Community Newsletter #8 – May 2021

The month of May has been a blur, and the “noise” has seemed to have reached a crescendo. Though many are worried amid uncertain market conditions, we are not, instead we’re more driven than ever. Continuing to build on the success of an amazing April, we did not rest on our laurels, but rather we accelerated our progress.

In May, our staked XPRT percentage rose above 89%, our network surpassed 50,000 transactions, and we introduced our highly anticipated liquid staking product launching in June — pSTAKE!

Moreover, we increased our community outreach and awareness efforts, received coverage by multiple major news outlets, and launched several impactful community initiatives, including our ambassador program (the Guardians of Persistence) and a new educational series called the Persistence Paratroopers to share developer insights.

No matter what comes our way, we’ll continue building. We encourage everyone to read over our many achievements of the past month. If you thought May was legendary, wait for the updates in June — we have so much more in store!

Major Highlights

Our Highly Anticipated Liquid Staking Product, pSTAKE, is Launching in June! 🚀

We’re currently preparing for the launch of our second ecosystem product — pSTAKE, a liquid staking app built to unlock liquidity of staked assets.

Essentially, pSTAKE will allow for the issuance of representative tokens on Ethereum which are backed 1:1 by native assets staked on PoS chains, which can then be utilized in the vast DeFi ecosystem on Ethereum.

pSTAKE will support the major PoS networks including Cosmos, Terra, Polkadot, Solana and Ethereum 2.0.

We’re about to disrupt the $500+ billion PoS ecosystem. XPRT stakers will also receive exclusive ongoing benefits!.

Our Bonded (Staked) XPRT Percentage Surpassed 89% 🦾

Recently, 4M XPRT tokens from the Ecosystem Fund were released into the ‘circulating’ supply. All of these tokens are now being staked, further increasing the security of the Persistence network.

The bonded (staked) XPRT percentage of the total supply now stands at 89% and rising! This is the second highest of all Cosmos ecosystem chains and the highest of all such chains with a market cap of over $100M!

We are committed to ensuring network security and keeping the bonded token percentage on the rise. The more tokens staked, the more secure the network.

We will continue to remain transparent with the community. Our primary aim is to ensure the continual advancement of the network for the long-term success of Persistence and our community, and we’re thrilled to see this coming to fruition!

The Number of Persistence (XPRT) Wallet Addresses is Increasing Dramatically! 📈

The number of Persistence wallet addresses rose sharply throughout April and into May, signalling the continued strengthening of the Persistence community and ecosystem.

Over 3,200 Persistence wallet addresses were created in the first month after our token launch, with wallet numbers increasing by over 40% in the last week of April alone.

🌐 If you’re not an XPRT holder yet then you’re missing out on over 35% APR in staking rewards! You can purchase XPRT on AscendEX.

We’re thrilled to see Persistence capturing the attention of the wider crypto space and the number of XPRT holders growing so rapidly. With multiple product launches upcoming and more major news in the pipeline, this is only the beginning.

Adoption Continues to Accelerate as the Persistence Mainnet Surpasses 50,000 Transactions! 🔥

Our network recently surpassed 50,000 transactions and the number continues to climb daily. It’s exciting to see immense growth so quickly, especially knowing that acceleration will only continue to increase as new and highly anticipated products like pSTAKE launch on our mainnet very soon. This is just the beginning!

Alongside other impressive Persistence network stats we see that participation across the board is on the rise, with our validators continuing to grow in number coupled with over 90% of the token supply currently being staked.

This moment was a proud one, as we watched the seeds that we’ve planted begin to blossom into a robust network and ecosystem.

Guardians of Persistence Ambassador Program Launch 🛡️

The Guardians of Persistence will be working closely with the Persistence team and fellow ambassadors to accelerate our progress on our mission to usher in a new financial paradigm, while earning monthly rewards in XPRT alongside other benefits!

The Guardians will be responsible for:

• Engaging with the digital community through social platforms
• Educating the public about Persistence via content and socials
• Growing our network of influencers, exchanges and partners
• Increasing social media and mainstream media presence
• Testing new features of Persistence ecosystem products
• Developing bots for moderating, analysis, and data
• Translating documents, articles, and social media posts
• Establishing and growing regional Persistence communities
• Mentoring other ambassadors to share skills

We are excited for the Guardians to join a family of like-minded individuals, and help to usher in the new financial paradigm alongside us.

