fox, Author at Elk

Unlocking Seamless Connectivity

fox — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 11:56:15 +0000

The Journey of Cross-Chain Bridges and Interoperability

Introduction: Bridging the Gap

In the rapidly evolving world of blockchain, where innovation knows no bounds, cross-chain bridges stand tall as the unsung heroes, weaving webs of connectivity across diverse blockchain networks. They’re the vital infrastructure enabling the swift exchange of assets and data between these bustling digital realms.

However, It’s not all roses and rainbows in blockchain. Bridges have been the victims of major exploits or hacks, and core teams have demonstrated highly suspicious behaviors while managing others’ funds. Major bridges have cost unsuspecting users and protocols many millions, if not billions,of dollars worth of loss and heartache.

Cross-Chain Bridges: Building Connections

Cross-chain bridges are like magical gateways, enabling the smooth transfer of value across different blockchain ecosystems. Think of them as practical tools, akin to exchanging currencies while traveling or using a translator in a foreign land. They simplify interactions and transactions, breaking down barriers between blockchain networks.

They are uniquely necessary amid a range of siloed public blockchains that, by design, squirreled away in their own hermetically sealed environment. But if liquidity can’t flow in and out of a financial or commercial system then it has only one value – zero. Centralized exchanges initially provided the routes to bring real life money to bear on crypto assets, but this is not the Web3 dream, where prioritizing on-chain activities is key to the underlying ethos. Interoperability is therefore critical.

Interoperability: Fostering Unity

Interoperability broadens this scope further. It goes beyond simple asset transfers, aiming to create a cohesive digital ecosystem where various blockchain networks and systems can understand, view, and interact with each other’s data effortlessly. Imagine a universal language that allows nations to communicate seamlessly – that’s the essence of interoperability. It’s about fostering mutual understanding and removing barriers to create a more inclusive digital landscape.

Elk Bridge-as-a-Service (BaaS)

Empowering Developers

Our Bridge-as-a-Service (BaaS) offers developers a versatile framework to construct cross-chain bridges in a permissionless manner. It functions as a collection of standardized contracts, forming an intuitive API to harness ElkNet’s robust cross-chain message transport capabilities. With BaaS, developers gain the power to seamlessly build bridges between two or more blockchain networks, enabling a spectrum of functionalities, from token bridging to cross-chain trades and data transfers.

Expanding Horizons: Future of BaaS

As the landscape of blockchain technology continues to evolve, so too does the vision for Bridge-as-a-Service (BaaS). Currently, BaaS, much like ElkNet, exclusively supports EVM chains. Therefore, after the Beta release, it will expand its reach to encompass all chains currently supported by Elk. Looking ahead, our vision includes extending support to non-EVM chains as well, although this aspect is not covered in the current documentation.

$ELK Tokenomics 101

Transitioning to a New Era

As we embark on the next phase of our journey, significant changes are on the horizon for $ELK tokenomics. Currently, 6,750 $ELK tokens are emitted daily, representing a total of 2.5 million since the last halving. However, in just a couple of weeks, this emission rate will decrease to only 3,375 $ELK tokens per day, amounting to 1.25 million over the year. This reduction in emission is part of our halving process, which will see further reductions in the coming years.

But that’s not all. The upcoming halving marks a pivotal moment as we transition to the v3 DEX and farms. Get ready to experience greater capital efficiency and enhanced functionality across the board! Are you prepared for this new era in cross-chain trading and farming? While we’re diligently finalizing the migration process, we anticipate completing it within the next couple of weeks.

Stay tuned for official announcements (follow @elk_finance on X) and don’t worry, you will have plenty of time to migrate.

$ELK Farming: The new farming contracts are state-of-the-art and based on our Farms-as-a-Service (FaaS): no lock-in, fully v3-compatible, and offering up to 15 reward tokens per farm.

Yes, you heard right. We’ll be leveraging the same permissionless farming infrastructure we built for the $ELK farms. As part of our migration to v3, Impermanent Loss Protection (ILP) will be discontinued, redirecting emissions towards farms and single stake to enhance APRs.

$ELK staking: A makeover is planned. As we gear up for ElkNet nodes, you’ll soon have the opportunity to stake $ELK for node rights or delegate your $ELK to an existing node in exchange for rewards. Although nodes are slated for later this year (pending successful developments), the $ELK staking contracts will already start benefiting from fees earned by ElkNet’s upcoming release. As our BaaS bridges expand, so will the rewards, reflecting our growing processed volume.

That’s all for now! Thank you for being part of our journey, and stay tuned as we prepare for the next phase of our evolution!

The post Unlocking Seamless Connectivity appeared first on Elk.

Elk joins the Q: New bridge connection now live

fox — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 20:25:48 +0000

Elk is delighted to open the doors to Q Protocol, an EVM compatible blockchain and set of smart contracts taking aim at decentralised governance in the Web3 world. More than that, Q provides the backbone for governance that allows organizations to grow that go beyond “code-is-law”.

