The Cosmos SDK
Customizable and interoperable blockchain development
Last updated
Customizable and interoperable blockchain development
Last updated
The Interchain network focuses on an ecosystem for easy blockchain development that provides customizability and interoperability. It establishes a stable universe determined by rules that apply to the whole ecosystem equally.
Before the Interchain came along, developing a whole new chain was much more difficult and expensive than building a smart contract. Now, with the Cosmos SDK, entirely flexible, secure, high performance, and sovereign application-specific blockchains can be developed. To allow this, building modular, adaptable, and interchangeable open-source development tools is at the center of the Interchain's mission.
The main goal of the Interchain network is to provide an ecosystem for easy blockchain development based on CometBFT, the Tendermint BFT for the Interchain Stack, and the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC) with the so-called .
Each chain in the Interchain Ecosystem relies on the Tendermint fast-finality BFT consensus algorithm. This ensures a common consensus mechanism at work in all chains of the network. Next to its use in the Interchain, the Tendermint consensus mechanism is also utilized in the , , and more.
The Cosmos SDK is a generalized framework to build secure blockchain applications on the Tendermint BFT in Golang. It is a modular framework for application-specific blockchains. The design is based on two major principles: modularity and capability-based security. The Cosmos SDK was envisioned to be an npm-like framework for secure applications on top of Tendermint. Over time it has become an advanced framework for custom application-specific blockchains.
The ready-built modules of the Cosmos SDK are easy to import, adapt, and use. Developers can create their own modules to introduce specific functionalities. With the growth of the ecosystem, the number of modules will grow, facilitating the development of more complex applications.