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News
Networks
Chorus One announces staking support for KYVE.
Delegators can stake their KYVE tokens to earn rewards and contribute to the network’s growth.
March 19, 2023
5 min read

We’re very excited to announce that Chorus One is now live on the KYVE Network mainnet.

Kyve aims to revolutionize customized access to on- and off-chain data by providing fast and easy tooling for decentralized data validation, immutability, and retrieval. With these tools, developers, data engineers, and others can easily and reliably access the trustless data they need in order to continue building the future of Web3.

It is a PoS blockchain built with the Cosmos SDK. It has two layers: the Chain Layer and the Protocol Layer, each with its own node infrastructure.

  • The chain layer is the backbone of KYVE and is an entirely sovereign Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchain built with/on Ignite. It’s run by independent nodes, which enable users to support and secure the KYVE blockchain.
  • Sitting on top of the chain layer is the Protocol Layer, which enables the actual use case of KYVE’s data lake. This includes data pools, funding, staking, and delegation.

The protocol layer nodes are responsible for collecting data from a data source, bundling and uploading it to any decentralized storage solution, and then validating it, keeping track of which data is truly valid for its users to tap into. This enables KYVE to store any data permanently and in a decentralized manner, creating a Web3 data lake.

Source: Kyve

Via KYVE, developers first input the desired endpoint from which they would like to fetch data and then fund a pool with $KYVE. Node runners wanting to participate in the protocol will be the ones fetching, bundling, storing, and validating the data to earn $KYVE rewards.

Data pipeline is another way of using KYVE. Through a non-code solution, KYVE data can be imported into any data source supported by Airbyte within just a few clicks. Since KYVE fetches raw data, it allows you to transform it to best fit your use case.

John Letey, Kyve’s co-founder & CTO, joined our podcast and told everything you need to know about Kyve, including some fun facts: John wrote his first program in C++ when he was only 8 years old.

At genesis, inflation was disabled. A governance proposal is currently being voted on to activate inflation with default parameters that were calculated considering the staking ratio at genesis. The goal is to reach an APY of 20%, a reference value influenced by other Cosmos networks.

Source: Kyve

The project is backed by multiple relevant foundations such as Near, Solana, and Avalanche, to name a few.

To know more about staking $KYVE with Chorus One, click here

About Chorus One

Chorus One is one of the biggest institutional staking providers globally operating infrastructure for 35+ Proof-of-Stake networks including Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, and Near amongst others. Since 2018, we have been at the forefront of the PoS industry and now offer easy enterprise-grade staking solutions, industry-leading research, and also invest in some of the most cutting-edge protocols through Chorus Ventures. We are a team of over 50 passionate individuals spread throughout the globe who believe in the transformative power of blockchain technology.

For more information, please visit chorus.one

Guides
How to stake AKT (Akash)
A step-by-step guide on staking AKT (Akash)
March 6, 2023
5 min read

Overview

Category Details
Chorus One Validator Address akashvaloper16pj5gljqnqs0ajxakccfjhu05yczp987ptmjx9
Wallet 40.5
APR https://www.mintscan.io/akash
Block Explorer https://www.mintscan.io/akash
Staking Rewards https://www.stakingrewards.com/earn/akash/
Unstaking Period 21 Days

Akash is a decentralized marketplace, where cloud providers (providers) can lease their computing power to users (tenants). The Akash marketplace functions by conducting reverse auctions whereby the tenant creates orders for computing power, and providers bid on these orders. When the tenant chooses a provider, they create a lease. After this, the user deploys a Docker container on the Akash Container Platform where users are able to then run any cloud-native application and access a range of cloud management services like Kubernetes.

Please note that the unstake period is 21 days. This means that you can only unstake and withdraw coins to your wallet after this time has passed. We wish you profitable staking!

How to stake AKT (Akash)

1. Install Keplr Wallet Extension

In case you don't have the keplr extension installed in your browser visit https://www.keplr.app/ and click on Install extension.

