pStake is one of the most interesting projects on the burgeoning Cosmos ecosystem and for some of us lucky ones who’ve staked we can be eligible for retroactive airdrops. Who doesn’t love some free tokens being given to them? Just look at the likes of Uniswap and how it’s distribution went. Countless people got tokens initially that they sold for profits, others held and sold later for even bigger profits. Now with the liquid staking aspect of pStake even hodling it doesn’t cut you off from engaging in the deFi space.

So a portion of the pStake tokens will be given based on snapshots takeon September 2, 2021. The token allocation will be broken down by these percentages:
 
55% will be given to $ATOM and $XPRT stakers.

25% will be given to users of specific Defi projects like Curve Finance, Sushiswap or Aave (this is where doing your regular trading can be rewarded).

15.83% for strategic reserves and plans

2.5% for early pStake adopters

1.67% for participants of the Cosmos StakeDrop campaign.

These breakdowns can cover a pretty broad range of individuals so there’s no harm in looking to see where you are in it. During down markets there are tons of opportunities to continue to make gains.

In this article I’m going to walk you through the steps needed for Direct staking using the Keplr Wallet.

Step 1: Let’s start by wrapping $Atom to pAtom by first connecting your wallet. This process can take 5 to 10 mins depending on the network traffic and your internet capabilities.

Step 2: Go to the “Staking” tab on the top left corner and enter the amount desired of pAtom to stkAtom then hit “Stake”. Wait for confirmation which again can take anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes based on network and/or connectivity.

If you wish to stake LP you can provide liquidity to stkATOM-ETH pool on Sushiswap. 

Step 3: Open the Sushi application and go to the liquidity tab.

Step 4: Select stkAtom or add it manually if it’s not present.

Step 5: Approve the Sushi LP token back on pStake.

Step 6: Finally stake the Sushi LP token back on pStake.

The should complete the staking process for the Sushi LP.

Now that bullrun isn’t in high swing it’s time for us to search out the diamonds in the rough. I wholeheartedly believe that pStake has the potential to be one of them. So there are more planned development for pStake in 2022. Currently you can deploy your xprt or atom into pStake’s application, stake it through pStake then receive a liquid derivative of that token which you can deploy into defi on Ethereum.

This year we will see an expansion of the assets that pStake supports. Even with the market downturn we still have nearly $50 million of total value of stkAssets with $28 million liquidity of stkAssets and over 5,000 stakers. These expansions will be found on the Cosmos and Ethereum chains with the potential of other chains like Solana. In addition be ready for more live trading on exchanges this year, which should help with some good price action. For those staking or holding cosmos or persistence will be eligible for pStake airdrops. 

It’s during these bearish times when fortunes can be planned, set up and made. Proof of stake chains are a great way of gaining rewards over time, but with large dumps in the market most people stay clear of them. Nevertheless, proof of stake chains and their capital can’t be ignored. There are over $500B stakeable assets in the crypto space with over $100B staked across numerous chains and applications. Finally pulled the trigger and committed to pStake Finance, a Persistence application that lets you stake while also having access to liquidity for full participation in the Defi space.

At the moment only about 7.8% of total Ethereum is staked and that number is expected to increase dramatically as it moves to its proof of stake model. Cosmos is currently giving a reward rate of just over 14% for staking your Cosmos tokens. And now with pStake I will be given their synthetic tokens and use on the Ethereum network for either Uni or Aave. Still debating on that. At the end of the staking period I’ll get my extra Cosmos, additional yield from the Ethereum network, protect my capital and secure gains.

The pStake project uses a dual token system that is made of the pToken and the stkToken. In this article I’ll be talking more about the stkToken and its use. The stkToken is the wrapped version the stands for the pegged PoS token that can be staked to the pStake network. The stkToken serves as the yield generating token within this network. Just like the pToken, you can redeem the stkToken at a ratio of 1:1 for any PoS assets that are deposited through the pStake contract.

Users who hold and stake stkTokens can earn staking rewards as the pTokens. These rewards can be claimed at any instance by exiting their positions through a Dex, but to maximize returns it’s best to do some when gas fees are a minimum. StkToken holders can also provide liquidity to the Dex in question to earn trading feees, which gives yet another level for yield generation.

Visitng the pStake website allows you to see how to mint stkTokens through the use of the project’s mint function.

The pStake network will ensure the highest levels of security and decentralization by distributing to a mix of large and moderately sized validators. During the token generation event, the stake distribution will be even between them. Over time in order to ensure the most loyal of them will be competitively judged in terms of performance.

They will be chosen based on their abilities to work a functional node and through their reputation in the space. Initially this will be done by the team, but later it’ll be decided by a Dao through a governance mechanism.

Now with the variety of individuals involved, there can always be those who won’t act in the best interest of the project? What happens if one of them is caught slacking or is acting maliciously? As I mentioned in an earlier post, the pBridge is the cross-chain bridge protocol that will be utilized for numerous blockchains such as Ethereum, Cosmos, Persistence and others down the line. The pBridge will be used as a way of adding or removing them based on their performances.

The dual token pStake model utilizes the tokens of pToken and stkToken respectively. In this article we will take a closer look at the pToken. The pTokens represent the Ethereum based tokens that are the unstaked representation of the native PoS assets. These tokens are deposited on the protocol by its user. For example, when a user deposits an altcoin such as ATOM onto the pStake contract they will receive in return at a ratio of 1:1 a representation of this native PoS token as pATOM.

