At Chorus One, we pride ourselves in being a full-stack partner to the protocols we choose to operate and support. This goes beyond the highly available infrastructure we provide to secure and maintain networks. It includes assisting in ecosystem-building via our ventures and business development teams, as well as participating in network governance and — most notably — deep research. Since our inception, we have been at the forefront contributing to core topics of interest in Proof-of-Stake such as liquid staking.
In recent months, we have shifted a big part of our research focus onto a complex topic that underpins the core fabric of any crypto protocol: MEV (Maximal Extractable Value). This emerging field deals with the value that can be extracted through reordering transactions in the block production process. (A collection of resources on MEV can be found here).
MEV has become an ubiquitous topic for many ecosystem participants. Primarily being a validator, our position in the network places us at a spot within the MEV supply chain that comes with great power, thus also great responsibility. Generally speaking, our mission is to maximize freedom for crypto users and to contribute to the creation of long-term sustainable, user-owned decentralized network infrastructure. Since MEV is a crucial domain that — if not adequately dealt with — might threaten the mission we are set towards; we recognized that we should leverage our expertise and resources to contribute to the MEV space in a way that ultimately benefits networks and their users.
The goals we want to contribute towards in the MEV space are two-fold. On one hand, we aim to make visible and help minimize extraction of value from users through e.g. front-running, sandwiching, and other exploitative practices. On the other hand, we strive to redistribute revenues from non-exploitative MEV that comes into existence from market inefficiency to our delegators that contribute security to the underlying network.
The rest of this article lays out the core pillars of our approach to MEV providing examples of our existing and planned engagements in the area.
What is MEV and how does it impact networks and their users?
Before deciding how we should engage with MEV, we seek to understand what we are dealing with. We are proponents of the open-source crypto ethos and don’t want to keep the information we are gathering to ourselves, but rather share it with the wider ecosystem. Thus, the first pillar of our MEV policy is Transparency. We are actively researching, building dashboards, and publishing other materials to create a shared understanding and to help lighten up the “dark forest” that is MEV.
Our exemplary work in the MEV Transparency domain: Dune Analytics Ethereum MEV dashboard, MEV Extraction Twitter bot, various MEV-related articles (e.g. our series on MEV on Solana).
How can we help to minimize negative externalities of MEV?
As a result of our research effort, we deeply understand MEV in the context of the ecosystems we are a part of. We recognize that MEV can pose negative externalities to users and ultimately the protocols they are trying to utilize. We are actively engaging to help minimize negative externalities in various ways, depending on how deep our engagement in the respective ecosystem is. This can include creating awareness and participating in the dialogue around MEV, research on related problems, as well as supporting and building solutions seeking to minimize exploitative MEV and to decentralize MEV extraction.
Our work in the Network Sustainability domain: operating and participating in public discourse and communities of block building solutions such as Flashbots, investments in projects seeking to minimize front-running (including e.g. Anoma and Osmosis). We have additional projects in this domain in the pipeline and are looking into operating infrastructure to help decentralize block building and relayer infrastructure.
How can we optimize and distribute MEV rewards to our delegators?
It would be hypocritical to say we are in this for the good of it only. There are clear incentives associated with engaging in MEV. Practically speaking, we are looking to optimize the return we can achieve through MEV and pass it through to our delegators creating a differentiated service while helping to improve network usability, security, and ultimately sustainability via the first two of our MEV pillars (see also Phil Daian’s early post “MEV wat do?” on this topic).
For institutional clients that want to offer staking to their users, we are happy to assist in navigating the space and finding the optimal solutions as part of our white label staking services.
If you are building in the MEV space, are trying to understand how MEV will affect your protocol, or are interested to work with us on research topics, feel free to reach out to us through the appropriate channels:
Research: research@chorus.one
Ventures: ventures@chorus.one
Sales: sales@chorus.one
In September, we hosted Steakwallet-rebranded Omni in the first episode of our monthly Twitter Spaces series. Below are highlights of the 50-minute long Q&A, featuring Omni’s CEO Serafin Lion Engel, CTO Alex Harley, and Chorus One’s CCO Felix Lutsch as we explored the unique features of the Omni wallet and how to choose the right validator.
Q: Serafin and Alex, why don’t you first start with an introduction to Omni?
A: So Omni is what we like to call the next generation of wallet that makes using Web3 as easy as ever. It’s basically your one-stop shop for everything Web3. It’s a wallet where you can do anything you need to do in order to use Web3 all in one place and it’s fully self-custodial. So anything, from staking to liquid staking, to depositing, to yield vaults, or onto lending protocols like Aave to multi-chain NFT support, and now alternative bridges and swaps. You can hook up your Ledger… We support more than 25 protocols at this point, all major EVMs, non-EVMs, and Layer 2s alike. There’s a lot of heavy lifting going on under the hood in order to make it as seamless as it is, but we’re very proud of our UX. We think that’s really what differentiates us and we think it’s a very next generation experience for a multi-chain ecosystem. Yeah, that’s only in a nutshell.
