1 Overview
1 Overview
Cosmos is known as the Internet of blockchain, and is also considered to be the 3.0 version of the blockchain. It aims to solve the problems of blockchain interoperability and scalability. Its inter-blockchain communication protocol can realize the interconnection of blockchains and support different blockchains. Asset transfer between blockchains.
Cosmos is not an independent blockchain public chain or cross-chain protocol, but an ecological combination of blockchains. Among them, different blockchains focus on different application scenarios.
2. The technical core of Cosmos
Consensus layer – Tendermint Consensus: The first BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerance) consensus protocol available at the Internet level, PoS, currently has 150 active verification nodes.
Development layer – Hub Zone: As the center of the entire system, Cosmos Hub provides information interaction, transaction recording and execution for all online ecosystems. Zones are participants in the Cosmos ecosystem, which can be other public chains or dApps developed on the Cosmos ecosystem.
Cosmos SDK: a convenient blockchain application development framework; dApp developers can use the Cosmos SDK to quickly create a new Chain. The SDK writes the basic functions of Chain development. Developers can use different plugins to change their staking or governance Function.
IBC cross-chain protocol: Inter-blockchain communication, a cross-chain protocol based on the design concept of TCP/IP, is an inter-blockchain communication protocol of Cosmos, which is used for message transmission and asset transfer between Hub and Zone, and then achieves the purpose of cross-chain . IBC is also one of the modules in the Cosmos SDK. 42 active zones have been connected to IBC.
3. Ecological framework
Cosmos Hub (token ATOM) is the hub of ecology, and IBC is the communication channel between blockchains. The App-Chain with the IBC function enabled is called a Zone.
The Cosmos ecosystem as a whole is more open and loose. The framework can be compared to the native Android system. The various public chains developed based on this system are similar to secondary developed mobile phone systems such as Mi UI and One OS. The Android system itself is free and open source, and Google uses it as a traffic/channel to feed back its own businesses such as Google Play, Google Pay, and Google Map.
The Polkadot ecology is more similar to Apples IOS, with a higher threshold (slot auction) and relatively more closed. Therefore, DOTs value capture ability is stronger, with a market value of 22.3 billion US dollars, which is much higher than ATOMs market value of 8.1 billion US dollars.
4. Development team
Cosmos is built by Tendermint Inc., a US-based for-profit software company founded in 2014 by Jae Kwon and Ethan Buchman to explore the commercialization of the Tendermint consensus algorithm.
CEO, Jae Kwon graduated from Cornell University with a CS background and worked as a software developer for several IT companies.
CTO, Ethan Buchman graduated from the University of Guelph with a bachelors degree in biophysics. During his masters period, he mainly studied machine learning and neural networks. He has many years of experience in blockchain development.
Cosmos is led by the Interchain Foundation, a Swiss non-profit organization, with which Tendermint is contracted to deliver and maintain Cosmos.
In February 2020, Jae Kwon resigned, and the official statement is to fully develop other projects. However, the director of the company, Zaki Manian, tweeted that the resignation of the CEO was to evade responsibility, and at the same time accused him of mismanagement, hindering the progress of IBC development, wasting resources and leading to brain drain, etc.; Also a core contributor to Cosmos.
Jae Kwons public statements usually have strong political and religious overtones. The market thinks that he pursues being true to himself too much, but ignores his public identity as the founder of a project.
After Jae left, Peng Zhong took over as CEO in May 2020. He was an early employee of Tendermint and joined as Chief Design Officer in 2015; according to LinkedIn, his expertise lies in product design, go to market strategy, and prioritization of feature development , may be the reason why he became CEO.
Affected by this, IBC was originally planned to go live in November 2019, then postponed to April 20, and finally went live in April 21. During the first half of 2020, there were many articles accusing the Tendermint team in the market, including the incompetence of the CEO, the crowding out of Zaki, the incompetence of the community managers, and so on. ATOM fell from $5 to less than $2.
The initial development vision of Cosmos is mainly to promote the Tendermint consensus, which is used to deploy the blockchain with one click, and then develop the Cosmos SDK and IBC. But in the later period, IBC became the core of the Cosmos ecology, and the price of ATOM is strongly related to the development progress of IBC.
In February of this year, Tendermint changed its name to Ignite. CEO Peng Zhong said that the name change did not involve major changes in the companys roadmap or leadership. The beginning of change and action.
From March this year, Tendermint will transfer Cosmos marketing and community programs and channels to the ICF (Interchain Foundation) based on the guiding principles of decentralization and collaboration.
After the turmoil, Cosmos has gradually shifted from a centralized leadership mechanism to a decentralized community leadership. With the Tendermint consensus, Cosmos SDK and IBC all online and running smoothly, Cosmos will gradually develop towards the goal of ecological prosperity in the later stage.
5. Financing history
In April 2015, Tendermint Inc. raised US$300,000 in angel round financing, and the investors were not disclosed.
In April 2017, Tendermint Inc. raised $17.3 million in an ICO. (The total initial supply of ATOM is 200 million, ICO sales account for 75%, angel investors account for 5%, the foundation 10%, and the team retains 10%. The price of ICO is 0.1 US dollars, strategic investors and early investors respectively There are 25% and 15% off.)
In March 2019, Tendermint Inc. raised US$9.8 million in Series A financing, led by Paradigm, with participation from Outlier Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, Polychain Capital, and Pantera Capital, with a post-money valuation of approximately US$30 million.
Shared Staking & Security6. Future development
(Expected to be voted by the community in Q2 2022, and officially launched in Q3)
Validators of the Cosmos Hub can use their ATOMs as collateral to provide security for newly created blockchains in the Cosmos ecosystem and be responsible for the generation of new blocks. Holders of ATOM will not only receive staking rewards from Cosmos Hub, but also receive rewards for providing this security service for the new blockchain (one staking, multiple rewards).
This move will improve the value capture capability of ATOM, further lower the threshold of the Cosmos ecology, and improve the prosperity of the entire ecology.
Key projects in the Cosmos ecosystem include: Osmosis, Stargaze, Juno, Evmos, Secret, etc. We will further analyze the key targets in the ecosystem in subsequent articles.
The Cosmos ecology has strong traffic acquisition capabilities and low thresholds, and has strong development potential. We are optimistic about the further development of its ecology in the future. Compared with other ecological or cross-chain projects with a single-chain design, Cosmos has laid an ecological foundation for its stable development in the early stage. Now it is taking small steps to participate in the multi-chain structure, and it is bound to become one of the indispensable protagonists in the encryption landscape in the later stage.
Reference：
https://cosmos.network/
https://www.mintscan.io/cosmos/
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