Network Detail
Persistence is the liquid staking hub of the Proof of Stake economy. It facilitates issuance and deployment of liquid-staked stkASSETs, allowing users to earn staking rewards and also participate in DeFi activities. Persistence ecosystem products are designed to stimulate global liquidity and enable seamless value exchange.
Persistence’s Core mainnet is a Proof-of-Stake chain powered by Tendermint BFT consensus engine. Persistence’s multi-chain tech stack (currently supporting Cosmos, Ethereum, and other Tendermint-based chains) abstracts away the complexities for developers and enables them to create DEXs, marketplaces, lending/borrowing platforms, etc.
Products: 1. pStake 2. Audit One
Brief Introduction
Part of the Cosmos ecosystem, Persistence is an IBC enabled layer 1 chain which enables exposure to multiple digital asset classes by staking the native XPRT token. XPRT accrues value through the economic activity within the three major fee generating components of the Persistence ecosystem. These are the Comdex synthetic assets protocol, the pSTAKE liquid staking application, and the AuditOne staking infrastructure provider. A fourth component, the AssetMantle NFT hub, is currently under development.
Community
Website丨Twitter丨Discord丨Medium丨Github丨Telegram丨Reddit
History
Founder’s Journey
CEO Tushar Aggarwal founded Persistence in Q2 2019, and the project officially came out of stealth on Jan 3, 2020. However the genesis of Persistence was years in the making, with Aggararwal starting his crypto journey back in 2017. While living in Singapore he began by putting out his Decrypt Asia podcast, and subsequently was brought on by Golden Gate Ventures as the first associate at their crypto centric fund, Lunex. Over the next year and a half he was exposed to the wave of entrepreneurs and crypto start ups popping up in Asia, particularly in his home country of India, several of whom would join him to build Persistence.
Early Projects & Fundraising
The first element of what would become Persistence is the commodity marketplace Comdex, which was originally developed by a separate team of entrepreneurs in Singapore. Persistence partnered with Comdex to create a decentralized version of the application, which focused on streamlining cross border transactions and expanding access to financing for smaller commodity trading firms. Persistence brought the platform on a chain by creating NFTs for invoices, enabling quicker execution, and an immutable ledger of transactions. It would become the first 3rd party dApp to be integrated into the network via Persistence’s SDK, and was a crucial source of fundraising to get Persistence off the ground.
Along with co-founder and CTO Deepanshu Tripanthi, Aggarwal decided early on that Tendermint and Cosmos was preferable to a private blockchain, seeing the interoperability of a public proof of stake chain as a key to future expansion. After deciding to build on Cosmos, the next step was creating the Persistence SDK and in turn the other dApps that would build out the ecosystem This building was facilitated by fundraising from the Comdex validator community, as the onset of the pandemic and the March 2020 market downturn made VC funding hard to come by. In May, again in need of capital, Persistence went down the IDO route, offering participants 100% commission foundation nodes on the upon launch of the mainnet ,and future discounts on XPRT tokens. Through this IDO Persistence secured the necessary funding to build out their SDK and continue towards launching an independent layer 1 network. When the DeFI summer bull market arose, Persistence was able to raise an additional $3.7 million in capital and expand into the infrastructure side of PoS with Audit.one.
Ecosystem Expansion and Becoming a Layer 1
Persistence’s next milestone was the launch of Audit.one in Q2 2020, a staking as a service provider focused on decentralization and security. Quickly becoming a key contributor to the Cosmos ecosystem, Audit.one received the largest delegation of ATOMs from Tendermint’s October 2020 redistribution, cementing Persistence as one of the key players in Cosmos and the wider PoS ecosystem. Since then it has grown into one of the largest validators in South Asia, currently operating nodes for over 20 PoS chains such as Terra, Cosmos, and Solana, as well as the Persistence network, with over $300 million of assets under delegation.
The growth narrative continued in 2021 with the launch of Persistence mainnet on March 30, establishing Persistence as a true layer 1 network. The network runs on a delegated PoS model using the Tendermint practical byzantine fault tolerance consensus engine. Shortly after in July, the DeFi world was introduced to Persistence’s liquid staking solution, pStake. This application allows users to mint 1 to 1 pegged tokens for their staked PoS assets, unlocking the ability to earn yields in the wider DeFi ecosystem, while still earning the staking rewards on their initial assets. Currently ATOM and XPRT are the only staking tokens supported, with plans to expand to ETH and SOL in 2022. The liquid staking tokens received from this process are usable on the Ethereum network for defi functions such as supplying liquidity and posting loan collateral. pStake is currently the main focus of Persistence, as they aim to become the liquid staking hub of the wider PoS ecosystem.
