The Cosmos network can be defined as a decentralized network of independent, scalable, and interoperable blockchains, creating the foundation for a new token economy.
It is commonly called the internet of blockchains, because before the Cosmos network, blockchains were unable to communicate with each other and they could only perform few transactions per second.
Cosmos came as a solution to some of the hardest blockchain’s problems such as scalability, usability and interoperability.
With Cosmos, blockchains can maintain sovereignty, process transactions quickly and communicate with other blockchains in the ecosystem, making it optimal for a variety of use cases.
This vision is achieved through a set of open source tools like Tendermint, the Cosmos SDK and IBC designed to let people build custom, secure, scalable and interoperable blockchain applications quickly.
Tendermint BFT is a solution that packages the networking and consensus layers of a blockchain into a generic engine, allowing developers to focus on application development as opposed to the complex underlying protocol. As a result, Tendermint saves hundreds of hours of development time. Note that Tendermint also designates the name of the byzantine fault tolerant (BFT) consensus algorithm used within the Tendermint BFT engine.
The Tendermint BFT engine is connected to the application by a socket protocol called the Application Blockchain Interface (ABCI). This protocol can be wrapped in any programming language, making it possible for developers to choose a language that fits their needs.
Cosmos allows blockchain applications to scale to millions of users through horizontal and vertical scalability solutions.
Vertical scalability: This encompasses the methods for scaling the blockchain itself. By moving away from Proof-of-Work and optimizing its components, Tendermint BFT can reach thousands of transactions per-second. The bottleneck factor is the application itself.
Horizontal scalability: Even if the consensus engine and the application are highly optimized, at some point the transaction throughput of a single chain inevitably hits a wall it cannot surpass. That is the limit of vertical scaling. To go beyond it, the solution is to move to multi-chain architectures. The idea is to have multiple parallel chains running the same application and operated by a common validator set, making blockchains theoretically infinitely scalable.
To conclude, we should know that Cosmos must not be seen as a product but as an ecosystem built on a set of modular, adaptable and interchangeable tools. Developers are encouraged to join the effort to improve existing tools and create new ones in order to make the promise of blockchain technology a reality. These tools are the foundation needed to create the decentralized internet and global financial system of tomorrow.
Author: Kenzo IgiranezaUpdated on 2021-02-01.