Acala Ecosystem Update — June 2021
After months of building and educating our community on the novel framework for parachain auctions and crowdloans, our team ended June 2021 in celebration, as Karura officially secured the first public parachain slot on Kusama!
The achievement was no small feat, as Kusama required competing teams to bid KSM in a parachain slot auction to secure their connection to its relay chain. With over 500,000 KSM contributed by the community — over $100 million USD in total value locked — Karura has won the first-ever parachain slot auction on Kusama and has launched its scalable, EMV-compatible network optimized for DeFi.
Karura wins with community-contribution of 501k KSM
With our community leading the charge, Karura received 501k KSM from over 20,000 individuals across the world. 86.8% came from non-custodial accounts, and 13.2% of the contributions came from exchanges. Over 75% of contributions were 10 KSM or less, showing a very large distribution among smaller holders. All in all, it was a huge milestone for the Karura and Acala team that showed a substantial demand for our DeFi platform and products in the Kusama and Polkadot Ecosystem.
Karura’s launch process has begun
Karura winning the parachain slot auction is only step one of many. We have since rapidly moved into the launch phases, most recently KAR distribution. Karura will be moving quickly, yet safely, through this launch plan hosted on Notion. Please bookmark this launch tracker if you’d like to track the ongoing progress. Our next major steps will be to enable KSM transfers from Kusama to Karura, enable KAR transfers, enable the Karura DEX, and enable the Karura Dollar kUSD stablecoin.
The Karura team also hosted an online event where we went into detail on the launch process, how to find KAR distributions from the crowdloan, new wiki updates, and other launch details. You can watch the recording here:
If you’re interested, you can also check out the Karura parachain auction celebration & “Build Acala: Ready the Treasury” video where we began rolling out the next network ownership event for preparing the Treasury for long-term sustainability and growth:
Gauntlet x Acala
As mentioned in a previous Medium article, Gauntlet has partnered with Acala and Karura to provide automated financial risk management for our networks. As a first step, Gauntlet has rolled out its initial parameter recommendations and methodology for Karura:
Shanghai Meetup
The China-based team hosted a Meetup in Shanghai along with Polkaworld for approximately 175 people. The presentations included Polkaworld and a general overview on Acala and Karura by Dan Reecer.
Acala hosted DeFi & Polkadot Chicago Meetup
The Acala team was in Chicago and hosted a Polkadot DeFi meetup along with DeFi Alliance and Cumberland. We had nearly 50 people join us for a conversation around Polkadot, Kusama, Acala, and Karura, then an open Q&A with CoinFund, Cumberland, and DeFi Alliance. Watch the recordings here:
Acala & Karura in the Media
- DeFiant overview of Polkadot, Kusama, Acala, and Karura:
- Longhash podcast with Ruitao Su
- Parachain Auctions explained (Kraken):
Enjoy July! Until next time,
The Acala Team
About Acala
Acala is an all-in-one decentralized finance network offering a blockchain platform secured by Polkadot, as well as a suite of cross-chain financial applications that let users trade, issue self-serviced loans, become liquidity providers, access staking derivatives, and earn high-interest APY on their digital assets. The network is scalable, Ethereum-compatible, and optimized for DeFi.
Acala was founded in Oct 2019, and today has received five Web3 Foundation grants, has backing from Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital, Polychain Capital, and other top firms, and has a distributed team in New Zealand, China, Europe, Brazil, and the United States.
Linktree | Discord | Website | Twitter | GitHub | Wiki | Newsletter | YouTube
About Karura
Karura is the all-in-one DeFi hub of Kusama. Founded by the Acala Foundation, Karura is a scalable, EVM-compatible network optimized for DeFi. The platform offers a suite of financial applications including: a trustless staking derivative (liquid KSM), a multi-collateralized stablecoin backed by cross-chain assets (kUSD), and an AMM DEX — all with micro gas fees that can be paid in any token.
Linktree | Discord | Website | Twitter | GitHub | Newsletter | YouTube
