This Week in Cosmos with WhisperNode

Welcome to This Week in Cosmos, brought to you by WhisperNode, your go-to roundup of the most compelling developments in the Cosmos ecosystem.

What did we cover this week?

• New testnets opportunities

• Cosmos ecosystem highlights: Injective, Axelar Secret, Leap wallet, Babylon and more

• New earning opportunities: 1,000,000 AXL tokens, learn to earn, injective ambassador program upgrade

• Galxe of opportunities: Career openings, Bounties for devs, Hackathons, and more

EVERYTHING TESTNET

• Civitia Incentivized Testnet is LIVE

  Civitia is a SocialFi gamified dApp powered by a modular move-based interwoven rollup on Initia, with Celestiaorg underneath.
  
  Civitia’s Incentivized Public Testnet is a journey for all citizens to become on-chain landlords ahead of Initia mainnet.
  
  

  

  
  
  
  

• Shannon Public Testnet is live!

  Explore the foundation of the blockchain, essential building blocks, and tooling on Shannon Alpha 1 Testnet. Engage with the community, pick up bounties, and deploy your own Supplier and Gateway!
  
  

  • For devs - Choose a bounty, explore on-chain events, data types, queries + historical data. Documentation here

  • For operators - Deploy a permissionless Gateway and Supplier with a Documentation guide here

    
    

    

    
    
    
    

• Rivalz Incentivized Testnet Continues

  Rivalz Intel Incentivized Testnet live on Dymension. During the testnet users can earn Testnet Points. These will directly dictate the Rivalz $RIZ airdrop - set to happen in early Q3 2024.
  
  You can get Testnet Points by: Running Light rClient, Completing Social Challenge and Minting Data Fragmentz on the Testnet. Testnet guide here
  
  

  

  
  
  
  

• Babylon Bitcoin Staking Testnet-4 Launch

  This testnet aims to focus on the security of staked Signet Bitcoins by testing user interactions with the Signet BTC test network. The Babylon Bitcoin Staking Testnet-4 goes live tomorrow, Tuesday, May 28, 2024.
  
  Key participants, including Bitcoin holders, validator teams, wallet providers, custodians, and liquid (re)staking protocols, will have the opportunity to explore and evaluate Bitcoin staking. Stakers can participate in our Bitcoin Staking Chronicles campaign on Galxe
  
  

  

  
  
  

• Soarchain - Runner Drop
  Runner Nodes in Soarchain use layer-2 scaling to manage data and verify mobile data, enhancing scalability and security.
  
  To join the Runner Drop and share in the 5,700,000 SOAR allocation, follow the steps to set up a Soarchain wallet, send a small transaction, and submit your wallet address.

  
  

  

  
  
  
  

• Initia Incentivized Testnet - Feeding your Jennie

  6 weeks left to complete Initia Incentivized Testnet, Feed your Jennie, and participate in the 6 Minitias testnets. Initia testnet guide here

  
  

  

  
  
  
  

• BULL and BEAR Testnet Starts Tomorrow!

  Bull and Bear is a rapid trades and predictions decentralized platform built on Injective. Limited invite codes for closed beta access will be available soon.

  
  

  

Launching Into the Cosmos

• Realio partners with evmOS to expand the RWA outreach

  Realio Network partners with Evmos to upgrade to evmOS, enhancing its Layer-1 multi-chain web3 ecosystem. This upgrade brings Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility, enabling unique multi-staking for RIO and RST tokens.
  
  With Inter-Blockchain-Communication (IBC), Realio now connects with over 90 blockchains, revolutionizing real-world asset (RWA) management. Developers can leverage Cosmos functionalities through EVM Extensions to build innovative dApps. Curious what’s Realio? Find out more here

  
  

  

• Leap Wallet Keeps Shipping

  Swap between 4k+ tokens, best rates for every trade, bridge tokens from EVMs & Solana, and share your fav tokens instantly. Swapfast.app, the fastest way to swap every token on the interchain. Built by Leap, powered by Skip Protocol.

