Octopus Network 2023 Year In Review
In 2023, the Octopus Network, with agility and resilience, navigated the lows of the crypto industry, forging ahead with determination.
On December 17th, after a year of dedicated development and refinement, Octopus Network made a significant stride with the launch of Octopus 2.0, featuring $NEAR Restaking and NEAR-IBC, receiving widespread acclaim from both the community and the market!
As of December 31st, Ottochain, the first Cosmos SDK appchain in the Octopus multichain ecosystem, leveraging the shared security services based on $NEAR Restaking, has amassed over 800,000 $NEAR in restaking, translating to security worth over $3 million. $NEAR Restaking also yielded an annual staking reward of about 20% for 192 stakers as of writing.
Reflecting on the year, each step has been foundational for our continued growth and collaborative building of the Internet of Blockchains in 2024. We extend our heartfelt thanks to every community member, ecosystem project, and partner who stood by us.
Appchain Tech Stack Expansion
Substrate & Cosmos SDK
Octopus Network, a multichain network infrastructure project built around the NEAR Protocol, is committed to providing blockchain with flexible, rentable shared security services, cross-chain interoperability, critical utilities, and a supportive community.
During the Octopus 1.0 phase, as illustrated in the “Octopus V1 Relay” section, validators of Substrate appchains utilized Octopus Network’s $OCT for staking, ensuring the security of these chains. The Octopus Network Bridge enables bidirectional, trustless asset transfers between Polkadot and the NEAR Protocol, and then NEAR’s Rainbow Bridge facilitates trustless cross-chain interactions with Ethereum. Additionally, Substrate IBC enables direct interoperability between Substrate and Cosmos SDK blockchains.
Fusotao, Myriad Social, Atocha, DeBio, and Discovol, five Substrate appchains, operated smoothly, also navigating a challenging 2023.
In the Octopus 2.0 phase, as shown in the “Octopus V2 Relay” section, the network further supports Cosmos SDK appchains. It introduced the $NEAR Restaking mechanism, elevating the level of security it can provide to a billion-dollar scale. This allows $NEAR holders to stake their assets to NEAR Protocol and also to appchains or middlewares within the NEAR ecosystem, enabling them to earn multiple staking rewards. Additionally, NEAR-IBC achieves direct cross-chain interoperability between NEAR and the Cosmos ecosystem.
Besides, Octopus core team has updated the $OCT tokens value capture mechanism in Octopus 2.0, transitioning from “staking income” to a “buyback and burn”model. 30% of the block rewards from all Octopus 2.0 appchains will be used to buy back $OCT tokens on the open market and then burn them. Initially, this buyback-and-burn process will be manual, with an expectation to automate it driven by protocol in the second half of 2024. Hence, $OCT token holders no longer need to stake in the 2.0 network.
The upgrade in the value capture method of Octopus 2.0 is based on the core team’s industry research and observations. The reason behind the change is that we noticed — despite the low staking barrier and a simple one-step process, not many $OCT token holders participated in any staking. And we understand $OCT token holders’ anticipation for the token to appreciate, hence the buyback-and-burn approach will directly convert the revenues into market buying power for the $OCT token, in a more direct manner, which is more conducive to its value growth. All future protocols launched by Octopus Network will adopt the buyback-and-burn model for value capture, collectively contributing to the value of $OCT Tokens.
It is important to note that Octopus 2.0 is a complement and expansion to Octopus 1.0. Both are running in parallel, and currently, there is no replacement relationship between them.
On December 17, 2023, Ottochain, the inaugural Cosmos SDK appchain in the Octopus multichain ecosystem, was officially launched. As of the writing, over 810,000 $NEAR have been staked.
Ottochain, built on the Cosmos SDK and maintains compatibility and interoperability with the EVM, is initiated by the Octopus Nation community. It is dedicated to fostering collaboration and innovation among Web3 communities.
We invite more exceptional appchains to join the vibrant Octopus multichain ecosystem.
Core Contributions of the Octopus Network
Shared Security & Heterogeneous Chain Interoperability
Octopus Network, with its two notable industry contributions, is increasingly becoming a key force in shaping the blockchain internet.
1. Establishing the Basic Paradigm of Shared Security Services
As a pioneer in shared security services, Octopus Network introduced the Leased Proof of Stake (LPoS) mechanism, creating a bilateral market for trading ‘decentralized trust’. Since its mainnet launch in October 2020, Octopus Network’s “bilateral security market model” and the underlying logic of “leased security” have become the foundational paradigm for shared security services. This mechanism has subsequently been adopted by others, including Cosmos Hub, EigenLayer, and even Babylon in their shared security services.
Based on that, decentralized trust has evolved into a third-party service as flexible and rentable as cloud computing and cloud storage.
2. Introducing Adaptive IBC, Revolutionizing Heterogeneous Chain Interoperability
In 2020, Octopus Network proposed, developed, and maintained ICS10 within the official Cosmos IBC specification, known as Substrate-IBC, becoming the world’s first team to implement IBC on a non-Cosmos blockchain.
In 2023, Octopus Network proposed and completed NEAR-IBC, which was audited by Blocksec in October. The NEAR Client is currently under review, and once approved, will officially become part of the Cosmos IBC specification as ICS12.
In the first quarter of 2024, the privacy protocol Secret Network will utilize NEAR-IBC, developed based on the Adaptive IBC technology, to achieve its first cross-chain interaction with NEAR Protocol. Together, they continue to explore message cross-chain technology, enabling NEAR’s smart contracts to directly utilize Secret Network’s privacy computation capabilities.