Click on Install Keplr for Chrome if you are using a Chrome browser or Brave if you are using the Brave browser and follow the installation instructions.

2. Create/Import Account

Click on the extension in the Chrome/Brave toolbar and the following page will open up.

In case you do not have an existing Keplr account you can create a new account

You will be shown 12 words as your mnemonic seed. Select24 words option for a more secure mnemonic. Back it up securely (read the warning below)

Back up your mnemonic seed securely.

  • Anyone with your mnemonic seed can take your assets.
  • Lost mnemonic seed can't be recovered.

Enter an account name and a passphrase to unlock your wallet. You will be asked for the mnemonic again. Enter the 24 words in order. This is to make sure you remember the mnemonic.

Finally, click on Next to create your account

3. Log in to your account

Regardless of whether you already have an account or if you created it just now you may now click on the extension to view your address or visit https://wallet.keplr.app/#/akashnet/stake to see the full dashboard.

4. Stake your AKT

If you don't already have AKT in your account fund it with some tokens. You may use an exchange to transfer the AKT tokens to your address or get it from someone who already holds those.

To stake click on the Akash network in the left panel and click on Stake

You will be shown a list of validators with whom to stake on the right side. Scroll to Chorus One and click on Manage.

A modal with Chorus One's description will pop up. Click once on Delegate to enter the amount of tokens you want to stake.

Clicking on Delegate again will take you to Keplr wallet for approval. Approve the transaction and you will be able to see your stake.

There is a 21-day unbonding process for staked AKTs during which delegator AKTs do not earn rewards and cannot be transferred, exchanged, or spent. AKTs can, however, be slashed during the unbonding period.
5. Claiming rewards

After some time you will see rewards getting accumulated in your account. You can simply go to the Keplr extension to claim them.

Networks
Ethereum Withdrawals are near and here’s a quick guide to the event.
We talk about the withdrawal process and future implications.
February 17, 2023
5 min read

Withdrawals are imminent. This March, Ethereum will be undergoing its first hard fork of the year, bringing much anticipated withdrawals to the mainnet. As developers move into the final pre-launch sequence, by upgrading the public testnets (first Sepolia, then Goerli), we wanted to get you up to speed on this coming Shapella (Shanghai + Capella) upgrade.

1. Withdrawals mark the end of the Proof-of-Stake transition cycle

If you look at Ethereum’s Beacon Chain today, the way to participate as a validator means you must send at least 32 ETH to the Deposit Contract, or “stake” your ETH. The Beacon Chain follows the contract, querying for changes so that it can process any new deposits. The entire validator lifecycle consists of different states that determine what you can or can’t do as part of the network.

Ethereum only allows a small number of validators to start or stop validating at a time to maintain the stability of the validator set. Once you are part of the “Active” set, you start accruing rewards by voting (”attesting”) every six minutes with the occasional proposal. The majority of these rewards are added to the balance of the validator.

At any point, you might want to stop validating and take out your ETH, in which case you would want to join the voluntary exit queue. On the other hand, you might have been a validator for some time and want to utilize the excess ETH, considering the average validator balance is ~34 ETH.

Withdrawals close the validator cycle and mark the end of the PoS transition that started with the Merge in September 2022. Before then, the two chains were unaware of each other. Specifically, the Execution Layer didn’t communicate at all with the Beacon Chain until they merged. Withdrawals stand opposite to the deposit process, crediting your ETH from the Beacon Chain on the Execution Layer to finally close the cycle.

2. About the Ethereum withdrawal process

There are 2 requirements for withdrawals to be processed:

  • You must have a 0x01 credential, which represents the Ethereum address where the ETH will be credited. If you don’t have this type of credential, you must sign a message to change it, which will take effect at the time of the fork.
  • You must have a balance above your 32 ETH (partial withdrawals), or have fully exited the validator according to the validator lifecycle (full withdrawals).

For every block, the network scans the validator set for the first 16 validators that satisfy those two requirements. Then, those withdrawals get processed as part of the block in a gasless transaction.