  
  SwapFast supports x-chain swaps from Ethereum, Solana, Base, Arbitrum & more. SwapFast is optimised for mobile, so you can get your tokens when you want them!
  
  
  

  

• Binance Pay Integrates Injective (INJ) for Payments

  Binance Pay now supports Injective (INJ), enabling transactions with INJ at various merchants and facilitating global peer-to-peer payments. This integration enhances Injective adoption, allowing users to make everyday transactions, including hotel bookings, flights, and online shopping, using INJ.
  
  

  The benefits of Binance Pay include convenience, cost-effectiveness, zero fees for most transactions, and instant payments for merchants. This secure, contactless, and borderless payment solution opens up new use cases for INJ.

  
  

  

• Astra DAO Integrates with Axelar

  Astra DAO has integrated with Axelar Network to enhance cross-chain communication, simplifying and securing transactions across different blockchains. This integration allows Astra DAO's shared governance protocol to include users from various chains, broadening its decision-making process.

  
  

  Astra DAO’s upcoming Launchpad will benefit from this by enabling the transfer of staking information across chains, giving users greater allocation limits for Launchpad projects.

  
  

  

• OpenSea Now on Sei Network

  OpenSea has launched on Sei Network, marking a significant milestone for both platforms and the broader NFT ecosystem with faster transactions, lower fees, and expanded opportunities on Sei. By leveraging Sei's rapid finality and high throughput, OpenSea offers a seamless, web-2 like experience.

  
  Sei's parallelized performance brings Solana-like speed to the EVM, ensuring efficient and robust NFT transactions.

  
  

  

• Babylon Raises $70M to Advance Trustless Bitcoin Staking

  Babylon has successfully raised $70M, led by Paradigm, with contributions from Bullish Capital, Polychain Capital, HashKey Capital, and others. This funding will accelerate Babylon’s mission to enable Bitcoin-secured decentralized economies.

  
  The Babylon Bitcoin Staking protocol allows PoS systems to leverage Bitcoin as a staking asset, enhancing security and unlocking value from the $1+ trillion Bitcoin ecosystem. Co-founder David Tse expressed excitement about the support from investors, aiming to make Bitcoin the security backbone of PoS systems.
  
  

  

• Secret Partners with Swisstronik to expand the Confidential Computing Constellation

  Swisstronik will join Secret’s Confidential Computing Constellation, licensing Secret’s current and future TEE technology for use in its own blockchain. Swisstronik leverages Intel SGX to create protected enclaves dedicated to executing EVM operations (such as transactions and calls).

  
  This encrypted execution within the protective enclave of Intel SGX helps preserve the privacy and security of transactions within Swisstronik’s blockchain. This is made possible by SCRT Labs’ implementation of Intel SGX combined with the Cosmos SDK tech stack.

  
  

  

Earning Opportunities! 

Galxe quest, Giveaway and NFTs

• Introducing the brand new Ninja Masters Referral Program
  Ambassadors can now earn rewards by inviting new members and earn more rewards when their referees invite others! Once you successfully level up to the Knight rank, the rewards you can potentially earn will be based on this points system.
  
  Referrals of new ambassadors are currently the highest point category. You are encouraged to onboard new ninja ambassadors since that can also lead to many more potential rewards offered by the referral program.

  
  

  

  
  
  
  

• InterlinkedDAO Community Competitions

  The third month of community competitions, brought to you by InterlinkedDAO, In the Axelarators (Axelar Unofficial) Telegram group, strives to foster meaningful discussions and cultivate a vibrant community dedicated to Axelar's vision of interchain connectivity.
  
  

  New rewards structure this month:

  🏆 1st to 30th: 150 AXL each

  ⭐️ 31st to 80th: 100 AXL each

  Plus, there's a 2560 AXL bonus for the most creative contributions! Winners for June will be announced the first week of July.

