Proposal: Migrate Stargaze, Its Applications, and Collections to the Cosmos Hub

Hub Proposals Community Spend
1

Summary

This proposal requests $1.5M in milestone-based funding from the Cosmos Hub Community Pool to migrate Stargaze, its suite of applications, and its NFT collections to the Cosmos Hub.
The goal is to ensure continued development, creator support, and deeper alignment with the Hub’s expanding ecosystem.

This is a partnership between the Hub and one of Cosmos’ most established app teams, designed to expand transaction activity, user engagement, and onchain cultural relevance while preserving Cosmos’ identity and creative legacy.

The proposal will be posted on-chain in one week.

Motivation

Both Stargaze and Cosmos are at a turning point.

When Stargaze launched in 2021, a dedicated chain was necessary to build permissionless NFT infrastructure.In 2025, the Cosmos Hub now supports permissionless CosmWasm, creating an opportunity to unify instead of fragment the ecosystem.

Maintaining a standalone chain introduces additional operational costs for limited benefit.
The Hub offers a natural next step, build within Cosmos, not beside it.

This proposal ensures that Cosmos’ culture, identity, and creator economy continue to grow on the Hub rather than disperse elsewhere.

Background

Since its inception, Stargaze has served as Cosmos’ primary hub for NFTs and onchain creativity, powering the marketplace, launchpad, and name service used across the ecosystem.

Over the past four years, Stargaze has:

  • Facilitated $60M in NFT sales

  • Launched 3,800+ collections

  • Hosted iconic projects like Bad Kids, Celestine Sloths, and Mad Scientists

  • Onboarded thousands of creators and collectors

  • Built tools used by Cosmos projects for names, auctions, and mints

  • Pioneered Interchain NFT transfers (ICS-721)

For many, their first NFT experience began on Stargaze. This migration ensures that future creators and collectors remain part of the Cosmos Hub experience.

Proposal Details

Objective

To migrate Stargaze’s core applications and collections to the Cosmos Hub, consolidating infrastructure while expanding Cosmos’ cultural and transactional footprint.

Scope of Migration

Applications: Marketplace, Launchpad, Name Service, Stargaze Studio
Collections: Migration of all NFTs to the Hub
Community: All future collection launches to occur on the Hub. Stargaze NFTs are widely used as profile pictures and cultural identifiers across the Cosmos community and beyond.

Why It Makes Sense for the Cosmos Hub

The Cosmos Hub gains an established, user-facing application suite that drives real transaction flow and engagement.

Immediate outcomes:

  • A flagship consumer app increasing onchain ATOM usage

  • A creator and distribution network for Cosmos-native projects

  • Instant NFT liquidity on the Hub

  • A working example of what can be built with permissionless CosmWasm

  • High user-driven onchain activity (an average of 130,000 NFT-related transactions per month on Stargaze over the past six months, 16% higher than the Hub’s monthly total).

Stargaze’s ecosystem is one of the most developed in Cosmos, with over 50 integrated services spanning applications, galleries, games, and analytics. Notable integrations include Public Works (generative art), Pegasus (peer-to-peer trading), Badges (POAPs), and Fractal.fun (NFT fractionalization), and Loans and Raffles. These integrations form a robust onchain network of projects already built around Stargaze.

This migration brings real utility and visibility to ATOM.

Why It Makes Sense for Stargaze

Stargaze was built for Cosmos. As one of the first CosmWasm chains, it both benefited from and contributed to IBC and the core Cosmos value of interoperability. In that same spirit, Stargaze became a home for many Cosmos chains to express and preserve their culture onchain. Moving to the Cosmos Hub is the most natural next step, the best fit for our technology, and the best home for our communities. Bad Kids and Mad Scientists have shown their support when reviewing this proposal, as well as many other creators and community members.

Key benefits:

  • ATOM becomes the default minting and trading token for new collections

  • Deep integration with Cosmos-native assets: ATOM, OSMO, TIA, AKT, BTC, OM

  • Continued support for Cosmos-themed collections like Bad Kids, Women from Cosmos, Mad Scientists, and Expedition

Funding Plan

Total Request: $1,500,000 USDC
Structure: Milestone-based tranches with quarterly distributions.
Milestone Description Amount (USDC)
1 Initial setup and technical planning 100,000
2 Launchpad and Studio migration 100,000
3 Marketplace migration 100,000
4 Name Service migration 75,000
5 NFT collection migration 100,000 (all collections)
6 Strategic Migration Commitment 75,000 per month for one year, distributed quarterly
7 Bonus bucket 125,000

| Total 1,500,000

The bonus bucket is an incentive defined as transaction fees generated to the Hub that will be paid at the end of the year.
|
|----|
| |

**Fund Management:**

A multisig composed of Hub community representatives and Stargaze contributors will oversee milestones and disbursements. A 20% buffer will account for price fluctuations and slippage. Any unused funds will be returned to the community pool.