🌐Applications are still open! If you’re interested in joining, read the full details and apply here: https://buff.ly/3h8yTlA

pSTAKE Updates

Feast Your Eyes on the Freshly Launched pSTAKE Website! 👀

May 19: pSTAKE is primed and getting ready to launch in June. The website offers the first glimpse into Persistence’s liquid staking platform. Learn about pSTAKE’s features, use cases and see a sneak peek of the dashboard. Further details will come as the launch approaches.

🌐 Check out the website here: https://pstake.finance/

XPRT stakers should stay tuned, we have a surprise for you!

pSTAKE is about to disrupt the $500+ billion PoS ecosystem. Follow pSTAKE on Twitter for the latest updates.

pSTAKE Has Already Surpassed 1,000 Followers on Twitter! This Proves the Excitement Around pSTAKE is Electric! ⚡️

May 20: If you’re reading this, then you are early. Congratulations on being among the first to know about our next-gen liquid staking product, pSTAKE, launching in June.

As time goes on, we believe that many will flock to our solution. pSTAKE will enable opportunities never before possible, by unlocking new functionality and interoperability between major blockchain ecosystems.

PoS assets are coming to the thriving Ethereum DeFi space very soon. DeFi will never be the same again!

🌐 If you’re not following pSTAKE already, join us to stay informed of the latest updates: https://twitter.com/pStakeFinance

Ecosystem and Collaborations

The Gravity DEX Testnet Competition Was a Huge Success! 🥂

May 13: We recently joined other Cosmos ecosystem heavyweights to help bring DeFi to Cosmos by supporting the Gravity DEX testnet competition. The amount of community interest and participation was incredible, signaling huge demand from the Cosmos ecosystem community for the game-changing DEX.

Stellar stats:

• 21,775 participants
• 715,030 transactions
• $900+ million in trading volume
• ~$190 million TVL in pool investments

Persistence is a proud and committed contributor to the Cosmos ecosystem and to the interoperability movement. We’re thrilled to be contributing to the evolution of DeFi on Cosmos and can’t wait to see XPRT on Gravity DEX very soon!

The upcoming launch of Gravity DEX is poised to be out of this world!

Cosmos India Surpassed 1,000 Followers on Twitter as the Indian Interoperability Movement Continues to Heat Up 🔥

May15: Persistence is spearheading Cosmos India — one of Cosmos’ largest local communities. Persistence plays a leading role in organizing events, spreading awareness, hosting hackathons, localizing content, and more.

Cosmos India has now surpassed 1,000 followers on Twitter, with the number of active contributors rising significantly!

It’s a privilege to see the community growing so fast! The interoperable blockchain movement in India is gaining momentum, with networks like Cosmos and Persistence leading the way.

Interoperability encourages collaboration over competition. This in turn fuels innovation and with it, opportunity. For this reason, Persistence is a strong advocate of Cosmos, interoperability and the Indian blockchain ecosystem.

🌐 Learn more about Cosmos India via the website and follow on Twitter for the latest updates from the Indian Cosmos ecosystem!

Our CEO joined Other Industry Heavyweights to Accelerate the Growth of the Solana Ecosystem at the Solana Season Hackathon! 🛠

May 18: Our CEO and Co-Founder, Tushar Aggarwal, has been invited to participate as a judge at the ongoing Solana Season Hackathon, alongside other titans of the blockchain ecosystem.

There is up to $1 million in global prizes and seed funding on offer for participants, with the grand prize standing at a whopping $30,000! This is your chance to jumpstart your project on Solana and join their rapidly growing and vibrant ecosystem!

Tracks include DeFi, Web3 and NFT tracks, alongside regional tracks and events.

🌐 Learn more: https://solana.com/solanaszn

It’s a pleasure to be assisting a fellow PoS pioneer to thrive, and we’re excited to see the innovation on display by the global Web3 developer community.

XPRT Withdrawal Fees on AscendEX Were Reduced by 80%! 🦾

May 24: The community has spoken and we have listened! We’ve worked with AscendEX to reduce fees on withdrawals from the previous 1 XPRT to just 0.2 XPRT. That’s a whopping 80% reduction!

It’s now easier than ever to DCA in and withdraw regularly to take advantage of our world class staking rewards.

Create your Persistence wallet to begin staking to reap the 35%+ APR in staking rewards. If you are new to staking and are interested in getting started, see our comprehensive staking guide!

We would like to say thank you to AscendEX for listening to the wishes of the Persistence community and providing a superior user experience.

🌐 Join AscendEX and trade XPRT here.

Supporting the Growth of the Cosmos Ecosystem at HackAtom HCMC 🛠

May 24: Persistence remains committed to the growth of Cosmos & the interoperability movement. After supporting multiple recent iterations of HackAtom, including HackAtom India and HackAtom Russia, we’re thrilled to now be supporting HackAtom HCMC!

Developers from around the world were invited to apply. Participants competed to take home the $10,000 grand prize.

Challenges included Tokenized (NFT) Challenge, DeFi Challenge, IBC Challenge and Golden Challenge.

This is part of our continual efforts to contribute to the growth of the global interoperable blockchain ecosystem. Our efforts to usher in the new interoperable era will only continue to accelerate, working with multiple ecosystems to bring this to fruition.

We Introduced the Persistence Paratroopers Series: CosmWasm Developer Walkthrough ⚛️

May 28: The Persistence team, including our interns, is committed to contributing to the growth of the global blockchain developer ecosystem. There are many rising stars at Persistence who are currently exploring various areas of blockchain development to accelerate innovation.

With this in-mind we’ve launched the Persistence Paratroopers series, to share the insights our interns have gained on the ground.

Abhinav Srivastava, our SDE Intern, has been exploring CosmWasm integration with the Persistence SDK. CosmWasm is a new smart contracting platform built for the Cosmos ecosystem.

🌐 Read Abhinav’s research here: https://hackmd.io/@abhinavmir/cosmwasm

Website Listings

CoinMarketCal Lists XPRT, Allowing Everyone to Keep Track of Persistence’s Future Updates! 👀

May 05: CoinMarketCal is the leading economic calendar for reliable cryptocurrency news. With over 4M monthly website visitors and rising, our listing on CoinMarketCal will increase awareness of Persistence considerably.

We will continue to update our page with upcoming roadmap milestones and events such as product launches, AMAs, scheduled exchange listings and industry events to provide the community with a comprehensive calendar of our activities.

🌐 Bookmark our page on CoinMarketCal here: https://coinmarketcal.com/en/coin/persistence

We’re excited to be spreading the word of our compelling calendar to the wider community!

Persistence is Added to Blockfolio Signal💥

May 06: Less than a month ago, Blockfolio — the world’s most popular cryptocurrency portfolio tracker app — listed XPRT for live data tracking. We recently expanded our reach further via our integration with Blockfolio Signal!

Blockfolio’s 6 million+ users can now be instantly notified when we make important announcements on a platform with maximum credibility. This integration is another major step on our path towards increasing awareness of Persistence and XPRT.

🌐 If you don’t already have Blockfolio, download it on your mobile device today to stay connected, seamlessly track your XPRT holdings, and stay ahead of the news cycle: https://blockfolio.com/

Block the noise, check the signal!

We Launched 6 New $XPRT Charts with CoinTrader! 📈

May14: CoinTrader provides traders with access to an array of sophisticated charting tools. Key indicators like the RSI, MACD and EMAs are now ready to deploy on 6 XPRT charts.

In addition to having all the charts you regularly view, chartists have the opportunity to join CoinTrader’s competitive crypto trading network to team up with other great XPRT chartists.

We know many members within Persistence’s global community have been asking for more tools. This is a major step on this front!

🌐 Simply type in “XPRT” or “Persistence” into the CoinTrader search box here to find our new charts.

Stay on Top of the Market with Our Listing on Live Coin Watch! 👀

May 31: Live Coin Watch tracks all the crypto assets you care about — including XPRT. Get your daily dose of Persistence’s price action, chart, and market cap data via their sleek interface.

You’ll also have access to tools like the depth chart and trending social activity. In general, you can acquire a broad overview of the market using Live Coin Watch’s market cap, volume, liquidity, and dominance charts.

