Cosmos Overview

Founded: 2017

Key persons: Jae Kwon, Ethan Buchman

Capitalization: $7,451,186,848

Trading volume (24h): $1,185,351,295

CoinMarketCap rank: 28

Cosmos (ATOM) general project description

Cosmos (ATOM) is a decentralized, parallel blockchain network based on Byzantine Fault-Tolerance consensus. A key project feature is the creation of a software kernel that can be successfully used to conduct transactions between blockchains with different security protocols and consensus algorithms. The launch came as a response to the notable weaknesses of the first blockchains — Bitcoin and Ethereum. The existence of different block authentication technologies, together with low transaction processing speed, has been a serious obstacle for many projects. It made creation of competitive decentralized applications impossible. To solve these problems, the Cosmos (ATOM) creators have developed Cosmos SDK toolkit, Tendermit codebase, and the Application Blockchain Interface (ABCI) — cross-blockchain interaction interface, together with Cosmos Hub bridge.

Current state (ecosystem and partners)

The blockchain is operated by ATOM’s 100 largest token validators, which guarantee stable and accurate transaction validation. Validator lists include the largest exchange — Binance, venture capital funds: Paradygm, Multichain, Coinbase Ventures, and others. In addition, more than 250 decentralised applications and platforms are using Cosmos infrastructure, with a combined value of more than $120 billion. The closest competitor of Cosmos is a parachain platform — Polkadot, that is also focused on cross-blockchain interactions. However, despite its higher valuation, Polkadot is still in the early stages of development.

Future plans and development (roadmap)

The protocol development is directly tied to the launch of cross-chain solutions that can facilitate liquidity across networks. An example is a project with great potential — Gravity exchange, that aims to solve the problem of different blockchain token swaps with the fastest speed possible.

Overall, the toolkit offered by the Cosmos platform makes it possible to launch one’s own cross-chain communication solution fast, without limiting developers to any single programming language.

The roadmap for the coming year includes enhancement of the programming code, the launch of decentralized budgeting and liquidity components of the Gravity exchange, and additional tools that work with NFT cross-chain.