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**CAYMAN ISLANDS, Cayman Islands, January 30th, 2024/Chainwire/--**The QRDO Foundation, dedicated to the growth and development of the QRDO ecosystem, has announced a strategic partnership with EQ LAB, a leading blockchain developer lab, to launch the Warden Protocol. This initiative accelerates the upcoming launch of the Warden Protocol, an intent-based interoperability protocol built on Cosmos and based on the Fusionchain primitive. Introducing The Warden Protocol The is a modular intent-centric blockchain built on the Cosmos-SDK. At its most basic level, it enables users to create Spaces and Wallets on various blockchains and govern their activity through on-chain intents. Warden Protocol Complex multi-leg transactions can be built, and cross-chain activity protected via complex intents, all enforced on-chain by the Warden Protocol. For the builders in the space, Warden enables smart contracts to be deployed on Cosmos using Solidity and WebAssembly, and facilitates a modular marketplace of key management solutions, from HSM solutions to multi-party computation providers. “The Warden Protocol is the next evolution in intent and interoperability primitives,” said a representative for the QRDO Foundation, “Joining forces with the EQ LAB team enables us to achieve this ambitious vision and ensures that QRDO token holders see the realization of a truly decentralized and open, intent-centric interoperability and key management protocol.” Various applications have pledged their support to deploy on Warden, including: , a liquid staking hub for Cosmos that puts existing liquid staking tokens to work; EQ.finance WARDD, a USD-pegged decentralized stablecoin that provides Warden users with instant access to dollar liquidity; , a pluggable protocol for decentralized funding pools that enable margin trading on any spot DEX; and Marginly SpaceWard, a SAFE-like platform for wallet management and governance. EQ LAB will form the core contributor team to the Warden Protocol and will bring an extensive team of 15 core developers to the Warden Protocol. “We are very pleased to be helping to establish the Warden Protocol as Core Contributors”, said Alex Melikhov, founder of EQ LAB, “as an experienced team of qualified blockchain developers, we see a bright future in the Cosmos ecosystem, and we look forward to seeing incredible value unlocked for both the existing QRDO and Q token holder communities”. WARD Token The Warden Protocol plans to introduce the WARD token via a fair launch mechanism. This launch will take place without any pre-mine or investor allocations, with eligibility for both an airdrop and an incentivised WARD-swap extending first to existing QRDO holders. As a nod to the public goods done by various other Cosmos chains, TIA and ATOM stakers will also be eligible, as well as builders and users from other complimentary protocols and chains. Further details will be announced shortly. The Alfama testnet will go live in the coming weeks, with details for an incentivised testnet to be published shortly. Contact Information Warden Protocol Warden Protocol is a new modular intent-based blockchain based on CosmosSDK that allows users and builders to explore and build cross-chain securely. pr@wardenprotocol.org www.wardenprotocol.org About EQ LAB EQ LAB is an experienced software engineering house specializing in permissionless applications and protocols, acting as a technology partner in a plethora of projects on Cosmos, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polkadot, and other blockchain platforms. hello@eqlab.io www.eqlab.io About QRDO Foundation: QRDO Foundation has been established to focus on accelerating the adoption of open custody, security and interoperability protocols and nurture the value of the QRDO ecosystem. Contact PR Team QRDO Foundation pr@qrdo.org This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here.

