The Internet of Blockchains: A Deep Dive into the Cosmos Network

6 min readOct 21, 2021

The Cosmos Hub is the blockchain protocol that allows an ever-increasing number of blockchains built on the Cosmos Network to communicate with one another. It works similarly to how you might share files on a computer that can be opened on any operating system.

Summary

The Cosmos Hub is intended to help the Cosmos Network develop thousands of interconnected blockchain systems. The Cosmos Hub, which is powered by the ATOM token, uses a proof-of-stake consensus process to allow network participants to “stake” their ATOM coins and gain incentives.

The Cosmos Hub employs a variety of innovations to make software development easier, enhance performance, increase security, and create a blockchain infrastructure that is interoperable.

While Cosmos is meant to accept a wide range of tokens, ATOM is the native cryptocurrency that powers the Cosmos Hub. ATOM performs a number of tasks:

Maintaining network consensus
Staking through incentivization-based validator nodes
Mitigating spam as the medium for paying gas fees
Providing a voting mechanism to propose network amendments through Cosmos governance proposals

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The Tendermint Core team, which is responsible for creating and contributing to the Cosmos Network, is building the Cosmos Hub. They are crucial in the development of critical network infrastructures such as the Cosmos Hub, Cosmos SDK, and Tendermint Core, as well as offering cutting-edge tools to assist the Cosmos Network to fulfill its full potential.

Cosmos Hub was built by the Tendermint team as an interoperable blockchain platform that allows the protocol to link with autonomous blockchains inside the Cosmos Network, known as zones.

The Cosmos Network will be discussed in three primary elements in this article:

The Tendermint Core Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) consensus methodology is a language-agnostic consensus mechanism that is utilized for state machine replication to clone other blockchain networks developed within the Cosmos Network.
The Tendermint team created the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC) as an interoperable communication layer across different blockchain networks.
Within the Cosmos Network, the Cosmos Software Development Kit (SDK) is an open-source, scalable infrastructure for building multi-asset proof-of-authority (PoA) and proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain platforms.

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Tendermint Core BFT Consensus

Proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain technologies are generally sluggish and expensive to run, with scalability issues and high energy usage.

The Tendermint BFT consensus mechanism addresses these issues by employing a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithm that is specifically designed to speed up transaction times on the network.

Tendermint, the Cosmos Network’s consensus algorithm, is designed to be a high-performance BFT SMR (State Machine Replication) platform that replicates services into deterministic, non-random state machines. Tendermint Core was created to clone specialized servers, in a nutshell (or states).

This is accomplished by a unique machine that duplicates servers and distributes them around the Cosmos Network. This approach enables Tendermint Core software engineers to replicate the blockchain on state machines all over the world.

Because of Tendermint’s extensive technical capabilities, developers can construct their own blockchain platform without having to start from scratch. This is useful because it allows users to design virtually any form of blockchain system they want, with almost everything done for them save the application logic and token.

Kava (KAVA), Terra (LUNA), Band Protocol (BAND), Aragon (ANT), and Akash Network (AKASH) are some of the tokens that are hosted on the Cosmos Network.

Because the Cosmos Hub is a proof-of-stake blockchain platform, the Cosmos ATOM token is also critical to the operation of the Tendermint Core BFT consensus mechanism. To maintain consensus, security, and operational efficiency, Cosmos uses a 100-validator node network. Users must stake their ATOM coins in order for this system to work effectively.

A validator’s job is to run a complete node that checks the network’s rules and broadcasts votes to the network in order to commit new blocks to the blockchain. The validator, in turn, earns compensation in the form of ATOM coins based on the number of ATOM coins staked as collateral.

Finally, the Cosmos ATOM currency is employed as a spam deterrent (to pay fees in a similar way ether is used to pay gas fees on Ethereum).

The practice of charging for transactions deters a large number of spam transactions. The Cosmos coin is also utilized as a voting mechanism for proposals that have an impact on the Cosmos Network’s development. Participants in the Cosmos network can vote in proportion to their ATOM ownership.

Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) Protocol

The Cosmos IBC protocol was created to address one of the most pressing issues facing today’s blockchain systems: a lack of communication and data sharing between networks.

Interoperability and the ability to connect with both external and internal blockchain protocols are critical to the widespread use and adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrency in the real world. Consider a phone network that could only interact with people in its near vicinity. It’s just not going to work.

The Cosmos IBC is a TCP/IP-like messaging protocol designed to transfer information and data, allowing several blockchains to communicate with one another.

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Capabilities of the Cosmos SDK

The Cosmos SDK is a scalable, open-source infrastructure that can be used to create multi-asset public PoS blockchain systems like the Cosmos Hub as well as permissioned proof-of-authority (PoA) blockchains.

Software engineers are looking for simplicity and ease of use in order to build interoperable, application-specific blockchains in a timely manner. Instead of virtual machine-based applications, the Cosmos SDK is a modular platform for building application-specific blockchains.

Virtual machine (VM) blockchains, like Ethereum, were built to host application development as a series of smart contracts on top of an existing blockchain.

Smart contracts can be advantageous in certain situations, such as single-use applications. Nonetheless, they are frequently useless when it comes to the creation of complicated, decentralized platforms.

Smart contract technology’s adaptability, sovereignty, and technical performance are typically limited. Application-specific blockchains, such as those supported by Cosmos, are designed to run a single application and provide engineers the flexibility to make structural design changes that are required to run the application optimally.

The Cosmos SDK enables developers to test their minimum viable product before establishing their own public mainnet, allowing them to use both pre-built and custom-built modules (blockchain protocols that have completed testing and are ready for public use).

The Cosmos SDK also allows users to connect their own blockchain to the Cosmos Network via IBC, which increases liquidity and user adoption. A number of important blockchain and cryptocurrency projects, including Binance DEX, Kava, Terra, and IRISNet, have been built using the Cosmos SDK.

A Universe of Interoperable Blockchains

The Cosmos SDK, the IBCProtocol, and the Tendermint BFT consensus mechanism are all designed to make it easier for software engineers to create their own blockchain protocols as part of the Cosmos Network. Using the Cosmos Network’s versatile and interoperable design, many top blockchain companies have already built the network’s core.

The Cosmos Hub is a decentralized blockchain network with a framework and governance that allows network participants to maintain peace, with the ATOM token functioning as a staking mechanism to enhance security, consensus, and operational efficiency.

Many of the underlying interoperability difficulties that now put basic constraints on today’s blockchain technology are addressed by the Cosmos Network.