Q: Alex, what are some of the other features on the app that folks right now must not be using or must not be knowing about?
A: So with this Omni release, we really chose features that we felt were very important to UX, to rally around. So obviously, there was a lot of work over the last few months getting this [Steakwallet] rebrand out the door, but we wanted to make sure it wasn’t just a rebrand and that it would be a totally new wallet experience too. I would say, in my opinion, the biggest feature we added was the ability to do trustless and non-custodial swaps and bridges. So we partnered up with DEX and bridge aggregators across a range of different networks to allow people to easily swap and trade assets from inside Omni. We view this as a key unlocker for users. One of the main problems we had for Steakwallet users, previously, is that we had all these amazing opportunities for things to do like depositing into Yearn or seamless staking. But if they had one asset, say FTM on Phantom but we had something amazing going on Polygon, it was impossible for them to actually access that. So adding that in the app for us is a total game changer right now, because we have this whole concept of exploring networks.
We have a dedicated Content Team in-house to bring the latest and greatest of each network right to your home screen. Now people can see something fun to do or interesting like a cool APY or something and swap from an asset they actually have to get to that. Right now, we’ve partnered with three different aggregators and we’ll be adding more in the coming months. Bespoke networks like Tezos, NEAR and some other L2s are coming up; people will be able to jump to those straight from their wallet.
The second thing we added was our Ledger support. And we’re pretty proud of this because we have total feature parity for every network. So you can actually use your Ledger with every network we support. You can even use it for wallet connect applications. So you can vote on snapshot for example, which is quite cool, via Omni wallet. And then the third and final big feature we added was our multi validator support. Historically, we just wanted to offer people what we perceived as like the best yield for a token.
And as we went down this journey, we found that there are many yields. For individual tokens, you can lend Aave on USDC, or you can deposit into Yearn, for example. Or maybe a better example is Proof-of-Stake gas tokens: You can often stake them. You can also lend them. So part of expanding the capabilities of any one token was of course diversifying yield opportunities, but also diversifying who you can stake with. We didn’t want to be so opinionated and force people to stake with our specific validator of choice. On Omni today, you can choose who you want to stake with. And of course, we show you all the information like voting weight and this kind of stuff so you can make educated decisions.
Q: We briefly spoke about the providers that you work with. So you have a bridging provider and you also mentioned Yearn, Aave, and also the multi-validator support. If someone is on Omni right now, they can choose the list of validators they want to stake with. Was that a conscious choice to provide a list of validators? How did you guys plan that out on Omni?
A: Yes, that was a conscious choice. We originally started with one trusted partner and we just got so much inbound interest. Same with these other features I mentioned — like the Ledger support, the bridging and swapping support. We received a ton of user feedback that these would be great features to add. Again, same with the multi validators stuff. We did not want to be so heavy-handed and force users to choose one validator. It’s a great thing from a network security perspective. People want to balance their stake for personal security in case of slashing events. For network security, we don’t want to stake too heavily with a single validator.
Now that we have this multi-validator feature, our setup is such that we still present to users an opinionated list of high quality validators, especially on certain networks. Phantom comes to mind, where there’s basically 100% slashing risk for delegated funds, and that’s not a position that we want to put users in where they could potentially, in the worst case, lose all of [their funds]. So we basically partner with validators who have slashing insurance. We want to recommend validators we feel are of high quality in this space, while also giving users, at the end of the day, the absolute choice so they can delegate to who they feel strongly for.
We don’t want to be a centralizing force in the Web3 stack and we want to give users as much choice as possible. So we always have safe defaults that we set that we think are maximizing safety and convenience, but also have a positive offset for the space at large.
Q: Right. Even from the perspective of decentralization, it’s very important to not have a single point or a single recommended validator for any particular service — which is why you also have this question of centralization and Proof-of-Stake and whatnot. Felix, what are the most important factors that a user may think of when they choose to stay with a particular validator? Is it the brand name? The security they offer? The community they have around them? What do you think is the most important factor?
A: I think there’s a lot of things that you could look at as a user if you’re looking at a validator. There are also different kinds of customer profiles depending on what you are interested in. You might choose your validator just based on that. Security is one. Say, you want to make sure your funds are safe, you would want to make sure the team that is running the validator has a secure setup — such as using different data centers, using state-of-the-art infrastructure. Of course, that might also not be that easy for you to figure out as a simple retail user. What people tend to do is to look at the track record of a validator: how have they performed on other networks or in the past? What other networks do they support? Who is working with them? By simply looking at a validator’s website, you can usually get a bunch of the information. I think many are also just driven by the brand — whatever that means. That can mean a lot of things for different people.