According to the most recent estimate, ~300,000 validators are on the old credentials, meaning the majority of validators will need to change them (it involves digging for those mnemonics created over 2 years ago). This change can only be done once.

Chorus One developed a tool called “eth-staking-smith” that enables the user to generate those signed messages and easily update their withdrawal address.

The process after that is fully automatic. Meaning, you don’t have to do anything else to start spending those rewards, they will be credited to the withdrawal address without your intervention. If all of those validators properly change their credentials, a complete run through the active validator set would take about 4 and a half days. Meaning, you can expect to receive your rewards to the withdrawal address in that cadence.

Please check the official ETH Withdrawals FAQ to learn more about withdrawal mechanics and enabling withdrawals for your validator.

3. Changes in the staking panorama for Ethereum

We have previously elaborated on why staking is the most attractive risk-adjusted source of yield in crypto. We believe in its force to provide value at the base level to stakers, deliver competitive results and guarantee that networks such as Ethereum continue to operate as the backbone of a decentralized financial system.

However, the inability to withdraw staked assets on Ethereum has been a risk consideration that stakers had to make before committing to the task for the past years. Not anymore. This massive unlocking of liquidity is sure to make big waves in the coming months and impact the staking panorama of Ethereum. Staking has also made the news with the recent news of regulations in the United States. As a non-custodial staking provider, we continue to believe in this thesis.

With an increasing number of ETH being staked post-Merge, along with growing adoption of the Ethereum network and a rising ETH price, we believe that 2023 will be an even stronger year for Ethereum staking post-Shanghai. However, we must get ready for some changes.

  • The Shanghai Upgrade de-risks ETH staking as it improves liquidity and reduces lock-up requirements by initiating the withdrawal process, making it increasingly attractive to institutions wanting long-term bets on the blockchain ecosystem.
  • In terms of Liquid Staking Derivatives (”LSD”) you will be able to redeem them and unstake your ETH directly on the protocol. This means unlocked liquidity to compound, which might push the APY slightly. Some stakers might choose to migrate to other providers altogether.
  • Staked ETH held by the Deposit Contract and active validator counts continue to grow with new momentum after the Merge, and even pre-Shanghai where some narratives called for sell-pressure on ETH.

4. How Chorus One prepares for Withdrawals

We made our bet on the Ethereum staking ecosystem last year, when we finally unveiled OPUS: our API and Portal solution to significantly speed up institutional staking operations.

Since then, we have been working on many exciting features, including enabling MEV rewards, with more in the pipeline to be rolled out in the coming months. We plan to support withdrawals in our infrastructure as soon as it's safe after the upgrade, and we are working to create the simplest staking and unstaking process in the market for all kinds of institutional clients.

We have been testing this process and will continue to do so on the available testnets for increased security. We also provide a suite of options including the mentioned update of validator withdrawals addresses and a full Portal to consult all rewards accumulated.

Reach out to sales@chorus.one to know more about how OPUS can help you start staking or offer staking to your customers with minimal setup.

About Chorus One

Chorus One is one of the biggest institutional staking providers globally operating infrastructure for 35+ Proof-of-Stake networks including Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, and Near amongst others. Since 2018, we have been at the forefront of the PoS industry and now offer easy enterprise-grade staking solutions, industry-leading research, and also invest in some of the most cutting-edge protocols through Chorus Ventures. We are a team of over 50 passionate individuals spread throughout the globe who believe in the transformative power of blockchain technology.

For more information, please visit chorus.one

Opinion
What's the least risky source of yield in crypto? The answer is staking.
This document is a summary of a longer article — “The financialized staking economy” — published in Chorus One’s ‘Annual Staking Review’ for 2022. Click here to read the entire report.
February 13, 2023
5 min read

Cryptocurrencies can be used in three kinds of yield-bearing activity. These have cumulative trust assumptions -

  • Base layer: Staking income is generated by the chain itself to incentivize its liveness & security.
  • Smart contract layer: Protocols run on the chain and may pay incentives for capital. At a minimum, these carry risks associated with protocol security (e.g. hacks), and protocol design (e.g. collateral management).
  • Off-chain: Centralized parties may offer interest on cryptocurrency assets. Complex trust assumptions are involved here including counterparty prudence & sophistication, technical security, and legislative risk.

