Cosmoverse 2023
Key highlights from our trip in Istanbul
Last week, the BlockHunters team attended the Cosmoverse event in Istanbul, where we connected with Cosmos enthusiasts and gained valuable insights.
We’re excited to share highlights from the event, focusing on the most inspiring panels. Our aim is to spread knowledge and support the Cosmos ecosystem’s growth.
Here’s the selection of our event highlights.
Day I, 2nd of October
Agoric: Java Script Oddysey (speech by Dean Tribble CEO Agoric)
Agoric is a blockchain-based platform built on Cosmos SDK, tailored for JavaScript developers. It enables developers to create decentralized applications using their JavaScript expertise.
Agoric focuses on programmability and realizes the vision of software facilitating cooperation via smart contracts, a concept dating back to the 1980s.
The platform aims to foster a vast ecosystem of smart contracts developed by millions, tackling everyday problems and enhancing cooperation among strangers.
Agoric integrates with various tools and services, including Keplr and MetaMask wallets, lending protocols, IBC for cross-chain asset access, payments, and fiat on ramp. Additionally, it offers an Oracle Network, custody services, exchange integrations, and bridges to other networks like Axelar, Squid, and Gravity Bridge.
The presentation underscores the significance of onboarding more JavaScript developers into the Web3 ecosystem and Agoric’s role in facilitating this shift.
Notable applications and smart contracts on Agoric include Crabble (NFT Lending Marketplace), Calypso (Interchain Trading Terminal), Kread (Dynamic NFT Platform), and Inter Protocol (IST stable coin and apps).
Developers are encouraged to explore Agoric’s ecosystem, test their applications on the provided testnets, and actively engage with the growing community.
Unlocking 21M Bitcoins for Cosmos (speech by Fisher Yu — Co-founder & CTO Babylon)
Fisher Yu delivered a presentation on Bitcoin staking’s role within the Cosmos ecosystem.
The focus was on making Bitcoin a prominent staking asset for Cosmos, enhancing security, and addressing the unique properties required for staking.
These properties included slashable, fractional slashing, trustless staking, delegatable, on-demand unbounding, and restake-able.
Fisher outlined Babylon’s roadmap, which involves launching a testnet for BTC staking and time stamping, followed by a mainnet launch and the development of Bitcoin-based data availability.
Babylon is actively seeking partners within the Cosmos ecosystem to collaborate on BTC staking development.
Namada: Modular Privacy for the Interchain (Speech by Park Feierbach — Head of Community Anoma & Namada)
Park Feierbach, Head of Community at Heliax, presented on the topic of “Bringing Modular Privacy to the Interchain” with a focus on the Namada project. She emphasized the importance of privacy in the Cosmos ecosystem and the need to retrofit privacy to existing public blockchains.
Park highlighted that the Cosmos ecosystem is built on the principles of app chains and interoperability, allowing different chains to interact and collaborate. However, most chains are public by default, making users’ actions and identities visible. This presents a challenge for privacy across the Cosmos ecosystem.
Namada aims to provide privacy as a service, offering asset-agnostic anonymity sets that increase with more participation. Users can hold their assets within the multi-asset shielded pool, perform actions privately, and receive rewards for engaging in privacy.
The Namada protocol includes modules like the Unified Shielded Set, Shielded Actions, and Cubic Proof of Stake, which collectively enable asset agnostic privacy, unlinkable actions, and efficient verification.
Park encouraged users, developers, and validators to engage in privacy and contribute to Namada’s mission. She announced the launch of Namada’s new website, an incentivized testnet program for validators, and an airdrop of the Namada token (NAM) to ATOM holders.
In summary, Namada is working to enhance privacy across the Cosmos ecosystem, allowing users to engage in private transactions and actions across different chains, ultimately increasing privacy and security for all participants.
Astropolis: A Vision for Decentralized Financial Systems (Speech by Charles d’Haussy — CEO dYdX Foundation)
Charles d’Haussy from the dYdX Foundation presented a compelling and imaginative vision of the future in his speech at the event. He introduced the concept of “Astropolis,” a hypothetical civilization set in 2033, where various societal and economic transformations have taken place.
In this vision of Astropolis, Charles outlined several key changes:
1. Decoupling of Traditional and Network Economies: The separation between traditional economic systems and network-based economies has accelerated. This has led to the emergence of multi-citizenship, where individuals are part of different communities and networks.
