Cosmos under existential crisis? NO! Not Yet!
Cosmos will Survive Harsh Winters and Melting Summers!
Cosmos never tried to be a superior ecosystem or overshadow other ecosystems. Cosmos has always upheld the value of the ‘Internet of Blockchains.’
The prevailing sentiment among Cosmos developers is not to defeat other ecosystems, but to foster them by building bridges like IBC to other ecosystems.
Cosmos developers have been, and are actively working on, developing bridges between Ethereum, Polkadot, and others.
Similar to other ecosystems in the world, Cosmos is not invulnerable to chaos and drama. Indeed, certain upheavals might have momentarily hindered progress in the Cosmos ecosystem, but they have also paved the way for smaller development entities to rise and steer the ship.
Despite its decentralized nature and occasional discord, Cosmos has achieved milestones that even large, centralized entities might have struggled with.
It’s essential to view Cosmos not as a monolithic entity but as a vibrant tapestry of applications and technologies like SDK, IBC, CometBFT, CosmWasm, etc. The success of each component within this ecosystem can be subjective, and over time, some might even become redundant. Yet, the true strength of Cosmos lies in its diverse and self-sustaining technologies.
For example, CometBFT is a mature, technically advanced, and battle-tested state replication engine that works well irrespective of whether the application belongs to Cosmos or another ecosystem. IBC, too, is mature enough to foster strong connections between Cosmos and other ecosystems, ensuring mutual growth.
The Terra problem, which has surfaced on many occasions, is alarming but not an ‘existential crisis’ for Cosmos.
Seasoned developers, community members, and stakeholders recognize the implications of the Terra situation and the resultant liquidity challenges.
That being said, the ecosystem is actively trying to “increase the pie.” Projects like dYdX coming to the Cosmos ecosystem is a great example of ‘increasing the pie.’ I also look forward to other major DEXes making the move to Cosmos following dYdX.
Although Ethereum has moved to a proof-of-stake consensus, CometBFT is a far superior, mature, and advanced PBFT state replication engine.
With the introduction of ABCI++, CometBFT has given a lot of control and customization to applications, almost making it a “programmable consensus.”
Cosmos has never been plagued with transaction speed as a bottleneck for applications to adopt it. Yes, there is technology out there which can process transactions faster; however, the marginal gains from incremental speed improvements often don’t translate to tangible benefits.
For instance, the difference in user experience between a webpage loading in 0.5 seconds versus 0.10 seconds is negligible.
Cosmos leaders and veterans are paying close attention to the demands of the ecosystem. There are talks and roadmaps being put together by the Interchain stack that will ultimately lead to true ‘modularity’ in the interchain stack.
I really think we should focus on getting more real-world applications under the fold of web3. DeFi & NFTs will only get us so far.
Next steps
Everything said, there are some challenges, and there is no shying away from them.
Here are three things that Cosmos needs to do
Cosmos Foundation
Yes, a centralized foundation is against the ethos of decentralization; however, it is the need of the hour. I will soon write a detailed article explaining why it is important, how it should be achieved, and a long-term plan to give power back to the ecosystem.
More coordination between the Interchain stack
This is already being achieved to a certain extent, and soon it will be a happy reality. Let me know if you want to know how it can be achieved in the comments. I’ll write a detailed article.
Tap into more real-world applications and get in front of policymakers and decision-makers.
Thank you for reading. Cheers!
