How Tendermint, Cosmos, and Sifchain Form the Next Generation of Blockchains

2017 marked a significant time in blockchain history. It was the beginning of mainstream awareness and adoption of the technology. Since then, hundreds of billions of dollars have flowed into the development of blockchain, decentralized apps (dApps), and more. However, existing blockchain networks have some prevalent issues that hinder them from reaching their full potential.

People have mostly been unable to harness the full potential of decentralized ledger technology due to the fact that these networks function in isolation. The lack of interoperability plagues both users and developers building on these infrastructures. What’s more, most traditional blockchains are complex to build on.

While legacy blockchains like Ethereum, BSC, and others have been unable to fully adopt this cross-chain technology, there is hope. A new generation of blockchains has targeted solving this problem once and for all. And the answer lies within Cosmos and Tendermint.

What makes Tendermint different?

The Tendermint engine is a blockchain technology that was created in 2014 and is used to duplicate and deploy blockchain solutions across systems in a safe and reliable manner. Jae Kwon, a blockchain software architect, and Ethan Buchman, a self-described “internet biophysicist”, came up with the idea.

The Tendermint engine was developed to allow interfacing with both internal and external blockchains inside a network. At its core, Tendermint allows developers to design blockchain solutions with ease. It also helps bypass the time-consuming technical setup stages so they can concentrate on the application rather than building infrastructure.

Tendermint is made up of two main technical elements: an Application Blockchain Interface (ABCI) and a blockchain consensus mechanism. The consensus mechanism helps to ensure those equivalent transactions are logged on each system in the same order, even when the system is dispersed and adversarial. This means that records and information can be kept accurate across Tendermint-based blockchains.

The Tendermint Consensus is reached through a Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm. It is Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT), which means it can withstand the failure or malicious activity of up to a third of the network's validators while successfully replicating its state on all non-faulty devices.

The Tendermint consensus algorithm's main contribution is a new termination method that makes it more efficient and easier to understand and apply, making it quicker and easier to develop with Tendermint.

But what does this all have to do with Cosmos and Sifchain?

Where does Cosmos fit in?

Cosmos was the first blockchain to use Tendermint’s BFT consensus mechanism with actual monetary value at stake. Cosmos' principal purpose is to address the industry's lack of interoperability. It achieves this by incorporating Tendermint into its infrastructure and development tools, resulting in a decentralized ecosystem of scalable and interconnected blockchains.

Cosmos uses a variety of proprietary and open-source solutions made available through its platform to enable blockchain interoperability across its family of blockchains. The Cosmos software development kit (SDK) serves as the ecosystem's application layer (similar to Ethereum's EVM). This provides a strong base of infrastructure for developers to build off of instead of having to develop their own. 

Furthermore, it launched the Inter-Blockchain Communication system (IBC), which allows IBC-enabled chains to seamlessly transport assets and communicate information between each other. This results in a smooth user experience for network participants.

Different blockchains can execute their applications easily thanks to the Cosmos SDK. This frees up developers' time to focus on their apps rather than the protocols that keep networks running. Different blockchains can also use Cosmos to tap into the features of other platforms for a better user experience.

The protocol operates as a framework that allows different, self-contained blockchains to communicate reliably and swiftly with one another. This allows Cosmos’s core chain to provide an average transaction time of approximately 7 seconds with gas fees averaging a penny.

Sifchain - Expanding the Omni-chain

Sifchain is the premier Omni-chain decentralized exchange (DEX) on Cosmos. It allows users to access liquidity across several chains resulting in faster trades and lower fees.

Sifchain uses the IBC protocol to communicate with other Cosmos Network blockchains, including Juno, Osmosis, and Crypto.org. This allows users to import assets from other IBC-enabled chains. These assets can then be swapped, staked, or provided as liquidity using a DEX like Sifchain.

What makes Sifchain such an innovative project is the fact that it offers EVM interoperability with its DEX and will be expanding it with its Omni-EVM (Cross Chain Virtual Machines) initiative. Omni-EVM will enable and support assets to move freely from Ethereum, as well as ANY other EVM-compatible chain, to Sifchain and the rest of the Cosmos Ecosystem.

Another huge benefit of utilizing Sifchain is its speedy and low-cost transactions thanks to its use of the Cosmos SDK. It also includes features that other blockchains are still working on, such as its modular structure and connection to other networks.

In addition to full IBC connectivity to the Cosmos Ecosystem, Sifchain constructed the first Ethereum to Cosmos bridge.  The Peggy Bridge has been operational for over a year, allowing ERC20 tokens from Ethereum to join the Cosmoverse and vice versa.

The project stands out amongst others due to its thoughtful design and methodical development. Not only that, but the team behind Sifchain is composed of top Web3 talent alongside several established economists and blockchain veterans. This has allowed the team to design a scalable and robust platform with an eye for longevity and sustainability.

The Way Forward

Blockchain is so new and we’ve hardly scratched the surface of what it can do. While older iterations of this technology brought us to where we are now, they aren’t going to bring us any closer to fulfilling its full potential. In order to help this technology realize self-actualization, we need the help of new projects such as Tendermint, Cosmos, and Sifchain. 

Blockchains have struggled with interoperability since the beginning, but that may soon be a problem of the past. With the Tendermint consensus mechanism and the Cosmos SDK, Sifchain gives DeFi users what they need: fast transactions at low costs across multiple chains. At the end of the day, innovation breeds more innovation and that is what will help Web3 reach its full potential.