Updates Call — Recap
This is a written recap of our September 14th call!
The recording of this call is on our YouTube channel, but if you prefer a written recap you’re in the right place! 😉
The topics of the call were the following:
• Stargate Upgrade
• New listings
• Gmail launch
• Starname NFTs
• Community questions
Stargate Upgrade 🚀
The Cosmos technology upon which our blockchain is based has made an important update called Stargate. We had to update our blockchain too in order to be able to be part of this progress and to enjoy what this tech enhancement offers. Stargate upgrade was very important because it gives us access to new possibilities and also takes Starname into new markets.
Back in late June, there were some blockers during the launch. These blockers were overcome and today we can say that our launch has been a success: the chain works perfectly and we have all the features we were supposed to have.
Important to mention that Starname is an IBC enabled chain. We were among the firsts to be there and, at the time of our launch, the “IBC gang” was composed of 8 projects that are all 10 times the size of the Starname team. Big shout out to our technical team that delivered an upgrade of such a magnitude that today our technical ability can be compared with the likes of IRISnet or Akash.
New Listings 🛍️
Thanks to the Stargate upgrade we were able to be listed on Osmosis, a new DEX initiative on Cosmos. Today, thanks to this DEX, we have considerably increased the liquidity of the IOV token and we believe that this tendency will continue because of the incentivized pools program.
Still about DEX: we are pool#2 on Gravity DEX and, at this time, we are about to be integrated on Emeris, Tendermint’s project that is reponsible for the UI on Gravity Dex. We are working with Tendermint right now on the Emeris integration. This should give us another significant reputation boost.
Finally, talking about CEX, we are going to apply for a listing on crypto.com.
Gmail launch ✉️
Today we are launching the original and unique feature for blockchain that allows you to access starnames through a Gmail account. If you have Gmail, you can easily be on the blockchain and claim a free basic *starname.
The Gmail login option simplifies accessing Starname’s service and the purchase of decentralized crypto usernames. This feature is now accessible on Starname’s App login page, you can check it out!
Starname NFT 🖼️
The Starname will soon be used to manage NFTs. Its basic features will allow you to associate NFTs from other channels and keep them under your unique name. This new feature puts us one foot in the world of NFTs and it corresponds to our mission since always: to allow the majority of people to become a creator of value.
We will make regular announcements on this topic and we will have the opportunity to show how Starname will become the certified and trustful receptacle of an NFT economy.
•••
Community questions 🤔❓
📎 About Marketing
We are running ads on Twitter to cross-promote Starname and Osmosis. The work we do with the UNLSHD agency is very fruitful. Given that they used to work with big companies we are not always able to implement their ideas but so far our collaboration has been nothing but positive. As you might have seen, we redesigned our website to differentiate ourselves from other crypto projects by taking an approach that is more towards artists, creators, and people on the fringe of the crypto world. This is in contrast to many projects having designs that are geekier or more crypto-oriented. Over the month of August, we ran test campaigns to find the best way to promote Starname and we are ramping up spending on marketing. We are not yet talking big bucks, but we clearly see a strong positive correlation between our spending, our community contacts, and even price.
📎About Listing
Since Bilaxy is down, we understand the increased frustration of not being able to trade on a centralized exchange. They are fast, cheap and it’s the easiest way to get in the game. Our issue here is our market cap. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg problem. We’ve explained here many times but as long as we are in the small market cap territory, CEXes are difficult to reach. There are some smaller CEX that would agree to work with us but we’d have to pay a significant amount of money to be listed and with no guarantee of promotion or quality of service. We prefer to be in a position to reach a reasonable exchange and for that, we wait for our market cap to increase. With that said, our IBC status gives us an opportunity to submit an application to crypto.com … So keep your fingers crossed.
DEXes are in full force for us. We have great momentum with Osmosis and we are on Gravity DEX (accessible via CLI only at the moment). We will be part of the next round of tokens listed on Emeris (Gravity Dex). In all fairness, we should have been part of the first round as we were the second pool to be IBC enabled (the #1 condition to be listed on Gravity) but for some reason, we were solely left out of the tokens being listed in the first round. It has been a significant disappointment for us but our listing on Osmosis made us forget about that. About Siftchain, the answer is yes. We are talking to them.
📎About Audit
We had our code reviewed over the summer. I don’t want to say audited because we can’t stamp it with a big name but we’ll do as it’s a necessary milestone to reach when you grow.
📎About Starname App
(Question about Booklets on the App)- For that to work it would have to be a service that we’d provide in a centralized manner, otherwise, your contact booklet would be visible by all. To this day, 100% of Starname is decentralized and we will stay as true as possible to this philosophy. We might to down to 99% for some temporary side services that are in the works (like buying a starname with fiat rather than with IOV tokens) but when thinking about functionalities we have to always remember if it makes sense to do it in a decentralized fashion.
(Tutorials for assets pull requests)- Added to the list of things to do! We have a TG member that did that recently for AVAX and we merged his PR. We’d take any help here if someone wants to beat us to the punch and write that for us, we’d be happy to publish.
(Question about Multi crypto Starname Wallet)- Wallets are not something we want to do because there are tons of people out there doing it as well. And we’re talking from experience as we had a wallet at some point but it was drawing too many resources for no profit. What we are doing though, is creating an API to facilitate our integrations in wallets or other Dapps.
📎About Partners
We hope that our API will facilitate those integrations. We would love to see Emeris integrate Starname but it’s a long shot … But we aren't afraid to shoot :)
Regarding Cosmostation being used on Emeris, it would be a question for the Emeris team but it’s unlikley that it will be supported.
📎About Governance
This guide for proposals will come at some point. We are limited right now to do it via CLI. When we have the resources and time to build a governance proposal interface, this guide will come.
📎About Roadmap and future plans
NFTs... If you remember a few months back, we started to talk about NFTs. Over the summer our focus has been on reaching some key DEXes but with that being us, we’ve shifted back to our spring love which is NFT :)
We can’t say more at this point but NFT will be big for Starname and is our focus for the foreseeable future (even beyond the next 6 months). NFT is a vast world.
