Cosmos, a recently launched distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based platform developed mainly to facilitate blockchain interoperability, or communication between two separate and independent DLT-enabled works, has already seen more than $300 million staked on its network.
As a decentralized proof-of-stake (PoS)-powered platform, Cosmos’ community recently voted and approved the first official “transfer of ATOMS,” the DLT-powered network’s native crypto token. Notably, the completion of this phase marks the beginning of “Phase II,” which is the next major stage in Cosmos’ ongoing development.
“High Voting Participation Rates”
According to available data, there are currently 99 validators that are active on the Cosmos Hub, out of a total of 105 eligible transaction validators. Moreover, Cosmos’ governance has reportedly seen “impressively high voting participation rates in the proposals leading up to activating Phase II, with participation exceeding the minimum 40% quorum needed to pass each proposal.”
Referred to as the “Internet of Blockchains,” the Cosmos Hub, or the platform’s mainnet, has a “built-in on-chain governance system” which allows “delegators and validators” to cast their vote on “proposals to signal future changes to the Hub,” Chjango Unchained noted in a blog post published on April 23rd, 2019.
Chjango added:
Once specific changes are approved by governance, Cosmos Hub validators can upgrade their software accordingly in order to enable new features.
“Dual-Proposal Process” Implemented
As mentioned in Chjango’s blog, a “dual-proposal process” has now been implemented which enables the transfer of ATOMs on the Cosmos Hub. This, after the platform’s community voted in favor of activating such transactions.
The first of these proposals was reportedly “passed with a unilateral YES vote of 92.61%,” and it “defined an expedited upgrade process.” Meanwhile, the second proposal, called the “Expedited Cosmos Hub Upgrade proposal,” which closely resembled the first proposal, but also “expedited acceptance to shorten the 14-day voting period” has now been approved and activated as well.
Moreover, “as of 17:00 UTC April 22, the two proposals that passed allowed ATOM transfers to be enabled,” Chjango wrote.
As explained in the announcement, ATOMs “denominate a single unit of the staking token which secures the Cosmos Hub.” The “smallest unit” of ATOM is the uATOM (micro ATOM) where “1 atom = 1,000,000 uATOM.”
“Value Of ATOMs Not Guaranteed, All Value May Be Lost”
The ATOM token is “required to participate in staking and governance on the Cosmos Hub. The value of the ATOM is otherwise not guaranteed and all value may be lost.”
The “recommended way to interact with the Cosmos Hub is to use the gaiacli Command-Line Interface tool, as it is the most mature,” Chjango noted.
Additionally, the blog stated that “less mature options include the Lunie.io web-wallet, which recently launched and spun off from Tendermint Inc. as an independent entity.”
On April 22, 2019, cryptoasset exchange Poloniex began supporting ATOMs. In a press release shared with CryptoGlobe, Malta-based digital asset exchange OKEx revealed that it also added support for ATOM on its “spot trading market.”
