Frequently Asked Questions

This page is designed to provide quick and reliable guidance to help answer your questions about MilkyWay. It includes the most frequently asked questions. As time goes on, we will add more questions and strive to keep it updated with the latest information. If you can't find what you're looking for here, feel free to join our community and ask your questions.

📖 General

Does MilkyWay have its token?

Yes, but MilkyWay has not minted its own token yet. Be cautious of anyone claiming otherwise, as they may be engaging in phishing or spam. Always verify information through our official channels to ensure its authenticity.

What is $MILK Token?

$MILK will be the native token of the MilkyWay protocol. We will soon share more details, but here’s the core part: $MILK holders will receive a portion of revenue generated by the protocol. Also, just like other blockchains, $MILK also serves as a governance token, empowering holders to influence important decisions like new features, fee structures, and treasury management.

Who are the validators that I am staking with?

For liquid staking, MilkyWay partners with trusted validators from the base chain's validator set. You can find a complete list of the current validator set in this docs.

Are there any costs to use MilkyWay?

Since MilkyWay operates as an on-chain protocol, interacting with the platform will incur gas fees. The cost of gas will depend on the chain's settings and demand.

In addition to the gas fees, there are other costs to consider. Validators charge their commission fee from the generated staking rewards. They're encouraged to set lower than or equal to 10%. On top of that, MilkyWay protocol charges 10% protocol fee.

Will I qualify for TIA airdrops if I stake with MilkyWay?

MilkyWay has successfully secured nearly all TIA airdrops by coordinating with the projects so far. We will continue their best efforts to secure future TIA airdrops. If you think the team might miss any important TIA airdrop, please join the community and let us know.

What is MilkyWay Minitia?

Minitas are a term used in the Initia ecosystem (see their docs for more details). In simple terms, they are Layer 2 (L2) app chains built on the Initia ecosystem. MilkyWay Minitia is L2 app chain that is tailored made to provide liquid staking service for $INIT when they launch their Mainnet. The solution is customized to better serve the liquid staking needs on their ecosystem.

Is MilkyWay code open-source?

Yes, we maintain a transparent repo on GitHub. However, certain features or upcoming product that are still under active development may remain private to ensure confidentiality or for other strategic reasons, such as security considerations or partnership agreements.

Has MilkyWay been audited?

Yes, we take security very seriously and are dedicated to identifying and addressing vulnerabilities and potential attack vectors before we launch our codebase at every major milestone on Mainnet. With that being ssaid, our codebase for liquid staking has undergone thorough audits by reputable third-party security firms to ensure its integrity. You can find the audit reports on this page.

🔷 Modular Liquid Staking Protocol

Do I have to worry about “locked” tokens anymore?

No, with LSDs, your staked tokens remain liquid, so you’re free to deploy them in DeFi or bridging.

How does staking with MilkyWay work?

Note that at the time of this response, liquid staking support for $TIA is the only one live on MilkyWay. So, this question pertains to staking with $TIA.

From the perspective of an end user, the process is straightforward. You hold your $TIA on either the Celestia or Osmosis network, and our application helps you staking it. The protocol manages everything in the background. Once your $TIA is staked, you will receive milkTIA, which represents your staking position and the staking rewards are automatically compounded while you hold milkTIA.

At its core, the codebase is built with CosmWasm smart contracts and they are deployed on the Osmosis blockchain. If you're looking for a detailed technical explanation of how it works, please refer to the Modular Liquid Staking page.

How does delegation distribution work?

The staked $TIA is distributed evenly among all validators. Currently, the MilkyWay protocol has 14 validators, and this number is expected to increase over time. For additional context, all validators are encouraged to charge a commission of 10% or less to benefit our users.

Why is MilkyWay on Osmosis?

First of all, the Celestia blockchain neither supports a smart contract environment nor offers any functionalities that existing liquid staking providers can utilize. So, we choose Osmosis blockchain as the perfect platform for us to initiate milkTIA issuance as it supports smart contract environment and provides the largest on-chain TIA liquidity.

Where can I see my rewards?

MilkyWay not only assists users in claiming staking rewards but also automatically compounds these rewards to maximize APR. This process alters the exchange rate between the staked token and its milkAsset to incorporate the rewards.

As a result, there are no separate outstanding rewards; they are already reflected in your milkAsset balance. You receive these rewards when you withdraw your milkAsset. For more information on how the reward claiming process operates, please refer to our documentation.

How is the exchange rate calculated?

The exchange rate is calculated by dividing the Staked TIA + accrued staking rewards by the total milkTIA minted. For a detailed explanation, please refer to this page.

Who are the MilkyWay's operators and what roles do they play?

At its core, MilkyWay leverages a fusion of CosmWasm contracts, multisig custody system, and the Cosmos SDK authz module to introduce our novel liquid staking protocol for the Celestia blockchain. It is imperative that we enlist trusted entities to oversee the multisig custody system. We launched with seven trusted operators comprising of Everstake, Chorus One, Allnodes, 01node, DSRV, Keplr and Cosmostation, whom collectively secure $6.6 billion across ecosystems such as Ethereum, Cosmos Hub, Osmosis, and many more. The multisig accounts on Celestia are configured as a 5-of-7 multisig, utilizing the public keys of the operators.

