A Look at Cronos: Ethereum & Cosmos Compatible Blockchain for Defi & NFTs

The cryptocurrency market is currently cooling off from the 2020-2021 bull run and now is the time to be looking at projects that actually have a legitimate use case. When looking at different projects, it’s best to look at what problems they solve and if they have any working products.

Scalability, interoperability, and gaming are three trending use cases in the crypto space. In this post, we’ll take a look at Cronos, the Crypto.org blockchain platform that has developed solutions that cover those three use cases.

What is Cronos?

Cronosis a Cosmos and Ethereum compatible blockchain network that was developed with the purpose of scaling Decentralized Finance (Defi), Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), and Metaverse projects. The platform aims to increase the adoption of decentralized applications (dapps) across these industries by making it easier for developers to migrate their dapps and blockchain-based assets over to the Cronos chain.

Once the apps are live on Cronos, users will be able to benefit from the platform's lower fees and faster transactions. Cronos is an open-source project that was developed by Crypto.com, the exchange and payments network formerly known as Monaco.

Crypto.com was originally founded as the payments platform “Monaco” in 2016, with the goal of providing crypto payments and staking via a crypto debit card. The platform rebranded to Crypto.com in 2018 and its native token, Monaco Coin (MCO) was rebranded to Crypto.com Coin (CRO). Cronos was launched in 2021 as the CRO token now resides on the Cronos network as the platform's native token.

How Does Cronos Work?

The Cronos blockchain is Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible and is based on Ethermint, a scalable and high-throughput Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain. This allows developers to migrate Ethereum-based dapps onto the Cronos network, as well as take advantage of the low fees and high transaction capacity of the Ethermint protocol.

Ethermint was developed using the Cosmos Software Development Kit (SDK) and it runs a Cosmos-compatible version of Ethereum. This makes it possible for developers to access features from both blockchains, for example, users can benefit from the security of Ethereum and the scalability of Cosmos.

The Cosmos SDK is based on Tendermint, open-source software that enables developers to launch new blockchains and build applications in any coding language. This is likely where Ethermint gets its name since it combines the technology of Ethereum and the Tendermint-based Cosmos SDK.

The Cronos ecosystem includes the Cronos Bridge which enables users to transfer assets to and from the Cronos blockchain. Supported blockchains include Crypto.org, Cosmos, Terra (currently paused), Akash, and Cronos with Ethereum support coming soon. Users will be able to transfer between the supported networks via wallets like MetaMask, Keplar, and the Crypto.com wallet.

The Cronos (CRO) Token

The Cronos (CRO) originally started out as Monaco Coin (MCO) before being rebranded as Crypto.com Coin (CRO) and finally Cronos Coin after being migrated over to the Cronos blockchain. The token initially had a supply of 100 billion coins, however, the supply now sits at 30 billion coins after the team being CRO decided to burn 70 million tokens in February 2021.

The CRO tokenserves the following purposes:

1. Governance - CRO holders can make and vote on proposals related to how the Cronos network is operated.
2. Staking - CRO can be staked via the PoS system to secure the Cronos network and earn additional tokens in return. Staking can be done via supported self-custody wallets or through the Crypto.com exchange.
3. Gas Fees - CRO is used to pay for transaction fees on the Cronos network and trading fees on Crypto.com. CRO is also used for payments on the Crypto.com Visa Card and the Crypto Pay app.

Governance, staking and transaction fees are the main use cases of the Cronos token.

Why Cronos Could be a Good Investment

Cronos is part of the Crypto.com ecosystem, an exchange and payments platform with over 50 million users. Since the CRO token is used as “gas” across Crypto.com’s products, the token could increase in value due to demand and a high user base.

The Crypto.com ecosystem also includes Cronos Play, a software development kit that enables developers to connect their games to the Cronos ecosystem. Connecting games to the Cronos network can add additional features which include NFT assets such as skins, characters, and weapons as well as character authentication. The Cronos network currently supports Unity, a popular 3D gaming engine with over 2 billion users.

If game developers start to incorporate the Cronos network into their games, this could lead to additional demand for the CRO token since it will be used to mint in-game NFT items as well as gas for transferring the assets. When you combine the popularity of the gaming industry (worth $180.3 billion in 2021) as well as the large user base of Crypto.com and Unity, the CRO token could be a promising investment for potential investors.

Conclusion

Cronos is a proof-of-stake blockchain network that connects with the Ethereum and Cosmos blockchains. The network has a focus on scalability, connectivity, payments, and gaming. The platform is worth looking into for prospective investors as the crypto market starts to cool down.