Cosmos (ATOM): ecosystem news
Split in the team and hard fork
In December 2023, it was announced that project co-founder Jae Kwon was leaving the Hub and would conduct his own hard fork of the network. As a result of this hard fork, another decentralized platform called AtomOne will appear alongside Cosmos.
Jae Kwon's departure from the Cosmos Hub team is due to a disagreement regarding the future update of the ATOM 2.0 network, which he rejected. In addition, Jae Kwon prevented the ATOM cryptocurrency inflation rate from decreasing. The Cosmos Hub team voted in November 2023 to reduce ATOM's maximum inflation rate from 19% to 14%, but as of October 2024, nothing has changed.
The protocol team, except for Jae Kwon, has decided to turn Cosmos Hub into an innovation center. Jae Kwon believes that developers' innovations pose a threat to the security of the decentralized network, which is why he decided to hold a hard fork.
Cosmos Hub and AtomOne were planned to operate within the same ecosystem and use the same native cryptocurrency, ATOM. In addition, the AtomOne network will still have its own token, ATOM1, which is planned to be distributed during the airdrop to users who store ATOM.
As of October 2024, the community has rejected the ATOM 2.0 update, and the AtomOne blockchain is in the pipeline — the exact date of its launch is not yet known. According to the project roadmap, the project has four major phases to go through:
- Phase -2 — preparation of documentation and software;
- Phase -1 — finalization of the essential documentation;
- Phase 0 — launch of the AtomOne network;
- Phase 1 — implementing new features in the AtomOne blockchain and improving the protocol.
The Future of Cosmos
The Cosmos Hub ecosystem continues to evolve despite the underperformance of its native cryptocurrency, ATOM. Other significant players in the crypto industry are joining the Cosmos Hub ecosystem: for example, the team at LayerZero, the leading blockchain messaging middleware protocol, is developing its standard for the Cosmos network.
Once this standard is implemented, the LayerZero protocol will also support the Cosmos blockchain. This will allow users to transfer assets, for example, between the Cosmos, Ethereum, and Solana networks.
In September 2023, the Interchain Foundation team behind the development of Cosmos Hub presented an updated roadmap for the project, the key aspects of which were:
- The ability to link blockchains into a single "super application" called AEZ, which Cosmos Hub will secure. The linking will be possible via the Atomic IBC protocol, which allows for instant transactions over a decentralized network;
- Liquidity. One of the updates is the ability to use native cryptocurrency ATOM and several other assets to provide collateral within the AEZ super app;
- Routing via the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol will allow clients and applications to be updated simultaneously across multiple networks via a dedicated tool.
In particular, the Interchain Foundation team aims to ensure blockchain network modularity and interoperability, which are fundamental concepts of the protocol. The project team plans to engage Ethereum developers to create applications and generally develop the Cosmos Hub ecosystem.
Another priority area of the Interchain Foundation is integrating the Inter-Blockchain Communications protocol with external platforms using Zero Knowledge Proof (ZK-Proof) and "optimistic" frameworks. Such platforms include second-tier solutions for scaling Ethereum, such as:
Integrating IBC with other blockchain platforms will significantly expand the capabilities of Cosmos Hub.