DeFi By Design EP #126: Restaking and Liquid Staking in the Cosmos Ecosystem Unpacked
Restaking has grown significantly in the EVM land mindshare, yet people don't realize Cosmos has had restaking for a very long time. Liquid staking has also grown significantly in Cosmos thanks to help of several key players. Today, we'll explore the solutions Persistence One has to offer, and their recent launch of stkDYDX (liquid staked DYDX). The app chain philosophy of Cosmos allows for customization at the chain level, catering to specific needs and offering flexibility in validator selection. In this episode, we discussed the convergence of Cosmos and Ethereum, emphasizing Cosmos' pioneering concepts like IBC and chain abstraction. We also talked about the challenges faced by Cosmos in building network effects and ecosystems across its multiple chains were candidly addressed, providing a balanced perspective on the platform's growth. Moving on to Persistence, we touched on Persistence's focus on building an ecosystem for liquid staking tokens and its introduction of liquid staking in Cosmos, showcasing their commitment to innovation within the Cosmos network since day 1. We then delved into the differences in staking behavior between Cosmos and Ethereum as well as the challenges and trade-offs in the Cosmos ecosystem.
DeFi By Design EP #124: Where Fluent Fits in The Modular Thesis
The future is Modular. With the rise of specialized solutions in the blockchain development landscape, we will see more onboarding of devs and better UX for users. In today's podcast we talk with Dino, co-founder of Fluent, a company that is spearheading the development of a zkWasm L2. One of the key aspects of Fluent's platform is its support for two distinct categories of applications: shared apps and sovereign apps. This versatility is made possible through their FluentBase framework, which empowers developers to build standalone custom state machines and applications, allowing for a ton of epic use cases onchain. Furthermore, Fluent's vision extends beyond its own chain, as the team aims to seamlessly facilitate the deployment of innovative sovereign apps 'under the Fluent umbrella' so to speak. In addition to their technical prowess, Fluent is dedicated to inspiring developers to engage with their platform by providing incentives and aligning with market needs. Their emphasis on value accrual and the belief that providing valuable functions is NOT a race to the bottom as some have been saying in the modular stack. With a focus on modularity and a public testnet recently announced, Fluent is poised to play a strong role in the modular thesis.
EP #123: Data Availability in The Modular Stack Explained
As you know, we've become quite the modular blockchain activists and have been focusing on modular rollups quite a bit recently. Today's podcast is a deep dive into how Celestia's Data Availability Sampling (DAS) is changing the way we think about onchain data publishing verification. This modular approach allows for the customization of blockchains for specific use cases, aligning with the philosophy of the "internet of blockchains" and making it easy to launch modular rollups. We'll also delve into Celestia's introduction of the innovative light node, which addresses the challenge of efficient data verification without requiring users to download large amounts of information. This approach aims to ensure end-user verifiability while accommodating the potential growth of the Celestia block size in the future. As one of the pioneers of Modular Blockchains, COO Nick White explains his thesis on the above and what modularism, not maximalism means to him. So, join us in uncovering Celestia's modularity and innovative solutions to data verification are driving its unique position in the blockchain space, offering a new paradigm for building and customizing blockchains for diverse applications and use cases.