Some validators might be more involved in the community, helping you understand a bit more about the staking model of the network. Or, they might do other things for the network’s community that you would appreciate — such as contributions in terms of research, looking at what’s happening in the network, just keeping people up to date through a bunch of newsletters. There is deeper research on certain topics that might be of interest to you — be it MEV, liquid staking or whatever you’re interested in. Ultimately, one [of the ways a user may choose their validator] is because of the tool that the validator team is building. Open source stuff is often hard to fund, obviously because it’s open source and there’s maybe no business model attached to it. The validator can be a good party to build these kinds of things and have the business model around the delegations that it’s getting.
Sometimes, validators contribute to the code base of the network or build block explorers or other tools that help developers or users really interact with the network. So if you’re someone that has tokens, it makes sense for you to look at who you think contributes most to the network’s ecosystem at large and the adoption of it. Delegate to them and, ideally, also delegate to multiple validators if it’s possible [for security].
NB: This article is an abridged version of the conversation between Chorus One and Omni. For the full conversation, replay the Twitter Space here.
Fertile land and ripe opportunities. We’re not talking about a utopic piece of land but about the world of blockchains.
Built on blockchain technologies and integrating crypto economies, Web3 is building a more decentralised, open, and utile version of the World Wide Web. Still in its infancy, we haven’t even scratched the surface of how this gamut of revolutionary technologies can transform our lives. It is inevitable that higher user experience demands, coupled with the gradual adoption of blockchain technologies, will bring in more innovative use-cases and of course, need more people.
But then come gender diversity issues. Those aren’t new in the blockchain space and the cryptocurrency industry, neither are we the first ones nor are we the only ones to talk about it. As the table grows longer, women should be taking more seats to tap into the immense career opportunities and economic growth at hand. But alas…
Economic freedom in Web3 will be powered by crypto, an industry that is at the cusp of and was born from two male-dominated industries — finance, and technology.
A “Women’s story in the cryptosphere” survey by BDC Consulting established that whilst 35.4% of the respondents worked in the crypto industry, only 15.7% got involved in crypto through their main job as most (36.7%) entered the market through inspiration by friends or colleagues.
In 2019, as cryptocurrency ownership had nearly doubled from the previous year to a considerable 14% in the US, the country’s male population owning crypto equalled 19% of men whilst the rate stood at only one out of every 10 women. Two years later, Pew Research confirmed that the figure remained the same for American women whilst the percentage of American men engaged with crypto rose by three points.
For Bitcoin in particular, women contribute to only 21% of all investments despite stats shared by Buy Bitcoin Worldwide stating that more than 70% of women have heard about the Satoshi Nakamoto-pioneered currency.
So how did an industry as young as Crypto carry a 20th-century gender gap problem into the 21st century? How did it become an overwhelmingly male space? Is it because it is the fruit of the union between two male-dominated industries? Or is it because we never really thought about this problem as we were busy moving fast and breaking things?
We may not have all the answers to this question, but we can contribute — in our own way as an organisation striving for equality and diversity — to encourage more women to take a seat at the widening table.
At Chorus One, our aim is to provide women with the needed support and resources in their exploration of the Web3 field. It is a valid dream, a valid target, and a valid goal to accomplish.
Thus far, Chorus One has provided 23 scholarships worth $53K across three different cohorts. In 2022, we sponsored 10 students from DappCamp, an Ethereum focussed bootcamp, with the objective to support aspiring women engineers. We’ve already hired two of them full-time at our company: Full-stack Engineer Maria Varvaroi, and Research Analyst Thalita Franklin.
WATCH: Female founder Preethi Kasireddy takes Chorus One CEO and Epicenter Podcast host Brian Crain on a deep dive into 21-day cohort-based Web3 course, DappCamp.
And there is so much more in the pipeline — hackathons and podcasts, among other initiatives. We aim to invest up to $150,000 in the next 12 months in lieu of this initiative and we look forward to collaborating with like-minded teams.
Speaking about barriers for women in Tech, a survey conducted this year revealed that almost 50% of the female-only respondents felt “visible allies within a tech organisation would attract them when looking for a new role”.
In another report by Deloitte, 94% of the women respondents feared that their chances of getting promoted would be hurt by requesting flexible working arrangements. What’s worse, less than half feel at ease even discussing mental health issues at work.
At Chorus One, the well-being of our team is a top priority. Our fully-remote company culture enables team members to structure their own working hours and context with the maximum autonomy possible. With unlimited PTO, anyone on the team can take a break whenever they want and need.