It’s fair to say that Q is aiming high, we applaud them for this goal setting attitude, and are pleased to connect Q’s EVM to ElkNet. This means that Q is now one of 30 connected blockchains on our network. The ELK token can be rapidly sent between these chains — and no ELK has ever been lost. Long may this continue to be true.

What does Elk bring to the Q?

As a protocol comprising of a few moving parts, Elk can provide the following right now:

ElkDex

A Uniswap v2 decentralized exchange (DEX)

Permissionless liquidity pools

pair tokens and swapping is immediately enabled

Permissionless liquidity farms

These provide liquidity incentives to liquidity pools without whitelisting or lengthy negotiations.

Farm-as-a-Service (FaaS) allows for multiple token rewards to be assigned to LP staking positions. Up to 15 tokens per farm. Imagine providing liquidity and earning LP fees AND 15 other tokens on top of that!

Single staking pools

While we wait for ElkNet nodes and validator staking, you can stake your ELK for rewards — a further means to distribute the ELK token to the community.
Remember, ELK powers the ElkNet. No ELK? No interoperability and cross-chain functionality for you…

ElkNet

An interoperability solution that is able to bridge ELK tokens between 30 EVM blockchains.
The current version of ElkNet can move value between blockchains using ELK as a medium of transfer.
ELK is native to every blockchain connected to ElkNet.

What should we Q for at Elk?

Elk is always building and improving the interoperability of the ElkNet. With a major goal being decentralization, including validators and token staking to secure transactions passing through the ElkNet, interim targets include:

Uniswap v3 ElkDex upgrade

Concentrated liquidity
More efficient token swapping
More controllable liquidity farming
Permissionless LP pairs for v3
Permissionless LP Farms — FaaS v3

Bridge-as-a-Service (BaaS) rollout

Enjoy the security and resilience of ElkNet for your cross-chain needs.
Projects can make their token behave like ELK.
Native to any ElkNet-enabled blockchain.
Move through the ElkNet frictionlessly.

Projects can control:

Fees
Which blockchains to move to.
And many other choices.
Or make it wholly permissionless during the development phases!

The BaaS SDK will allow for bridging tokens, messaging and whatever the developers can dream up.

ElkNet security + your imagination = Web3 interoperability

The end of the Q

In the coming days and weeks there will be a series of liquidity incentives shared with the Elk and Q communities (Q-munities?)

These include opportunities like:

Farms
QUSD-QDAI and QUSD-ELK (currently live)
QUSD-WBTC & QUSD-USDC (planned for the future)
ELK rewards
Q token incentives have been added too, remember that users can harness FaaS to create farms and single stake pools with up to 15 different reward tokens to stakers.

Q faucet

To explore the ElkDex and ElkNet on Q you will need some Q tokens for gas.

A faucet is available here: https://faucet.q.org/

FA-Q-s

Is there a Q faucet?

To explore the ElkDex and ElkNet on Q you will need some Q tokens for gas.

A faucet is available here: https://faucet.q.org/

How do I get USDC, DAI, or WBTC on Q Mainnet?

These are pretty key questions! USDC, DAI, or WBTC on Q can be obtained by transferring from your wallet on Ethereum using Q’s bridge:

How do I get QUSD on Q Mainnet?

QUSD can be obtained by depositing USDC, DAI, or WBTC into a vault on Q’s Saving & Borrowing dApp, which will allow you to borrow QUSD:

What else do you reQuire from me?

We’d love to see you at the upcoming AMA sessions, read your X posts, answer your queries and listen to your suggestions in our social media groups on Discord and Telegram. Come and join us, the tide is turning, and it’s time to have fun.

Get to the front of the Q.

The post Elk joins the Q: New bridge connection now live appeared first on Elk.

New ElkNet connection: Welcome Bitgert, a brand new cross-chain destination

fox — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 14:19:23 +0000

New blockchain connections were promised. Let’s start this next wave by announcing Bitgert Chain

Elk and Bitgert — connected

Bitgert offers a centralized exchange, a P2P marketplace, PayBrise (a payment gateway), and Geo Web3 Real Estate opportunities. To help connect themselves to the ever-growing blockchain world, Bitgert has chosen the future of cross-chain interaction and communications by inviting Elk into their world.

ElkNet will soon add Bitgert Chain to its growing list of connected blockchains.

And we’re happy to join!

Bringing ElkDex and ElkNet to Bitgert at this early stage in the development of our ecosystems allows Elk to broaden our blockchain reach, bring even more networks together and open the doors for new users to discover Bitgert Chain. Web3 citizens from 20 ecosystems now have a new choice for where they wish to explore via ElkNet, and trade assets using ElkDex, to discover new opportunities — with Bitgert.

About Bitgert

From the Bitgert Chain, a super-fast blockchain with over 100,000 transactions per second, to the Bitgert Centralized crypto exchange that offers zero-fee trading experiences, Bitgert has a full suite of products that make it easy for everyone to engage with cryptocurrencies.

With all these products and more, Bitgert is the fastest growing ecosystem in the crypto space, offering a comprehensive set of solutions to meet all the needs of the modern digital asset owner.

