Building on Quicksilver

Quicksilver will enable building on top of the Zone through CosmWasm in its first upgrade post-Genesis. As a liquid staking protocol, Quicksilver could potentially unlock a large amount of staked assets across the Cosmos — This could open up the possibilities to build DeFi applications on top of Quicksilver using qAssets as collateral, that could stretch the current limitations of DeFi.

Why build on Quicksilver?

The Quicksilver Zone will bring a number of features, mechanisms, and technologies that could be uniquely leveraged to innovate within the DeFi space. Cross-chain verifications, Governance by Proxy, and qAssets (The minted voucher that will represent staked assets on Quicksilver) could uniquely equip builders to create Defi protocols with innovative feature. Furthermore, leveraging Quicksilver’s features and mechanisms could also improve improve user experience and reduce fees on DeFi protocols built on Quicksilver.

Cross-Chain Verifications

Cross-chain verifications are transactions that originate from a user to prove something off of the Quicksilver chain, such as data on another chain. Like Interchain Queries, Cross Chain Verification uses merkle proofs to cryptographically verify the authenticity of the data in question. They allow protocols to check the state of another chain and make decisions based on that information. Because cross chain verifications utilize Interchain Queries, this information would be supported by merkle proofs, making it immutable. The Quicksilver Protocol uses them to enable features such as governance by proxy: Cross-chain verifications are what allow the protocol to verify who to attribute voting rights to. DeFi protocols could leverage cross-chain verifications to execute transactions, such as giving out loans, based on assets stakeholders have locked on other chains. This could enable a myriad of DeFi protocol features, and could allow for even more capital to be unlocked across the Cosmos.

Governance by Proxy

One of the features Cosmos is known for is its active community governance participation. Quicksilver will be the first protocol to enable DeFi and governance to coexist through its feature, Governance by Proxy. Governance by Proxy will be shipped in the same upgrade as CosmWasm, and will allow liquid stakers to participate in the governance process of native chains onboarded on the Quicksilver Protocol. Those who build on the Quicksilver chain could explore ways in which DeFi and Governance could symbiotically coexist, such as building governance aggregators, or encouraging governance participation through parameters built into the protocol. We also see cross-chain governance innovation taking place on Quicksilver, such as multi-chain proposals, sub DAOs, etc.

qAssets

Finally, because the Quicksilver Zone will issue qAssets, qAssets would be readily available for any protocol that is built on the Zone. Because all qAssets will be native to the Quicksilver chain, builders could create DeFi protocols with this unlocked capital as base collateral. This could allow builders to design DeFi protocols which uniquely benefit from using staked tokens, such as self paying insurance, lending protocols, etc. Building these on Quicksilver would require less transactions when sending and receiving assets within the protocol, allowing for a more seamless user experience with lower fees.

The Quicksilver team’s vision for the Zone is to see a DeFi ecosystem built on top of it, and so 20% of Quicksilver’s genesis supply will be allocated to funding projects on top of Quicksilver, using qAssets as base collateral. Through its features and mechanisms, Quicksilver could help catalyze an already growing DeFi ecosystem on the Cosmos by enabling teams that build on the Zone to do more.