We’ve also fostered a safe space to accommodate the company’s growing number of women and make it easier for new female recruits to familiarise themselves with staking and the blockchain industry. We are improving but we’re not done.
WATCH: Diversity is not just a buzzword at Chorus One.
With the rolling out of Equal3, we hope to inspire more organisations to introspect and contribute to changing gender inequality perceptions in the tech industry. Chorus One’s Equal3 programme sets out to welcome the women of today and assist them to become the builders of tomorrow’s improved Web3 and crypto ecosystems.
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In this step-by-step guide, you will learn how to stake your KSMs, the native token of the Kusama blockchain, using Polkadot JS and the Polkadot Browser Extension. You will go through the following key steps:
Since it is recommended by Polkadot / Kusama for most users to use the Polkadot.js Browser Extension to create their addresses, we are focusing on this method. In case you want to explore alternatives, have a look here.
Make sure to install the Polkadot.js Browser Extension before you get started. You can download the extension for Chrome/Brave and FireFox.
Once you successfully installed the extension, click on the icon for Poladot extension - a P button in your browser bar to open the interface. You will be prompted to create an account if you don't have one already.
Click the little Gear Icon in the upper right corner and choose Kusama Relay Chain under Display Address Format For.
Then, click on the + Icon followed by Create new account. Uncheck the box next to “Derive new account from existing” & click “Create an account from new seed”.
Write down your mnemonic seed phrase and securely store it. Whoever has access to the mnemonic seed also has access to your funds! Check the box on the bottom and click “Next step”. Choose a descriptive name for your Stash account as well as a strong password. Then click “Add the account with the generated seed”.
Never share your Mnemonic Seed Phrase!
Congratulations, you have successfully created your Kusama account. You will now also find the address on the Polkadot JS Website under “Accounts” — reload the page, if this is not the case. You can now fund this account.
In order to successfully bond your funds and nominate your validator set, you need a separate account, namely your Controller Account. You will perform everyday staking operations like changing validators or claiming rewards using this account.
To create your Controller Account, use the Polkadot browser extension. Click the plus icon in the top right corner. Then click Create new account.
Now you have two options:
The second option is preferable because this lets you have independent keys. So, click Create new account.
Congratulations, you have successfully created your Kusama Controller account. You will now also find the address in Polkadot JS under Accounts — reload the page if this is not the case.
On the Polkadot JS website, make sure that you are connected to the Kusama mainnet. You can change the network by clicking the network symbol in the top left corner of your screen.
Polkadot JS supports several networks, make sure to choose “Kusama” before you continue
Before starting the Nomination process, send some funds from your Stash to your Controller account in order to cover transactions fees (1 or 2 KSM should be plenty).
To start the staking process, click “Staking” in the “Network” drop-down menu.
Afterward, visit the “Account actions” tab and click the “+ Validator” — button.
You can perform all staking operations under the Account actions tab in the Staking menu
Choose the Stash & Controller accounts accordingly, choose the amount of KSMs you want to use for staking under value bonded. Make sure to leave some funds in your Stash account. Bond a max. of 95% of your tokens so that you are still able to pay for transaction fees.
Choose a destination account for your rewards under payment destination.
Then click next to bond your token.
Make sure to leave some KSM unbonded, so that you can pay for the transaction fees
You can nominate up to 16 validators. Simply select the validators of your choice by clicking on them in the left box. You can unselect them from the right box by clicking on them again. Alternatively, you can also use the search bar at the top to look for specific validators by name or address.
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Then click Bond & Nominate.
Please note that you cannot specify the amount delegated to a particular validator. Your bonded DOTs will be spread out among the validators you selected according to the NPoS algorithm.
Choose your validators wisely — we recommend doing some research about them before your nomination
In the following window, click Sign & Submit. Afterward, enter your password and click “Sign the transaction” to conclude your nomination.
Almost done! The only thing left is signing the transaction!
Congratulations, you are now a Nominator on the Kusama network!
Your nominations will be effective in the next era (~ in up to 6 hours).
You can manage your staking operations with Polkadot JS. In the Staking menu, click Account Actions and then click the three dots on the very right to perform the following operations:
Please note that if you have bonded your tokens, a period of 7 days needs to pass before you can unbond. Once your tokens are unbonded, you need to issue another transaction, namely Withdraw Unbonded in order to be able to transfer your funds.
Understanding Active Nominations
Active nominations & Inactive nominations are the validators of your nominations that are currently in the active validator set. In general, your only one validator will be shown as active. That is because the algorithm used to distribute your stake is optimized so that each validator in the set roughly has the same amount of stake backing him/her. Your stake is therefore usually only backing one of the validators you nominated.
Waiting nominations are the validators that are currently not in the active set.
