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Fast Forward to ETH's future?
Cosmos ecosystem — top five contenders
Source: coingecko.com
The “new frontier” in the blockchain space is what Evmos claims itself to be. Evmos, EVM on cosmos, is an application-agnostic blockchain network that leverages the Cosmos SDK framework to realize the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM), hence accomplishing full compatibility with Ethereum. Evmos envisions bringing the now disconnected worlds of Ethereum-based applications and assets to the interoperable networks of the Cosmos ecosystem under one umbrella, all while catering toward developer and user incentives.
The Tharsis team broke ground on the Ethermint project (now Evmos) in 2016 with an aim to establish scalable Ethereum or EVM-based applications built on top of the Tendermint consensus protocol. The project has undergone drastic changes since its inception, apart from its name (Evmos does sound cooler!), and now boasts of a very different ecosystem.
What is Evmos?
Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) on Cosmos — Evmos is a scalable, high-throughput blockchain backed by the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. This network manages to retain its identity, and security, while also being fully interoperable and compatible with Ethereum.
Interoperability!
Evmos is Inter Blockchain Communication (IBC) enabled, and EVM based which enables it to materialize the composability of Ethereum and the fast finality of Tendermint into a giant web of interoperable blockchain ecosystems. So, developers can now run and deploy Ethereum smart contracts on app-specific Cosmos networks by harnessing the versatility of Evmos.
With an end goal to create a scalable layer-1 blockchain, Evmos employs the use of Cosmos SDK, the Application Blockchain Interface (ABCI), and the Ethereum virtual machine. The Cosmos SDK is the blockchain infrastructure provided by Cosmos for creating blockchains with PoS or PoA (Proof-of-Authority). This SDK enables connections to other Cosmos-based blockchains from the beginning, hence giving dApps access to an extended user base. This is made possible through the Cosmos’ inter-blockchain communication (IBC). Rightfully so, Cosmos is called the Internet of Blockchains. ABCI is the interface between Tendermint and the dApp running. ABCI is the infrastructure that allows Evmos to replace Ethereum proof-of-work with Cosmos Proof-of-Stake. Since every Ethereum node runs on EVM, an application created on EVM is capable of running on all Ethereum nodes.
Tech stack:
The Evmos network is developed using the Cosmos Development Kit (SDK) on top of the Tendermint Core Byzantine Fault Tolerance consensus mechanism.
The Evmos blockchain presents its users with a native blockchain token of the same name (EVMOS) which serves the many functions Evmos is capable of performing. Usage as management tokens, gas fees, and as incentives to endorse the use applications built on Evmos are among some common use cases. It can also be used to provide rewards to developers and network operators for their services through the built-in revenue-sharing model called the Evmos dApp store.
Among the numerous things that Evmos does differently, tokenomics is one of the most interesting. In stark contrast with several other blockchain tokens, the Evmos team did not conduct any presale or pre-mining activities for its token distribution. Instead, an offering of 200 million was proposed as the initial genesis, soaring up to a total offering of 1 billion. The project conducted a “Rektdrop” to distribute the chain’s native token. This genesis airdrop awarded the EVMOS token to a wide array of users, ranging from longtime project supporters and Ethereum power users, to the victims of hacks and exploits on Ethereum. Consequently, these tokens were majorly distributed among users of Ethereum’s most popular applications, such as Aave, Olympus, as well as users of the Cosmos ecosystem.
The initial genesis offering confers to the following distribution:
A more detailed view of this distribution is illustrated in the embedded figure.
Source: coingecko.com
This POS-based blockchain is secured by validators and delegators. At the time of writing this document, the active validator set of Evmos comprises of 150 validators and 40% of the newly issued tokens are used to reward the active validators and their delegates. The amount of rewards is commensurate to the number of staked tokens.
Evmos is a pioneer in the establishment of cross-chain connectivity between the seemingly disparate worlds of Ethereum and Cosmos. By enabling interoperability between these chains, Evmos presents an attractive bargain to the users and developers of the Ethereum network, who are highly plagued by transaction costs and network congestion. Not to mention, it opens a plethora of opportunities for Cosmos developers to expand their reach to Ethereum, the industry-leading smart contract network. The Evmos project is led by a very competent team spearheaded by co-founders Federico Kunze Kullmer, a full-time Cosmos contributor since 2017, and Akash Khosla, a software engineer with 5 years of experience. The co-founders harbor a shared view of revolutionizing the blockchain community, and with Evmos they’re headed in the right direction. The Evmos community is expanding rapidly, and with the upcoming rollout of the Evmos EVM bridge, Evmos will allow converting tokens that don’t require to be initially run on Cosmos.
Evmos is also garnering tremendous support from their communities on Twitter and Discord, where the follower count is only surging.
Twitter follower statistics of @EvmosOrg (Aug, 22 — Sept, 22) Source: alpha growth.com
The upcoming release of a public roadmap is set to unveil what more Evmos has in store for its users and developers. Quoting the Evmos enthusiasts on the potential of Evmos — “Evmos is basically ETH 3.0 before ETH 2.0 is ready!”.
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