Announcing Loom Basechain Interoperability with Cosmos Hub

Matthew Campbell

Published in

Loom Network

3 min readJan 16, 2019

Update:

Basechain was formerly known as PlasmaChain. Read the official announcement.

Today, we have some really exciting news to share with you, and it’s the first major step for us on a path to blockchain interoperability — to a Loom multichain network.

We are thrilled to announce that, once the Cosmos mainnet launches, we will be enabling a token bridge between Loom Network’s Basechain and the new Cosmos Hub.

Once Cosmos’ decentralized exchange (DEX) is live, you’ll be able to send your non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from any DApp running on Basechain to the Cosmos network for trading.

Additionally, holders of the Cosmos ATOM token will be able to trade their tokens for ETH on Loom, and deploy EVM Smart Contracts to Basechain — which will make it possible to send and receive tokens from Cosmos mainnet.

This cross-chain usability is a big win for both chains.

About Basechain and Cosmos Hub

Basechain

Basechain is Loom Network’s production-ready, multichain interop platform that bridges Ethereum and other major chains, for the purpose of scaling dapps and accessing the largest possible user base. It supports EVM smart contracts, as well as token bridges to Ethereum and Cosmos and more.

Cosmos Hub

Cosmos Hub focuses on scalability, usability, and interoperability to build an ecosystem of interconnected blockchains. The Cosmos mainnet is launching this quarter, and will feature a native DEX with high transaction throughput.

Benefits of Interoperability

Now let’s dive into specifically whom this benefits, and how.

Both LOOM and ATOM holders can expect to see more utility in their tokens, validators will gain opportunities to earn even more rewards, and developers will have new areas and capabilities for deploying their smart contracts.

Benefits for Loom Validators:

In addition to direct incentives from Basechain, validators can expect additional rewards from fees generated by ATOM tokens transferred to Basechain. We are also planning to introduce ATOM/ETH and ATOM/LOOM pairs in the Loom Marketplace, which will drive more activity and transactions on Basechain.

Benefits for Cosmos Validators:

Cosmos validators are already familiar with Tendermint, so they will find it quick and easy to get up to speed with Loom. This will open up opportunities to validate for both Cosmos and Basechain to gain efficiencies in their existing operations. This integration will also drive an influx of Loom users onto the Cosmos chain.

Benefits for Loom Token Holders:

LOOM holders should expect more token utility, as this opens up smart contract deployments for all ATOM holders. It serves as another rich source of developers that can begin building and deploying to Basechain.

Benefits for Atom Token Holders:

ATOM holders will get instant access to a new, expanded liquidity pool to trade their ATOM tokens for ETH and LOOM, as well as the ability to deploy smart contracts onto the Loom platform.

Benefits for Developers on Loom:

With this integration, any smart contract on Loom can automatically transfer assets — like ERC20 and ERC721 NFTs — to both Ethereum and Cosmos. In the future, we will roll out similar token bridges to allow seamless asset transfers to more blockchain networks, significantly expanding the universe for developers building on Loom.

Benefits for Developers on Cosmos:

Currently, Cosmos doesn’t support smart contracts, so any ATOM holder that needs such functionality while waiting for Ethermint can deploy to Basechain and still fully interact with the Cosmos network.

Great Things Ahead

We are super excited about kicking off our second chain integration after Ethereum. We think the Cosmos Hub will be a great platform to link up to, and it will bring about all kinds of mutual synergies between our two networks.

Here’s to the future of blockchain tech.