  
  

  

  
  
  

  
  
  

• Sei Network v2 Launches with 100x EVM Improvement

  Sei Network v2, the first parallelized EVM, offers a 100x improvement in performance. EVM developers can now leverage Sei’s optimizations, including parallel processing and the fastest time to finality, without changing their code.

  
  

  To celebrate, Flipside is launching the Sei Academy, where users can learn about Sei, earn tokens, and build their on-chain reputation. Additionally, three new Sei quests will guide users on getting started and earning rewards. Explore Sei Network and get ahead with Flipside's data and resources!

  
  

  

  
  

• Join the Interchain Amplifier Pilot Program!

  Axelar's integration with Stacks connects Bitcoin's leading L2 with new ecosystems, expanding the Bitcoin economy. With Axelar’s Interchain Amplifier, Hedera Network’s speed, scalability, and low fixed fees can soon connects to institutions, creators, and consumers around the world,
  
  This quest features Interchain Amplifier Pilot Program project Stacks, the leading Bitcoin L2 for Smart Contracts, Apps & DeFi!, Win 500 STX, 1,000 AXL, or $65 in Stacks merch.
  
  

  

• Security researchers and engineers are welcome to participate in Babylon Cantina security campaign with $150,000 USDC in rewards
  
  

  

A Galaxy of Opportunities

• Careers at Interop Labs

  Interop Labs is the initial developer of Axelar network. Inviting you to Build the interconnected future of Web3 together.

  
  Open Roles at Interop Labs: AI/ML Distributed Systems Engineer, Head of Marketing, APAC Marketing & Community Manager, and Smart Contract Security Engineer

  
  

  

• Develop a functional Minimum Viable Product on Sei

  Looking to go super seiyan and leave your cushy Web3 job to build a startup?
  
  The Sei Foundation is offering a three-month stipend to help builders develop a functional Minimum Viable Product on Sei. If you're interested, DM Head of BD Justin Barlow to introduce yourself or tag potential applicants. You can be awarded $25k for successful referrals who complete the program and go on to raise external funding.
  
  

  

  
  

• Archway Hunt-A-Thon
  
  Archway is a Cosmos-native layer 1 blockchain that puts developers first. By rewarding developers programmatically based on the transaction volume they bring to the network, developers are able to benefit from the value they help create.
  
  

  Developers are invited to participate in Archway Hunt-A-Thon. Build on a Cosmos-native blockchain that values developer contributions. Submit your scalable, cross-chain dApps by June 7th to compete for a share of the $100,000 prize pool and a chance to secure extended funding within the Archway ecosystem.

  
  

  

• Secret Network HackSecret III

  Secret Network enables developers to build decentralized applications with encrypted data, both natively on Secret and on other blockchains through cross-chain communication, unlocking powerful new use-cases for Web3. This is known as Decentralized Confidential Computing, or DeCC.
  
  
  This hackathon includes two tracks, one for cross-chain applications, and one for native Secret applications. The choice is yours!
  

  

• Berachain Careers

  Berachain is a high-performance, EVM-compatible L1 Blockchain, looking to challenge the traditional Proof-of-Stake ethos.
  
  

  Open roles: Indonesia Growth Lead, Japan Growth Lead, Liquidity Lead, Philippines Growth Lead, Singapore Growth Lead, Thailand Growth Lead, Marketing Lead, Developer Relations Engineer (DevRel), Senior Software Engineer | Core, Staff Software Engineer | Backend, Staff Software Engineer | Smart Contracts, APAC Growth Lead.

  

  
  

• SEDA Protocol is on the lookout for a Business Development Associate to enhance and expand its ecosystem. This role involves building new partnerships and strengthening existing ones across leading blockchain projects, utilizing SEDA's multichain, permissionless protocol that connects real-world data to blockchain networks.

A Universe of Airdrops

The cosmos is alive with airdrop excitement.

• Astrovault will airdrop $AXV to those who staked 1000 $PLQ before May 5, 2024, claimable on July 3, 2024.