2. Revised GDP Calculation: The traditional formula for calculating GDP, which considers population size and productivity, has been updated. The new formula includes not only humans but also robots and AI-registered entities, reflecting the changing economic landscape.
3. Shift to Stakeholder Capitalism: Astropolis has moved away from shareholder capitalism to embrace stakeholder capitalism. This approach promotes inclusivity and collective capitalism, representing a significant shift in economic principles.
4. Technological Advancements: Technology plays a pivotal role in Astropolis. AI and blockchain systems work in harmony, and data centers have evolved to offer scalable computation with a focus on privacy and data residency.
5. Transformation of Banking and Finance: Large legacy institutions have undergone substantial changes, incorporating decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions. Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) coexist with various stablecoins and crypto-native currencies.
6. Pragmatic Decentralization: Decentralization has become pragmatic and ethical in Astropolis. Public infrastructure supports different levels of decentralization, ensuring agility, fairness, and creativity in governance.
7. Privacy and Identity: Privacy has been greatly improved, with a focus on user control of personal data. Social networks no longer store intimate memories, and identity is based on a combination of traditional attributes and real-life attestations.
8. Digital Economies and Assets: Digital assets and cryptocurrencies have evolved significantly. Astropolis hosts various digital economies, with a diverse range of stablecoins and new types of currencies reflecting challenges such as energy and water resources.
After presenting this futuristic vision, Charles discussed the progress of the dYdX ecosystem. He highlighted that dYdX had reached $1 trillion in trading volume and explained the shift to the dYdX Chain, built on Cosmos SDK. The new dYdX Chain offers higher throughput capacity, faster finality of orders, and a change in the role of the dYdX Token.
In this transition, the dYdX Token becomes an L1 token for the dYdX Chain, allowing users to stake and participate in governance. The ecosystem focuses on user experience, with support for various wallets and tools, and introduces permissionless markets to list new assets and products.
Charles also encouraged community participation in the dYdX ecosystem, emphasizing the importance of a transparent and inclusive approach to governance and development.
In conclusion, Charles d’Haussy’s presentation provided an exciting glimpse into a futuristic society and showcased the progress and future plans of the dYdX ecosystem.
Building in a Bear Market (Panel)
Steve Horvath (Fordefi):
- Steve represents Fordefi, an institutional MPC wallet and security platform in the crypto space.
- He emphasized the importance of setting achievable growth goals, even in a bear market, while staying focused on the company’s mission.
- Steve mentioned that bear markets can provide opportunities to build and improve products as there is often more time to focus on development.
- In terms of team management, maintaining a unified vision for the company and product can help keep morale high.
- He expressed optimism about Cosmos’ potential, especially regarding its Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) capabilities.
Peyman Momeni (Fairblock):
- Peyman represents Fairblock, a project focusing on encryption, privacy, and conditional decryption for transactions.
- Fairblock’s mission is to enhance privacy in blockchain transactions and protect users from front-running attacks.
- He believes that the bear market is an opportunity to emphasize the importance of technology and educate the community about the project’s vision.
- Fairblock aims to save users money through privacy features while still providing transparency and security.
- The project encourages hiring more technical experts and thought leaders to enhance its development.
Ella Qiang (Cronos):
- Ella is the head of ecosystem at Cronos, which is a Cosmos-based blockchain with a focus on interoperability.
- During the bear market, Cronos aims to support pillar projects that form the foundation of DeFi and NFTs within its ecosystem.
- They actively engage with their community and tailor their approach based on users’ preferences and interests.
- Ella highlighted that success should be seen as a state of continuous learning, growth, and progress.
- Cronos aims to onboard billions of “normies” into Web3, emphasizing their commitment to increasing on-chain data and total value locked (TVL).
Denis Fadeev (Zetachain):
- Denis leads developer experience at Zetachain, a EVM Cosmos chain which focuses on interoperability and smart contracts.
- Zetachain’s primary goal during the bear market is to focus on the mainnet launch and polish existing features before expanding further.
- Denis stressed the importance of staying lean and agile as a team and involving the community in various ways, such as through ambassador programs.
- Zetachain aims to make smart contracts accessible across multiple chains, promoting cross-chain collaboration and development.
- They see opportunities in building tools for interoperability, such as connecting Bitcoin with DeFi through smart contracts.
