Rank: 23
Cosmos (ATOM) is a cryptocurrency designed to solve the hardest blockchain problems that we face today. Created to improve virtually all aspects of blockchain-based economies, Cosmos has approached these problems from multiple angles.
To better understand just how revolutionary Cosmos is, it’s first helpful to understand the three concerns that Cosmos addresses: scalability, usability, and interoperability.
Every cryptocurrency wants to scale and keep up with growth. As blockchains grow longer and more complex there is an increased need for computing power just to process new transactions.
Not only does this higher drain on the system slow down transactions, but it also sucks up more energy in the physical world. Cosmos solves this problem by introducing what they call a Tendermint BFT (byzantine fault tolerant) consensus engine to power the Cosmos Proof-of-Stake.
Cosmos’ Tendermint BFT is designed to resist errors when processing new transactions on the blockchain. That means that an increasingly complex and lengthy transaction history won’t slow down processing speeds or suck up more energy.
Cosmos released their SDK, a modular framework for building blockchains for specific applications. With the ability to drag and drop different parts and make adjustments where needed, Cosmos SDK lowers the barrier to entry for developers and helps speed up the rate at which blockchain-specific applications find real-world uses.
Every cryptocurrency project was built for a specific reason. Unfortunately, sometimes that reason leaves a project in a very small niche, unable to participate in the wider cryptocurrency economy.
Cosmos offers their IBC (Interblockchain Communication) protocol to help unite blockchain environments and bridge this gap. Now, whenever it’s beneficial, different blockchains can communicate swiftly and easily with each other, improving the rate and quality of shared data.