QRDO Foundation and EQ LAB Announce Strategic Partnership To Launch The Warden Protocol

When people refer to Elk as a bridge project, I always shudder a little. “Elk is so much more than a bridge!” I protest, “It’s an interoperable cross-chain value transfer protocol that…” At this point, as I launch into the transformative vision for the Elk blockchain, they’ve typically completed their ElkNet transfer and left the chat. The thing is, for most of our early users, Elk is a bridge project. People tend to discover Elk after hearing about a new Ethereum challenger or a token launch on an unfamiliar chain. Once they find us, they hopefully discover what many already know, which is that our cross-chain value transfer protocol (OK, the bridge) is one of the most convenient ways to move funds from Chain A to Chain B. In this way, Elk performs its core bridging function well, bringing crucial infrastructure to the rapidly growing realm of decentralized finance. But here’s the thing: bridges are boring. Not only that, they are some of the worst investments in the history of the world. From Ancient Rome to the San Francisco Bay, bridges have played a vital role in the progress of civilization, but, at the end of the day, all the feats of engineering and upkeep that go into them typically end up benefiting what lies on the other end. In this article, I will briefly lay out the case for why the Elk blockchain should be seen less as a bridge and more a multi-functional DeFi gateway. I will start by explaining ElkNet in its present form and the utility of the ELK token, before moving on to two forthcoming upgrades that demonstrate Elk’s broad vision for the future of DeFi. These are: CHFT, a multi-chain native stablecoin Proxy tokens, cross-chain virtual assets The Elk blockchain is designed to overcome the existing limitations of bridges and blockchain interoperability more generally. I’ll refer to these as: The Bridge Fragmentation Problem The Exit Liquidity Problem The Cross-chain Relay Problem Let’s take a look at each one in order... The Bridge Fragmentation Problem As new chains and projects scramble to capture market share from existing networks, proprietary bridging solutions have given rise to dozens of individually wrapped tokens based on the same underlying asset. This in turn has resulted in widespread liquidity fragmentation, since two different wrapped tokens based on identical assets that enter a network via different bridging protocols are incompatible. This creates confusion and stunts growth by producing thin liquidity pools with artificially high price impact for traders. The Exit Liquidity Problem Conventional bridges operate through a simple lock-and-release mechanism: to bridge USDC from Chain A to Chain B, a user initiates the transfer by locking USDC tokens into a smart contract on Chain A, which then tells a contract on Chain B to release the same number of USDC tokens on Chain B. The fundamental problem with this model, however, is that there need to be enough tokens already locked on the destination chain (Chain B) to complete the transfer. If there are not enough tokens on the destination chain, the transfer fails, and the bridge becomes unusable. There are ways that bridge protocols have tried to minimize the exit liquidity problem, such as bootstrapping the bridges with their own exit liquidity or restricting the amount of tokens that can be transferred. As we’ve seen, however, liquidity can still dry up during mass migration events, which tend to be exactly when they are most useful. The Cross-chain Messaging Problem This one is less of a problem for DeFi as it currently exists, but it is central to realizing the vision of a multi-chain future. The radical promise of programmable cryptocurrencies like ERC-20 tokens is that they carry data parcels, which transforms them into stores of data as well as value. This opens up a whole universe of potential applications that form the basis of what we now refer to as web3. The problem, however, is that relaying information that exists on one chain to another chain is currently a slow and highly inefficient process. Current solutions are often a patchwork of systems involving subgraphs, oracles, proprietary APIs, etc. that primarily reside outside of the blockchains. Today, there is no simple solution to relay information between chains, yet such cross-chain messaging is key for creating truly interoperable blockchain applications. The Elk blockchain provides elegant solutions to overcome each of these fundamental problems, while unlocking novel use cases that leverage ElkNet’s unique architecture. ElkNet & The ELK Token ELK is Elk’s native settlement currency. Unlike other bridges, ELK is the only token that moves across ElkNet, which connects the Elk blockchain to every other network Elk supports (as of this writing, Avalanche, Polygon, Fantom, Huobi ECO, xDai, and Binance Smart Chain). All liquidity pools on our multi-chain decentralized exchange, ElkDex (app.elk.finance), are bonded to ELK. The structural advantage of this approach is that traders are able to transfer funds between chains by swapping their tokens for ELK, migrating over the bridge, and exchanging them at their destination for the token of their choosing. Cross-chain swaps automate this process, allowing users to swap arbitrary tokens, which are seamlessly exchanged for ELK under the hood. This model has multiple advantages: since there are no wrapped bridge tokens involved, there is no liquidity fragmentation introduced. Users can of course swap their tokens for an existing bridge token, but ElkNet does not add to the problem by introducing new tokens into the existing ecosystems on each chain. This is why Elk is described as a “value transfer” protocol: it is designed to bridge value, not tokens (other than, of course, ELK). ElkNet also solves the exit liquidity problem. Since ELK moves freely over the Elk blockchain, which functions as a storehouse for ELK, exit liquidity is by definition never an issue. ELK may always be transferred in a perfect 1:1 ratio through ElkNet. Finally, ElkNet also offers a novel