Our team is excited to see more real-time data available for our vibrant community. Remember to join us on our social platforms and say hello; we can’t wait to tell you about our quickly developing ecosystem!

📲 Track Persistence on Live Coin Watch here: https://www.livecoinwatch.com/price/Persistence-XPRT

Staking & Validator Updates

Everstake Joins the Persistence Ecosystem as a Genesis Validator! 🤝

May 04: Everstake is one of our top-tier validators, helping to secure more than 45 PoS networks with over $4 billion worth of assets under delegation! Rest assured the Persistence network is more secure with Everstake aboard.

The Everstake team released a comprehensive overview of Persistence; a must-read for anyone wanting to dive deeper.

“Our team sees great potential in this project, as Persistence blurs the boundaries between CeFi and DeFi, opening access to liquidity for a wide range of traditional assets on the one hand and the effectiveness of blockchain technology on the other.”
– Everstake team

The good folks at Everstake have also produced a detailed XPRT staking guide to make staking easier than ever. So If you’re interested in learning about how to stake with Everstake, view their guide here.

Our Friends at Everstake Prepared Two XPRT Staking Guides for our Russian Community! 🙌

May 21: As a community centered project, we’re elated to see validators within our ecosystem like Everstake going above and beyond for our community. Everstake has prepared comprehensive staking guides in Russian for the Persistence & Cosmostation wallets.

Everstake runs validation services for a wide variety of premier PoS networks. They also find unique ways to help within various communities. This is the kind of passion that helps drive adoption and we wholeheartedly support this energy.

If you’re looking for a robust and experienced validator to delegate your XPRT to and start earning 35%+ APR, then look no further. Everstake can be found in the list of validators on our staking dashboard.

Persistence and Chorus One Unite to Strengthen the Persistence Ecosystem! 🔥

May 25: We were proud to officially welcome Chorus One as a top-tier validator for Persistence. Chorus One is one of the most distinguished validators in the Proof-of-Stake ecosystem and has been at the forefront of innovation within this domain.

Persistence and Chorus One share many synergies, including on our pSTAKE liquid staking application, launching in June.

“Persistence is one of the hardest working and most innovative teams that championed various streams including NFTs, liquid staking, and token distribution models in the Cosmos ecosystem.”
— Chorus One

We’re honored to have Chorus One securing the mainnet and supporting our journey, and we look forward to a long and fruitful relationship!

🌐 Chorus One announcement: https://buff.ly/34g4tWW

Appel à Tous Les Francophones! StakeLab Created an XPRT Staking Guide for our French Community! 💎

May 27: This easy-to-follow guide will help you navigate the various steps of accessing Cosmostation wallet via Ledger to then stake your $XPRT for 35%+ APR.

StakeLab is the first French-speaking professional validator. Stake your PoS assets with ease by using StakeLab’s Delegation Laboratory and guides.

We’re pleased to see our validators making onboarding to the Persistence ecosystem more seamless while we garner global recognition. Cheers to the growth of the Persistence community!

🌐 Read StakeLab’s French XPRT staking guide here and an insightful FAQ here.

StakeLab can be found in the list of validators on our staking dashboard.

Community Outreach & Education

Tushar Aggarwal Sheds Light On Persistence’s Contributions to the Advancement of the PoS Ecosystem 🔥

May 07: In a recent instalment of our Conversations with the CEO series, Tushar provides insights into our PoS-focused products and services — namely AUDIT.one and pStake.

♦️AUDIT.one: Staking-as-a-service infrastructure. Currently over $160M in assets under delegation across 11 networks.

♦️pSTAKE: Liquid staking product unlocking liquidity of staked assets, enabling greater yield generation.

“As a by-product of running StakeDrop, we realized there is huge demand for unlocking additional yields from staked assets. That led us to create pSTAKE, a liquid staking application… allowing staked assets to be utilized within the DeFi ecosystem.”

Persistence Mainnet Highlights! 🦾

May 07: Since our mainnet launched on March 30th, our key metrics have kept getting stronger. Stats as of May 7th:

• 585,000 Blocks Minted
• 4112 Wallets Created
• 32,000 Transactions
• 69 Validators Onboarded
• 89.9% Bonded (Staked) XPRT

We’re thrilled to see such substantial growth, especially when we know that this is just the start of our journey

Are you ready for the next phase of ecosystem expansion? We certainly are!

