Blockchains 101: Cosmos
Internet of Blockchains
Introduction
ATOM is the cryptocurrency of the COSMOS Network, a Delegated Proof of Stake (dPOS) protocol allowing scalability and coin interoperability (cross-chain) combined with staking rewards.
COSMOS Network has launched its mainnet in March 2019, emitted by the Interchain Foundation (Switzerland), following an ICO of $17M in 2017 (sold out in 23min).
Description
COSMOS has been founded by Jae Kwon and Ethan Bookman who first founded Tendermint in 2017.
COSMOS aim to solve some of the main problems of traditional blockchains:
- Increasing Scalability and efficiency of older consensus algorithms such as PoW, solved with Tendermint.
- Technical limitation of launching a blockchain network and with any programing languages (Solved with Cosmos SDK).
- Isolation of the blockchains from each others: no easy communication or interoperability (solved with Interblockchain Communication IBC).
The Cosmos’ inter-blockchain communication (IBC) module allows cross-chain asset transfers that provide strong support for DeFi solutions. However, there are 2 mains points to consider:
- IBC is only able to synchronize only with blockchains supporting smart contracts;
- Inter-block communication is still under development and beta testing;
The Cosmos Hub, also known as “Gaia,” refers to the COSMOS ecosystem.
Delegated Proof of Stake
As for EOS, COSMOS relies on a DPOS consensus mechanism. ATOM holders can delegate some of their stake (holding) to a MasterNode (Block validator) that will participate in validating transactions and blocks. In exchange, Stakers receive a share of the block reward relatively to the staked amount.
Unstaking (asking to unlock) ATOM takes a full 21 days before they become available.
Projects built on COSMOS
The interoperability of COSMOS, its scalability, technical specifications and support of various coding languages make it a perfect choice for developers to quickly deploy their own blockchain out of the COSMOS SDK.
Among notorious blockchains built on COSMOS SDK, we find:
Storage and wallets
You can find a review of the best wallets to store COSMOS: here
Technical specificities:
- Type: Native Coin
- Total Supply: 265,321,322 ATOM
- Subunit: NA
- Consensus: Delegated Proof of Stake (dPoS)
- Encryption: Tendermint
- Privacy: Pseudonymous (Low)
- Blocktime: 5 seconds
- Coding languages: Most (COSMOS SDK)
- Open source: Yes
Documentation:
- Whitepaper: https://cosmos.network/cosmos-whitepaper.pdf
- Github code: https://github.com/cosmos
- Official website: https://cosmos.network/
- Explorer : https://www.mintscan.io/cosmos
- Twitter account: https://twitter.com/cosmos
- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/cosmosnetwork/
- Wiki: https://en.bitcoinwiki.org/wiki/Cosmos
Telegram community: https://t.me/TradingBull_DA
Twitter: @_Digital_Assets
