⛓️ Seeking Yield by Staked - Issue #31
🔬 Polkadot Parathreads, 📜 yTokens: Zero-Coupon Bonds on Ethereum, ⚛️ Cosmos Explainer Video, ⚖️ ICON Pre-Voting Period, & 📊 Current Staking and Lending Yields
This is the thirty-first issue of Seeking Yield by Staked, a weekly update about the most interesting things happening in crypto asset staking and lending.
🔬 Polkadot Parathreads
Parathreads are an architectural design of Polkadot that allow parachains to temporarily participate in Polkadot security without needing to lease a dedicated parachain slot. This is achieved by economically sharing the resources of a parachain slot among a number of competing resources (parathreads).
Parathreads enable chains that otherwise would not be able to acquire a full parachain slot to participate in Polkadot's shared security with parathreads, though at the cost of the associated fee per block. Parathreads additionally offer an off-ramp to parachains which no longer require a dedicated parachain slot, yet would like to continue using the relay chain.
Parathreads have the same benefits for connecting to Polkadot as parachains. Essentially, parathreads are able to send messages to other parachain and parathreads through ICMP, which is secured under the full economic security of Polkadot's validator set.
We are thrilled to be supporting Polkadot and Kusama!
Learn more:
👉 Parathreads on the Polkadot Wiki
👉 Sign up to learn more about Kusama and get notified when Polkadot staking launches!
📜 yTokens: Zero-Coupon Bonds on Ethereum
Dan Robinson, a research partner at Paradigm, recently published a working draft of The Yield Protocol, which outlines a platform for issuing both cash and physically settled zero-coupon bonds on Ethereum.
The abstract of the working draft reads:
This paper presents a sketch of a new building block for decentralized finance: yTokens. yTokens are like zero-coupon bonds: on-chain obligations that settle on a specific future date based on the price of some target asset, and are secured by collateral in another asset. By buying or selling yTokens, users can synthetically lend or borrow the target asset for a fixed term. yTokens are fungible and trade at a floating price, which means their “interest rates” are determined by the market. The prices of yTokens of varying maturities can be used to infer interest rates, and even to construct a yield curve. yTokens can be built using an on-chain price oracle, or, when the target asset is an on-chain asset, using “physical settlement.
yTokens differ from one another in four dimensions: target asset (or oracle), collateral asset, expiration time, and collateralization requirement. By specifying these four parameters, anyone can define a particular yToken.
Dan goes on to discuss applications of yTokens, which include borrowing, lending, leverage, and interest rate oracles. As seen below, a yield curve can additionally be created by graphing the implied yields of different maturities of yTokens for the same underlying asset.
Thus, it will be absolutely fascinating to see yTokens implemented.
Learn more:
⚛️ Cosmos Explainer Video
Cosmos recently published a new video, which outlines the vision of interconnected blockchains. The video makes note that economic activity that occurs on siloed blockchains is confined to a single chain, while Cosmos envisions a globalized, inter-connected token economy.
Cosmos provides a communication protocol, a consensus engine, and a software development kit for building customized blockchains. Ultimately, Cosmos guarantees each blockchain it’s own sovereignty and allows these blockchains to connect.
We are proud to support Cosmos and look forward to continued success!
Learn more:
⚖️ ICON Pre-Voting Period
As mentioned last week in last week’s issue, the ICON Pre-Voting period has started and will continue until September 24, 2019. The Pre-Voting period intends to provide an opportunity to stabilize the network prior to launch.
During the Pre-Voting Period, 3 million ICX will be given away by the ICON Foundation. ICX holders can utilize ICONex to stake and vote for P-Rep candidates.
More ICONex capabilities will be available upon the completion of the Pre-Voting period.
Learn more:
👉 Voting for Staked as an ICON P-Rep
👉 ICONSENSUS: Announcing P-Rep Pre-Voting
📊 Current Staking Yields
Staked currently supports Cosmos (ATOM), Terra (LUNA), Horizen (ZEN), Loom Network (LOOM), Tezos(XTZ), Livepeer(LPT), Dash(DASH), EOS (EOS), Factom (FCT), Decred(DCR), IRIS Network (IRIS), Terra(LUNA), and Algorand (ALGO).
Have questions? Find time to speak here.
Sign up here for more on staking with Staked!
📊 Current ETH Lending Yields
There are both on-chain and off-chain crypto asset lending solutions.
Below are various crypto asset lending solutions and annual ETH lending yields.
Sign up here to learn more about lending with Staked!
About Staked
Staked helps institutional investors reliably and securely compound their crypto by 5% — 100% annually through staking and lending. Staked runs validation nodes for proof-of-stake currencies and offers access to on- and off-chain lending options that provide an annualized yield of in-kind currency.
If you enjoy Seeking Yield or are a fan of what we are building at Staked, give us a shout on Twitter, LinkedIn, or tell your friends and colleagues.
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