Supporting Noble as a Validator
Originally published on March 28, 2023.
Why should we support Noble?
Cosmos and the IBC ecosystem offer remarkable flexibility, but the concept of chain sovereignty has its downsides. To begin with, there is no clear platform for issuing tokens backed by real-world assets. Consequently, on-chain representations of digital assets lack interchangeability, as elaborated further below. Noble’s objective is to address this issue.
The notion of chain sovereignty also introduces substantial user experience challenges that are absent in monolithic blockchain architectures. This can result in tangible costs and friction for users. Noble aims to resolve this, particularly in the case of USDC, by providing a single, widely accepted token with ample liquidity that can be utilized across various applications.
To illustrate, there are more than 100 bridged (non-native) versions of USDC within the IBC ecosystem. Why is this the case? For one, assets that traverse various third-party bridges, such as from Ethereum to Cosmos, lack fungibility. Furthermore, even within the Cosmos ecosystem, IBC routing can impact fungibility. For instance, if you send Noble USDC to Osmosis, and then use IBC to send it to dYdX, it becomes a completely different asset than Noble USDC sent directly to dYdX because the asset’s path is different. In other words, to maintain fungibility, you need to send USDC on Osmosis to dYdX via Noble.
Noble has developed a robust packet-forwarding middleware application to enhance the user experience for Noble transfers, effectively making a double-hop IBC transaction as simple as a single click for users. This means that the end user only needs to initiate a transfer from the source chain, and the asset will automatically follow the correct path to the destination chain. In this context, Noble operates as the financial infrastructure working in the background.
Noble’s core mission is to simplify the process of owning and transferring assets within the IBC ecosystem. Our goal is to bring the seamless user experience of integrated blockchain networks to the structure of a sovereign chain ecosystem. USDC serves as the initial asset, and we anticipate the inclusion of many more assets in the future.
Safe, simple, and seamless.
Noble aspires to become the leading solution for onboarding and integrating asset issuers. It utilizes SDK modules like TokenFactory, created by the Osmosis team, to assist asset issuers with their native integrations and establish secure channels for issuing and distributing assets through IBC-connected appchains and users. Noble offers a high degree of customization to meet issuer requirements, whether they pertain to regulatory compliance or specific protocol needs.
This middleware solution for packet forwarding enables issuers to list their assets, ensuring that users on any appchain can seamlessly transfer these assets across appchains via IBC. IBC is designed to support multi-hop transactions without new appchains needing to maintain extensive infrastructure, like archive nodes and relayers for each counterparty chain. In short, Noble strongly supports the IBC and Cosmos appchain concept.
The upcoming dYdX migration, expected in Q3 of this year, is a significant moment in our perspective. While Noble acknowledges Ethereum’s value and network effects around smart contracts and the EVM, it also recognizes that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t suit everyone. Developers are increasingly appreciating the high level of customization and flexibility provided by appchains and permissionless interoperability.
As a universal interoperability protocol, IBC ensures reliable, ordered, and authenticated communication. Noble’s focus within IBC is optimizing token transfers since assets are issued on Noble and can be routed to any IBC-connected blockchain.
It’s important to note that IBC differs fundamentally from bridging technologies like Gravity, Wormhole, and Axelar, which require a validator set to verify message authenticity between chains. These bridges have varying trust assumptions that are challenging to understand. Noble firmly believes that cross-chain communication will ultimately converge on IBC as the standardized, open-source, and interoperable communication framework. As a result, Noble is specifically designed for IBC.
While IBC primarily operates within the Cosmos ecosystem, various teams are actively working to extend IBC to non-Cosmos chains, including Polymer and Composable Finance.
Provalidator will continue support on Noble, please stay tuned for more of our announcements. Thank you!
About Provalidator
Provalidator is a professional Proof-of-Stake blockchain validator and decentralized infrastructure provider. We offer enterprise-level validation services to more than 30+ blockchain networks, safeguarding over $250 million (as of December 2022) in digital assets through our robust infrastructure. Our team has been operating validator nodes since 2018 starting with the Cosmos Hub, and is currently one of the most prominent validators in the Cosmos ecosystem.
At the heart of our operations is validator service, which are specialized servers or nodes in a blockchain network tasked with proposing, authenticating transactions, and incorporating new blocks into the blockchain. Our dedicated team is on standby around the clock, ensuring swift responses to any validator node concerns. We’ve implemented multi-layered security and monitoring systems to safeguard our infrastructure and prioritize interests of our delegators.
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