The fourth component of Persistence is AssetMantle, which takes the marketplace building experience gained from Comdex and applies it to an entirely different asset class. This project is still under development, but aims to be a one stop shop for the ever-expanding NFT community, offering a creator hub, as well as a marketplace. Described as “Shopify for NFTs” this hub will allow creators to set up their own store, and plans to differentiate itself with multichain access, both fiat and token payments, and low minting fees. The project is currently in the testnet phase, with a mainnet launch on the roadmap for 2022.
One Token For Diverse Exposure
Tying this whole ecosystem together is the XPRT token, the staking of which provides exposure to the multiple asset classes within Persistence’s ecosystem; synthetics, liquid staking, staking infrastructure, and NFTs. XPRT enables stakers to receive a transaction volume based on the fees generated by these dApps, and is also used as the governance token for voting on ecosystem wide proposals.
Ecosystem
DApps
Explorer
Wallets
DeFi
Tools
Funding
Funding Rounds
Persistence One has raised a total of $3.7M in funding over 4 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Oct 13, 2020 from an Initial Coin Offering round.
Investors
Persistence One is funded by 9 investors. ZBS CAPITAL and AU21 Capital are the most recent investors.
Recent Funding Activities
Persistence One raised an undisclosed amount / Seed from LedgerPrime-May 19, 2020;
Persistence One raised an undisclosed amount / Funding Round from Megala Ventures and TRGC-Aug 23, 2020;
Persistence One raised an undisclosed amount / Initial Coin Offering from IOSG Ventures-Sep 5, 2020;
Persistence One raised $3,700,000 / Initial Coin Offering from Alameda Research and 4 other investors-Oct 13, 2020.
Economics
XPRT-The Heart Of Persistence Ecosystem
Token Type: Native ; Token Uses: Payments, Vote, Work
Role of XPRT
XPRT is the work token for the Persistence ecosystem, bootstrapping ecosystem applications to propel network adoption, and securing the core infrastructure through staking. XPRT stakers can participate in governance to contribute to the long-term success of the ecosystem.
Value Accrual
XPRT accrues value from the ecosystem’s financial activity through multiple avenues including gas fees, fee-sharing with ecosystem application, hub-routing, etc.
Economics
XPRT is a deflationary token with a genesis supply of 100,000,000 XPRT and a maximum supply of 403,308,352 XPRT. Initial inflation will range from 25–45% with the target of 35% achieved at 66.7% bonding ratio. Inflation halving happens every two years and the maximum supply cap is expected to be reached by the year 2035.
Acquire XPRT
Launch & Initial Token Distribution
100 million XPRT were minted at genesis and will be gradually released over the course of 42 months. The distribution is as follows:
Marketing & Growth: 25.6% (25,600,000 XPRT)
To increase awareness of Persistence via marketing activities, partnerships, institutional adoption, exchange listings, etc.
Ecosystem Development & Growth: 19.4% (19,400,000 XPRT)
To fund the development of applications within the Persistence ecosystem, including community grants
Team: 16% (16,000,000 XPRT)
Team tokens will be locked for one year from the time of TGE before vesting over two years
Seed and Private Sale: 14% (14,000,000 XPRT)
Token allocations for larger investors
Validator Incentivization: 10% (10,000,000 XPRT)
Incentive for genesis validators
Validators & Strategic Sale: 10% (10,000,000 XPRT)
Token allocation for our earliest investors
Advisors: 4% (4,000,000 XPRT)
Public Sale: 1% (1,000,000 XPRT)
Initial Supply Breakdown
Launch Style: Airdrop, Private Sale
Distribution Date: 03/30/2021
Initial Supply: 100,000,000
Governance
Governance Type: Delegated On-Chain Vote
Proposers are encouraged to start a discussion in the relevant Discord channels before submitting their proposal. Drafts of proposals may also be posted to the forum for further input before being officially submitted. Users must register an account in order to post to the forum, and there is a waiting period before newly registered users can post. Types of proposals include parameter changes to the proposal process, changes to pool incentives, and community spending proposals.
