Protocol about capturing in-protocol MEV. All these features will go live with the v8 chain upgrade scheduled for August 2023.
- Thanks to Ecosystem dApps, pSTAKE & Dexter On-chain TVL reached a new all-time high, crossing $7.5M in June 2023.
- Expanding to as many security avenues as possible is in the core-1 chain’s best interest. Keeping this in mind, the core-1 team did internal research & due diligence on Replicated Security & Mesh Security. A dialogue was opened between Informal Systems, the key project building Replicated Security, to gauge the feasibility of becoming a consumer chain of the Cosmos Hub. Additionally, Babylon’s Bitcoin Security went live on the Persistence Testnet.
- An XPRT Incentives Log was published for everyone to track all $XPRT incentives from governance with timelines, outcomes, learnings & more.
- For the first time, XPRT liquidity was bootstrapped on the chain with an ATOM/XPRT pool on Dexter. The pool was incentivized with 333,333 XPRT for 90 days (until 29 August 2023) by Proposal 25. Recently, the pool liquidity crossed $650K.
5 things from our 2023 Roadmap that the v8 upgrade will open the doors for:
Expanding the Persistence Liquid Staking Ecosystem
As we keep on expanding the Persistence Ecosystem to become a true Liquid Staking Hub, here are a few of the most significant highlights from Q2 2023
- A partnership was announced with Axelar to use their General Message Passing (GMP) solution for connecting the Persistence Core-1 chain with any other EVM chain. This opens the door for pSTAKE to bring its EVM stkTokens like stkBNB & stkETH to Persistence (& Cosmos) & also enables Dexter to support cross-chain swaps with the Squid Router in the future.
- Ledger Live natively integrated $XPRT. This allows users to create an account, send, receive, and stake $XPRT right from Ledger Live with private keys secured in their hardware wallet.
- pSTAKE & Dexter dApp support was added on the Cosmostation, Keplr, & Leap wallets
- Ledger by Chorus One, Stake&Relax, Notional, Atlassian, RockawayX and Doubletop validators joined the Persistence network.
- Shipping szn at Dexter’s base was in full flow
- TVL: ~$2.1M, Cumulative Volume: ~$2.1M
- Mobile support was launched on the dApp with support for Leap & Cosmostation mobile wallets
- A Tradooor Rebate Program was launched to incentivize traders on the stkATOM Metastable pool. ~$950k volume has been generated since then & ~7000 XPRT tokens were distributed to 500+ traders by Dexter.
- stkATOM expanded its presence in Cosmos
- stkBNB got more deep-rooted into the BNB Chain DeFi Ecosystem with more integrations
- stkETH will be launching natively on Arbitrum and Optimism. It has completed code development and a security audit by Halborn Security. A public incentivized testnet will be launched soon.
Bolstering Persistence Chain Infrastructure
- Persistence partnered up with Subquery Network to improve on-chain indexing support, helping developers focus on product development and user experience rather than building their own indexing solutions.
- Observatory Zone added sensor support for the Persistence Core-1 chain and was listed as the #2 chain in Cosmos.
- The Group Module(creation and management of on-chain multisig accounts), Packet Forward Middle (easily route packets to improve UX), & IBC Wasm Hooks (cross-chain contract calls for better UX) were added to the chain and will go live with the upcoming v8 upgrade in August 2023.
Persistence XPRT Governance Proposals
Persistence saw 8 new on-chain proposals in Q2 2023, resembling community-driven initiatives & growth in chain development. Here is a summary of all proposals with benefits to the Persistence Liquid Staking Ecosystem:
| Proposal # | Outcome |
|---|---|
| 22 | Division of XPRT incentives among Dexter & Osmosis to bootstrap XPRT liquidity |
| 23 | Inflation parameters were changed to reduce XPRT inflation & bring forward the halving |
| 25 | Changed the spread of the incentives on the XPRT/ATOM pool on Dexter from proposal #22 over 90 days instead of 45 days. |
| 26 | Increased the stkATOM Instant Redemption fee from 0.5% to 1% |
| 27 | Decentralized pSTAKE protocol by changing the protocol revenue address to a new Revenue Multisig |
| 31 | Improved on-chain governance process by reducing the voting period from 7 days to 5 days and Max Deposit Period from 14 days to 1 day |
| 34 | Added a second set of XPRT incentives (128,700 for 90 days) to deepen XPRT liquidity on Osmosis sustainably |
| 35 | Changed the schedule of every subsequent XPRT inflation halving block to be 2 years apart |
Persistence Foundation Delegation Program
We have seen a clear positive impact on the Persistence network since we started our Foundation Delegation Program last December. Persistence is the second most decentralized chain in Cosmos, according to Observatory.
After careful consideration and taking into account valuable feedback from our validator community, Persistence made the decision to postpone the third round of the Foundation Delegation Program. Instead, we will extend and potentially refine the delegations from FDP Round 2, aiming to review and strengthen the program further.
We are also exploring further automation tools in order to reduce the manual workload the Foundation Delegation Program puts on our team. New timelines and more info on Round 3, will be announced after the v8 chain upgrade.
Conclusion
Once again, the Persistence Ecosystem has made significant progress towards becoming the Liquid Staking Hub for Cosmos, with the necessary chain infrastructure and products deployed on the chain. With the upcoming v8 chain upgrade right around the corner, it’s time to propel into Q3 2023 by ticking off more things from our 2023 Roadmap. The core-1 team is super excited for what comes next for Persistence. Here’s to reaching new milestones and making Q3 an LSTfi Summer on Persistence! 😎🍹
About Persistence
Persistence is a cosmos app chain for LSTfi (liquid staking finance) with the issuance of & DeFi for LSTs.
The Persistence core-1 chain hosts pSTAKE Finance–a multi-chain liquid staking protocol for issuing LSTs that allows users to earn staking rewards while participating in DeFi primitives, Dexter–the Interchain DEX for yield-generating assets like LSTs.
Persistence aims to offer a one-stop shop for liquid staking for PoS (Proof-of-Stake) users and enable developers to build innovative applications around LSTs.
Become a Persister today!
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