solution to the cross-chain messaging problem, since it has been designed with a messaging relaying function built into it. In the future, developers will be able to leverage ElkNet to make calls for information stored on multiple chains, transforming the landscape for cross-chain interoperability and paving the way for efficient multi-chain dApps and smart contracts. In this way, ElkNet serves as a DeFi switchboard, automatically routing calls between multiple networks on demand. One theoretical drawback of using ELK as a medium for value transfers is that price impact (slippage) for transfers can be high if there is not sufficient liquidity to facilitate the conversion to ELK tokens during a cross-chain swaps. This is one of the tradeoffs for solving the exit liquidity problem, and it is the reason that liquidity pairs on ElkDex are always bonded to ELK. Another solution, however, is that ElkNet is able to interface across network AMMs, applying a “smart order routing” algorithm to find the most efficient trade path for the tokens on either end. Integrating DEX aggregators will ensure that price impacts are minimized. Since ELK is not a pegged token, the price of ELK can also differ between networks, resulting in price disparities during cross-chain transfers. As many in our community have discovered, this “problem” also presents an arbitrage opportunity, resulting in instances where bridging can actually result in net profit. Of course, many traders would prefer to avoid price differences while moving between chains. This is why we are releasing a stablecoin that is designed to interact with ElkNet. CHFT, A Multi-chain Native Stablecoin Elk will soon launch CHFT, the first cross-chain stablecoin based on an innovative “gyroscopic” design, which allows it to be minted natively on every network that Elk supports. Like the ELK token, CHFT will carry the same token address across all chains compatible with the Ethereum VM (EVM) and unique addresses on non-EVM chains, thereby reducing fragmentation and bypassing the need for custom wrappers. The price of CHFT will be pegged to the Swiss Franc (CHF), which is widely regarded as one the world's most stable currencies. Switzerland is also one of the friendliest jurisdictions for cryptocurrency, having recently launched SDX, a digital stock exchange that will support traditional assets alongside virtual currencies. Users will be able to mint CHFT by using multiple whitelisted tokens as collateral. Every CHFT token will be overcollateralized, meaning that users will be required to deposit tokens whose value exceeds the value of CHFT minted based on a collateral factor assigned to the token being used as collateral. This follows the most common method for issuing stablecoins collateralized with cryptocurrency. Once CHFT has been minted, however, users can be freely move to to any chain to any chain via ElkNet at a stable 1:1 ratio. CHFT can subsequently be redeemed for collateral locked on any chain. In the unlikely event that there is no collateral available for redemption on a specified chain, the user can simply move CHFT to another chain where there is collateral available. Since CHFT is overcollateralized, there is minimal risk of liquidations, as there is guaranteed to be exit liquidity available on one of the connected chains. Proxy Tokens: Cross-chain Virtual Assets While the design of ElkNet overcomes the problem of liquidity fragmentation, the very existence of bridged tokens demonstrates a broad-based desire among DeFi traders to trade, provision liquidity, and farm for yield using tokens that are currently segmented across dozens of networks. Our innovative proxy token concept offers another elegant and practical solution to the bridge fragmentation problem by decoupling the token from its underlying asset, liberating it to move freely among networks once it has been created. In this case, users will be able to mint proxy tokens by locking their asset along with a small amount of ELK on its native chain. Unlike CHFT, proxy tokens are issued through perfect 1:1 conversion, since the proxy token’s price is tied directly to the underlying asset, for which it can be redeemed at any point. Proxy tokens offer a solution to the exit liquidity problem, since they are converted into a virtual asset (similar to a wrapped token) on their chain of origin, meaning that no locked tokens are necessary on the destination chain. Unlike a conventional wrapped token, however, proxy tokens can be moved across ElkNet onto any network, where they can be traded or used to farm with that network’s native tokens. The possibilities of proxy tokens are endless, and doubtless the community will discover novel use cases once they are created. One clear application will be to bring popular tokens, including ones that exist on non-EVM chains, onto the networks that Elk supports. Another exciting use case involved multi-chain dApps, where the supply for a token can exist on a single chain, and proxy tokens can be used to deploy projects on multiple chains without fragmenting supply. Elk plans to release an SDK for developers in the near future, which combined with proxy tokens will open up all sorts of possibilities for cross-chain applications. Since ElkNet serves as an on-demand messaging switchboard, the potential for novel cross-chain interoperable smart contracts and applications truly has no bounds. Ultimately, these are just a few of the possibilities and additional use cases that the Elk blockchain unlocks. We’ve also only started to imagine all of the ways that each will be used, and we are excited to see what novel applications the community invents for them. Collectively, they demonstrate how Elk is much more than a mere bridge; it is a true DeFi gateway. Baal is Founder of Elk.Finance. He holds a PhD in Distributed Systems. Roland Rood is Lead Writer at Elk.Finance. Also published on: https://medium.com/elk-finance/beyond-the-bridge-exploring-use-cases-for-the-elk-blockchain-b744cd4da8d1

An Introduction to the Elk Blockchain

Examining Ethereum Under A Microscope: Is There Really a Method to the Madness?

