Kintsu’s Core Values: Building the Future of Liquid Staking on Monad,Aleph Zero, and Beyond

Kintsu is at the forefront of developing next-generation liquid staking infrastructure. In this post, we outline the DNA of our project, shedding light on what we’re building and why we are building it.

Unity

In the web3 space, liquidity was envisioned to be efficient, but it has become fragmented much like traditional finance. Different chains and assets spread across them often lead to inefficient markets and security risks. Similarly, the presence of multiple validators without a unifying product to tokenize their work results in missed opportunities. We believe that unity makes us stronger, and this is where the name "Kintsu" finds its origin.

Inspired by the ancient Japanese art of kintsugi, which involves mending broken pottery with gold, Kintsu aims to be the gold that stitches together the fragmented pieces of the web3 ecosystem. Our mission is to unify and strengthen the DeFi landscape, ensuring that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Enhancing Liquidity

Kintsu’s premier liquid staking token (LST) solution, sAZERO, allows users to stake their AZERO and earn rewards while simultaneously utilizing them in DeFi protocols. In addition, our upcoming liquid staking solution on Monad, sMONAD, will further expand these capabilities. Unlike traditional staking, which locks up tokens, liquid staking with Kintsu lets you earn rewards while keeping your assets liquid. This paradigm enhances liquidity and unity within both the Monad and Aleph Zero ecosystems by combining staking rewards into tokenized, decentralized pools. Network-level staking and other use cases no longer compete; instead, they synergize.

Turnkey Composability

The composable nature of Kintsu’s protocol allows easy integration of Kintsu LSTs into DeFi, gaming, and other protocols, creating compounding opportunities. With Kintsu, leveraging LSTs is straightforward because our core product is a standardized token that represents a share of the automatically compounding staking pool. This feature enables seamless transactions, network security, and reward earning, making Kintsu’s LSTs highly versatile.

Resilience

Decentralization is a journey, and at Kintsu, it is a core requirement that our systems trend towards full decentralization. Our liquid staking solutions offer a scalable and diverse set of validators, promoting decentralization within the network. As we grow, we plan to add more validators and progressively decentralize the protocol itself. This approach ensures that our network remains resilient and community-managed. Through decentralized governance, governance token holders can vote on the on-chain Validator Registry to add or remove validators and adjust the stake distribution to maintain decentralization. This community-driven approach is crucial for maintaining the network's integrity as it grows and integrates with more applications.

Compliance

Kintsu is committed to being a fully compliant DeFi solution. We push the boundaries of what web3 is capable of with smart contract programmability, privacy-enhancing tools, and highly composable products, while ensuring compliance with legal frameworks to secure our users and products.

Privacy

Currently, 99% of blockchain activity is fully transparent. While transparency is a good starting point, the future of web3 will demand privacy akin to traditional financial transactions. Kintsu aligns its technology to accelerate this vision, integrating zero-knowledge cryptography and multi-party computation standards to ensure privacy in transactions.

Lowering Barriers to Entry 

Kintsu aims to make staking more accessible to a broader audience. Liquid staking tokens remove the need for long lock-up periods, allowing more users to participate without limits on token quantity. Lowering these barriers is a core value of Kintsu, making DeFi products accessible to the masses.

Improving Validator Participation

Validators are crucial for processing transactions and securing blockchain networks. Kintsu’s system is designed to attract a diverse set of validators, enhancing competition and trust guarantees. This competition improves incentives for validators to provide reliable services, benefiting the network's security and performance, and creating opportunities for high-performing validators to gain additional nominations.

Increasing Utility

Liquid staking tokens can serve multiple roles within the DeFi ecosystem, such as collateral or governance tokens in various protocols, increasing their value. This fosters an active and engaged community of stakers and DeFi enthusiasts, which is invaluable for the growth and development of the protocol.

By addressing these key areas, Kintsu is poised to lead the evolution of liquid staking, providing users with a secure, scalable, and adaptable staking solution on both Monad and Aleph Zero. Join us on this transformative journey as we build the future of DeFi.

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