Cosmos (ATOM), often referred to as the "Internet of Blockchains," is a decentralized network of independent, scalable, and interoperable blockchains, built on the Tendermint core, which provides a high-performance, consistent, and secure consensus engine. Launched in March 2019 by the Interchain Foundation, Cosmos aims to address some of the most pressing problems in the blockchain space, including scalability, usability, and sovereignty, while maintaining the benefits of a decentralized system.
The native token of the Cosmos Hub, one of the first blockchains to be launched within the Cosmos network, is ATOM, and it's used for transaction fees, staking, and governance within the Cosmos ecosystem.
Cosmos’ architectural framework, the Cosmos SDK, is designed to simplify the process of building decentralized applications (dApps) and interoperable blockchains. This modular framework allows developers to create blockchains with specific use cases by leveraging pre-built modules for common functionalities, significantly reducing development time and complexity. The result is a thriving ecosystem of application-specific blockchains that can interact seamlessly with each other via the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol, that enables the exchange of data and tokens between different blockchains within the Cosmos network.
Cosmos's Tendermint Core separates the blockchain's application layer from the consensus layer, allowing any blockchain to utilize Tendermint's Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus mechanism without having to implement its own. Tendermint Core is known for its high performance, scalability, and security features, enabling blockchains within the Cosmos ecosystem to process thousands of transactions per second.