Greetings, and welcome to your second DeFi lesson from Elk Academy. Last time, we discussed , which we called “the backbone of DeFi.” That is true, but it is far from the whole story! As many veteran DeFi enthusiasts will tell you, yield farming is where a lot of the real action happens. liquidity provisions (LP) If you came to DeFi through the promise of mind-boggling annual percentage returns (APRs), yield farming is where those numbers come from. I pooled my tokens. Isn’t that yield farming? No, not yet. Both liquidity provisioning and yield farming generate income, but one is paid out as fees based on trades, while the other is a reward given by the trading platform in exchange for locking (or “ ”) your liquidity with them. staking Whereas the trading fees from depositing liquidity are paid back as a fractional percent of the underlying tokens, the rewards from yield farming are often given as a separate token related to the platform. Since you are earning new tokens simply for staking your LP tokens, is also sometimes referred to as “ .” yield farming liquidity mining You can think of LP and farms as nesting dolls for your tokens, which let you double-dip on your investment (there is actually a third layer possible, which involves something called “vaults,” but that is for another day). On , ELK is distributed as a farming token in exchange for staking your LP tokens. Since ElkDex only supports farms for liquidity pairs that include the ELK token, by farming on ElkDex, you are actually earning ELK tokens in two ways: as fees (given along with an equal amount of the paired token) and as farming rewards. ElkDex Isn’t that free money? What’s the catch? Sort of. But, yes indeed, there are some important caveats. First, it’s useful to understand why yield farming exists — in other words, why do DeFi platforms offer additional tokens in exchange for locking your LP tokens? The short answer is that . it provides an incentive for you to deposit your valuable tokens into their pools instead of those offered by competitors Liquidity providers typically earn a fraction of trade fees, but DEXs also generally take a cut for themselves too. (And here is a good time to note that Elk does not take a cut.) For DEX operators, it’s a volume game: the more volume, the more profits they generate. all trading fees on ElkDex are given to our liquidity providers! If two platforms are offering the same cut of trading fees (say, 0.3%), giving out an additional token can be a powerful incentive to attract and maintain precious liquidity. Hungry for APR!! For various reasons, yields are often much higher just after a project has launched, which has recently given rise to a phenomenon known as “ ,” where hungry investors will move their tokens en masse to a new project in order to capture the early returns. This dynamic, in turn, has resulted in a slew of new questionable projects cropping up that promise high yields but offer few details about their plans or operations. yield chasing As with anything in life, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is, and it is important to do your due diligence before deciding to enter a yield farm. Sometimes, the farming tokens have no actual utility, meaning that their value is (through a circular logic) purely a function of the platform’s popularity. In fact, there are some platforms that do not have their own trading features but instead take deposits of LP tokens from DEXs. Such platforms, generating tokens through farming is their sole reason for existing. Usually though, platforms will create some sort of utility for their token. Often, this comes in the form of “ ,” which means that owning the tokens also gives you voting rights on the platform, which are weighted proportionally relative to the amount of tokens you own. governance tokens Whether it is governance or some other benefit, ideally there will be some added utility or to justify the token’s existence, or it is highly unlikely that it will maintain its value over time. use case The , which is distributed as reward on ElkDex farms, is a governance token, meaning that . But it also comes with multiple additional use cases, such as running a node on ElkNet. ELK token token holders are able to exercise influence over the future direction of the project Emissions For DeFi startups, yield farming is a means of distributing tokens in a fair way, providing an alternative to initial coin offerings ( ), which carry regulatory concerns in some jurisdictions and can often seem unequal in terms of access. ICOs Once tokens are distributed through farming, they can be freely traded with other tokens, which is how the value of the token is established on the open market. Projects are able to influence the price of the token in two basic ways: by controlling the overall of the token, and by controlling , which refers to the rate at which tokens are rewarded through farming. supply emissions Many projects reserve some portion of their overall token allocation for other purposes, such as funding operations, advertising, and paying team salaries. In that way, yield farming is a novel way for startups to secure funding without the need for venture capital or other outside investors. Understanding how a token’s supply, emissions, and distribution affect the underlying price is critical for determining whether or not it is a good investment. The study of these variables is referred to as , which will be the topic of our next lesson. tokenomics ’Til next time!

