Quicksilver and the Cosmos
The Quicksilver Protocol will not only be able to onboard any and all Cosmos-SDK zones, but it will also be able to interact with other Zones through the DeFi ecosystem that will be built on top of it. As a protocol anchored in the Cosmos, Quicksilver has been designed to not harm the Zones it will connect with.
The Features
The Quicksilver protocol’s features were designed to make the liquid staking experience as seamless as possible, without hurting security or decentralization of native onboarded chains.
Governance by Proxy
The Governance by Proxy feature will allow users to retain their governance rights on chains onboarded onto the protocol. By allowing users to maintain their governance rights on onboarded chains, users will be able to continue being active community members in any zone they stake on. Furthermore, because liquid staking aims to bring in users from across the Cosmos, and not just those currently participate in staking, the potential for an increase in governance participation on onboarded chains tangibly exists. Not only would this imply more community involvement, but would also prevent concentrating voting power among fewer actors.
Validator Choice
By allowing users validator choice, the Quicksilver protocol will reduce asset concentration in the hands of a select few. Allowing users to delegate to any validator on an onboarded chain’s native set will prevent will prevent increased centralization as a byproduct of liquid staking. Furthermore, Quicksilver will be distributing participation rewards on an epochly basis, which were designed to encourage decentralization by rewarding users who liquid stake with performant, decentralized validators that are active in governance.
Tokenomics
The QCK token’s tokenomics were designed to ensure QCK will be distributed to Quicksilver users. This means that, the more a user stakes, the more QCK he or she will receive. At the same time, the higher the share of a network’s stake in Quicksilver, the more its stakers will receive QCK tokens. This design ensures that the communities of the chains onboarded on the Quicksilver protocol will make up a significant portion of the Quicksilver community.
The QCK token is a governance, staking and fee token. Since Quicksilver intends to host a suite of cross-chain applications, the fee generated by them will directly feed into the QCK token. The QCK token also receives all revenues generated by the Quicksilver protocol and a large part of the revenues generated by applications built on Quicksilver.
Building
Protocols expected to be built on top of the Quicksilver zone will allow users to participate in both these protocols and existing DeFi protocols in the Cosmos. Through cross-chain verifications, DeFi protocols expected to be built on top of Quicksilver will not require users to lock assets. Interchain DeFi protocols will be able to instead leverage locked assets in other protocols on other chains, allowing both protocols to benefit. This means that protocols built on other chains, and therefore the chains themselves, won’t be negatively affected by DeFi growth on top of Quicksilver. By eliminating this friction, DeFi protocols built on top of Quicksilver can go hand in hand with other protocols in the Cosmos, encouraging a thriving, net positive ecosystem.
Anchored in the Cosmos, the Quicksilver chain only aims to create positive effects across the ecosystem. With a large part of the protocol leveraging core IBC-technology, the health of both Quicksilver and the Cosmos go hand-in-hand.