About Elk

Elk Finance is a peer-to-peer network for cross-chain value transfers. ElkNet, its cutting-edge multi-chain protocol, makes it easy for anyone to move value and exchange cryptocurrencies across blockchains quickly and securely at a low cost.

Move value between 20+ of the most popular EVMs, including BNB, Polygon, AVAX, and ETH networks. Earn ELK through Yield Farming, Single Staking, including earning multiple tokens from a single farm.

More is always coming from Elk, read more here:

Blockchain expansion: New Chains ready to explode onto ElkNet soon — Lodge Letter #69
Currently supporting 20 blockchains, the time has come for this to grow againmedium.com

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Blockchain expansion: New chains ready to explode onto ElkNet soon

fox — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 10:03:05 +0000

Lodge Letter #69: Currently supporting 20 blockchains, the time has come for this to grow again

How are new ElkNet chains determined?

The community most certainly has a say in such matters. You may have noticed polls in the Elk dApp UI and our social channels where we enquire as to which blockchain ElkNet should go to next. Further to these questions are the needs of existing partners and where they’d like to see ElkNet lay further foundations. And we do feel we are here to help our ecosystem partners and users alike.

Let’s not forget that as soon as a chain is selected for inclusion in the ElkNet, the ElkDex will also deploy on the new chain; instantly creating an asset marketplace for ELK on a new chain. Elkbrings users a Dex, a bridge, LP farming, and staking opportunities. Builders can secure token liquidity using our self-managed farm creation FaaS tool, who’ll then be ready for easy cross-chain swaps to 20 OTHER chains. Then 25, then 30…you get the picture. We haven’t even mentioned the exciting stuff yet (keep reading).

Does this mean patience and hope is the only way to see ElkNet enter “your” ecosystem? No, it is not! However, in the ever-changing Web3 landscape where blockchains spring up (and sometimes sink away) all the time, taking a gamble on every single chain that appears on the horizon is not possible and not sensible. At Elk, we will certainly try to be everywhere, and we enjoy growing our ElkNet, but ecosystem builders can help too. We’ll bring our toys, for all topermissionlessly play with, and blockchains host the users, the partner projects – those seeking opportunity, liquidity, and flexibility to move from chain to chain.

Is a new blockchain coming? Or more than one?

Following conversations with several ecosystems, Elk is delighted to be expanding the ElkNet to embrace half a dozen new blockchains in the near future. Stay up to date with announcements for where we’re going to appear next by following our social media and community channels. We’re excited to join these new outposts of the ElkNet and help write their stories in crypto, blockchain and Web3, and are looking forward to sharing our new developments with these new blockchains as we all keep building towards inclusivity and interoperability.

As we continue Elk’s cross-chain journey through the spaces between blockchains, we find ourselves positioned such that if a chain is looking for ElkNet to land on their shores, then providing a grant, liquidity, marketing and business development support is a surprisingly effective way to bring Elk on board. We have plenty to offer and wish to strive for excellence alongside willing and capable partners.

Elk Finance coming to your blockchain?

Elk arrives on-chain…

When Elk Finance appears on a blockchain the following features become available:

ElkDex

LP pairings.
Liquidity farming.
Single staking ($ELK).

ElkNet

Transfer $ELK to/from any ElkNet-connected blockchain.
No $ELK has even been lost on a cross-chain transfer.
Ever.

Farm-as-a-Service

Create liquidity for your project by creating your own permissionless token farms. Read more here: https://elk.finance/farm-as-a-service/ and even more here: https://docs.elk.finance/for-developers/farming-as-a-service-faas
Live on BitTorrent Chain.
Avalanche, Fantom and Polygon coming next for FaaS.
Let us know if you have an urgent need for farms on our other chains so we can prioritize deployment to help your project grow.

Social media and community channel support

We’re friendly and welcoming
We support ecosystem projects
We help where we can

That’s the story right now…

CCTP, cross-chain swaps, Uni v3 and what else?

The next phase for Elk is to take the above, which works (and works well), then add a bit more compatibility, improve the user experience, and make it available to more blockchains. Then we can give more tools for builders to play with ElkNet themselves. You want a bridge? They want a bridge? Everyone wants a bridge! And they’re all allowed to build on ElkNet to make their bridge work.

The existing features and tools will still be available but we will sprinkle the following into the mix too:

ElkDex – Uni v3 Dex

Customisable LP position NFTs.
More efficient concentrated v3 liquidity farming.

ElkNet

Cross-chain swaps – Choose the token you send to ElkNet and receive any token on a destination chain, again of your choosing.
Cross-chain swaps powered by $ELK via ElkNet or USDC via Circle’s CCTP.
No lost $ELK for cross-chain transfers/swaps.
Ever. (It’s crazy not to stress this point!)

Farm-as-a-Service

All current self-managed FaaS benefits, but with v3 liquidity.
More efficient.
More profitable.
All in your control.

Social media and community channel support

We will stay friendly and be here for our chain-agnostic community.

Web3 is Web, we are one tribe, we are Elk: Any chain, any time, anywhere.

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