Yield Farming and DeFi Basics with Elk Academy: Lesson #2

Welcome to Elk Academy! This is the first in a new series of articles designed to give crypto beginners an introduction to the basic concepts behind decentralized finance (DeFi). These short lessons will give you the skills to navigate Elk — along with pretty much any other platform you might want to try. Newcomers to DeFi face a dizzying array of terms, tokens, and acronyms. In these articles, Professor Elkstein will demystify those concepts and show you how DeFi can be both fun and profitable. Remember, you should never invest in something you don’t understand. Whether your goal is maximizing yields, generating passive income, diversifying your traditional portfolio, or just being part of a global financial revolution, these articles will cover the core concepts so you can invest your money with confidence. Elk Academy Lesson #1: How to become a Liquidity Provider, for Fun…and Profit! What is a Liquidity Provision? A (often abbreviated as ), is an allocation of assets pooled on a decentralized exchange (DEX) that runs via an automated market maker (AMM) protocol, and which allows for trading of those assets. liquidity provision LP Okay, right. But really, what is LP? In short, LP is the backbone of DeFi and a key part of what makes it “decentralized.” In traditional financial markets, banks and large institutions act as (also called “liquidity provisioners”), supplying a pool of capital to allow for trading on an exchange. liquidity providers Basically, if you want to create a market for trading apples and bananas, first you need to gather together a lot of apples and bananas so you don’t run out of apples if there happens to be a run on bananas. In exchange for establishing this pool, liquidity providers typically take a small fee for every transaction, which is how they generate profit. The Great Big Idea at the heart of DeFi is that you (or rather, we) become the market maker. If you provide liquidity on , you will earn a 0.3% fee on each trade, proportional to your share of the pool. ElkDex People use the shorthand “ ” interchangeably to describe the liquidity provider (the farmer), their liquidity provision (the fruit), or the liquidity pool (the basket) it goes into. LP refers to the assets generally, but it can also be used to describe how easily one asset can be exchanged for another without causing large price swings in the price of the underlying assets. Liquidity if bananas become scarce, they become more valuable relative to apples. Fewer bananas means the price shift will be more severe each time one is removed. Again, think of price as a function of supply and demand: This shift in price is referred to as , or sometimes (PI). A pool with greater liquidity (i.e. more fruit) can handle more trades with less slippage, so typically the more liquidity in a pool, the better. slippage price impact On most DEXes, including ElkDex, providing liquidity requires depositing an equal value amount of a pair of two tokens into a pool, which allows other users to (i.e. trade) those tokens. When you add liquidity to an existing pool, the AMM will automatically determine the price ratio based on the current value of each token. swap What are LP tokens? When you liquidity by depositing your paired tokens, it enters a pool, which is a smart contract that includes the tokens of everyone else who has deposited. LP tokens are essentially a receipt of your deposit, which is used to keep track of how much you are owed when you decide to (remove) your liquidity. stake unstake It’s important to keep in mind that LP tokens are placeholders and therefore cannot be traded like regular tokens. Since they are just used for record keeping, exchanges typically do not display or track the value of LP tokens (this would be like asking “What’s the value of an apple and a banana?”). For this same reason, you may encounter LP tokens with odd looking values, such as 0.00000000567. They are, however, useful for , which we will tackle in the next lesson. yield farming LP tokens typically carry initials that indicate their source. On ElkDex, for example, all LP tokens are designated , which just stands for . ELP Elk LP Can I swap two tokens if there is no liquidity available? Maybe. There needs to be a path to connect two pairs. On ElkDex, all of the liquidity pools use the $ELK token as one of the base pairs (there’s a very important reason for this, which will be explained in a later article!). But for now, let’s say you want to trade your Apples ($A) for some Bananas ($B). On ElkDex, there will likely be an ELK-A pool and an ELK-B pool. You can therefore swap those two assets using ELK as a go-between, with a path of A>ELK>B. Sometimes there can be longer paths with three or even four tokens depending on what pairs are available on the DEX. Both ElkDex and ElkNet (which handles cross-chain swaps) are optimized with a , which finds the most efficient path between the two tokens in order to minimize the amount of slippage. smart router Can I create LP pools by pairing any two tokens? Yes, you can! But remember, you only earn fees on trades, so if no one is interested in trading your pair, you won’t earn anything. Pairs with higher trade volume generate more fees. If you do decide to create a new pool, it will also be up to you to set the initial price ratio between the two tokens. What are the risks of becoming a liquidity provider? There is some risk of a bug or vulnerability in the underlying smart contracts that could expose them to hacks or exploits. For this reason, it is always good to see whether the contracts have been audited by a third party security firm. (The contracts for ElkDex, which are based on Uniswap contracts, have been audited by HashEx). But aside from an exploit, which is a relatively minor threat if you are using a reputable platform, the primary risk that liquidity providers face is something called (IL), which happens when the price of the two tokens in the pair diverge. impermanent loss We will unpack this concept in an upcoming lesson, where we’ll also discuss one of Elk’s unique features, (ILP), which gives our liquidity providers insurance against impermanent loss. lmpermanent Loss Protection Next time, however, we’ll talk about and . Did you think you were already farming? Not yet. Yield farming lets you put your LP to work in order to earn tokens on top of trading fees. emissions yield farming Double dip!

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