Injective Protocol: The DeFi Game-Changer You Can’t Afford to Ignore!

Injective Protocol, also known by its market ticker of INJ, is a blockchain designed with decentralized finance in mind.

It aims to be the link between multiple other blockchains and provides some of the fastest transactions per second for DeFi platforms.
With over 100+ projects and over 150,000 community members worldwide, Injective is certainly building a following.

This includes catching the attention of prominent crypto investors such as Mark Cuban, Pantera Capital, Jump Crypto, and Binance, to name a few. But what is Injective, how does it work, and what makes it unique?
Today we find out.

Injective Protocol was created by Eric Chen and Albert Chin back in 2020 and is a blockchain built for finance, providing powerful core financial infrastructure for next-generation DeFi applications.
One of the main advantages of Injective Protocol is its ability to support cross-chain trading, which enables users to trade assets from different blockchains seamlessly.
Built using the Cosmos SDK, Injective is a highly interoperable blockchain, connecting with many other blockchains with little-to-no latency.

Technically speaking, Injective Protocol is a layer-2 application built on top of the Cosmos blockchain that uses cross-chain bridging which allows users to trade cryptocurrencies from other blockchains, like Ethereum, Solana, Polkadot, and more. But that leads us to the question, how does Injective Protocol work?

Like projects we’ve talked about previously, Injective Protocol was built using the Cosmos SDK, uses the Tendermint Core for verifying its transactions, and is IBC-enabled.

To recap, the Cosmos Software Development Kit, or SDK, is a framework for building blockchain applications.
The Cosmos SDK provides developers with a set of tools and libraries to create custom blockchains that are interoperable with other blockchains in the Cosmos ecosystem.
The SDK is designed to be highly flexible, allowing developers to customize their blockchains to suit their specific needs.

Overall, the Cosmos SDK aims to simplify the process of building and launching new blockchains, while still allowing for a high degree of customization and interoperability.
Creating your blockchain through the Cosmos SDK allows for easy integration of new functionalities and customization that may be created in the future. Keeping the blockchain from becoming outdated over time.
Injective Protocol is a Proof-of-Stake blockchain, and like most other Cosmos SDK-built blockchains uses Tendermint Core for verifying its transactions.

To keep it simple, Tendermint is a Byzantine Fault Tolerant, or BFT, consensus engine that enables secure and fast communication between nodes on a blockchain.

Essentially, Tendermint is the software that allows the blockchain to run correctly even if 1/3rd of the randomly selected participants were acting dishonestly.

Tendermint uses the Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm to validate transactions and is designed to be modular, flexible, and easily customizable.
Proof-of-Stake requires users to deposit some of their crypto holdings to the network, known as “a stake”, to participate in validating the network’s transactions.
Those with the most staked are likely to be chosen to validate the incoming transactions, with the logic being those with the most invested have the most to lose by trying to cheat the system.
Because your deposited crypto can be forfeited if you misbehave, and as other users check the validator’s work to ensure honesty, the result is the punishment always exceeds the reward, discouraging dishonest participants.
Lastly, the IBC, or Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol, is an authenticated way to relay messages between independent blockchains and is part of the Cosmos SDK.

All Cosmos SDK-based blockchains are interoperable, but Injective Protocol takes this to the extreme.
At present, Injective Protocol is one of the most interoperable blockchains online, being compatible with the Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Aptos, Polkadot, and Avalanche blockchains, plus many more.
Another unique feature of INJ is the buyback and burn mechanism.

Each week, 60% of all fees collected on Injective Protocol are burned, meaning destroyed, with the other 40% used as incentives for developers to build on the Injective network.
Consequently, the result is more INJ tokens are removed from the ecosystem, making the remaining INJ tokens slightly more rare.

The main function of INJ is as a governance token for the blockchain, as it gives those who hold INJ the right to propose protocol changes, and to vote on changes proposed by others.
Of course, it can also be used to secure or pay for fees on the network too.
Overall, there will only ever be 100,000,000 INJ tokens, with around 73,000,000 of them in active circulation.
Of the total 100 million INJ tokens, 6% was sold off during the seed sale, 16.67% was sold during a private sale, and a further 3% was sold via the Binance launch pad.
From the remainder, 20% was gifted to the Team, 2% to advisors, 36.33% towards Ecosystem Development, and a final 10% towards Community Growth.

Except for the 3% sold through the Binance launch pad, the remaining INJ tokens are locked under smart contracts to release at pre-defined set periods. This is known as the emission schedule.
This activity of buying back and burning INJ tokens from a fixed supply, mixed with a staggered release of new tokens and the need for INJ tokens to use the Injective Protocol, INJ’s price could be in for a ride should the platform find more popularity.

In conclusion, Injective Protocol looks to capitalize on the trend which helped fuel the 2021 crypto bull-run, DeFi.
Their platform is specifically designed with decentralized finance in mind, with its fast and efficient transactions, scoring thousands of transactions per second.
Though, what makes Injective Protocol stand out is the ability to trade through multiple different blockchains by using their highly interoperable platform.
Ultimately, Injective Protocol’s combination of cross-chain functionality, secure and scalable consensus mechanism, and high-speed trading capabilities make it a strong contender in the DeFi space.