Interoperability-focused blockchain network Cosmos has released a new whitepaper that presents an updated Cosmos Hub with key changes to its native ATOM token to strengthen interoperability and security.
The new Cosmos white paper was released on Monday at the Cosimovers conference in Medellín, Colombia. The changes outlined in the white paper are still technically at a “proposal” stage, but changes are expected to be rolled out on-chain by October 3rd.
Cosmos is a blockchain ecosystem designed to scale and collaborate with each other. Cosmos Hub was the first blockchain built on Cosmos, which initially served as an intermediary between other connected blockchains.
The ATOM token is used for trading in the Cosmos ecosystem, which can be used for administrative and serious purposes.
Under the proposed changes, Cosmos will become a more interconnected, decentralized and secure ecosystem.
One of the changes outlined is the re-invention of the Cosmos Hub as an “interchain” web, which allows other Cosmos blockchains to borrow the Hub’s validator pool instead of finding their own.
Billy Rennenkamp, Cosmos Hub product lead, added that the value proposition behind this move to interchain security is to make the Cosmos network “legitimately, defensiblely decentralized.”
According to the white paper, Interchain Security will also enable Cosmos Hub to “host a new category of applications with additional functionality”:
“Interchain Security provides users with a fast, easy and cheap way to market [and] The development platform provided by Interchain Security allows […] Third parties to use the Hub’s essential infrastructure to build business applications.
The white paper also proposes a new issuance model for its native ATOM token, which aims to strike a better balance between ecosystem growth and interchain adoption “while maintaining the security provided by the original regime,” the white paper states.
The new monetary policy covers two phases: “transition” and “steady state”.
In the first month of the transition phase, 10,000,000 ATOM will be released, which will decrease significantly until it reaches the stable state level after 36 months.
Cosmos founder Ethan Buchman said this new token model will allow other Cosmos blockchains to further connect with Cosmos Hub and ATOM:
“It puts them directly in line with the ATOM of the cosmos. It allows you to inherit the security of ATOM and be part of this kind of economic community built around the Cosmos blockchain, the ATOM token and the superior security this chain offers.
Related: Most of the crypto market is down, but Cosmos (ATOM) is up – why?
The white paper also outlines a plan to get more value for the ATOM token by enabling liquidity.
This allows ATOM holders to easily withdraw ATOM tokens as soon as they deposit them, which will soon be enabled by Cosmos’ “Liquid Staking Module”.
The improvements in user experience and capital efficiency offered by liquidation are so great that they require “full economic integration” into the new cosmos interchain-oriented ecosystem, the white paper says.
Practitioner notes on Cosmos’ new 27-page white paper
TL; DR
– Safe economic scale
– $ATOM as a reserve currency
– New economic engineDefinitely worth a read!
(1/2) pic.twitter.com/OseBg1kBYp
– (Delphi, International) (@delphiintern) September 26, 2022
The white paper was released just weeks after research and investment firm Delphi Labs announced it was shifting its R&D efforts to focus on the cosmos ecosystem.
The research firm cited network speed, chain liquidity, sufficient decentralization and cross-chain interoperability as key factors in its decision to commit R&D efforts to further the development of Cosmos.