Cosmos

The Cosmos blockchain is a decentralized network of independent blockchains which are supported by the Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus algorithm as we are going to find out more in the course.

Cosmos offers a set of tools and SDKs for developing and hosting a dapp on the ecosystem but before its existence, the blockchains were isolated and unable to interact with each other so this blockchain addresses these issues and resolves it by making a new vision to the blockchain industry. Cosmos is an ever-growing ecosystem of connected applications and services developed for the decentralized future and it is a community-owned and operated universe of connected services so the apps and services on Cosmos connect using Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol that enables exchanging assets and data freely on decentralized blockchains.

The main focus here is that cosmos is interoperable and customizable so instead of polarizing the network, Cosmos fosters an ecosystem of networks that enables tokens and data sharing programmatically with no central party that facilitates the activities. Each new and independent blockchain created on Cosmos named Zone is connected to the Cosmos Hub and it maintains the record of the state of each Zone so it is a proof of stake blockchain that is powered by the ATOM, native cryptocurrency.

The vision of Cosmos is to help the developers to build blockchains easily and to remove the barriers between the blockchains by allowing them to interconnect with the end goal being to create a network of blockchains that are able to communicate with each other. Cosmos allows the blockchains to maintain sovereignty, process transactions, and connect with other blockchains in the ecosystem. In order to accomplish the goal, Cosmos uses open source tools like TEndermint, SDK, and IBC while helping it to build secure and custom blockchain applications.

In other words, Cosmos is an ecosystem of blockchains that are able to scale and interoperate with each other. Before Cosmos, the blockchains were siloed and unable to communicate with each other so they were hard to build and could only handle a smaller amount of transactions per second. This problem is solved by Cosmos with a new technology vision so, in order to understand this vision, we have to revise the fundamentals of blockchain technology.

A blockchain is a digital ledger maintained by a set of validators that is correct at all times even if some of the validators are malicious. Each party stores a copy of the ledger on the computer and updates it according to the rules defined by the protocol when they receive blocks of transactions. The goal here is to make sure that the ledger is replicated correctly and that each party sees the same version of the ledger at a given moment.

The main benefit of this technology is the ability for parties to share a ledger without having to rely on central authority as blockchains are decentralized. The first application of blockchain technology today as we know it is Bitcoin. So now, that we revised and have a better understanding of what blockchain is and what cosmos is, let us define it a little bit more.

But first, let’s see what are we going to learn in this guide

1. What Is Cosmos?
2. What Is Tendermint?
3. Hub and Zones Architecture
4. ATOM Token
5. What Problems Does It Solve?
6. Cosmos SDK
7. Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol
8. What Are The Best ATOM Wallets?
9. What Are the Best ATOM exchanges?
10. Who Created it?
11. Advantages Over Other Projects
12. ATOM Use Cases
13. Token Economics
14. Future Outlook

So, now that we got to know a little about it, let’s not waste any more time and start the guide with the first lesson.