Leo Finance Learn: ATOM
Good morning Lions I trust you are safe and well and enjoying our exploration of the Cosmos as we venture to new and exciting blockchains all connected by the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC). It is a wonderful thing to see multiple blockchains all accessible, all transferable and the system getting easier to use.
Over the next few days and weeks to come I will be providing updates on projects that are built in this wonderful Blockchainverse and I am on the hunt for interviews and news stories so keep your eyes and ears peeled you won't want to miss what we have coming up.
But where did the idea come from? where did all these connected blockchains start from? Today I will introduce you to the Big Bang event that made it all happen, COSMOS.
What is Cosmos?
Cosmos in short is The Internet of Blockchains in simple terms it provides the opportunity to link a number of chains together to enable communication. Unlike Ethereum and Bitcoin which operate on their own local chains requiring sophisticated, complex costly and time consuming bridges.
Cosmos enables multiple chains to be built and communicate with each other so in stead of projects launching entire new chains can launch and connect to Cosmos through IBC and Tendermint open source code.
The benefits outweigh simple cross chain networks and enables chains to utilise services and information from other networks in its own chain without having to code it into their chains.
This also expands use cases where previously developers were limited to solely creating single smart contracts now they can build an entire blockchain with multiple smart contracts that undertakes a range of different functions and links into other blockchains to utilise what's on offer.
Furthermore, you only need one wallet to travel across multiple blockchains which increases the ease of use.
Made possible with Tendermint
To make it happen the Interchain Foundation was created in 2017 to develop a launchpad code that would enable cross-chain transfers while still using the byzantine fault-tolerant (BFT) consensus mechanism of today's current blockchains.
Cosmos operates in two systems the "Zone" and the "hub" with the Zone's being regular blockchains and the Hub that connects them all together through the use of IBC. However, Tendermint is the developer tool that is customisable and enables the IBC to operate.
One of the main benefits is the ability to quickly transfer and store tokens from different chains on Cosmos without the need of bridges and wrapped tokens.
In the future we can look forward to only using one wallet to store all your tokens.
Outlook
Cosmos main chain token is Atom and although only launched in 2021 the overall outlook for the token is strong despite suffering significantly due to the Luna collapse of UST.
What are your thoughts on Atom? do you think it will be a leading token or are you skipping this one?
Image sources provided supplemented by Canva Pro. This is not financial advice and readers are advised to undertake their own research or seek professional financial services