After nearly three years of heterogeneous chain IBC development practice, Octopus Network identified a highly flexible, adaptable, and leading-edge technology for IBC crosschain between heterogeneous chains — Adaptive IBC.
Adaptive IBC’s two notable contributions are:
- It adapts to various blockchain consensus mechanisms like NEAR, Polkadot, Ethereum, breaking the scalability bottleneck of heterogeneous IBC implementation.
- It also adapts to the advances in validation technology. If, in the future, Cosmos adopts aggregate signatures, or NEAR supports ED25519 signature precompiles, the cost of direct verification on NEAR could be significantly reduced. This would allow the proxy client to be upgraded to a true light client and the corresponding verification proxy to be discarded. Once ZK cross-chain technology matures, the proxy client could be replaced with a ZK verifier, and the verification proxy with a ZK prover.
Hence, Adaptive IBC not only adapts to the present but also to the future, always embracing the best available technology.
Moving Forward Together with the Community
Fostering Goverance Transparency and Engagement
The Octopus Network Community Call conducted 12 monthly sessions in 2023, giving away 12 POAP NFT medals for participants. From inception to completion, Octopus 2.0 underwent discussions and revisions, all communicated transparently within the community, a source of pride for us.
The Community Call, initially a step towards community governance for Octopus Network, has seen increasing involvement of validators and delegators in formal community governance, all thanks to the support and strategic input from community members and stakers.
The core team of Octopus Network remains true to its founding principles, striving to transform Octopus Network into a decentralized protocol wholly owned and managed by the community.
Global Influence of Octopus Network Unprecedentedly Enhanced
Vivi Engages in Shared Security Discussions at ETH Denver
In February 2023, Vivi participated in ETH Denver, the world’s largest gathering of blockchain developers. Engaging in deep discussions with NEAR ecosystem founder Illia, Sweatcoin founder Oleg, Humanguild founder Sasha, NEAR veteran Amos, NEAR Social founder and NEAR Virtual Machine principal developer — world programming champion scientist Eugene, NEAR education’s Sasha, Monkey Fund’s Christina, Honey, as well as Hong Kong KOL investors Sky and Leon, Vivi effectively laid the groundwork for the strategic launch of Octopus 2.0.
Meet Octopus at HK Web3 Festival
At the eagerly anticipated Hong Kong Web3 Festival 2023, Octopus Network’s founder Louis introduced the architecture and mechanism design of Octopus Network 2.0 for the first time.
On April 13th, at the Cosmos HK Meetup co-hosted by Bianjie AI, IBCL, Octopus Network, and ND Labs, Louis presented a keynote titled “NEAR will be a Cosmos zone SOON.” He discussed why IBC hasn’t yet dominated the cross-chain field and how Octopus Network can achieves NEAR and Cosmos cross-chain, showcasing the solution and principles of the new technology route, Adaptive IBC.
On April 14th, Octopus Network unveiled Octopus2.0 at the HK Web3 Festival. Invited by NEAR, Louis, as one of the keynote speakers at the NEAR Event of the 2023 Hong Kong Web3 Festival, spoke about the architecture and implementation plan of Octopus2.0, featuring “NEAR Restaking” and “Adaptive IBC.”
Louis Invited to Speak at NEARAPAC in Vietnam
In September 2023, Louis had a deep conversation with Near Protocol’s co-founder Illia on Octopus 2.0 and got positive fedback.
Why restaking is so important for decentralized trust?
Louis Successfully Elected to the House of Merit Seat of NDC
Louis was elected to the House of Merit seat of the NEAR Digital Collective (NDC). With a focus on the interests of $NEAR holders, Louis will leverage his experience and knowledge to engage widely with community contributors, directing NDC’s resources towards teams and projects that significantly enhance the intrinsic value of $NEAR.
The Restaking Base contract developed by the Octopus team will enable NEAR to generate external revenue without increasing its expenditures, representing an optimal strategy to boost the income of the NEAR protocol and improve its fundamentals. The NDC seat will aid the Octopus Network in promoting $NEAR Restaking across the community, accelerating its implementation.
Octopus Network Invited to Cosmoverse2023
In October 2023, the Octopus Network was invited to Cosmoverse2023 in Turkey, where they shared the technical architecture of Adaptive IBC with Cosmos ecosystem developers. Louis and Vivi introduced the flexibility and advanced governance of our shared security, gaining recognition and support from the Cosmoverse ecosystem.
Octopus Network Invited to NearCon23
In November 2023, the Octopus Network was invited to NEARCON2023, the most significant annual event of the NEAR ecosystem. It was announced that the Octopus Network would launch $NEAR Restaking services in December.
At the “Infra Ain’t Easy: Connecting the Multi-Chain World” panel, Louis spoke about the ongoing blockchain explosion. In the coming years, we expect to see hundreds or even thousands of blockchains, including application chains, middleware chains, execution layer chains, and DA layer chains, all part of an innovative and exploratory process. The Octopus Network is designed for this era, using Adaptive IBC to facilitate smooth cross-chain interactions and $NEAR Restaking to help new blockchains quickly and flexibly achieve decentralized launches and operations.
Follow Octopus Network!
- Website: https://oct.network/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/oct_network
- Discord: https://discord.gg/6GTJBkZA9Q
- Octopus DAO: https://forum.oct.network/
- Medium: https://medium.com/oct-network
- Telegram: https://t.me/octopusnetwork
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCkMYDmXdgjCBTBggSEAy0ZQ
- Github: https://github.com/octopus-network
- Docs: https://docs.oct.network/
