With thousands of cryptocurrencies in the market, it’s unfortunate that not everyone has a solid project behind it. While some offer practical use-cases, others are created solely for pumping and dumping. Today, we are going to take a closer look at Cosmos (ATOM), one of the most promising blockchain projects in the market. Stay with us as we delve into; what is Cosmos (ATOM), how it works, its features, and who its founders are.
What is Cosmos (ATOM)?
Cosmos is a project that aims to solve some of the most complex blockchain and crypto-related problems in the industry. It provides a solution to the slow, expensive, unscalable, and harsh environmental impacts of Proof-of-Work blockchain protocols by connecting blockchains into one large ecosystem.
There are many cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (LTC), that use Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus. Ethereum (ETH) is another cryptocurrency that also uses a Proof-of-Work consensus. But Vitalik Bulterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, says they plan to shift its protocol to Proof-of-Stake, claiming that the PoW blockchain protocol is outdated and more energy-intensive.
PoW works by depending on a decentralized network of miners that confirm transactions and secure the network. Mining requires a lot of energy because it powers multiple supercomputers that solve complex mathematical problems on the blockchain.
How Does Cosmos (ATOM) work?
Cosmos knows that PoW protocols are slow, expensive, and unscalable. Therefore, it provides a better solution to the larger crypto ecosystem and future blockchain projects. Cosmos uses a consensus engine called Tendermint. A Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus, that aims to be faster and more scalable. Tendermint consensus is a distributed protocol completed by a validator process, which agrees on the next block to be added to the Tendermint blockchain.
Tendermint is the gateway to the Cosmos ecosystem. In a bid to create a more efficient blockchain consensus than the one Bitcoin was using, Terdermint came into existence. Already, the protocol has influenced a vast Cosmos ecosystem, which 38 projects are currently using. This includes Terra, Crypto.com chain, and Gravity bridge.
Cosmos is a blockchain protocol, while its digital currency is called ATOM. ATOM tokens are earned through a hybrid proof-of-stake algorithm, and they help keep the Cosmos Hub blockchain secure. This cryptocurrency also helps with the network’s governance.
How Cosmos Uses the Proof-of-Stake Algorithm
Earlier, we established cosmos is using a new blockchain consensus called Tedermint. Now, we will learn exactly how Cosmos uses the PoS protocol to keep its blockchain interoperable, safe, and secure.
Cosmos uses a Proof-of-Stake consensus known as delegated PoS. Stakers are organized into groups of validators and groups of delegators. The delegators decide which validators will participate in consensus and the validators work to validate transactions and add new blocks to the blockchain.
Rewards are given to validators and delegators in the form of ATOM tokens, but the Cosmos Network is designed in such a way that a wrapped form of any cryptocurrency could theoretically be used as a reward token. In this system, any node found to be operating maliciously is removed from the network.
Who are the Creators of Cosmos (ATOM)?
Cosmos was founded in 2014 by Jae Kwon, Zarko Milosevic, and Ethan Buchman. In 2017, Cosmos’s token ATOM was released. As of 21st April, ATOM sits at a price of $23.53 with an all-time high price of $44.32, 7 months ago. Atom has grown by a considerable amount since its release in 2017. Boasting a 1,979.40% increase since its lowest price in march 2021.
In truth, this is not the most outstanding crypto token price growth. However, if the cosmos project does what it claims it can do, perhaps it will replace older blockchain models like Bitcoin and Ethereum. And that would increase its token’s value significantly in the future.
Conclusion
Cosmos is working to solve both scalability and usability limitations in blockchain technology. Scalability has been the greatest issue among the world’s largest blockchains over the past few years, and none have been able to implement a solution yet that allows them to get anywhere near the scale they will need to accommodate mainstream adoption rates.