Moderator — Jonathan Caras:
- Jonathan Caras moderated the panel discussion and introduced the speakers and their projects.
- He noted that the bear market has challenges and opportunities, and it’s essential for teams to adapt and maintain motivation.
- Jonathan encouraged collaboration and engagement with other ecosystems, especially focusing on interoperability and adding value to other projects.
- He acknowledged the hard work of builders in the ecosystem and expressed optimism about the future when the next bull market arrives.
Once the conference wrapped up, we decided to join the FlixFest Party.
Day II, 3rd of October
Defeating the Cosmic Dragon: Celestia’s Strategy to Defend Cosmos (speech by Yaz Khoury — Head of DevRel Celestia Labs)
Yaz, Head of DevRel at Celestia Labs, discussed the challenges facing the Cosmos community, which he referred to as the “Cosmic Dragon.” These challenges included fragmentation, internal politics, a lack of narrative, and governance issues.
He proposed three strategies: Escape Strategy (maintaining the status quo), Defense Strategy (standardizing and innovating on hard fork mechanisms), and Attack Strategy (embracing modular architecture and minimizing on-chain governance).
Under the Defense Strategy, Yaz advocated for creating standards and specifications processes, improving storytelling, and introducing the Celestia Improvement Proposal (CIP) process. He also suggested adopting an Ethereum-based hard fork mechanism for more efficient upgrades.
In the Attack Strategy, Yaz proposed embracing modular architecture and shared security to bridge the gap between app and core developers, improving scalability and security and also minimizing on-chain governance.
“The future of Cosmos can be saved and the Cosmic Dragon can be defeated by becoming modular-aligned and embracing Data Availability Sampling” — Yaz Khoury
Overall, Yaz emphasized the importance of addressing internal challenges and adopting innovative strategies to strengthen Cosmos’s future.
At 2 PM, we joined the “Meet The Cosmonaut Matchmaker” workshop, which was organized by our friends from Lava Network.
Speech Nathan Cha — Marketing Lead dYdX
Nathan Cha introduced dYdX as a perpetual DEX with 36+ highly liquid Perpetual markets. They’re moving from Layer 2 to Cosmos, building the dYdX chain with decentralized off-chain order books.
This transition allows traders to have a faster, decentralized, and more user-friendly trading experience, with increased transparency and governance in the hands of token holders.
The dYdX Chain aims to grow the DeFi pie, focusing on mass adoption by offering unparalleled trading experience, transparency, faster market listings, and self-custody of assets.
Developers are encouraged to build on top of the dYdX chain as all code will be open-sourced.
Matt Bell — Co-Founder Nomic
Matt Bell, co-founder of Nomic, discussed Nomic’s role as the Bitcoin bridge for Cosmos, aiming to connect Bitcoin with the Cosmos ecosystem.
Nomic prioritizes security, offering a fully verifying bridge that independently checks Bitcoin data and introduces an “emergency dispersal” mechanism to safeguard user funds.
The protocol features circuit breakers to prevent sudden fund outflows and focuses on client-side resilience, reducing reliance on centralized servers.
Nomic utilizes Orga, a high-performance Rust-based stack, and provides an easy-to-use JavaScript library for Cosmos chains to integrate Bitcoin deposits into their interfaces.
Nomic’s upcoming release is set for October 27th, with activation on October 30th, and partnerships with various Cosmos chains, such as Osmosis and Kujira are in progress.
This integration opens possibilities like using Bitcoin as collateral for stablecoin minting and trading with leverage using real Bitcoin, enhancing the Cosmos ecosystem.
Day III, 4th of October
We had a great time attending the dYdX Breakfast organized at the Chalet. At the ending we had a live performance from Bilal Göregen.
After that we attended the conference, here are the key presentations that we attended.
Shared Security Panel
Jehan Trembeck (Informal Systems):
- Jehan discussed Informal Systems’ approach to security in the Cosmos ecosystem.
- He introduced Interchain Security, which leverages the Cosmos Hub to provide security for consumer chains.
- Interchain Security focuses on protecting against double spending and incorrect execution and involves Cosmos Hub validators in securing consumer chains.
Fisher Yu (Babylon):
- Fisher represented Babylon and discussed their innovative security offerings.
- Babylon offers Bitcoin-based security sharing protocols, including Bitcoin timestamping and Bitcoin staking.
