Persistence: Building Liquid Staking and Re-staking Infrastructure for the Cosmos Ecosystem

Persistence is one of the application chains in the Cosmos ecosystem that first enabled IBC, CosmWasm, and the liquid staking module (LSM). By deeply engaging in products related to POS and liquid staking, this project has built a complete liquid staking and re-staking architecture for the Cosmos ecosystem.

In December 2023, the Cosmos community voted to allocate 600,000 ATOM to promote the development of liquid staking for pSTAKE. In return, pSTAKE will share 15% of the liquid staking income with the Cosmos Hub.

Persistence Ecosystem Overview

According to official data, the total locked value of the Persistence ecosystem is ( TVL ), reaching 14.78 million USD, with an IBC trading volume of 15 million USD in the past 30 days and an average transaction cost of less than 0.005 USD. The data shows that Persistence has established 121 channels with 44 other regions in the Interchain network, demonstrating its high interconnectivity.

Currently, 74.7% of the $XPRT tokens are in stake, with an annualized return of 16.7%. A higher staking rate usually 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 last 24 hours, the IBC trading volume of Persistence was approximately $260,800, with a total of 4,955 transactions, including 616 IBC transactions. There were 932 active addresses and 86 active IBC addresses. It is noteworthy that the IBC inflow continuously exceeds the outflow, 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. Through IBC, Persistence connects 54 Cosmos application chains, enabling trustless communication, transfer, staking, and liquid staking of tokens. In addition, Persistence leverages Interchain Accounts (ICA) to achieve ICA Liquid Staking, further enhancing the efficiency and flexibility of staking and liquid staking.

liquid staking

In the Cosmos ecosystem, liquid staking involves two roles: validators and delegators. 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. Delegators can choose to delegate their tokens to specific validator nodes.

If a validator exhibits misconduct, such as remaining offline for extended periods or double signing, the staked deposits of delegators may be reduced by 0.1% to 5%. This mechanism prevents malicious behavior and maintains the efficiency and security of the network through economic incentives and penalties.

pSTAKE staking platform

pSTAKE provides a simple staking process for the Cosmos ecosystem. Users only need to select the token to stake and the chain they are on to complete the staking. After staking is completed, users will receive the corresponding staking rights tokens, such as stkATOM after staking ATOM.

An important feature of pSTAKE is automatic compounding. Taking stkATOM as an example, users' staking rewards are automatically reinvested daily to continue generating returns. This means that the amount of staked ATOM represented by each stkATOM will increase over time, allowing users to receive more ATOM when they unstake.

Users need to wait 21-25 days when canceling their stake, or pay a 1% fee for a flash unstake. Currently, pSTAKE supports staking of various assets, including ATOM, OSMO, DYDX, STARS, and HUAHUA.

stake derivatives

Persistence and the Cosmos ecosystem have developed various stk asset derivatives. For example, users can directly exchange stkATOM for ATOM on the DEX without the need to unstake or pay additional fees. Moreover, the combination of stk assets with native assets can also provide liquidity on the DEX, yielding higher returns.

$XPRT stake

As an independent blockchain, Persistence also needs to enhance network security through staking. Users can conveniently stake $XPRT on the Persistence official site or in the Keplr wallet.

Stake Security Assurance

Persistence and pSTAKE are both open-source projects, which is one of the important guarantees of security. The pSTAKE program is participated by 72 developers who actively maintain updates. In addition, Persistence collaborates with several well-known security institutions such as Halborn, PeckShield, Certora, etc., to provide comprehensive support for the security of stake and re-stake.

Re-Staking Innovation

Persistence is building the Restaking infrastructure for the Cosmos ecosystem, allowing users to deposit liquid staking tokens (such as stkATOM, stTIA, stkDYDX, etc.) into Persistence to achieve asset restaking while earning additional rewards.

The re-staking module of Persistence is developed based on the Alliance module and supports staking requests for various assets. By establishing a re-staking asset alliance, stakers of different assets can share staking rewards according to predefined reward weights. This mechanism forms a cross-chain community of interests, which helps to enhance the security and decentralization of the Cosmos ecosystem.

The returns from re-staking come from the locked tokens staked by users, which are proportionally minted into the native token ($XPRT). These $XPRT will be staked to validators, and the staking rewards obtained will be redistributed to holders of various staking assets.

Summary

Persistence provides an efficient and secure economic infrastructure for liquid staking and re-staking in the Cosmos ecosystem. Through its innovative re-staking solutions, Persistence not only enhances the security guarantees among participating chains but also increases the level of decentralization across the entire Cosmos ecosystem. As these services continue to improve and gain adoption, Persistence is expected to play an increasingly important role in the Cosmos ecosystem.