Introduction
Welcome to the Cosmos ecosystem news roundup for the second half of July. We’ll be covering a variety of topics, including the potential impact of a new US bill on DeFi, the first guidelines for MiCA issued by The European Securities and Market Authority (ESMA) and the European Banking Authority (EBA), the FLIX airdrop, improvements in Cosmos UX, Mintscan 2.0, and the integration of Stride into the Cosmos Hub.
Tech
An exciting development in the tech space is the anticipated release of a new Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) feature called channel upgradability. This feature, expected before the end of Q3, is significant because it allows existing IBC channels to be incentivized with the fee middleware feature. This is a major step forward as it addresses the considerable costs associated with running IBC relayers, both in terms of infrastructure and gas costs.
Another upcoming innovation is the Circuit Breaker. This feature allows for the immediate disabling of specific messages or functionalities to halt an attack, without needing to halt an entire chain. This is a crucial development for the security and stability of the Cosmos ecosystem.
DeFi/Staking
In the realm of DeFi and Staking, there are some significant updates. Quicksilver has mentioned that the distribution of ICS rewards will change after the upcoming v1.4 upgrade, with 96.5% going to qATOM holders. Similar distributions are expected for stkATOM from pStake or stATOM from Stride. This is an important development for stakeholders and could have significant implications for the distribution of rewards in the Cosmos ecosystem.
Project Launches & Network Upgrades
Marius Poke from Informal Systems has announced the upcoming Gaia v11 upgrade. This upgrade includes an update of Replicated Security to v2.0.0, a refactored version of the Global Fee module, and the removal of the Gravity Dex Liquidity Module. However, the Liquid Staking Module (LSM) is not yet ready for this upgrade and is expected to be included in the following Gaia release v12.
Governance
In terms of governance, the AADAO has awarded several grants. One of these grants is for Blockworks Research, which will work on several research topics including developing a mechanism to help with validator stake centralization. Another grant was awarded to Binary Builders to research about three new modules which they could later build themselves. These modules are The ATOM alignment Treasury, The Bear Market Strategic Reserve, and the Developer Revenue Incentivization Program (DRIP).
Persistence
Persistence has upgraded its testnet, which is a significant development. This upgrade allows users to liquid stake currently staked ATOM without having to lose three weeks of staking rewards first. This could potentially make pStake the leader in ATOM liquid staking if it manages to implement this feature before others.
Secret Network
The Secret Network has introduced ibc-hooks by Osmosis in its v1.10 update. This brings several benefits, such as auto-wrapping of SNIP-20 tokens, cross-chain swaps, Axelar GMP, and more. This is a significant development for the Secret Network and could have far-reaching implications for its users.
Injective
Injective has been making strides in the Cosmos ecosystem. Helix has listed the first XRP perpetual market in the Cosmos ecosystem, allowing for on-chain trading of XRP perps with leverage. Injective also made its presence felt in Paris, joining several events such as EthCC, Osmocon, and more.
AssetMantle
AssetMantle has released a comprehensive tutorial about NFTs. This tutorial covers all the basics of NFTs, including what they are, how they work, and how they can be used. In addition, with the release of Mintscan 2.0, it’s now possible to see advanced analytics about AssetMantle.
Crypto Regulations & Compliance News with MME & JayBee
A new US bill has been introduced that aims to clarify the applicability of sanctions and anti-money laundering compliance obligations to US persons in the decentralized finance technology sector and virtual currency kiosk operators. This bill could have significant implications for the crypto industry in the US.
Conclusion
That concludes our Cosmos ecosystem bi-weekly review. We hope you found this roundup informative and insightful. Please support our work with a small ATOM delegation. We look forward to bringing you more updates in the next episode.