- These protocols enhance the security and economic stability of Cosmos chains while efficiently utilizing resources.
Hlib Kanunnikov (Celestia):
- Hlib explained Celestia’s unique security approach, emphasizing data availability and scalability.
- Celestia’s decoupling of execution from data availability allows for scaling and efficient resource usage.
- Roll-up technologies are employed to maintain security while efficiently using blockchain resources.
Sam Hart served as the moderator for the panel discussion.
At some point we attended the Validator meet-up organized by Stake&Relax Validator.
IBC <> Ethereum via Composable (speech by Brainjar — Founder Composable Finance)
Brainjar discussed various aspects of Composable Finance’s initiatives and their vision for the future of blockchain technology. Composable Finance is most known for bringing IBC to Polkadot. The goal is to bring IBC to other ecosystems as well. Composable Finance’s core pieces are: Picasso, Cosmos Chain, Polkadot Parachain.
Brainjar highlighted Composable Finance’s commitment to cross-ecosystem DeFi and introduced their infrastructure components, including Picasso, focused on Kusama parachains, their Cosmos chain, and their Polkadot parachain. He noted their recent accomplishments, such as launching IBC connections outside the Cosmos ecosystem, creating the Hyperspace relayer, launching a new Cosmos chain, and deploying the Wasm client into production.
Brainjar emphasized the significance of expanding IBC to various ecosystems and announced the formation of the Composable Foundation to support projects working on IBC expansion. He then introduced their plan to bring IBC to Ethereum and invited users to explore their testnet, which included a user-friendly explorer. Brainjar also discussed potential use cases for assets like ATOM in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Towards the end of the speech, Brainjar unveiled an Ambassador Program aimed at allowing users to engage with the testnet and participate in revenue-sharing opportunities. He outlined the path to becoming a consumer chain and highlighted the benefits for validators, including expanding use cases for ATOM, enhancing its role in DeFi, and sharing revenue.
Throughout his speech, Brainjar emphasized the importance of blockchain technology in solving real-world problems, particularly in regions with economic challenges, and how Composable Finance’s initiatives aligned with this vision.
Speech by Vishal Talasani — Stride Labs
Vishal Talasani discussed the achievements and future plans of the Stride protocol, along with a groundbreaking proposal. Over the past year, Stride successfully launched 10 stTokens, more than any other protocol in the crypto space, and integrated them into various DeFi platforms. They also transitioned to Interchange Security (ICS), bolstering their alignment with the Cosmos Hub. The introduction of the Liquid Staking Module (LSM) allowed users to convert staked ATOM to liquid stATOMs without waiting for the unbonding period.
Looking ahead, Stride’s roadmap includes deploying additional stTokens, deepening existing integrations, and expanding the use of stAO on various ecosystems. Vishal acknowledged the importance of decentralizing liquid staking for safe scalability.
The most significant part of Vishal’s speech was the proposal for Stride to merge with the Cosmos Hub, creating a fully decentralized and aligned liquid staking protocol. This proposal entails transferring governance control of Stride to the Cosmos Hub, aligning the Stride team with the Hub’s development and business initiatives, and channelling all Stride protocol rewards to the Cosmos Hub. This move would be initiated by provisioning ATOM, burning existing Stride tokens, and ensuring long-term alignment through vesting and KPIs.
Vishal stressed that this proposal is a preliminary idea and expressed the Stride team’s intent to engage with the Cosmos community for feedback and discussions. It represents an exciting opportunity to strengthen alignment and decentralization in the Cosmos ecosystem, particularly regarding liquid staking.
The speech was followed by a panel with speakers Vishal Talasani (Stride Labs), Ethan Buchman (Informal Systems), Thyborg (Informal Systems), and Zaki Manian, moderated by Cito.
After the conference ended, we attended the Cosmoverse Afterparty.
Overall, it was a pleasure to meet both old and new friends, and we would like to extend our congratulations to the team for their hard work in organizing this year’s event.
About BlockHunters
BlockHunters is a non-custodial staking service provider currently supporting the most promising projects in the cryptocurrency ecosystem with active nodes and different model infrastructure key components.
Based on the vision of driving technology forward and helping with security, connectivity solutions, governance insights, and community support, BlockHunters is dedicated to offering competitive and practical prowess.
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