Blockchain-network Cosmos unveils whitepaper to revamp Cosmos Hub and to strengthen ATOM token

Interoperability-oriented blockchain network Cosmos Network has unveiled its new white paper proposing a Cosmos Hub, which is aimed at strengthening interoperability and security, along with making changes to its native ATOM token, as reported by Cointelegraph.

The upgrades outlined in the whitepaper are yet to be implemented, but changes are expected to be done on-chain in the first week of October.

Cosmos was founded in 2014 by Jae Kwon and Ethan Buchman with the primary objective to improve interoperability between blockchains. Cosmos Hub (ATOM) was the first blockchain to be built on Cosmos, which served as a bridge between other interconnected blockchains.

The upgraded whitepaper outlines interchain security, an upcoming feature that will help Cosmos become a more interoperable, decentralised, and secure ecosystem.

The whitepaper also states “Interchain Security gives consumer chains a faster, easier, and cheaper path to market and the development platform afforded by Interchain Security allows third parties to utilise the Hub’s essential infrastructure to build commercial applications.”

This feature will enable every blockchain, or zone, in the Cosmos network to share security using ATOM instead of their respective native tokens. At present, blockchain networks have to choose between paying high inflationary token rewards or face the risk of hacks on the chains.

As of September 27, CoinMarketCap data ATOM's price rallied up to $14.59 with a market cap of $ 4.18B, and market dominance of 0.42%. In the last 24 hours, ATOM price increased to 3.85%, since the announcement.

What does it do?

Cosmos attempts to address some of the key issues faced by other blockchain networks including scalability, usability, and governance. It provides tools to help developers quickly build independent blockchains for various use cases and enables blockchains in the network to communicate with each other.

In the cosmos eco-system, independent blockchains are called 'zones' which are powered by the Tendermint proof-of-stake byzantine fault tolerant (BFT) consensus algorithm. A byzantine fault tolerant consensus algorithm allows the network to reach consensus even if some of the nodes fail or act maliciously.

Under that plan, the proof-of-stake Cosmos Hub blockchain would lease its ATOM-token backed validators to budding chains.

The move would allow ATOM to derive value from the entire ecosystem and add a new use for the token. As of now, it can be used for staking, holding and spending. ATOM stakers get the right to vote on network upgrades and receive rewards proportional to the number of coins staked.

As per the Cosmos website, currently, there are over 260 apps and services built on the Cosmos ecosystem, while Ethereum blockchain has over 2,800 decentralised applications (dApps) as per the Coindesk report.

Some of the notable projects built on Cosmos eco-system include Osmosis (OSMO), Sentinel (DVPN), Terra (LUNA), Binance Smart Chain (BNB), Crypto.org (CRO), Regen Network (REGEN) and others.

As per the CoinMarketCap report, Cosmos ecosystem accounts for over $153 billion worth of digital assets under management.