Juno is a smart contract blockchain that is part of the Cosmos ecosystem. It is highly interoperable with other chains thanks to the Inter Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol that makes it easy to bridge tokens and data.
The founders of Cosmos created the IBC protocol because they believe that blockchains that work together can scale further and have more utility than single chains that are all competing against each other. The advantage of connecting chains is that you can create blockchains that are specialized for a specific use case that other chains can utilize too. The entire network of blockchains is also more scalable that way because the different chains can offload some computations to each other. With IBC, blockchains are not competing but profiting from other chains.
The Cosmos Hub itself was the first blockchain that used the IBC protocol. Technically you can build smart contracts on the Cosmos Hub and there is a DEX called Emeris but there is little to no development of other dApps on Cosmos. Some people also believe that the original Hub shouldn't have any more applications to preserve its neutrality. That’s why Juno was founded. It is a sister Hub for Cosmos that is offering interoperable smart contracts and dApps that other chains and projects can use too.
Juno instantly gained a lot of popularity thanks to its airdrop that rewarded ATOM stakers with 47% of the initial supply of JUNO coins. Most other new chains in the IBC protocol are also airdropping their new coins to ATOM, and JUNO stakers because they support this chains and believe that they are bringing value to their project.
The blockchain is already offering its own decentralized exchange called JunoSwap and many more dApps are being built and many of them are also doing airdrops to JUNO stakers.
One problem that Ethereum and similar chains are facing beyond high fees and low scalability is that it can be difficult to bridge assets and data from other chains. Juno certainly doesn't have that problem and it could grow to be a core project of the entire Cosmos ecosystem. However, the high interoperability also lowers the demand for a chain that runs decentralized applications in general because each connected chain can specialize for a use case that can be used by other chains, but maybe it can be beneficial to use a chain like Juno as a sort of middle ground.
The JUNO coin
JUNO is the native cryptocurrency of the Juno blockchain. It is used to pay for network fees, for governance and for staking to secure the chain. Staking the coin is also very likely to be rewarded with airdrops from other blockchains of the Cosmos ecosystem, but there is no guarantee for that and the exact qualifications for receiving an airdrop is different for each project.
There is a max supply of 185,562,268 JUNO but the total supply will only be circulating after 12 years. The initial supply was 64,903,242 JUNO, 47.24% was airdropped to long term ATOM* stakers, 30.82% was put in a Community pool that the coin holders control, and the remaining 21.94% is used for further development and for the core developers. The funds for the developers are being vested for the next 12 years. The supply is mostly controlled by people that secured the Cosmos blockchain for a long time which means that mostly people that agree with the vision of interoperability are governing the Juno blockchain.
The stakers will earn inflationary rewards for the first 12 years. This inflation is getting lower with each year until the max supply is reached. In the first year there is a fixed inflation of 40%, then 20% in the second year, then 10% in the third, then it will fall by 1% each year until the max supply is reached. This ensures that early supporters are earning the most coins.
The value of the JUNO coin depends on how popular the broader Cosmos network is. As more projects and people use Inter Blockchain Communication protocol for its great interoperability there will also be more use cases for the Juno blockchain. The price of JUNO will also increase if more dApps are built on its chain. Juno is very popular among the Cosmos community and many new projects are also airdropping their coins to JUNO stakers, so even if JUNO doesn't perform well the holders will likely have received coins and tokens that possibly did gain a lot of value.
JUNO is currently not supported by any centralized exchange. So far you can only buy it on the Osmosis DEX, but you will need ATOM or OSMO for the swap. The best wallet to store JUNO and interact with the Juno network is the Keplr wallet.
If you liked my post then please leave a tip, that way we both earn some money!
If you don't have an account on Publish0x then you can signing up here and start earning cryptocurrencies for reading and tipping.
Binance, 10% discount on fees
MEXC, 10% discount on fees
Presearch, 25 PRE start bonus, earn cryptocurrency for searching the web
FaucetCrypto, Earn small amounts of Cryptocurrencies for free
