Injective Update: September 2021

Welcome to the Injective September update!

This past month brought more and more exciting community updates to the table. Check out the highlight reel below.

September Highlights

Derivatives perpetuals trading went live on the Injective Canary Chain after governance proposal #56 passed. Injective contributors prepared for the Cosmos IBC upgrade and published the roadmap to canonical chain mainnet. The Picasso relayer was deployed on Injective.
Axie Infinity listed on Injective and the community voted to pass proposal #58, introducing maker fee rebates for the Axie Infinity spot market. Then Injective governance proposal #59 passed, updating parameters on-chain so as to set a minimum staking APY.
This month kicked off with the addition of insurance funds to the Injective Hub. Multiple upgrades to the Injective Hub were rolled out, after which a fully upgraded hub was introduced. The Injective Bridge went live on the Injective Hub, and the Injective Bridge Guide was released.
Impossible Finance joined the Injective ecosystem. Smart Stake came onboard as a validator and institutional Injective validator SCB 10X went live on the Canary network. Injective launched a unified governance interface with Commonwealth.
The Injective Public API was launched.
Community Recognition: Equinox staking rewards were distributed. NFTs were awarded to participants in the Fast Track to Crypto Summer Challenge.
Other community initiatives included the release of the Injective Chinese Telegram channel, the launch of the Injective Ecosystem page, and a YouTube AMA in which Injective Labs CEO Eric Chen was interviewed by Confident in Crypto. Discussions about the Stargazer Ambassador program have begun. Injective Labs made headlines on Bloomberg after welcoming a legal chief.

1. Canary Chain

Early in the month, Injective governance proposal #56 to enable derivatives trading on the Injective exchange went live. The proposal was passed with a landslide governance vote where over 8.3 million locked INJ ($100M+ at time of writing) were used to vote “Yes”.

The addition of derivatives perpetuals trading on the Injective Canary Chain brings a number of advantages to users, including unlimited market creation, full decentralization and community ownership, Ethereum compatibility, cross-chain transactions, zero gas fees and lightning fast speeds.

The Picasso relayer was deployed on Injective. Picasso is a community-governed project powered by Injective Labs that serves as a gateway for users to access spot, derivatives and other DeFi markets with zero gas and high capital efficiency.

2. Axie Infinity Listing and Trading Rebates Launch

Axie Infinity listed on the Injective exchange, making it the first ever NFT project to be listed.

Afterwards, the Injective community voted to pass proposal #58 which introduced maker fee rebates for the Axie Infinity spot market. Now, anyone who helps provide order liquidity for AXS on Injective will earn the highest maker fee rebates in the entire crypto industry. Overall, this will help to heavily promote liquidity on Injective while also incentivizing market making, arbitrage and development activity on Injective.

Finally governance proposal #59 was launched, updating mint and distribution parameters on-chain to set a stable minimum staking APY! The community can continue to change staking parameters via governance moving forward.

3. Injective Hub

This month kicked off with the addition of insurance funds to the Injective Hub. Insurance funds protect margin traders during liquidations which is especially important in volatile crypto derivatives markets. Staking into insurance funds also earns users rewards and helps them hedge.

Multiple upgrades to the Injective Hub were rolled out thereafter, including a bridge UI overhaul, language selection, currency selection, increased tooltips coverage and performance improvements.

Later on a fully upgraded Injective Hub was launched, introducing a revamped wallet page, Injective relayers and a surprise bonus to view Equinox Staking Rewards.

The Injective Bridge went live on the Injective Hub, enabling users to bridge any ERC20 token to the Injective Chain using the secure cross-chain Injective Bridge. The Injective Bridge Guide was also released, providing instructions on how to bridge any ERC-20 token.

All of these milestones have led the Injective Hub to be the number-one source for accessible, lightning fast transfers, as well as seamless cross-chain interoperability.

4. Ecosystem Growth

This month brought about significant ecosystem development for Injective.

Impossible Finance joined the Injective ecosystem to release a BSC-focused launchpad on the Injective Chain. Impossible Finance has also planned to propose new BSC-related derivatives for the Injective community.

Smart Stake came onboard as a validator, and institutional Injective validator SCB 10X went live. Both validators join an existing and ever-growing cohort of the industry’s best.

The Injective community launched a unified governance interface with Commonwealth. The newly upgraded governance platform will consolidate proposals, voting, and discussions into one integrated platform.

5. Injective Public API

The Injective Public API was released. This means that institutions, professional liquidity providers, algorithmic traders, and individuals alike can permissionlessly run all components of the backend infrastructure. In turn, this enables anyone to obtain market data and place trades on the entirely decentralized Injective orderbook.

With Injective’s API node architecture design, every individual can trustlessly and permissionlessly engage in decentralized exchange without facing any centralized chokepoints or restrictions.

The Injective API documents can be found here: https://api.injective.exchange/

6. Community Recognition

Over $1 Million worth of INJ will be awarded to Injective Equinox participants. Thousands of Injective community members came together during the Equinox Staking Testnet phase to provide valuable feedback that helped to vastly improve the protocol itself. This is also the time during which Injective’s staking, governance, and insurance fund parameters were all heavily iterated upon.

Participants who completed one of the three Injective Learn Summer Challenge tracks were awarded access to claim an NFT. This is thanks to a collaboration with Project Galaxy HQ, who helped organize the drop.

7. Community Initiatives

This month was rich with new community initiatives and milestones.

The Injective Labs team began to discuss a potential reward structure for the Stargazer Ambassador program on the Injective governance forum.

The Injective Ecosystem page launched, displaying one of the largest and fastest growing DeFi ecosystems in crypto. The page features some of the best projects and businesses that are building alongside the Injective community and will be routinely updated as more collaborations and integrations are cemented.

The brand new Injective Chinese Telegram channel was released, opening up a major avenue for the community to connect and grow.

Injective Labs CEO Eric Chen participated in a YouTube AMA hosted by Liam Connor on the Confident in Crypto channel. Topics included the Injective Exchange, Canonical Chain Launch, DEXs, and Cosmos IBC integration.

Injective Labs also made headlines on Bloomberg Law after welcoming legal chief Brandon Ferrick who hails from the prestigious Sullivan & Cromwell firm.

What’s Next

With so many product upgrades and many more to come, it is important that the community have the tools they need on their Injective journey. As always, users can join Discord to receive support from fellow community members around the clock. Stay tuned for more updates next month!

About Injective

Injective is a lightning fast interoperable layer one blockchain optimized for building the premier Web3 finance applications. Injective provides developers with powerful plug-and-play modules for creating unmatched dApps. INJ is the native asset that powers Injective and its rapidly growing ecosystem. Injective is incubated by Binance and is backed by prominent investors such as Jump Crypto, Pantera and Mark Cuban.