Cosmos blockchain, a decentralized network consisting of independent parallel blockchains is supported by BFT consensus algorithms such Tendermint. Cosmos offers tools and SDKs that allow you to develop and host your dApps in the Cosmos ecosystem.
Before Cosmos, the blockchains were not interconnected and could only be used in isolation. Cosmos solved the problem, giving a new vision for the blockchain industry.
What is Cosmos?
Cosmos is an ecosystem of connected apps and services that is constantly growing. It was created for a decentralized future. It is a community-owned network of connected services. Cosmos uses Inter-Blockchain communication (IBC) to connect the apps and services. It allows for the free exchange of data and assets across sovereign, decentralized blockchains.
Cosmos’ primary focus is on customizability, interoperability. Cosmos does not prioritize its network. Instead, it fosters an ecosystem of networks that allows tokens and data to be shared programmatically without any central parties.
Every new Cosmos independent blockchain is named Zone and is tethered back to Cosmos Hub. The Cosmos hub keeps track of the status of each Zone. It is a proofof-stake blockchain powered by ATOM, the native cryptocurrency.
The Vision
Cosmos’ mission is to assist developers in building blockchains quickly and remove any barriers between them, allowing them to interconnect. The ultimate goal of Cosmos is to build a network blockchains that can interact with each other. Cosmos allows blockchains maintain sovereignty, to process transactions efficiently, and to connect with other Blockchains in the ecosystem.
Cosmos employs open-source tools like Tedermint (Cosmos SDK), and IBC to accomplish its goals. It helps you build secure, robust, interoperable, and custom blockchain applications.
What problem solves Cosmos?
Scalability
The shared rate for 15 transactions per second is an inhibitory factor in decentralized applications built on Ethereum blockchain. This is because Ethereum still uses the Proof of Work mechanism and its decentralized applications compete for limited resources of the one blockchain.
This is not just a problem with Ethereum. It applies to all blockchains that create a single platform that can fit all use cases.
Cosmos’ solution
Cosmos has two types of scaling:
Vertical Scalability
It provides methods to scale blockchains. Tendermint BFT can process thousands of transactions per minute by optimizing its components, and moving away form Proof-of-Work.
Horizontal Scalability
Even if applications and consensus engines are extremely optimized, transaction throughput in a single chain can drop, which it cannot exceed. This is due to vertical scaling limitations. Multi-chain architectures are the answer to this problem. Blockchains theoretically can be infinitely scaled by having multiple parallel chains running the same application, and operated by the same validator set.
Cosmos’ vertical scalability is available at launch. This is a significant improvement on existing blockchains. It will also implement horizontal scalability solutions once the IBC module has been completed.
What are the important tools/ frameworks/ SDKs Cosmos uses to make their work easier?
Agoric Swingset
Agoric’s Cosmic SwingSet enables developers test smart contracts built with ERTP within different blockchain setup environments. ERTP, or Electronic Rights Transfer Protocol (or Electronic Rights Transfer Protocol) by Agoric is Agoric’s token standard for transferring digital assets and tokens in JavaScript.
CosmWasm
It allows developers to write multi-chain smart contract in Rust.
Ethermint
The Ethereum Virtual Machine is a Cosmos module that makes it possible to deploy proof of stake blockchains that support Ethereum smart contract.
Cosmos SDK
It’s a library of SDKs which allows anyone who is interested in blockchain protocols to easily create, run and execute the code.
Protocol IBC
Inter-Blockchain Communication, another protocol, allows one blockchain protocol and another to communicate. It is used for a wide variety of cross-chain application, such as atomic swaps, token transfer, multi-chain smart contracts, and data and sharding.
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