On-Chain Governance Details
Submitting a proposal currently requires a deposit of 512 XPRT with voting taking place over a period of 7 days. Once a proposal is discussed and submitted to the forum, it can be validated by the Persistence team and moved to MintScan for voting. MintScan offers a live view of vote distribution during the 7 day period, as well as results of previous proposals. Options for voting include: Yes, No, No with veto, and abstain. Upon successful passing of a vote the team will begin implementation of the proposed changes or transfer of the allocated funding.
Technology
Core
Staking Service
Persistence Network and XPRT Staking
Powered by Tendermint’s PBFT consensus engine, Persistence is a delegated PoS network, meaning that token holders are able to stake by delegating tokens to a validator. The majority of staking rewards go to the staker, but validators do earn a commission, typically ranging from five to ten percent. While the initial group of 21 validators were handpicked, the network became permissionless after launch, so anyone can become a validator if they wish. Transactions are executed swiftly and at a low cost to users, with an average block time of 5.9 seconds and a default fee of .0005 XPRT on a staking transaction.
pStake Liquid Staking
Persistence’s flagship application operates through a series of smart contracts that conduct the process of turning PoS assets into liquid staking tokens. For example with ATOM users will wrap their tokens to receive pATOM, then stake pATOM to mint stkATOM. While still earning staking rewards for their pATOM, users can then take their stkATOM to SushiSwap and use it to provide liquidity in the stkATOM/ETH pool. These transactions generate fees for pStake, a percentage of which are shared with XPRT stakers.
Audit.one Staking as a Service
Just as Persistence relies on validators to operate and secure its network, so does the wider PoS ecosystem. Audit.one operates nodes for over 20 PoS chains such as Terra, Cosmos, and Solana, as well as the Persistence network, with over $300 million of assets under delegation. Commissions are earned on these delegated assets, a percentage of which is shared with XPRT stakers. Audit.one’s nodes are run through geographically dispersed tier 3 data centers.
Audits
Persistence smart contract anchor integration audit
Date: January 2022
Conducted by Oak Security, this audit resulted in the discovery of 2 low risk bugs, and 3 informational risk bugs.
Persistence bridge audit report
Date: November 2021
Conducted by Oak Security, this audit resulted in the discovery of 6 critical bugs, 3 high risk bugs, 9 low risk bugs, and 7 informational risk bugs.
Pstake smart contract audit report
Date: January 2022
Conducted by Peckshield, this audit resulted in the discovery of 2 medium risk bugs.
Pstake stake LP audit report
Date: November 2021
Conducted by Peckshield, this audit resulted in the discovery of 3 medium risk bugs, and 2 low risk bugs.
Pstake smart contract audit report
Date: August 2021
Conducted by ConsenSys, this audit resulted in the discovery of 2 high risk bugs, 4 medium risk bugs, and 2 low risk bugs.
Validator
Consensus Mechanism
General Consensus: Delegated Proof-of-Stake
An initial set of 21 validators were selected for launch, required to be running enterprise grade infrastructure on bare metal servers. After launch Persistence became a permissionless network, inviting any interested parties to run a validator node. Validators can set their commission fee anywhere up to 10% of the staking rewards earned on XPRT tokens delegated to them. There is a selection of validators designated to receive foundation delegations of 250,000–700,000 XPRT tokens on top of commission fees. These validators have been selected by Persistence due to their commitments to serving the ecosystem.
System Requirements
Four or more CPU cores
At least 500 GB of disk storage
At least 8 GB of memory
At least 100 mbps of network bandwidth
Basic Information
Top 10 Validators
___________________________________________________________________
About BlockPower
Our Staking Services
👏Cosmos 👏Osmosis 👏Tezos 👏Ethereum 👏Juno 👏Celestia 👏Provenance 👏Aptos
Why Choose Us to Manage Your Assets
👏 Historical
BlockPower almost grew together with the establishment of the PoS consensus.
For instance, we have become Cosmos Genesis Validator since March 13, 2019.
👏 Experienced
BlockPower is one of the earliest participating service providers in Cosmos Network and Tezos Network. Furthermore, we have colorful experience in operating other networks like Juno, Osmosis, Aptos and so on (not only include Mainnet but also contain Devnets ). We have rich experience in emergency escalation, which reflects our instant crisis response capability.
👏 Communicated
BlockPower is actively participating in governance (like voting proposals and discussing in forums and discord channels), and what’s more, we have our own blog, disclosing information frequently.