The Cosmos project (ATOM) was created as a result of a search for a solution to one of the most burning problems of the modern world of crypto. It is about the impossibility of communicating between blockchain without an intermediary. Nowadays, this function is performed by crypto exchanges, acting as a central point of connections between blockchain, and this significantly reduces the basic usefulness of crypto. This leads to centralization and inability to use all their functions fully.
Within the Cosmos network there is an ATOM token, whose price on the day of writing the article (01.02.2020) is 4.37 USD. The number of tokens in circulation is over 190 million, while all tokens in the network – 236 million. The market cap is currently at the level of 830 million dollars and the supply is not limited, which means that the crypto is inflationary.
The origins of the project
The idea of creating a blockchain Internet (that’s what the project is called) came from Jae Kwon, a programmer working in Silicon Valley on open source projects such as CoffeeScript, an encrypted e-mali service called Scramble.io and Tendermint, which is the foundation of the Cosmos network.
The ICO is organised by the Interchain Foundation (ICF), headed, of course, by the main founder of the project Jae Kwon. The Interchain Foundation is a non-profit organization registered in Switzerland in Zug and promotes blockchain technology and solutions that Cosmos provides.
The ICO of this project was conducted in April 2017. It raised the planned $17.3 million, selling 80% of the ATOM token supply. The remaining tokens were distributed in equal parts to the Interchain Foundation and the All in Bits team, Tendermint code authors.
Noteworthy information is that already on the day the ATOM tokens were issued, Cosmos was operating on its own blockchain network without using other blockchain devices, as was the case in many ERC-based projects20.
What is Cosmos and how it works
It should be added that Cosmos is not only a platform for building applications. It is an entire ecosystem for blockchainers to function and share information. It is based on the Tendermint Proof of Stake consensus algorithm. This kind of consensus is resistant to the problem of Nothing at Stake, which posed a risk of abuse or forks.
Validation of a transaction is done by the network user proposing another block and then by the so-called validators, whose number is strictly defined and is currently 100. When a block is supported by two thirds of the validators, it will be considered valid. The number of validators is not fixed and will increase by 13% over the decade.
In order to become a validator you have to be in the first hundred portfolios with the most ATOMs. It is known that not everyone will be able to become one, so there is also a solution to stake tokens on a delegated basis.
Cosmos offers us solutions in terms of system scalability, and this is the main problem blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum face today. In the first case, the network may be clogged with too many transactions at a time, and in the second case, all other tokens on the Ethereum blockchain depend on the capacity of that network – and it is limited.
Tendermint Core
The problem of scalability is solved by the creators of the project, using the fruits of their work, Tendermint Core. This is an error tolerance engine that can put blocks every second with a theoretical number of 10,000 transactions.
On the Cosmos platform, you can also build new blockchins and applications using the Cosmos SDK (software Development Kit) released by the All in Bits team, which is also behind TenderMint and the ICF foundation. In Ethereum, the function of the Cosmos SDK is performed by the Virtual Ethereum Machine (EVM), which in a way forces programmers to optimize their own applications to use them. The toolkit from Tendermint makes the application development environment easier and allows you to focus more on the essence of the problem.
The Inter Blockchain Communication protocol and the use of special Hubs networks (hubs) are responsible for communication between blockchain applications. It is in them that information is collected and then transferred between the blockchain.
Cosmos (ATOM)
Currently, ATOM is the 19th largest crypto in the world behind LEO Token and before IOTA. Token was launched in March 2019 with an initial price of about 6.20 USD. The Token reached its highest historical value on June 3, 2019 and was $7.23 per unit. Since then, ATOM’s price has been consistently falling until September of the same year, reaching a historical minimum of less than $2. After reaching its bottom in early September, the Cosmos Token has remained on a not-so-frequent but stable upward trend, placing the peaks and holes ever higher.
The daily trading volume is about $150 million, and the main trading places for this token are: BitForex – 43% share in the volume, Hitbit – 21%, Bit-Z – less than 8%, MXC – 5.7%. Other exchanges on which the token is quoted, but the volume is between 1 and 5 percent are: GDAC, Bibox, Binance, CoinEx, Bkex.
Wallet for Cosmos (ATOM)
There are many portfolios that support ATOM, and storing or handling a token is not a problem, as the developers have taken care of the infrastructure. The most popular solutions used by Cosmos users are presented below.
Lunie is a proposal from the Cosmos team for an online and mobile wallet, providing comprehensive support for their token. The wallet also exists as an extension to the browser, allowing to perform all operations and delegate ATOM to stake. The wallet is also compatible with Ledger type devices.
Another mobile wallet that supports ATOM is imToken, which also supports BTC, EOS and ETH resources. It provides standard support for cryptocurrencies, dApps and ATOM stakeout.
Trust Wallet is a mobile wallet that supports a large number of cryptocurrencies and is on open source code. It has its own stakeout platform, which also supports Cosmos. The wallet is available for both Android and iOS users and is compatible with Ledger and other wallets that support WalletConnect.
Project Developers
The person responsible for the creation of Cosmos is Jae Kwon, software architect and co-founder of Tendermint. Mr. Jae Kwon also worked in Silicon Valley in Alexa and Yelp. On January 29th, he announced that he will resign as CEO of Cosmos. He added that this did not mean a complete withdrawal from the project. He stated that he would continue to be involved in Cosmos affairs as a member of the Interchain Foundation. He argued that he wants to focus on working for the Virgo Foundation, which focuses on the problems of catastrophic climate change, destruction of the environment and meeting the needs of people around the world.
Ethan Buchman is one of the people involved in developing projects such as Tendermint and Cosmos. He is the technical director of the Interchain Foundation. Ethan has a wide range of interests in the fields of biology, neuroscience, mathematics and programming. His mission is to build technology that supports interoperability for the economic sovereignty of communities around the world. This is evidenced by his involvement in his own initiative CoinCulture CryptoConculting, offering training and education in the field of cryptocurrencies and blockchain for newcomers and advanced.
The second and last contributor mentioned by Jae Kwon on his LinkedIn profile is Zarko Milosevic, who writes about the person that he likes to solve problems using distributed technologies.
Other ICF members are:
Sean Braithwaite – is a distributed systems engineer with 10 years of experience in managing large manufacturing systems. His work has been presented in the following publications ACM Sigcomm, EuroSys, O-Reilly, Velocity.
Arianne Fleming – Managing Director of the Interchain Foundation, plays a major role in the daily organization and defining the strategic directions of the foundation’s development.
Michael P. Niederer – director responsible for finance and accounting.
