from Osmocon Video Part 1: 02:56:40 - 03:09:43
tl;dr
Quasar is a vault-based yield strategy protocol building on Osmosis that is looking to eventually be its own chain. They are focused on onboarding non-degens into Cosmos/Osmosis/DeFi with ease of use, the benefits of actively managed strategies (the vaults), and benefit to the ecosystem. The strategies will be independently created and governed, and each will pay a portion of its earnings to the Quasar treasury, which will thus act as a Cosmos Ecosystem Index. Investors can single-side stake a coin to the treasury to participate in this Index fund.
-coming out of 8-month stealth phase
-big successes this week:
-testnet
-first fundraise closed, more announcements soon
-co-developing IBC-[something] with Strangelove, which is something the ecosystem needs
Quasar Product Philosophy
-revolutionary nature of decentralized, permissionless systems
-but normies don’t seem to care: ‘I can buy stocks on Robinhood’
-avg. person only cares about the value prop for them
-DeFi too complicated, seems dangerous, too much custody responsibility
-it’s bc we’re building for enthusiasts
-but like web2, not many now understand HTML, but they don’t have to anymore
-delegating trust tends to create better ease of use
-the Quasar goal is greater ease of use with minimal delegated trust; and non-exclusive investments that are highly profitable [i.e. passive liq. strategies]
-generating use: easy to use, profitable, beneficial to the ecosystem
-Yearn Protocol: not super easy to use
-Grayscale: easy to use and profitable, but no benefit to DeFi space
-Osmosis: easy to use, good for ecosystem, but is not using actively managed strategies
Quasar wants to bring more non-degens, non-DeFi-native to Osmosis with managed strategies
Quasar is essentially an app-chain that will host independently governed vaults employing various strategies using IBC (i.e. connecting to any chain)
-users will be able to run those strategies like Yearn does
-also introducing the Cosmos Index:
-users should think Cosmos is one thing: but ATOM doesn’t give the benefit of all the Cosmos chains
-end-user single-sided deposits a token once—>it is converted to Quasar token and staked to treasury, securing the network and earning based on the index:
-every vault strategy will share revenue with the treasury
-so the index is based on the revenues of strategies from across the Cosmos
-and you can participate with two clicks
Governance: security, robustness, expansions
-but vaults will govern their strategies themselves (not via protocol/chain gov)
Users shouldn’t even know they’re interacting with a blockchain
-Keplr will get to a seamless user experience (integrated fiat on-ramp, etc.)
Quasar will not be degen-yield-seeking, but will be looking for lower, sustainable yields