Stride is a multichain liquid staking zone (appchain) on the Cosmos Blockchain. Stride allows users to stake any IBC-compatible tokens, and receive stTokens in return, which are redeemable for the original token at a 1:1 ratio. By staking their tokens using Stride, users will be able to earn staking rewards, while also retaining liquidity in the form of stTokens, which will allow them to take advantage of Cosmos DeFi and pursue more yields there.
The Stride Token ($STRD) is the native governance token of the Stride Zone, allowing holders to vote on important decisions such as the distribution of staked tokens to each validator, the onboarding of new validators, and other protocol upgrades and improvements. The Stride Token can also be staked to secure the Stride Appchain.
How is Stride different from the many other Cosmos liquid staking providers?
Stride is the only Cosmos liquid staking provider with a minimalist design. All other liquid staking protocols plan to share their blockchains with other apps, but not Stride. The Stride blockchain is like Bitcoin and Cosmos Hub: it just does one single thing.
Stride's minimalism makes it objectively more secure because there are fewer moving parts. The simpler the blockchain, the smaller the attack surface. Minimalism also makes Stride completely neutral. Stride will not have a DEX or a money market or anything at all besides liquid staking. This neutrality means that Stride can more easily partner with other blockchains and protocols than other liquid staking providers.
Another differentiator is Stride's security. Stride has had three audits, as well as continuous auditing from Informal Systems, has rate-limiting security features, and will soon have a large Immunefi bug bounty in place.
In post-launch updates, the Stride team will implement a liquid governance feature, to allow stToken holders to vote in host-chain governance.
Finally, Stride will be adding the liquid staking module (LSM) when it becomes available. The LSM is an open-source module being developed by the Cosmos community that will allow staked tokens to be converted into liquid staked tokens without the need to unstake and miss out on staking rewards during the unstaking period.
What tokens are currently supported?
ATOM, OSMO, EVMOS, LUNA, JUNO, and STARS are supported (as of February 15th).
Stride receives PoS tokens, and in exchange issues stTokens. An stToken represents the an underlying staked token, and can be used to redeem that token at any time. stTokens are issued on the Stride blockchain, but using the native Cosmos IBC bridge stTokens can be easily and securely sent to any Cosmos blockchain (so long as it has IBC enabled).
The basic utility for stTokens is that they can be transferred or sold without having to either wait through a lengthy unstaking period or foregoing staking rewards. But in addition to this base utility, there is DeFi utility for stTokens.
Currently, stATOM can be provided as liquidity to the ATOM / stATOM pool on Osmosis and lent and borrowed on Umee and Carbon Nitron.
In the future, there will be further integrations. stTokens may appear on other Cosmos decentralized exchanges, may be approved as collateral for additional money markets, and may be approved as collateral for Cosmos CDP-backed stablecoins.
