Cosmos and its ATOM token were among the most popular projects and coins in early 2023. The initial surge began in 2023 with the launch of the mainnet, which had been in the works for over three years.
Cosmos is an exceedingly ambitious project in a field of exceedingly ambitious projects. It aspires to be the blockchain that connects all other blockchains through its blockchain interoperability platform.
What is Cosmos?
Cosmos, in particular, is a network of blockchain networks. This concept is referred to by developers as a “Internet of Blockchains.” The project’s goal is to enable separate blockchains to communicate with one another in a seamless manner. Cosmos is able to transform market friction into a positive driving force for development by allowing any blockchain to communicate, share data, and transact with any other.
Cosmos is more than just a link between blockchains, to be sure. This platform also includes a full suite of products and features, making it a compelling market option. Cosmos introduces a next-generation technology stack that gives developers access to powerful tools that improve the efficiency of blockchain creation.
What problem does Cosmos solve?
Cosmos’ principal purpose is to address the market’s lack of interoperability. The blockchain industry as a whole comprises a wide range of services and functions. Currently, each blockchain, however, functions as an island. This reduces the market’s overall ability to do key activities such as advocating for more pro-crypto legislation or other critical industry developments.
Different blockchains can live with their own unique use cases thanks to Cosmos. This allows developers to concentrate their efforts on improving their products rather than marketing and other competition-related activities. Different blockchains can even use the capabilities of other platforms to boost their usability with Cosmos.
How does Cosmos (Atom) work?
Cosmos makes use of a number of proprietary open-source tools to help its blockchains communicate with one another. To accomplish this, the protocol monitors the state of each blockchain in the network autonomously. Each network in the Cosmos ecosystem is referred to as a zone.
Zones
The network’s full capability is available to the zones. Importantly, these blockchains are self-contained networks capable of carrying out any transactions needed to perform their objectives. These blockchains can use their Cosmos link to issue and distribute new tokens on their networks, as well as approve new accounts, transactions, vote, and implement protocol modifications.
Cosmos Hub
All of these blockchains come together at the Cosmos Hub. As an intermediary, this protocol is used. Every network zone has a direct connection to the hub. The hub then keeps a running record of the zone’s current condition. After connecting to the Cosmos Hub, a zone becomes interoperable with all other zones in the network.
How Cosmos Solves Blockchain Problems?
The Cosmos Network is divided into three sections:
The Tendermint Core
Tendermint Core is a software implementation that includes the Tendermint BFT consensus algorithm as well as the inter blockchain communication (IBC) protocol, which integrates the consensus and networking layers to make communication between the hub and all zones easier.
Application Blockchain Interface (ABCI)
This enables dApps to be replicated in a variety of programming languages. Developers can design the application element of their blockchain in any language because ABCI is not limited to a single programming language. Tendermint Core and the Cosmos SDK are connected through the ABCI.
Cosmos SDK
This is the Cosmos Network’s application layer, which provides a basic blockchain infrastructure to developers. It simplifies things by including the most common blockchain features like governance, tokens, and staking. Plugins are then created by developers to add extra desired functionalities.
Tendermint Core supports consensus on the Cosmos Hub as a whole, whereas zone blockchains can maintain their own consensus without using Tendermint.
The Cosmos SDK enables developers to create blockchains and dApps while focusing solely on the application layer. Cosmos now supports a wide range of scripting languages and cryptocurrencies thanks to the addition of ABCI, which manages application state in a separate consensus process.
The IBC Protocol will allow blockchains connected to the Cosmos Hub to communicate with one another, regardless of the consensus algorithm utilised. This allows assets to be transferred between blockchains while maintaining any contractual features they may have.
IBC works best with high-finality blockchains, such as Proof-of-Stake blockchains, but it can also be modified to work with Proof-of-Work blockchains via peg zones. Ethermint is an example of this, as it is essentially a Tendermint-based Ethereum with its PoW capabilities removed and running on top of PoS consensus.
Cosmos Team
The Cosmos project is being pushed hard by a number of organisations, teams, and foundations. Cosmos was founded by Jae Kwon and Ethen Buchman, although it is primarily supported by the Interchain Foundation, a Swiss non-profit organisation (ICF).
The Cosmos Network and its ecosystem will be developed by ICF in collaboration with All in Bits Inc. (dba Tendermint Inc.). Because Jae and Ethan founded Tendermint, the relationship becomes a little clearer. With approximately 30 members, the Tendermint team as a whole is rather large.
Finally, the IRIS Foundation has received funding from the ICF to develop the Cosmos Hub IRISnet, which is designed to make the development of distributed business applications easier. All of these organisations work closely together, and it can be difficult to tell the difference between them and how they contribute to the development of Cosmos.
When it comes to community participation, the team is also highly active. They maintain an active official blog where they keep track of all of the significant developments. They also have a Telegram channel and a Twitter account. I joined their Telegram group, which has 10,000 members, and found the dialogue to be pretty encouraging, with more tech-focused individuals.
The Atom token
The Cosmos network’s native coin is ATOM. It has a handful of important purposes. It’s utilized to execute smart contracts and finalize transactions, for starters. Every time a block of transactions is approved, new ATOMs are generated as a reward for network validators. There are 204,603,576 ATOMs in circulation right now. The majority of these tokens were acquired at the initial Cosmos mainnet launch. These early tokens were distributed to early donors, token sale participants, the Cosmos Foundation, and the platform’s core engineers.
Pros and Cons
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Cosmos is a completely free and open-source project | ATOM is unavailable while validators complete their tasks due to delegated staking |
| With Cosmos’ compatibility, security is not jeopardised | ATOM is locked in for a minimum of three weeks |
| Cosmos is a community-management system in which users are identified by their keys | |
| Transaction fees can be paid with ATOM | |
| ATOM can be staked to earn interest | |
| Stand-alone blockchains can work independently and maintain their sovereignty and security restrictions |
Transaction Fees
Deposit Fees – 0%
Trading Fees – 0.1% to 0.75%
Withdraw fee – 0.1 Atom
Closing Thoughts
Cosmos is needed by the market. The crypto sector needs to come together in order to reach the next level of popular adoption. Every side benefits immensely when they work together. Users and developers grow as a community.
Furthermore, this technique helps blockchain companies to keep control over the industry’s narrative. The days of portraying cryptocurrency as a means of funding primarily utilized by criminals are long gone. Today, cryptocurrencies provide a more efficient alternative to the status quo around the world. Cosmos does its share to ensure that the entire sector may benefit from technological breakthroughs at the same time. Cosmos is already one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world as a result of these factors.