This is the sixth of Hub Weekly Thursday recaps, straight from the Hub Unit team, per the cadence we committed to in the From Chaos to Stability to Growth post.
Every Thursday, we will call out significant Cosmos Hub updates on the forum, with a short companion thread on X, recapping announcements, live events like validator or community calls, and ecosystem updates!
For more info, see the linked posts, and contact @RoboMcGobo on telegram to submit news for the weekly.
This week: the Mad Scientists hackathon kicks off, a tokenomics research milestone, and a USDC integration check-in.
- Mad Easy on Cosmos, the Mad Scientists hackathon on the Hub, kicked off this week, and we joined the opening Space
- Where Gauntlet’s Phase 1 tokenomics research stands, and what is left before the report and shareout
- A short check-in on the Injective USDC integration, and a reminder that there is still no urgency for teams to migrate
Mad Easy on Cosmos: The Mad Scientists Hackathon on the Hub Kicks Off
Mad Scientists kicked off Mad Easy on Cosmos this week, a one-week, AI-assisted build sprint on the Cosmos Hub. We opened the lab live on an X Space on June 15 alongside the Mad Scientists team to talk through what we hope to see teams build. Cosmos Labs is sponsoring, and Robo and Nico are judging.
The theme is onchain games and incentive experiments: gacha-inspired games, loot mechanics, bonding-curve experiments, reflexive incentive games, social coordination games, and risk/reward simulations, with AI used as a co-builder, agent, mechanic, narrator, analyzer, or simulation layer. The one firm requirement is that at least one component of each project ties back to the Cosmos Hub, so that what gets built ladders into Hub growth.
Submissions are scored on five signals: a working prototype, a creative mechanic, how AI is used, Cosmos relevance, and incentive clarity. The build phase runs June 15 to 22, submissions close June 22, and the showcase runs June 22 to 29. Prizes for the top five experiments include ATOM, Odin Scan credits, and Mad Scientists NFTs.
If you are participating, or thinking about it, how you can help:
- Build on the Cosmos Hub during the sprint, and ship a playable or inspectable project by June 22
- Read the hackathon page for the full brief, timeline, and scoring
- Submit and ask questions in the Mad Scientists Discord; Zerk from the Mad Scientists team is the point of contact
Tokenomics Research: Phase 1 Is in Its Final Stretch, with a Report and Shareout Before Phase 2 Begins
A quick milestone update on the ATOM tokenomics research we have been running alongside Gauntlet. The goal of this work, as a reminder, is to understand how ATOM moves, why, and when, so that any future change to ATOM’s economics is grounded in evidence rather than assumption.
Phase 1 built the wallet-level attribution framework and the sell-pressure analysis that sits on top of it, and it is now in its final stretch. A few analyses remain before we prepare the final report and deliverables:
- Purchase attribution: the buyer-side counterpart to the sell-pressure work, looking at how value moves into ATOM and what tends to motivate it
- Cohort reactivity to past events: how different holder cohorts behaved around significant micro and macro events, from past governance votes to broader market shocks (prop 848, Terra Collapse, etc)
- A cross-network comparison: how ATOM’s reward-driven sell pressure compares to other proof-of-stake networks
Once those analyses wrap, we will compile the full Phase 1 report, review it, and share the findings before Phase 2 work begins, so that review can shape what Phase 2 looks at. We will have more to say on the Phase 2 scope after that.
Injective USDC: Integration Design Is Progressing, and There Is Still No Urgency to Migrate
Work on the Injective USDC integration continued this week. We are refining the technical design alongside the Injective team, and once that design is locked we will share a fuller public update on how the integration will work and what it means for teams.
In the meantime, the guidance for ecosystem teams has not changed:
- There is no urgency to migrate. Noble USDC continues to function as it does today, and no deadline is being imposed on teams currently using it.
- A USDC migration working group is the coordination point. If your team wants to plan ahead or stay close to the migration tooling and timing as it comes together, that is where it will happen.
If your team wants in, reply to this thread or reach out on Telegram (@RoboMcGobo), and we will keep you in the loop as the design firms up.
That’s all for this week - thanks to everyone engaging across the forum, validator channels, and Telegram. Looking forward to next week’s update! Please let us know if you like the Weekly format, and what else you’d like to hear from us.
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