We believe staking yield is the most attractive risk-adjusted source of yield in crypto for two reasons:

  1. Firstly, yield enabled by the base layer, i.e. staking yield, carries by far the least risk. Specifically, it does not carry significant idiosyncratic risk beyond the priced-in chain risk, as a failure for staking yield to materialize, or a reduction of the notional for an appropriately operated node would be equivalent to chain failure. There is some tail risk associated with improper operation of validator nodes (e.g. double signing, downtime), but this can be minimized by choosing a professional validator like Chorus One.
  2. Secondly, it delivers competitive returns, even if compared to riskier sources of yield. For example, using Uniswap (the largest DeFi App of all) as a proxy, liquidity provisioning on Uniswap is a losing proposition for as much as 50% of users due to “impermanent risk”. A second example is Binance Earn as a stand-in for off-chain yield generation — it currently pays 4.3% on Ethereum, vs. a 7.5% staking yield! Especially in an environment with limited organic on-chain activity, staking is a very competitive source of return. If on-chain activity increases, staking yield adjusts to this, via increased transaction fees and MEV rewards. It’s a call option on on-chain activity.
Staking is the most attractive yield source in crypto

Why staking is an attractive source of yield beyond crypto

Proof-of-stake ecosystems do not have an anchor in the real world. This means that the staking yield rate denoted in native terms is completely decoupled from any kind of factor in the wider economy. For staking, endogenous capital (e.g. ETH) is the only factor of production.

This is a difference to proof-of-work (PoW) systems, where electricity and hardware costs serve as an unbridgeable anchor to the real economy, directly affecting a miner’s yield rate. It is also different from most CeFi and DeFi yield sources, which depend more heavily on user activity.

The above implies that staking can be an uncorrelated yield source for two kinds of investors — those that are bullish long-term and denominate their holdings in native units, and those that are hedged against the price risk of the staked asset.

Hedging the staking yield

The token price risk may be hedged out through on- or off-chain solutions. The former case has the advantage of transparency, reflected in an improved counterparty risk assessment and iron-clad terms. With some of the largest lending desks in the space embroiled in a liquidity crisis, this is a significant factor. Validators are ideally positioned to execute on-chain hedging, as they directly interface with the staking yield source and thus no custody transfer, i.e. additional risk, is required to interface with a hedging solution.

One increasingly popular on-chain hedging solution is a “staking yield interest rate swap”. This allows validators to swap token-denominated staking yield for a stablecoin, typically USDC, locking in a stable and predictable income for a staking client. The associated risk is very minor as neither the validator nor the swap counterparty takes custody of the principal — the worst case, a counterparty default, would reduce to the price risk on the yield earned on the staked notional. Chorus One can leverage Alkimiya, the leading protocol for on-chain capital markets, to execute this type of hedge.

A second way to hedge is by using the staking yield to finance classic options-based strategies. For example, a zero-cost collar options package may incorporate the staking yield in a way that enables an asymmetric pay-off.

Chorus One is invested in & advises a range of solutions optimizing staking yield for return (i.e. MEV) and risk (i.e. hedging). Reach out to us at sales@chorus.one to learn more about how these can be tailored to fit your use case.

About Chorus One

Chorus One is one of the biggest institutional staking providers globally operating infrastructure for 35+ Proof-of-Stake networks including Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, and Near amongst others. Since 2018, we have been at the forefront of the PoS industry and now offer easy enterprise-grade staking solutions, industry-leading research, and also invest in some of the most cutting-edge protocols through Chorus Ventures. We are a team of over 50 passionate individuals spread throughout the globe who believe in the transformative power of blockchain technology.

For more information, please visit chorus.one

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