Cosmos

The Cosmos Network is a decentralized network of independent, scalable, and interoperable blockchains, creating the foundation for a new token economy.

Before the Cosmos Network, blockchains were siloed and unable to communicate with each other. They were hard to build and could only handle a small number of transactions per second. Cosmos solves some of the hardest blockchain problems of scalability, usability and interoperability.

The Cosmos SDK is a developer-friendly, modular framework, each powered by a Byzantine Fault-Tolerant consensus algorithm such as Tendermint BFT, allowing developers to fully customize their decentralized applications and focus on business logic.

At Cosmos, we’re building the "Internet of Blockchains." Join our growing network and plug into the most powerful blockchain ecosystem.

Who we are

The Interchain Foundation (ICF) is a Swiss non-profit foundation that was formed to support the development of Cosmos and the ecosystem that will contribute to the Cosmos Network. The ICF is accepting applications for grants.

All in Bits Inc (dba Tendermint Inc) is a software development company contracted by the ICF to develop the Cosmos Network. Check out the Tendermint Inc team.

IRIS Foundation Ltd. is supported by the ICF to build IRISnet, a Cosmos Hub that facilitates construction of distributed business applications. Learn more about IRISnet.

Cosmos Hub is the first hub among many hubs that has launched within the Cosmos Network of sovereign blockchains.

Tendermint BFT is the name of the Proof-of-Stake consensus protocol that powers the Cosmos Hub and the Cosmos SDK.

Cosmos: A Brief History

• 2014

Jae Kwon was the first person who applied Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) research in a "Proof of Stake" (PoS) public blockchain context, and went on to found Tendermint Inc (All in Bits Inc)

Tendermint BFT is the most advanced implementation of BFT consensus algorithm and Proof-of-Stake (PoS) crypto economics to date. The project launched to address the speed, scalability, and environmental issues associated with Bitcoin and Ethereum’s "Proof of Work" (PoW)

• 2015

Ethan Buchman joined forces with Jae Kwon to develop Tendermint after meeting at the Cryptocurrency Research Group and Crypto-economics Conference

All in Bits Inc and Monax collaborated to implement the EVM on top of Tendermint BFT (Ethermint 1.0)

Tendermint BFT is pluggable with applications written in any language via the Application Blockchain Interface (ABCI)

• 2016

Tendermint co-founders publish the whitepaper Cosmos: A Network of Distributed Ledgers

Cosmos wins the Shanghai Blockchain Week "Most Innovative Project"

Tendermint Inc was contracted to run the first BFT blockchain voting system for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH

The Interchain Foundation (ICF) was formed to support the development of Cosmos and the ecosystem that will contribute to the Cosmos Network

ICF contracts Tendermint Inc to make Cosmos a reality

• 2017

The ICF raises $16.8M for the funding of the Cosmos Network in 30 minutes. It is cited as one of the most successful blockchain-based fundraising events in history

Tendermint Inc. focuses efforts on building the Cosmos Network architecture, brand and vision from scratch

Application developers begin evaluating Cosmos as the platform to build their blockchain-based applications

Early prototype of the Cosmos SDK begins

• 2018

Tendermint Inc. pioneers the concept of Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC), the cross-chain data passing mechanism for Cosmos, and development specification begins

Cosmos Validators launch 20+ public testnets

Cosmos launches Game of Stakes, the first of its kind adversarial testnet deployed with the largest network of 200+ consensus nodes ever to have run in a BFT environment

• 2019+

Cosmos continues to gain traction with projects building on top of the SDK.

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, announces Binance Chain, which is built on Tendermint BFT and Cosmos SDK.

The big bang: Cosmos Hub launches successfully on March 13th, 2019.