Introducing the Juno Network to the Community
For those of you in the Community that are not familiar with the Juno Network, I want to give a brief overview of what it has to offer. My hope is that you will find it helpful and get up to speed quickly on the new blockchain. If you would like to read a general overview of the blockchain, I left a link to a few helpful articles in the Sources section below. To jumpstart your own research and explorations, I have included links to everything I discuss and additional links in the Sources section for more sites and tools that will come in handy.
I have been actively exploring the Juno Network since last November and I have been nothing short of impressed! My objective with this article is to highlight the apps and tools needed to get started, point out some helpful comparisons, and discuss some synergies and opportunities that will be possible with the Juno Network.
Start with a Keplr Wallet
To interact with the Juno Network, you will need to set-up a Keplr Wallet. The amazing feature of the Keplr wallet is that it will be useful with many blockchains in the Cosmos. Keplr gives you many wallet addresses, one for each blockchain that is supported. Switching from one to the other is a simple point and click from the top menu.
To download the Google Chrome extension for the desktop or to download the mobile version of the wallet, start here:
From Keplr, you can also manage your staking positions, vote on governance proposals, and get an overview of your holdings from the Dashboard. I left a link to a helpful article for getting started with Keplr, in the Sources section.
Up until a few weeks ago, it was super easy to start trading and interacting with dApss on Juno. All you did was send some UST to your Terra wallet within Keplr, click on Deposit from within the DEX on Juno, and you were up and running. Unfortunately, those funding rails have been turned off, since IBC channels with Terra were shut down and the value plummeted.
Now, you will have to onboard via a central exchange; for example, you could buy ATOM, send it directly to your Keplr wallet, and deposit it to Juno, where you can swap it for JUNO. Alternatively, you can buy USDC with fiat, convert and bridge it to Juno, via Axelar. All of this will soon be super easy as Kado Money will launch on Juno, making on-ramping quick and cheap.
JUNO is needed to pay for transaction fees; therefore, getting a few tokens should be your first purchase. Transaction fees are extremely low, just fractions of a JUNO. If you are starting out without any JUNO in your wallet, you can take advantage of no-swap trades on the Osmosis AMM. Keplr has three levels of trading: Low, Average, and High. On Osmosis, when you trade with the Low option, you are not charged fees. Therefore, you could swap from ATOM or USDC to JUNO on Osmosis, withdraw it from Osmosis directly to the Juno Network, and start using it on the blockchain’s dApps.
Trade and Farm with JunoSwap
The JunoSwap decentralized exchange enables swaps between the assets native on the blockchain, as well as IBC assets from many other prominent blockchains in the Cosmos. At the moment, swaps are possible with thirty-five tokens. Tokens not native to Juno from other IBC enabled blockchains can be deposited directly onto JunoSwap. At this time, there are thirteen such tokens and more are expected to be added. The IBC transactions are handled in the background without you having to process the transactions manually from within Keplr. While a bit of a lengthy route and a multiple step process, you can also deposit your existing USDC via Axelar’s Satellite dApp, right onto JunoSwap, from Ethereum and other blockchains.
JunoSwap already has four incentivized liquidity pools up and running (JUNO pairings with ATOM, RAW, OSMO, and NETA), with rewards paid out in RAW, the native DEX token. Two of the liquidity pools pay us dual incentives: both JUNO and RAW. Additional incentives for the other liquidity pools will come via governance votes, once proposals are put up and passed. Incentives were just approved (via governance) for the JUNO-USDC pool and those have been turned on, as well.
The Future is Dao Dao
One of the most exciting dApps on the Juno Network is Dao Dao! You can create and launch a dao or a multi-sig with Dao Dao and use it to manage the treasury of your business, organization, project, or decentralized community. All the tooling is provided to enable governance proposals and voting, launch tokens, and start the staking of governance tokens.
A search bar is available to quickly find a particular DAO you are looking for and additional functionality such as sorting and grouping governance proposals (waiting to be voted on) are being discussed for development.
As an example, the RAW Dao has been successfully operating with governance proposals and voting to roll-out the token and incentivized farming, as well as the staking of the RAW token.
There may also exist a great opportunity to utilize Dao Dao for the Loop Writer Community and expand it with its own (separate) treasury, governance process, and incentivized staking system.
NFTs and Gaming
The first NFT collections, tokenized NFTs, gaming, and gambling projects have launched and several more are getting ready to spring into action. Some of these early projects include:
(de)NS
There is also a decentralized name service on the Juno Network and it is not only easy to use, but there are still many great names available to choose from and mint.
Strong Communities Unite
The recent announcement that Loop Finance was moving over to the Juno blockchain was very exciting. I have actively engaged with the dApps, participated in governance voting, closely followed announcements, listened to podcasts, watched videos, and became acquainted with the roadmaps of both the Juno Network and Loop Finance. A singular strength that stood out for me was that both teams have a desire to engage with their respective user communities. The focus has squarely been on transparent and honest communications, with a mission and a relentless drive to build useful, entertaining, and easy-to-use tools and applications.
There are many synergies that can be taken advantage of. Loop’s new NFT marketplace opens up a whole new world of DeFi opportunities wrapped up in collectibles, entertainment, art, and gamified assets. Combined with the fast processing on the Juno Network, inexpensive transaction costs, and Loop’s beautiful and consistent UI across its entire suite of products, this is truly an exciting new opportunity for everyone involved.
Both Juno and Loop have made crafting partnerships with other projects and teams a priority, from the beginning. As a result, the possibilities that exist to link up with the IBC enabled blockchains across Cosmos seem limitless. Developed with the library of powerful tools available on the Juno Network, enabling access to all these assets from the ease of Loop’s suite of products will be an important feature in our interchain future!
Tot ziens — Opa.
Sources, References, and Further Reading
Juno stats and charts from Bro_n_Bro
Stats and charts from CosmosPug
Gisele's article: "How to Stake JUNO and Claim Rewards Using Keplr Wallet""
Nolapowa's article "Juno. Birth of a Juggernaut."
Damien's article "An Introduction. Juno."
Cooper's article "Introducing (de)NS on Juno Network."
Nolapowa's article "The Juggernaut's Sisters."
This article was originally posted on Loop Markets.