The way the deposit function works is that the pStake protocol uses the cross chain bridge called pBridge, which issues and burns pegged pTokens at a ratio of 1:1. When the user completes their deposit the pBridge does the minting and issues the pTokens.

The users can then take their pToken and either stake them for a self-determined amount of time and later on they can withdraw their native tokens so long as they hold pTokens.

The pBridge cross-chain protocol for pStake is composed of 2 different layers. There is MLL, which stands for Middle Layer Logic, and MPC, which stands for Multiparty Computation. From a general view, the Middle Layer Logic serves as a storage for destination transaction messages that are placed in a queue.The Multiparty Computation makes sure that every transaction is executed by the pool of Bridge validators. Recall, the pStake network ensures that the project maintains the highest level of decentralization by having a mix of large and moderate validators who are constantly judged in terms of their continued involvement and performance.

The Middle Layer Logic reads the pStake transactions originating from the source chain, and creates another transaction that is then executed at the destination chain. The route taken by these transactions involve grouping of like transactions and gas/speed optimizations. In order to ensure the most secure transaction with gas and speed optimized these transactions are placed into storage as Kafka queues.

The MultiParty Computation uses its mix of validators to verify all transactions and to approve transaction threshold/signings are met. These MPCs are superior to other multisig accounts since they can be scaled to any bridge protocols.

pStake has 3 key features involved with its utilization. The first feature involves the wrap feature. Using the pStake token allows users to wrap their native tokens in 1:1 pegged ERC-20 pTokens. This pegged PoS token isn’t actually staked to the network and allows the user to utilize their PoS assets within a given crypto network.

The second feature involves the staking feature. Under this feature the users will be able to utilize the stkToken, which is the staked wrapped token that represents the pegged PoS token. This pegged form of the pToken also includes the validators of the network.

The benefit of the pStake project is that it allows individuals to stake their tokens to earn yields, but through the distribution of synthetic tokens as a means in collateralized loans. The third feature involves using the stkTokens within the Defi space. Using these staked wrapped tokens allows the user to operate within different Defi protocols on a given blockchain. Users are able to supply liquidity to a Dex such as Sushiswap, or become involved in borrowing/lending.

A cross-chain bridge connects two blockchains and allows us users to send different cryptocurrencies from one chain to another and vice versa. pStake is a crypto project with its own bridge protocol called the pBridge. Currently, pStake’s pBridge can manage transactions between the different well known blockchains such as Ethereum, Cosmos, and Persistence.

The pBridge cross-chain bridge protocol makes sure that transactions beginning on the Ethereum network that deal with staking/unstaking, claiming of rewards can happen on another blockchain seamlessly.

Unlike more centralized bridge protocols, pStake is highly decentralized because of its management by multiple bridge validators. In addition to this, pBridge is managed by PoS validators. In a feature referred to as Crash Fault Tolerance, the validators as a collective take part in transaction verification and signature for the multiple chains.

With the constant developments in the Defi space their pBridge will continue to expand and grow with the incipience of newer blockchains. This in turn hopefully can lead to faster transaction speeds, lower costs of transactions, and greater mass adoption.

The crypto sphere is filled with a ton of shitcoins that are basically pump and dump tokens with no real use case or long term value. It’s hard to believe that Defi itself is still in its infancy and has a lot of untapped potential. The pStake project represents a crypto project with some actual use-cases behind it.

pStake’s issued tokens represented as the tokens of pToken and stkToken respectively can be used within the Ethereum Defi ecosystem. The use of these pStake assets can be grouped into the areas of lending and Dexes. Using a lending-borrowing protocol, the stkTokens can be used as collateral as leverage while dealing with PoS assets and typical staking rewards. For decentralized exchanges, pStake can issue governance tokens that can serve as liquidity for potential whitelisted token pairs.

Another interesting feature I’ve seen is the use of vaults to help bolster your yields from stkTokens, but that is still under development by the team. When that does go live I’ll be sure to speak on it.

So I’ve been diving into pStake over the last few weeks and its dual token model is a welcomed and innovative mechanism to a staking platform. Now, first a dual token model just means that the project uses two different types of tokens. Usually this is a maneuver to help avoid issues with regulators down the road or to help divide a project’s ecosystem for better usability and growth. In the case of pStake it allows for closer mirroring of the operations of the underlying PoS network.

The dual token pStake model utilizes the tokens of pToken and stkToken respectively. The pToken is the wrapped token that represents the pegged PoS token and isn’t actually staked to the network. The stkToken is the wrapped token that represents the pegged PoS token that is staked to the network. This makes stkToken the yield generating token within the network and through this model it creates greater liquidity for stkTokens in Defi projects. 

The pToken and stkToken are both redeemable at a ratio of 1:1 for the assets deposited through pStake.

Staking deals with using your tokens in the consensus of a PoS chain, but the downside is that they are locked up for a given amount of time. In that time you run the risk of largely volatile price fluctuations. Now one project that’s peaked my interests is pStake and its liquid staking protocol. On top of that I found that some of its investors which include Coinbase Ventures, Kraken Ventures, and Galaxy Capital are clear signals in its long term strategic thinking and market relevance.

Using their protocol, you’ll be able to stake your tokens without being trapped by locked liquidity. Essentially, users will be given synthetic tokens that represent their staked tokens, which unlocks their ability to not only earn interest but also act as a means for collateralized loans. Unlike other projects where you only gain network staking rewards, pStake will help you unlock additional incentives to more fully participate in Defi.

If you’re interested in learning more feel free to explore this article.