Hey, today we will briefly talk about the TERRA chain (ticket:LUNA) as it will soon receive a massive mainnet upgrade. it’s really just a basic primer, as there’s a lot to be said on the project.
Terra (terra.money) aims to be a decentralized payment network better known for a series of stablecoins backed by the native token LUNA through a series of algorithms.
The most known is UST (US Terra), recently available on COINBASE, and strongly intertwined with LUNA due to tokenomics.
The network security (and, thus, the stablecoins being pegged to their fiat counterpart) is achieved by staking LUNA, providing collateral for the entire network to function. To further explain, this is structured through a classic VALIDATOR-DELEGATOR system and a capped supply burnt to keep the peg of the stablecoins (e.g. more usage of UST means more burned LUNA, and by UST achieving a bigger market cap, less LUNA will be available).
The oracle system features 100 nodes, and it’s a native one too.
COLUMBUS V
The coming mainnet upgrade of TERRA, that’s hyping up the markets and bringing LUNA to new ATHs. The three main area of focus for this upgrade will be:
SEIGNIORAGE
Deflationary cycle through the burning of LUNA allocated to seigniorage (rewarding oracles) will be burned.
OZONE
Terralabs locking up UST, creating larger liquidity to the overall ecosystem with an in-chain insurance system.
MULTICHAIN INTEGRATION - STARGATE AND WORMHOLE
Being built on COSMOS, Terra will receive the STARGATE integration, with IBC, allowing support to assets like SOL, POL and COSMOS.
WORMHOLE will bridge with SOLANA, helping move.
UST to SOLANA native chain, making sure a bigger usage and need of the stablecoin, alongside more LUNA burnt.
ECOSYSTEM AND AIRDROPS
The TERRALUNA ecosystem features a large variety of DApps, with a massive amount of DeFi projects onboarding, that will likely bring AIRDROPS to users staking LUNA, and that will cover new aspects of the Terra environment.
Really, keep an eye on ORION:MONEY (airdrop coming late september), SPAR FINANCE (decentralized pool management; for LUNA and MIR stakers), STAR LUNA (nft game;coming soon), ANGEL PROTOCOL (perpetual charity donations; airdrop for LUNA and Anchor stakers) or MARS.FINANCE (banking on TERRA).
If you invest in staking Luna, you’ll always receive a genesis airdrop, and a lot are coming soon, so brace yourself.
A great tool is: https://terra.smartstake.io/projects
To add, apps using the network for validation will help the further growth of the LUNA ecosystem, and CHAI app is showing massive potential in doing that with up to 25 million users yearly and 4.20 million transactions in the last week.
Kash.App is another example, a fully decentralized banking experience coming to America, that will use the system to validate transactions too.
Now, let’s talk about some of the big projects already available on the chain
MIR (mirror.finance)
Similar to SNX, MORPHER and MIR, it’s available on the TERRA and ETH chains. You can trade synthetic assets (mirrored assets = mAssets), that trace the real world price of things like stocks. Akin to other services, you are exposed to price feeds, rather than real assets, and, thus, you are just speculating on the price. Assets are minted after a collateral is given, while MIR is minted and given as a reward to liquidity providers, along with “winning” shorts.
MIR can be used to stake and governance, the protocol decisions and future. To add, governance is incentivized by rewarding voting, not only staking. An interesting element is the low fee compared to eth-based synthetic protocols like SNX.
ANCHOR PROTOCOL
Aims to be a saving protocol, thus bringing a system aiming at giving a low-volatility interest rate to your average user, making more easier the overall experience of providing capital with a reliable rate of return through the use of stablecoins (UST).
This is related to the amount and quality of the collateral. What the borrower will receive is a tokenized stake in the form of a bAsset (bonded asset), that pays block rewards and is transferable and fungible.
PYLON PROTOCOL
Might be the de-facto launchpad for small projects on the ecosystem, where stablecoins deposits can be turned in rewards, alongside project tokens and governance rights. To enter the launchpad projects, you’ll usually need to meet certain criterias, like a particular amount of MINE tokens. RIght now it’s already operational.
DOUBTS AND POSSIBLE CRITICISMS
I’d argue that any project might have some issues early on, and even afterwards *cough*eth fees*cough*.
Terra might be an edge against asset-backed stablecoins being banned. The real issue might come from a state-level adversary hellbent on destroying stablecoins. Yet, the South Korea government and the Mongolian government have greenlit the project, and legally allowed the stablecoins pegged on their national counterpart. UST might be a bit different, but due to its value being pegged to LUNA rather than fiat USD, it shouldn’t attract the SEC attention, unlike tether.
Also, during the May crash, UST lost its peg for a while, and as iron finance showed, it can lead to disasters. Yet, the project survived pretty well, as LUNA is going through ATHs easily.
Network congestion is still a thing, due to some mishandling by Pylon Protocol launches. Might be solved after COLV, yet I’d still keep an eye on the situation.
GET STARTED
Now that you have a grasp on the ecosystem, how can you get started?
- Download the official wallet at: https://station.terra.money/
- Buy some LUNA on your favourite exchange
- Send it to the wallet (KUCOIN has lower requirements, with a 1 LUNA minimum, unlike BINANCE)
- STAKE with any validator you like. Check commissions and max commissions beforehand. I use Smart Stake, but feel free to check anyone else.
- Check: https://terra.smartstake.io/projects, see if you have daily airdrops from the various projects and learn the overall ecosystem.
- Have fun!
If you wanna help out, check
BULKSENDER, great for sending various eth transactions together, saving some time and gas (pretty high lately)
https://bulksender.app?referrer=0xC53d8683Ed3d15E105f76Ff181eE44f881c2E056
OPENSEA, the premiere nft marketplace on ETH. As NFTs are regaining traction in the cryptosphere, you might want to grab something and see it appreciate further
https://opensea.io?ref=0xc53d8683ed3d15e105f76ff181ee44f881c2e056
And if you wanna go the extra mile, feel free to send some useless coins at
0x30796F4C8266949fd6359d0C029301Ae8eE30ED1
terra1g0t5ymsl34ykd5m5qgejkeulz03v8lny7lvpa3
twitter: https://twitter.com/bdrum17
