qAssets on Quicksilver

3 min readAug 8, 2022

Quicksilver is a permissionless, sovereign Cosmos SDK zone that will provide Interchain Liquid Staking for the entire Cosmos Ecosystem. Through Quicksilver, delegators will be able to stake assets on any validator running on the chains onboarded onto the protocol, and receive in turn a voucher representing a claim against that staked position. That voucher, known as a qAsset (qAtom, qOsmo, qJuno, etc.), will allow users to benefit from both Staking and Defi participation across the Cosmos. In this article, we will take a deeper look into qAssets and how Cosmonauts can unlock their full potential.

What are qAssets?

qAssets are representative vouchers of staked Assets. This means that qAssets not only represent users’ staked delegations, but also the rewards earned on these. In order to understand how qAssets accrue value, it is important to understand asset fungibility on the Quicksilver Protocol.

How is fungibility maintained?

Because different validators present different risk profiles to delegators, no two validators are the same. This means that, in order to maintain fungibility between qAssets issued against delegations on different validators, both risk and rewards are socialized.

Value Accrual

The value of qAssets is accrued over time through staking rewards. The rate at which Assets can be redeemed for qAssets shifts positively as rewards are earned over time, minus any slashing. Since that slashing event would be spread across all delegations of all validators of an onboarded chain thanks to risk socialization, however, the impact of said event would be minimal. Users do not face the risk of a permanent loss of value with qAssets because qAssets reflect the value of rewards accrued on the platform, meaning users will always have a claim to their rewards.

qAsset Redemption

Users will be able to exit the protocol in two ways. In the first, users could signal on Quicksilver their intent to exchange their qAssets for their delegations. The protocol would then transfer their delegations back to users.

User will also be able to exit their position on Quicksilver by selling qAssets at market price. Whoever buys qAssets through a DEX will now hold claim to the staked position it represents.

Voting with qAssets

The Governance by Proxy feature will be available upon the protocol’s first post genesis upgrade. This feature will allow users to maintain their voting rights on chains onboarded to the protocol. Voting rights will be tied to qAssets, meaning if user A sells their qAssets on a DEX and user B buys them, user B will inherit these voting rights. All user B would have to do is visit the Quicksilver protocol app, click on the Governance page, and let the protocol know where in the Interchain they hold these qAssets. The Quicksilver protocol will then verify the information and grant user B the voting rights that go with the qAssets.

The Future of qAssets

At the time of writing, Quicksilver will be onboarding the Cosmos Hub, Juno and Osmosis at Genesis, which means Atom, Juno and Osmo holders will be able to mint qAtoms, qJuno and qOsmo upon the protocol’s launch. Additionally, after the launch of the protocol, the Quicksilver community will be able to onboard any and all IBC-connected, ICA-enabled zones, which creates the potential for there to be a qAsset for every Asset of the Cosmos Ecosystem.

Once building is enabled on top of the Quicksilver Zone, DeFi protocols built on top of the Zone will be able to use all these qAssets as base collateral. The Quicksilver team hopes to see a DeFi ecosystem flourish on top of the Quicksilver Zone, allowing for DeFi and Staking to continue growing hand in hand through the use of qAssets.