StaFi Subnets — Liquid Staking Solution for Avalanche?
One cannot overemphasize the role that interoperability would bring to the blockchain space. Just like liquid staking, interoperability is a very important concept that would make our experience of the blockchain space a lot better. You hear ecosystems like the cosmos ecosystem gloating about how they are pushing this narrative through the IBC. However we need to understand what interoperability means, how the Avalanche ecosystem is coming up with subnets and what this could mean for the StaFi protocol community.
Interoperability
In simple terms, interoperability refers to the ability to exchange data in a network. In blockchain technology, it is even broader. Here, data and digital assets can be transferred across networks. This has been seen extensively in various ecosystems like the Ethereum, Cosmos, Polkadot and Solana ecosystems. In the Cosmos ecosystem, digital assets can be transferred across blockchains e.g. moving your ATOM from the Osmosis chain to the Juno chain through the Cosmos hub. All these through the IBC. For Polkadot, you get to see digital assets and data moving across parachains through the relay chain. Now we are getting to see a similar role within the Avalanche ecosystem. Recently the Avalanche ecosystem launched subnets to help bring interoperability solutions to the ecosystem. As a StaFi protocol follower, I am very excited about the prospects.
Prospects of StaFi subnets
You might be asking, “why is this even being talked about?”. If you look at StaFi protocol you will see that they are committed to providing liquid staking solutions to a series of ecosystems. First off, we know about the StaFi mainchain. We currently have eight liquid staking solutions for assets on the StaFi protocol mainnet. While that is good enough we wouldn’t have enough value proposition for StaFi and the FIS token. With that in mind, StaFi protocol started looking at other ecosystems and blockchains. By targeting ecosystems that are highly interoperable, you will seeing liquid staking solution for various projects with one move. Let’s take a look at some of the moves made so far. First they started StaFiHub. StaFiHub (built on cosmos SDK) was targeted at the cosmos ecosystem. Cosmos is trending because of the seamless interoperable framework made possible by IBC and also the sheer amount of airdrops made available to the loyal community members. New projects keep springing up with their own blockchain but you can instantly transfer assets between them. By building StaFiHub, the aim was to have access to the projects built on the cosmos SDK with just one click. Imagine the opportunities for StaFi protocol and StaFi community when over 30 cosmos projects would have access to StaFi’s liquid staking solution. Currently StaFi just launched public testnet for StaFiHub and we duly anticipate.
Up next is the StaFi parachain. We can all attest to the fact that the Polkadot ecosystem is huge. Just a look at the auctions that have been ongoing will let you know how huge the ecosystem is. Just like the Cosmos ecosystem where all projects are linked via the IBC, the parachains are linked through a relay chain and having a parachain will give you access to all the other parachains. Now imagine liquid staking solution for your favourite polkadot projects. That’s blow-up top for the StaFi community token and total protocol value.
A case for Avalanche subnets
The Avalanche ecosystem is building something special and similar to the interoperable framework on Cosmos and Polkadot but somehow different. They are called subnets. They are slightly different what we have on Cosmos. These subnets are groups of validators that can validate a blockchain network. The interoperability comes from the fact that these individual validators can be part of various subnets that are validating the blockchains. Starfire is currently looking at three ways through which they can bring liquids taking solutions to the Avalanche ecosystem. First is like what is obtainable on the StaFi chain were rTokens are issued aon independent chains. The second way would be like what is obtainable in StaFiHub where there will be a chain to connect the custom Avalanche chains like a subnet. The rTokens will be issued on this custom chain. The third way would be taking step 2 a little further. This is by building smart contracts on these custom chains with rTokens issued on the various custom chains.
Liam in his article seems to believe that option 3 is the most viable based on how Avalanche is built.
Whatever the case is it is hard to argue against the fact that this would be a really massive move by StaFi protocol and I totally look forward to it.
Contact
StaFi website: https://stafi.io
StaFi Twitter: https://twitter.com/stafi_protocol