Token Policy

This proposal is not an acquisition of $STARS.
The token will migrate as the Culture/Fun Token within the Hub.

Instead:

  • Inflation ends permanently

  • $STARS continues as a transaction and minting token

  • Integrated with the Superstars loyalty program

ATOM Integration

ATOM becomes the primary token for minting, trading, and creator actions on Stargaze after migration.

  • Default minting and trading token for all new collections

  • Used for gas, bids, and trades

  • Expands ATOM’s real economic utility

  • Expands ATOM’s real economic utility through creator and user activity. Increases transaction volume on the Hub by a minimum of 16%

New Features After Migration

  • NFT Vaults for collection bundles

  • Names Marketplace for trading Stargaze Names

  • Collection Chat for collectors and creators

  • Creator Notifications & Subscriptions

  • NFT Generator Tool for creators

Marketing and Cultural Value

Stargaze already serves as Cosmos’ cultural front door, where users mint, collect, and explore.
This migration makes that role native to the Hub.

It also ensures that Cosmos’ flagship collections: Bad Kids, Sloths, Mad Scientists, Babu, and Expedition remain Hub-native while enabling new cross-chain collaborations, event campaigns, and creator programs that strengthen the Hub’s visibility and network effect.

Outcomes

If the Proposal Passes:

  • Migration begins within 3–6 months

  • All apps, collections, and users become Hub-native

  • Cosmos Hub gains a self-sustaining cultural and transactional ecosystem

  • The Stargaze chain is gradually sunset

If the Proposal Fails:

  • Stargaze will migrate to another chain in 2026

  • The Cosmos Hub loses its existing creator and cultural base

Conclusion

By supporting this migration, the Cosmos Hub strengthens its position as the execution and cultural layer for the Interchain.

Stargaze brings active users, transactions, and consumer applications that extend ATOM’s utility beyond staking and governance.

Together, the Hub and Stargaze can ensure that Cosmos remains the home where interchain culture and onchain activity meet, all secured by ATOM.

9 Likes
2

I find this proposal reasonable. The $1.5M request is modest compared to the cost of building an NFT platform from scratch AND catch up with where Stargaze is now — with no users, no existing successful collections, no volume. It would need a shit ton of incentives to support and acquire users, creators..

In this case, Stargaze already brings existing collections, communities, and proven tools. It is true that trading volume has dropped in the recent 6–12 months — mainly due to uncertainty around Stargaze and the Cosmos ecosystem as a whole. This migration could help restore confidence and reignite on-chain activity around the Hub.

Capture d’écran 2025-11-12 à 21.22.15
Capture d’écran 2025-11-12 à 21.22.152628×798 152 KB

6 Likes
3

Are these included in the scope of the proposal?

I’m a huge Stargaze fan and user, just curious if the funding includes continued development and features.

1 Like
4

Hello everyone…

Since we are a validator on both networks, I’d like some clarity…

What will happen to STARS token holders? Will they simply be ripped off?

1 Like
5

Yes, if the proposal passes there will be continued development of Stargaze.

1 Like
6

$STARS will migrate to the Cosmos Hub.

1 Like
7

I support the idea of bringing Stargaze under the Cosmos Hub umbrella, but the requested $1.5M is excessive for what’s essentially a CosmWasm migration and some frontend integrations.

The technical scope doesn’t justify that amount . Stargaze already has mature infrastructure, and the Hub shouldn’t overpay for maintenance or marketing.

A more reasonable and defensible figure would be around $300k, milestone-based, tied strictly to tangible deliverables (infrastructure setup, contract migration, and user data transfer). Anything beyond that would be inefficient use of the community pool.

3 Likes
8

Hello!

If SG will migrate to cosmos hub , will all Stargaze NFT collection holders have to manually transfer their collections to another blockchain, or will this happen automatically for everyone?

9

I have a question, why NFT Collection migration is 500,000 USDC ?

I totaly for this proposal, just I’m sure, that it can be done cheaper

It means, that we are ready to migrate NFT Collections for 300K easily

So, can we make a tender for this proposal ?

3 Likes
10

Stargaze is a real product, with real users.

Stargaze can be explained meaningfully.

$1.5 million is a steal for ATOM holders.

5 Likes
11

These are milestones to ensure performance, not the cost of performance (I think?).

I hope some of the funds are used by the Stargaze team to buy and lock $STARS tokens. That would greatly boost morale and jumpstart the massive, sleeping engine that is Stargaze. I don’t know what the funds will actually be used for (probably to pay salaries and stuff for the team members)… but if some of the funds are set aside to kickstart the STARS token and breath new life into the token, it would be a wise.

Morale is at an all time low. A tiny boost of morale could save the entire ecosystem.

1 Like
12

After carefully reviewing the proposal, I would like to share some reservations regarding the requested funding level. The total budget, around $1.5M, feels high relative to the technical scope currently presented. Even considering the code migration, integration work, and accompanying support, it is difficult to assess the justification for such a cost without additional detail.

Additionally, certain parts of the proposal suggest that Stargaze may choose to deploy elsewhere if funding is not provided. While this may be understandable from a strategic standpoint, the way it is conveyed can give the impression of implicit pressure, which does not create the most constructive environment for a partnership with the Hub community.

Unless there are particularly ambitious or differentiated features planned in the medium-term roadmap and clearly communicated, it remains unclear why the Hub community should commit to such a significant financial outlay.

More broadly, I am not opposed to funding delivered in phases tied to concrete deliverables. This can be a healthy approach. However, such a structure would require clear timelines, well-defined milestones, and ideally a clawback mechanism in case of disputes, delays, or unmet deliverables. These safeguards are important to ensure accountability and protect the community’s resources.

That said, I remain open to the discussion and to the idea of a collaboration, but within a more balanced framework. A substantial reduction in the budget, on the order of 50% would make the proposal more coherent and more acceptable, while still recognizing the work of the Stargaze team.

As it stands, I cannot support the proposal in its current form, but I would be open to a revised version that is more detailed and better aligned with the expectations and constraints of the community.

4 Likes
13

Hi,

The proposal goes in favor of Stargaze

  • Getting funding to relocate into a new home to survive
  • Don’t affect the economy of $STARS - even provide benefits to it

For the Cosmos Hub, it seems there is direct costs

  • The requested amount (have to be paid in $ATOM)
  • Metrics are quite impossible to know in advance, will it would bring any value to $ATOM? Will users use it? The current activity seems pretty low, why would it change?

In our sense, Stargaze should have taken the last few months since the first proposal to already prepare the migration and be close to it.
From our point of view, it seems like Stargaze is just sitting on a position that their product is inevitable and profitable for the Hub. In reality, after two proposals requesting a funding, it seems more that Stargaze is in position of collapse.

We validate both networks and like the product, but it seems unreasonable with the current position of the Cosmos Hub to accept such terms.

Hopefully the migration is starting outside of the proposal. Otherwise, it doesn’t feel to be in the current scopes of the new roadmap/vision of the Hub.

2 Likes
14

It would be a lock —> snapshot –> claim method. Where the NFTs are locked and snapshoted on Stargaze and claimed on the Hub.

2 Likes
15

$200k to migrate a name service is diabolical.

3 Likes
16

Possible to let an already IBC enabled collection opt out of this part?

What about ALREDY IBC transferred NFTs? Will this not create a duplicate or missing token on other networks if they’re not on Stargaze at the time?

17

Totally agree! We need to up the moral of whole ecosystem

Just we have a team of developers, who are ready to do the same for the lower price

3 Likes
18

If the proposal passes, STARS inflation will eventually end, reducing sell pressure. If the proposal fails, Stargaze will continue to flourish in a new home.

Stargaze already has an active and engaged community. Volume dipped mid-year due to uncertainty about its future, but with clarity ahead, I’m confident activity will rise. Even during this slower period, Stargaze apps have averaged 130,000 transactions per month over the last six months. This would contribute more than 16 percent additional transaction volume to the Cosmos blockchain and increase ATOM utility.

Migrating would also provide wider distribution and lower onboarding friction. The migration will proceed only if the proposal passes.

19

To clarify, the $1.5M request already represents about a 90% reduction from the original ask made earlier this year. Stargaze is not a concept-stage project; it’s a fully developed, feature-rich product with a live marketplace, launchpad, name service, and thousands of active users. This isn’t something new and untested it exists, works well, and has a seasoned team supporting it.

We’ve also outlined new features: NFT Vaults, Names Marketplace, Collection Chat, and Creator Tools

The tone regarding alternative deployment options wasn’t intended as pressure, simply transparency about our operational timeline. We remain committed to collaboration with the Hub and to full accountability through milestone-based disbursements as mentioned in the proposal.

2 Likes
20

The migration would be mandatory for all projects on Stargaze. We can take snapshots of other chains to enable claiming.