Who are the MilkyWay's validators and what roles do they play?

MilkyWay Foundation does not operate validator node on the Celestia blockchain. Instead, we partner with reputable, professional validators who have years of experience running validator nodes. Our stakers’ delegations are uniformly distributed across these carefully selected validators to ensure reliability and decentralization.

While we take great care in selecting highly professional validators with proven track records, users should be aware that slashing is still a possibility, as it ultimately depends on the behavior of each validator. In the future, the selection process will be governed by the MilkyWay governance.

At the time of writing, Celestia does not impose slashing penalties for downtime. However, there is a 2% penalty for double signing. Although this scenario is highly unlikely due to the maturity of the underlying technology and the expertise of the validators we work with, users should be mindful of the inherent risks associated with staking.

What is milkINIT?

The milkINIT is going to be the second liquid staking token (LST), following milkTIA. When users stake $INIT, the native token of the Initia ecosystem with MilkyWay, they will receive milkINIT.

What are the benefits of using milkAsset?

It offers multiple benefits:

• Auto Compounding Rewards:

  • Your staking rewards automatically compound, increasing your potential returns.

• Liquidity and Flexibility:

  • milkAsset allows you to trade or use your staked assets in DeFi, providing liquidity without giving up your staking rewards.

• Maximized Yields:

  • Use milkAsset in DeFi to optimize your earnings, and later in MilkyWay’s restaking for even more opportunities.

• Easy Unstaking:

  • When you’re ready, you can easily unstake milkAsset to receive your original tokens along with any accrued rewards.

🔸 Modular Restaking Protocol

What is restaking?

Restaking is a new way to extend crypto-economic security for off-chain services, including bridges, oracles, rollup sequencers, co-processors that builds on the existing Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchains.

What projects can be AVSs?

AVSs can be any type of off-chain services or apps that use MilkyWay’s restaking operators to execute specific off-chain tasks. MilkyWay’s restaking offers AVSs (Application-specific Validators) total freedom in slashing conditions, token choice, and reward distribution.

Are there any AVSs will be secured by the MilkyWay restaking protocol?

Yes, MilkyWay has AVSs lined up already. These span various ecosystems and include rollup sequencers, light nodes, RPCs, LLMs, trading and lending protocols, cryptographic schemes, decentralized services, and more. Our blog posts provide a more detailed explanation about how each of the AVSs leverages MilkyWay's restaking.

Note that this is just the beginning—many more AVSs will be added in the future as the ecosystem continues to grow.

What assets can be restaked with MilkyWay?

We launched restaking deposit during Q4 2024. Users can stake their $TIA and LSTs of TIA, including milkTIA, stTIA, and dTIA. Check out our app to interact with the flow.

Note that MilkyWay is designed to allow a wide range of assets from various ecosystems, and more assets will be allowed as we continue to expand.

Is there LRT (Liquid Restaking Token)?

MilkyWay’s restaking protocol is permissionless, allowing anyone to build their own liquid restocking service. To answer the question, yes. Multiple teams, including the Inertia team, are interested in building liquid restacking protocols, and we anticipate the emergence of more Liquid Retaking Tokens (LRTs) as we grow.

What is a LRT?

It is shortened for Liquid Restaking Token, and it allows you to stake your tokens while keeping them liquid, similar to staking with LSTs like milkTIA or milkINIT.

The best approach is to retake LSTs and restake them through liquid restaking protocol to receive LRT. Then, you can earn staking rewards, having them work for providing security, and participate in DeFi protocols to maximize your returns.

What benefits restakers get from restaking?

To simply put, you can make your assets work harder for you. By restaking your assets, you're not just securing one network but also providing security for additional services across off-chain services, known as "Active Validator Services" (AVS). In return, you earn extra yield from them, giving you more income on top of your regular staking rewards.

If one AVS is slashed, do I lose stake in all AVSs?

If you used the same LSD or asset across many AVSs, a slash can impact your total stake. Some stakers spread their stake or LSDs among multiple wallets or operators for risk management.

Note that at the time of this response, slashing is not enabled.

How is MilkyWay’s restaking different for restakers?

MilkyWay is a modular restaking protocol tailor-made to cater the dynamic use cases of the modular ecosystem. Our approach gives users more control over how your tokens are used with several key features:

• Multi-Asset Support: MilkyWay supports restaking from a wide variety of tokens, giving you greater flexibility and choice in your restaking strategy.

• Hybrid Models: Unlike traditional methods where operators control your funds, MilkyWay offers three options:

  • Pool: Pool your tokens with others to maximize yields, suitable for users willing to leverage some risk.

  • Operator: Delegate your tokens to a specific operator, who will then decide which services to secure.

  • AVS-Centric: Directly choose a specific service (AVS) you want to support, whether you like the team, project, or rewards.