Cosmos is the name of a blockchain platform that aims to help users, developers, and businesses build and deploy decentralized applications (DApps) more easily through their interoperable framework. The team's mission "is to create an Internet of Blockchains," or in other words, they want to allow developers to easily create blockchains without having to worry about the infrastructure and network that will be needed for connectivity and interoperability.
Currently, most blockchain platforms (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.) provide their own application development environment which cannot communicate with any other platform's language or smart contract. This means that each blockchain must effectively reinvent the wheel, re-developing the same features and tools for their own platform. Cosmos aims to solve this problem by serving as the networking layer that facilitates communication between different blockchains, allowing them to interact with each other, similar to how the internet connects websites together.
Cosmos differs from Polkadot , another interoperability solution proposed by Parity Technologies , primarily in its deployment strategy. Polkadot aims to facilitate interoperability between blockchains by running as a single blockchain with parachains being connected to the mainchain. These parachains are effectively independent blockchains which are only linked to the main Polkadot blockchain, allowing for connectivity between them through special smart contracts that can be written on either chain.
Cosmos stands out in many regards. (Most notably) its primary token (the Atom), has already been successfully issued via an Etheruem ICO. The team behind Cosmos has gained much attention through their unique vision and their open approach to development.
Cosmos aims to solve the scalability problem by running parallel chains that owe consensus to a third party ( Tendermint ), rather than using PoW as in Bitcoin or PoS as in Ethereum. Rather than creating a single blockchain, where every node must store all transactions and state, Cosmos will run individual chains that link to a main chain via delegation, where only a few nodes have to verify all the blocks.
This means that each currency on Cosmos will be able to run as a separate blockchain connected to a mainchain for security and consensus benefits. This also helps prevent malicious actors from causing problems on individual chains by creating an incentive structure where staking a block on a mainchain will lead to rewards across all chains.
Cosmos Points and Atoms Starting with the Cosmos Hub, which is scheduled for launch in 2017, users will be able to create an initial stake of Atoms by depositing Ether. This deposit creates what's known as a hub identity and determines how many points, or staking tokens, that account will have. Staking is done via BFT algorithms which are efficient and secure through Tendermint's PBFT consensus engine . Beyond the cryptographic security provided by delegating staking to a third party, there are also economic incentives for choosing Tendermint-based DPOS blockchains.
