A closer look at the powerful and modular Cosmos SDK, designed to simplify blockchain development and drive interoperability.
In the early days of blockchain technology, blockchain developers faced a serious dilemma: on the one hand, building a blockchain from scratch was resource-intensive and required deep knowledge of cryptography.
While this approach provided maximum flexibility, it was time-consuming, resource-intensive, error-prone and ultimately uneconomical for many projects.
On the other hand, developers could build on existing platforms such as Ethereum. While this approach reduced development time and complexity, it had its limitations. Projects built on these platforms were constrained by the blockchain architecture, which could stifle innovation and limit the development potential of decentralised applications.
To address this dilemma, the Cosmos project was created, including the Cosmos SDK framework, which simplifies the process of building custom modular blockchains while providing flexibility and adaptability to the specific needs of decentralised applications.
The Cosmos Creation Story
The story of the project begins in 2014, when Jae Kwon creates the idea and concept of ‘Cosmos’, which would later be called “The Internet of Blockchains”. A year later, Kwon was joined by Ethan Buchman, and together they founded the non-profit organisation Interchain Foundation and created a development roadmap and technical documentation for the project on GitHub, including the Cosmos SDK ecosystem software development kit.
In 2017, the project team launches several public and private funding rounds and begins active testing of the Tendermint consensus.
In March 2019, after several tests on mainnet, the ecosystem’s first public blockchain is launched with the eponymous name Cosmos Hub and the native token $ATOM.
Cosmos ecosystem
Cosmos is a decentralized, scalable, interoperable ecosystem of interconnected independent blockchains, also known as the blockchain internet.
The Cosmos ecosystem has three key components:
- ComeBFT, a consensus algorithm that enables high transaction speeds (up to 10k TPS) and network security.
ComeBFT has recently replaced the original Tendermint consensus originally used in Cosmos;
- IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication) Protocol is a standardised interoperability protocol that cryptographically confirms that a message has been sent from one blockchain to another.
The main function of IBC is to transfer not only tokens, but also any data. This makes it possible to create not only decentralised exchanges and automated market makers, but also any decentralised applications in marketing, logistics, etc.
- Cosmos SDK is an open source framework designed to create both public Proof-of-Stake (PoS) multi-asset blockchains and private Proof-of-Authority (PoA) blockchains designed for specific applications (dAPPs).
You can read more about all elements of the Cosmos SDK in the official documentation.
The main goal of the Cosmos SDK is to enable developers to easily build their own blockchains from scratch, while ensuring interoperability with other blockchains.
Key features of Cosmos SDK
Cosmos SDK is a unique solution due to its key technical features:
- Modular structure: Cosmos SDK modules are highly customisable and adaptable, allowing developers to implement almost any logic in their projects. In fact, this process can be compared to assembling a Lego set;
- High security: Open source code provides advanced permissions and access control, ensuring a high level of security;
- High performance: Blockchains built on Cosmos SDK and comeBFT are capable of processing thousands of transactions per second;
- High level of interoperability: IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication), simplifies inter-blockchain communication by allowing different blockchains developed on different platforms to securely communicate with each other;
- High level of development flexibility: The platform supports the creation of applications in different programming languages (thanks to gRPC), allowing flexible interoperability between modules;
Projects created with Cosmos SDK
Not surprisingly, Cosmos SDK has been used to create a huge number of projects of all kinds.
The Cosmos ecosystem currently includes 90 major projects, including such giants as
- DyDx – the leading DEX for trading crypto derivatives;
- Celestia – the modular data availability network that makes blockchain easy to run;
- Fetch.ai – the leading DeFi protocol for building AI agents;
- Axelar – the DeFi collaboration platform to connect different blockchain networks;
- Neutron – the smart contract creation platform;
- Osmosis – the DeFi liquidity layer and, coincidentally, the largest DEX in the ecosystem;
In addition to the core projects of the Cosmos ecosystem, more than 500 different projects have been created using the Cosmos SDK.
Conclusion
Cosmos SDK is a truly revolutionary solution that allows you to create blockchain systems and dApps without being distracted by the technical aspects, instead focusing directly on creating the application logic.
If you want to create your own blockchain or dApp, this particular framework may be one of the best solutions to achieve your goal.
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