• The Sei Foundation’s Airdrop #2 will distribute 34,435,600 SEI to 44,445 unique addresses for active participation in the Sei ecosystem since launch. Visit https://airdrop.sei.io/ to check eligibility and agree to the terms by connecting your wallet before Phase 3 of the Sei v2 launch.

• RSTK Airdrop Phase 2 - RSTK airdrop for holders of ampWHALEt and bWHALEt on Migaloo and Mad Scientists on Osmosis. RSTK will airdrop ampWHALEt and bWHALEt holders. 6 snapshots were taken at random intervals over the past 6 weeks to determine eligibility.

• The $ELE Airdrop now includes $DYM active users from dymension, joining the list of eligible active users from $NTRN, $ATOM, $OSMO, $DYDX, $AKT, and $TIA.

• Are you staking $NIM? The first airdrop is coming. Snapshot has been taken

• 20% of the total 200,000,000 CROW allocation will be distributed to $DYM stakers (60%), Crow Egg NFT holders (30%), and other NFT holders (10%), with the snapshot for $DYM stakers already taken and the NFT holders' snapshot to be taken soon.

• Kartel Kombat airdrop allocation update, Kartem will airdrop 1% for $KUJI stakers and 2% for winners of the upcoming "Kartel Kombat" competition.

• SwissTronik will also provide $1M worth of its SWTR tokens to the Secret Community, out of which $700K will be distributed as an airdrop to the community members, and $300K will be distributed through development grants for implementation of SwissTronik decentralized identity applications on Secret.

• $SAGA Vault Two Airdrop snapshot will be taken before June 13th.

• Saga is excited to roll out the Power-Level Over 9000 airdrop campaign, featuring a series of "Vaults" for distributing SAGA tokens, starting with the First Vault, which allocates 3 million tokens.

• IBC is launching a unique airdrop campaign! Chains that retweet the post with "We Sign Da $IBC DuMB ConTraCt" will make their stakeholder eligible for participation. Zero Chains has already been selected for the airdrop.

• PRYSM will feature the Mad Scientists NFT collection in its upcoming mainnet airdrop, highlighting its unique integration with the $LAB token for an interactive minting experience.

• The snapshot for the $AXV airdrop to $PLQ stakers occurred on May 1, 2024, targeting stakers ranging from 1,000 to 100,000 $PLQ.

• The Mande Network is launching RollApp with 5 million $MAND tokens as incentives for early users, initiating a series of strategic development phases to enhance blockchain applications with credible, innovative features.

• NIM allocations are now automatically available for all since the TGE. Ledger users with Keplr and Leap wallets can check their NIM balance by connecting to the Nim chain on the Dymension portal, ensuring they select the EVM account used with their wallets.

• The snapshot for the Astrovault $AXV airdrop was taken on 1-5-2024 for $PLQ stakers with holdings between 1,000 and 100,000.

• The $COOK airdrop, accounting for 5% of token allocation, will be claimable after the campaigns end. The snapshot was already taken!

Cosmos IBC Analysis

Over the last 7 days, IBC value transfers peaked at $26.6 million on Osmosiszone, followed by $13.2 million on Cosmoshub, $12.2 million on Axelarcore, $4.9 million on Akashnet, and $4.2 million on SecretNetwork.

This week's top performers in the Cosmos are $CTK up 32.79%, $AXL up 24.45%, $LUNA up 19.98%, $BAND up 12.86%, and $IRIS up 9.89%. Which coins are you holding this week? Shout out Cosmsolytics

Key Governance Votes on IBC-Chains  

• VOTING IN PROGRESS: Akash v0.36.0 upgrade

• PASSED: BonusBlock: Axelar Explorers Program Grant Proposal

• VOTING IN PROGRESS: Dymension AMM Incentive #4

• PASSED: Matching incentives for Frax assets on Osmosis with Picasso

• VOTING IN PROGRESS: PersistenceCore v11.13.0

And remember, for an optimal staking experience, choose WhisperNode as your validator