The Quicksilver Value Proposition with Co-Founder Roea Mortaki

This article was edited on 22.06.2022 in light of the product roadmap communicated on 06.05.2022.

Edit, 22.06.2022:

Contrary to the team’s initial plans, Quicksilver will not be launching with ICS. The team is still considering leveraging ICS once it becomes available. Vish Modali and Roea Mortaki, two of Quicksilver’s co-founders, went live on Twitter Spaces in early May to walk the community through these changes. Listen to the full segment here, or read about it here.

Earlier this week, COO and Co-Founder Roea Mortaki came onto the Quick Twitter Spaces to discuss Quicksilver’s value proposition and its place in the Cosmos. Thinking about Cosmosverse 2021 a few months ago, Roea reminisced, “We decided to build Quicksilver not only to contribute to an awesome ecosystem, but also to bring forth a product that would go beyond the usual limitations that come with liquid staking today.”

Behind Quicksilver

Roea touched on Ingenuity, the development company that is building Quicksilver, and its values. She emphasized the importance of having clear pillars early on, hoping that, “Ingenuity becomes a place of curiosity and integrity. I really believe that these two principles, especially when combined, are extremely powerful in driving innovation.”

Quicksilver will be promulgating these values by solidifying its dedication to the Cosmos Ecosystem. She explained, “Over 50% of Quicksilver’s Genesis supply will be airdropped to the community — the airdrop structure aims to encourage decentralization, and users will in theory be able to get participation rewards for their validator choice further down the road. In every design decision we make, there is the overarching goal of furthering decentralization and rewarding user choices that help keep the ecosystem as secure and as decentralized as possible.”

Quicksilver’s Key Differentiators

Roea laughed that, incidentally, what sets Quicksilver apart as a liquid staking protocol in her view, is also her favorite part of the product. She explained that, “The effects of constraints such as loss of governance powers and whitelisted validator sets can be very lasting on chains and in the ecosystem as a whole. Liquid staking with Quicksilver does not come with these constraints.” With experience working at a validator, Roea knows firsthand the impact of features such as these, as well as a lack thereof. “I really think decentralization needs to be upheld as much as possible because it’s the foundational principle of blockchain. If you could only remember one or two things about Quicksilver, my hope is that you’ll remember Quicksilver is a liquid staking protocol that allows user to delegate to any validator and retain their voting powers.”

Quicksilver and Cosmos

Quicksilver is an interchain security launch partner, one of the Zones taking interchain accounts to market, and the first to implement the liquid staking module, making, “Cosmos technology the stepping stone of the protocol’s value proposition.” Briefly giving props to Joe, she touched on the work he’s been doing with other Cosmos Core Contributors in building interchain queries. “At the end of the day, Quicksilver is intrinsically linked to IBC technology. In turn, the protocol will be aiming at keeping the ecosystem secure and decentralized. We hope all of this will be beneficial to the entire space, not just Quicksilver.”

Expanding the Cosmos

When prompted to see how Quicksilver fits into the greater Cosmos ecosystem, Roea spoke about the protocol’s potential. “Quicksilver will be a great catalyst for DeFi and for DeFi adoption in the Cosmos. The protocol will take away the tension between, ‘Do I secure the chain through staking and participating in governance or do I switch to DeFi and get higher returns?’” Using Juno Prop16 as an example, she highlighted the Community’s involvement in governance. Users will be able to stake, vote, and participate in DeFi, expanding user bases and therefore supercharging growth in the ecosystem.

Speaking of the future, Roea mused, “Ingenuity is really committed to the interchain system, so once Quicksilver has launched, there is nothing stopping us from contributing to other projects within the ecosystem. At the end of the day, our primary goal is to enhance interoperability and contribute to driving the ecosystem forward.”