Top Cosmos Projects
What are the most important projects in the Cosmos ecosystem and how can you use them today?
Hey DEFI TIMES community,
Cosmos is growing at an exponential rate!
And it’s becoming a respectable part of the DeFi ecosystem.
Cosmos aims to connect all blockchains with its Inter Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol. It’s a protocol that allows different chains to talk to each other. That’s why IBC could be a core component of what the future of interoperability will look like.
IBC transfers are going through the roof right now. In the last 30 days, there have been over 780,000 IBC transactions! And the number is growing steadily...
Think about it for a second: Within the Cosmos network, over 780,000 transactions have been sent between different zones.
Zones are basically blockchains in the Cosmos network.
But what are the most important zones that people use today?
Today, I give you a broad overview of the most important zones in Cosmos.
Which ones can use today? And how can you use them?
Let’s find out!
Cosmos Hub
The Cosmos Hub was the first of thousands of different zones. It’s essentially the center of all zones. The native taken on the Cosmos Hub is ATOM, which most people perceive as the primary coin to capture the value of Cosmos’ network effect.
Using ATOM, you can run a validator node and secure the Cosmos Hub. You can contribute to the security and governance of the Cosmos Hub. If you don’t want to run your own validator node, you can delegate your ATOM to other validators, from which there are currently 149.
We already have the first apps on top of the Cosmos Hub. For example, the Gravity DEX launched earlier this year - it aims to be the most secure cross-chain DEX protocol and the central DEX in the Cosmos ecosystem. By using the Gravidity DEX, you get immediate access to all tokens from IBC connected chains.
The main way to use the Gravity DEX is Emeris. Emeris’ vision is to become a one-stop portal for all crypto apps - no matter what blockchain they run on.
Today, it’s not fully launched, but you can already use the Gravity DEX supporting several tokens today! Right now, it’s still in beta, but this will change soon!
Osmosis: The Uniswap of Cosmos
Osmosis is the largest DEX in the Cosmos network and has its own zone! The zone is IBC-compatible, which means that it can talk to all the other zones in the network.
Osmosis is by far the most active chain when it comes to IBC transfers:
IBC transfers are cross-chain transactions - so, basically, information being sent from one zone to another. Over 358,000 IBC transactions have crossed Osmosis in the last 30 days, which is an incredible number!
When it comes to IBC transactions, Osmosis even surpasses the Cosmos Hub, which currently only settles 219,000 IBC transactions per month.
Osmosis is an automated market maker (AMM) protocol. It has strong incentives for liquidity providers rewarding them for their contributions.
The rewards are just incredible at the moment. APYs range from hundred percent to several hundreds of percent:
The strong liquidity incentives made Osmisis’ TVL go through the roof. Over $400 million are currently locked in Osmosis’ smart contracts.
Osmosis is a fork of Balancer, which is part of the reason it took off in the first place. Its interface is very simple to use and people got used to it already in some kind of way.
You can find out more about Osmosis by watching this interview with Sunny Aggarwal!
Akash Network
Akash Network is basically a decentralized cloud. The vision is to disrupt the centralized cloud industry (dominated by Amazon, Google, and co). By decentralizing this industry, Akash aims to significantly decrease the storage cost. Another goal is to create an environment with more competition among storage providers.
Their official docs describe the vision in the following paragraphs:
“The decentralized cloud is a shift from computing resources being owned and operated by the three large Cloud companies (Amazon, Google, and Microsoft) to a decentralized network of Cloud providers running open-source software developed by a community and creating competition in an open marketplace with more providers.”
Akash has its own zone in the Cosmos network and is IBC compatible. Because of its unique vision, Akash is definitely one of the most remarkable projects in the Cosmos ecosystem.
Watch this interview we did with Akash CEO Greg Osuri if you want to find out more about Akash!
Sentinel
Sentinel is a decentralized peer-to-peer bandwidth marketplace, which supports decentralized VPN applications. Just as all other Cosmos protocols, it’s built on the Cosmos SDK.
A decentralized VPN takes privacy features to another level because it can’t be compromised by a central party. It cannot be shut down because it doesn’t have a central server where it’s running. That’s why it’s more resilient than a centralized VPN.
Dan Edlebeck, co-founder of Exidio, who contributed to the development of Sentinel explained it in the following way:
“Sentinel is the first project that focuses on offering privacy at the network level to any blockchain or dapp. Once integrated, these blockchains or applications will be able to provide their users with both privacy and censorship resistance. Simply, the purpose of the Sentinel ecosystem is to empower universal access to the internet in a trusted and provable manner.”
Sentinel Network allows you to sell bandwidth on the marketplace. For doing so, you will be rewarded in $SENT - the native token on the Sentinel zone.
Conclusion
The Cosmos ecosystem is growing pretty fast. Just a year ago, there was no single app up and running on Cosmos. But today, things look differently!
The projects that I mentioned today, are just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to dive deeper and have a more extensive overview of all the apps on Cosmos, then check out this website.
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DISCLAIMER: All information presented above is meant for informational purposes only and should not be treated as financial, legal, or tax advice. This article's content solely reflects the opinion of the writer, who is not a financial advisor.
Do your own research before you purchase cryptocurrencies. Any cryptocurrency can go down in value. Holding cryptocurrencies is risky.