Our CEO, Tushar Aggarwal, is Invited to Join Other Industry Thought Leaders at the Tides 2021 Blockchain Industry Impact Summit! ⛓

May 25: During this 3 day summit many titans within the space will discuss current hot topics of the blockchain space such as NFTs, DeFi, and privacy computing.

This industry is building momentum quickly as we continue to grow and we’re thrilled to be sharing our insights from first-hand experience.

Tides 2021 is an excellent opportunity to spread the word of Persistence to the thriving Chinese crypto community and build our network.

We Joined YiPie Blockchain for an AMA to Connect with the Thriving Chinese Crypto Community! 🙋‍♂️

May 28: As part of our continual efforts to grow our Chinese community, our Strategy and Community Lead, Abhitej Singh, recently participated in an AMA to share insights into how Persistence is creating a gateway to DeFi via our next-gen product ecosystem.

China is home to a rapidly growing community of crypto enthusiasts and blockchain innovators. This was an excellent opportunity to build awareness and grow our community!

🌐 There is a dedicated WeChat group for our Chinese community members. Scan the QR code in the image here to join.

Learn About the Synergies Between the Persistence Ecosystem Products from Our CEO, Tushar Aggarwal 🎙

May 28: In the most recent segment of our ‘Conversations with the CEO’ series, Tushar explained the synergies between the products in the Persistence product ecosystem, spanning verticals from DeFi to NFTs and beyond.

• AUDIT.one: Staking-as-a-service infrastructure. Currently over $160M in assets under delegation.
• pSTAKE: Liquid staking product unlocking liquidity of staked assets.

🌐 Learn more about our mission and product ecosystem here.

We’re continuously working hard to build out our product ecosystem to provide new opportunities for both institutional and crypto-native users, continuing with the launch of pSTAKE in June.

Media Coverage

Our CEO, Tushar Aggarwal, Appeared on the Blockcrunch: Alpha Leak Podcast! 🎙

May 03: In the recent interview with Jason Choi of Blockcrunch and The Spartan Group, who is also one of our esteemed advisors, Tushar gives some great insights into his journey with Persistence, provides some hints as to the team’s broader strategy and gives an overview of the Persistence product ecosystem.

With the launch of our pStake liquid staking product quickly approaching, this is definitely not an interview to miss for all cryptonauts!

“It’s still super, super early days for us… but what we have done is built strong foundations, and now we’re spinning up multiple products to essentially drive value for end users and for XPRT holders.”

🌐 Listen to the podcast here: https://buff.ly/3fXgp5m

Persistence Continued to Push New Frontiers with Coverage by Our Validator and Popular Russian YouTuber Forklog, aka PostHuman! 🔥

May 08: We’d like to give a big shout-out to Forklog for his coverage of Persistence! In his visually creative and thought-provoking video, Forklog provides insights into crypto market dynamics before breaking down Persistence and our innovative token distribution mechanism, StakeDrop.

“Persistence is an interchain project that views Proof of Stake as a new economic paradigm… engaged in promising areas such as DeFi, NFTs and tokenization of real-world assets.”

You can find POSTHUMAN listed as a validator on our Staking Dashboard. He currently offers a super low 1% commission rate. Start earning rewards of 35%+ APR today!

It’s high quality, grass roots community support such as this that makes us proud to be part of this burgeoning ecosystem. We’re thrilled to have such an active and rapidly growing community! Together we’re going to take the blockchain space by storm.

Our CEO, Tushar Aggarwal, Recently Joined the Aurox Team for a Particularly Engaging Live AMA! Gain Insights into Persistence and our Product Ecosystem🎙

May 11: Learn how Persistence is bridging the gap between traditional finance and DeFi while creating a suite of cutting-edge crypto-facing solutions to expand the DeFi and NFT sectors. Topics discussed include Tushar’s background, Persistence’s product ecosystem, our underlying tech, broader market trends and much more.

