Stargaze

Stargaze is a PoS blockchain based on the Cosmos SDK. Cosmos enables a decentralized validator set, with fast block times and low gas.

In March 2021, the team stated that the Stargaze protocol will enable 3 key functions:

Creators will be able to post their content, mintable as NFT
Content curators will be able to earn rewards for discovering high-quality content and appraising it
Users will be allowed to buy the tokens of creators to support them and follow their content

These three features provide a foundation for an integrated social protocol that rewards both creators and curators, enabling crypto applications that resemble Twitter, TikTok, and the like.

In a typical Proof-of-Stake network, block rewards are received by validators. In Stargaze, rewards are distributed between both validators and users.

In other words, Stargaze was designed to be a social protocol that allows to fairly distribute rewards between those who create and consume content (creators and curators). Good idea in the spirit of Web3. However, at the moment realization is poor: there are only NFT and NFT-marketplace.

By the first quarter of the year 2022, users will be able to create, curate and trade NFTs on the Stargaze marketplace, using the Stargaze native token $STARS.

As for STARS, the $STARS token is used to stake, vote on governance proposals, buy NFTs, pay for transaction network fees and content curation. The $STARS issuance schedule is similar to Bitcoin. However, instead of halvings, issuance will be cut by 1/3 each year. The first protocol that used a “thirding” token release schedule and inspired Stargaze’s design was Osmosis.

Decentralization of Stargaze is ensured by a genesis supply that distributes the majority of tokens to community members. The foundation will hold a strategic reserve of tokens, and will drive adoption of the protocol by delegating to validators, onboarding content creators, and providing grants for the ecosystem development.

Stargaze started with an initial offering of 1 billion STARS. Another 1 billion STARS will be issued in the first year. With this "tretting" schedule, the next year's issuance will be ~667M STARS. This infinite sequence is a geometric series that leads to a fixed asymptotic maximum supply of 4 billion STARS.

Decentralization of Stargaze is enabled, in part, by genesis supply, a model for distributing most of the tokens to community members. The Foundation will keep a strategic supply of tokens and encourage protocol development by delegating authority to validators, engaging content creators, and providing grants for ecosystem development.

Airdrop

Airdrop snapshot was taken on October 11, 2021.

The goal of the airdrop is to reach the most active participants in the Cosmos ecosystem. Stakers and liquidity providers are more likely to be more active than just token holders (this approach is used by many Cosmos-based projects, so stakers always expect new projects to announce airdrops). Thus, Stargaze held the airdrop for different categories of network participants:

ATOM stakers
OSMO stakers or liquidity providers
Stargaze validator stakers on Cosmos Hub
Stargaze validator stakers on Osmosis
Stargaze validator stakers on Regen Network

Check eligibility here.

Reward Distribution

New token reward distribution will be optimized to facilitate the operations of the NFT market. 45% of block rewards are set aside for NFT bidding and staking incentives. Token holders will be able to earn yield by bidding and staking NFTs for certain periods of time.

Staking Rewards

Validators (node operators) earn rewards for securing the network. Any user can delegate tokens to a validator and earn staking rewards proportional to the amount of staked tokens (excluding a commission set by a validator)

More than 100 validators were selected after 3 testnets, 2 of which were incentivized. They will earn 35% of all rewards.

Community Pool

The community pool is the main DAO that operates the network. It is responsible for voting on parameters changes, software upgrades, community demands and more. DAO will receive 5% of all rewards.

What is Stargaze

At the moment, Stargaze is 1) a launchpad with 275 NFT collections traded for $STARS 2) a marketplace, allowing users to stake STARS and vote on governance proposals.

The project positions itself as: