You may have noticed that the Cirrus token (CRS) begins trading on DigiFinex on the 22nd November 2021. This blog aims to explain the token, its utility, and how Cirrus fits within the wider Stratis Platform ecosystem.

What’s the utility of the Cirrus token?

Cirrus is a gas token that fuels smart contract transactions on the Cirrus Sidechain. Anyone interacting with smart contracts on the Cirrus Sidechain for DeFi, NFT or other uses will require Cirrus tokens to pay for those transactions.

As DeFi and NFT activity increases, the more smart contract calls on the Cirrus Sidechain will be necessary, causing demand for the Cirrus gas token to rise. As more Cirrus tokens enter circulation, the same number of STRAX tokens become locked on the mainchain.

Why did Stratis create the Cirrus token?

We recognized long ago that it made sense to execute smart contracts on a sidechain rather than the Stratis mainchain. This avoids mainchain congestion by running high transaction throughput on a sidechain that can scale more easily without placing the risk on the highly secure mainchain. This avoids some challenges common to blockchains like Ethereum that suffer from high fees and slow transaction times due to constant demand.

Why is being listed now?

The Stratis ecosystem is growing rapidly, and the launch of the Stratisphere NFT platform and Opdex’s decentralized exchange are both expected before the end of the year. These capabilities will drastically increase use cases for Stratis and are expected to result in significant demand for smart contract execution. Therefore, now is the time to ensure users can access Cirrus tokens to power NFT, DeFi and gaming use cases on the Cirrus Sidechain.

What is the supply of the Cirrus token?

The supply of CRS Tokens is dynamic, based wholly upon the amount of STRAX that have been locked for the issuance of CRS Tokens.

How can users obtain Cirrus tokens?

There are two options.

• Users can buy Cirrus tokens on the secondary market, as of November 22nd 2021 CRS will be tradable on DigiFinex with more exchange and third-party payment provider support to come.
• Users can choose to swap STRAX tokens for CRS tokens (and visa versa) in a trustless manner, at a 1:1 ratio via the STRAX Wallet.

Where can I store my Cirrus tokens?

In order to store and interact with Cirrus tokens users need to download the Cirrus Core Wallet, which you can find here: Wallets.