Helios Staking and Injective Protocol: Summer 2021 Update

Mark Cuban-backed Injective Protocol has taken over DeFi with explosive force. As one of Injective’s leading partners, Helios Staking has been closely working with Injective to advance the mission of providing access to unlimited decentralized markets . Today we will touch upon the course of this partnership over the last few quarters and provide some remarks for the future of our partnership.

Topics in this post include:

• What is Injective Protocol?
• What is Equinox Staking?
• How did Helios Help with Equinox Staking?
• Awards Won By Helios For Participating in Equinox
• What’s Next for Injective?

What is Injective Protocol?

Injective is a decentralized cross-chain protocol that allows users to access unlimited markets without any restriction. Injective Protocol released its Solstice testnet for decentralized derivatives trading in December of 2020 with backing from Binance, one of the largest crypto exchanges on the planet.

In an extraordinarily oversubscribed financing round, it raised $10 million from several of the top VC firms in the game. The fundraise was even covered by popular tech publication TechCrunch here. Some of the VCs in the round were as follows:

• Pantera Capital
• BlockTower
• Hashed
• Cadenza Ventures (supported by 100x Group)
• CMS
• QCP Capital

As mentioned in the intro, billionaire NBA franchise owner and Shark Tank judge Mark Cuban also made a strategic investment in Injective. This is just the beginning of the party after the initial funding round. During the journey from Solstice to the mainnet launch, Injective launched its highly anticipated Equinox Staking incentivized testnet. Helios Staking first joined forces with Injective and played a major role in Equinox Staking fresh off the heels of helping Elrond surge to worldwide prominence.

What is Equinox Staking?

Equinox Staking was Injective’s precursor to the mainnet launch. It allowed Injective to further improve the protocol and test its capabilities before the mainnet launch. True to its mission of open access to DeFi, Injective invited everyone to participate in and shape the future of its protocol. Helios Staking, as a significant partner, received a number of awards for participating in the Equinox Staking.

Read more about Helios’ involvement with Equinox in this blog post.

Equinox served as a pivotal moment for Injective. Upon Equinox’s launch, anybody was able to begin delegating to top-tier validators and participate in staking. Users were able to engage with the native Injective Chain for the first time as well. This further opened the realm of possibilities on the platform with benefits that included zero gas fees and lightning fast transaction times.

How did Helios Help with Equinox Staking?

Over the three month course of Equinox, from March to June, Helios Staking has assisted in improving the Injective platform. In fact, the contribution to Equinox started even before Equinox was officially launched. During the preparation of Equinox, Injective onboarded several top-tier validators in the industry including Helios.

When asked about the partnership between Helios Staking and Injective, Injective Labs CEO Eric Chen stated that:

“Helios is a highly sophisticated and professional validator. They were one of the most highly engaged validators we have seen and made a concerted effort to help the Injective community whenever possible. Their work with the Elrond community has of course been incredible. We look forward to closely working alongside the team at Helios in order to further secure our network while continuing to grow our global community”.

Helios has been assisting Injective behind the scenes in testing the infrastructure while Injective implemented a number of updates to the native Injective Chain. This pre-launch test environment aided in maintaining agility when it came to making real-time changes for users.

During the live phase of Equinox, Helios racked up several awards for contributions made to Injective.

Awards Won By Helios For Participating in Equinox:

• Top Staker (First Place): An award given to the validators for staking the largest amount of INJ.
• Community Content Awards (Big Brain Thought Leader Award): The award distributed for validators who produced the highest volume of educational content.
• Most Delegates Award (Second Place): Given to the validators that onboarded the highest number of INJ delegates.
• Team Player (Honorable Mention): The award given to validators who were most helpful to other members of the Injective community like other validators during the duration of Equinox.

These awards are particularly noteworthy because Helios Staking is the only validator to have received rewards in all four categories. This demonstrates the robustness of Helios Staking as a partner on multiple fronts, from content to team player.

What’s Next for Injective?

Right around the time of the aforementioned awards for Equinox were distributed, Injective launched the second phase of the mainnet, Canary Chain. The Canary Chain takes its name from coal mine canaries that would become ill once they detect poisonous gases in the coal mine. A canary falling ill alerted the miners to leave the mine. Similarly, Injective built the Canary Chain so that any losses caused by outside assaults or threats are kept to a minimum. Similar to the coal mining canary, if the Canary Chain becomes unstable, Injective can simply press “restart” and begin a new Canary Chain with the changes.

Several major updates have been added to the protocol through the launch of Canary Chain such as fully functional spot trading for major tokens. Helios Staking will continue to participate as a validator in the Injective ecosystem, which includes the responsibility of verifying transactions, voting on blocks, staking to ensure network security, and earning rewards for participation.

Updates that are anticipated to accompany the launch of the Canary Chain include:

• Users are able to stake INJ using genesis validators
• Individuals may also use the Peggy Bridge to connect any ERC-20 token to the Injective Chain (Injective is the first Protocol to deploy a bridge that connects Ethereum to the Cosmos network)
• On the Injective Chain, all governance functions have been published, allowing users to start creating and voting on new markets on the Injective exchange
• Finally, anybody will be able to form and underwrite insurance funds required to trade derivatives markets in the near future

Other notable updates since the launch include the ability for developers to build their own frontends or relayers. Anyone can build their own custom frontend to access the Injectvie Protocol. The first Injective relayer called UpOnly Exchange has already launched.

In Conclusion

As one of the hottest up-and-coming projects in the DeFi space, Injective Protocol has been an exciting team to watch. From its funding round that included Binance and Mark Cuban to several groundbreaking product launches, Injective has accomplished a great deal in a short period of time and developed many long-lasting partnerships.

Helios Staking has been actively contributed from an early stage as Injective Validator. Moving forward, Helios Staking and Injective will continue to build new synergies with Injective in creating one of the most robust crypto platforms in the world.