Tushar also provided some significant insights into our upcoming pStake liquid staking application, launching in June, and how pStake is poised to disrupt the massive $500B+ PoS ecosystem.

“With pStake, we’re bringing PoS assets into the DeFi ecosystem. Staked assets which are accruing staking rewards can be utilized as collateral to facilitate borrowing/lending. E.g. while earning staking rewards on DOT, you can use it to take out a USDC loan.”

Thank you to the Aurox team for hosting us! With the launch of pStake quickly approaching, this is a discussion not to be missed!

The World is Waking up to Persistence! We Were Recently Covered by Top Crypto News Website Bitcoinist 🔥

May12: More and more media outlets are covering our ground-breaking efforts as we continue to push the boundaries of finance.

“With all this going on, it’s hard to believe that Persistence hasn’t previously drawn more attention from the crypto press. However, with their pSTAKE and Asset Mantle products ready to launch within the coming weeks and months, it seems inevitable that the project will start making a splash among institutions and crypto users.”

🌐 Read the full article here to gain more insights into Persistence and our mission: https://buff.ly/3eHHBps

We’d like to thank Bitcoinist for their insightful article. We’re working around the clock to usher in the new decentralized paradigm and it’s great to see the space taking notice.

The next major milestone on our journey is the launch of our pSTAKE liquid staking app, coming in June!

Awareness of Persistence Continued to Increase with Our Coverage by Popular Crypto News Outlet Coinspeaker! Learn how Persistence is Blazing New Trails in Finance 🔥

May 22: Coinspeaker recently published an article providing in-depth insights into how Persistence is pioneering new financial frontiers, covering our product ecosystem, upcoming roadmap milestones and the growing strength of the Persistence ecosystem.

“Persistence is one project on the bleeding edge of the transformation set to take over traditional finance… designed to provide an umbrella to a suite of DeFi platforms catering to the needs of conventional institutions, crypto-native players, and retail traders alike.”

🌐 This is a must-read for anyone wanting to learn more about our mission and progress. Read the full article here: https://www.coinspeaker.com/persistence-blazing-trail-defi/

Community Updates

We Welcomed the First Cohort of Guardians of Persistence🚀

May 18: We’ve assembled an elite cohort of ambassadors called the Guardians of Persistence. The Guardians will play a key role in accelerating our progress on our mission to usher in a new financial paradigm, while earning monthly rewards in XPRT!

After combing through the 300+ applications received, we whittled the list down to the most impressive 30 candidates.

If you applied but didn’t make the cut, don’t fret! We’ll be adding further batches moving forward. This is just the beginning.

🌐Applications are still open! If you’re interested in joining, read the full details and apply here: https://buff.ly/3h8yTlA

Announcing Dave Crypto as Last Month’s Champion of Champions! 🥇

May 20: We are grateful to our global community for all the exceptional support we receive every day, and to show our gratitude we will continue to highlight a community member that goes above and beyond with the title of Champion of Champions and $100 in XPRT.

Thank you Dave for showing such a strong presence on Twitter, and congratulations for also being selected as one of the first to become a Guardian of Persistence. We appreciate your energy!

🌐 Follow Dave Crypto on Twitter for some superb insights into Persistence: https://twitter.com/davey_0602

There are many exciting things happening within our ecosystem and our team is glad to see so many within our circle rallying behind our next-gen products.

Closing Thoughts

Though each month sees our progress accelerating greatly, our journey has only just begun. There’s a whole lot more in store for us as we continue to move forward.

Regardless of market conditions, Persistence is pushing ahead with full vigour on our mission to usher in a new financial paradigm, continuing with the launch of our pSTAKE liquid staking platform in June.

We’d like to thank you all again for continuing on this journey with us. We are truly grateful to have you as a part of our community!

About Persistence

Persistence is a Tendermint-based, specialised Layer-1 network powering an ecosystem of DeFi applications focused on unlocking the liquidity of staked assets.

Persistence facilitates the issuance and deployment of liquid-staked stkASSETs, allowing users to earn staking rewards while participating in DeFi primitives, such as lending/borrowing and liquidity provisioning on DEXs.

Persistence aims to offer a seamless staking and DeFi experience for PoS (Proof-of-Stake) users and enable developers to build innovative applications around stkASSETs.

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