#281 Ethan Buchman & Sunny Aggarwal: Cosmos – Launching the Internet of Blockchains

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The shipping container brought standardization to the way we move goods around the world. Similarly, TCP/IP packets normalized how information transits over computer networks. Today, blockchains remain siloed ecosystems and interoperability is practically non-existent. A new wave of third-generation blockchain protocols aims to change this. In this new paradigm, blockchains communicate natively and value moves seamlessly from one network to an other. One of those projects is Cosmos.

We're joined by Ethan Buchman and Sunny Aggarwal of Cosmos. With its recent mainnet launch, we discuss how the network is running and address potential issues relating to governance and centralization of power.

Disclaimers:

- Cosmos (All in Bits) is a sponsor of the podcast.
- Brian is a former employee of Tendermint (All in Bits) and founder of the Cosmos validator Chorus One.
- Sunny, is a regular host on Epicenter and founder of the Cosmos validator Sikka.
- All participants in this interview are Atom holders.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- The Cosmos vision and how it differs from Polkadot and Ethereum 2.0
- Building Cosmos and the “Game of Stake”
- The Cosmos governance process and current proposals
- Voter participation in the Cosmos governance model
- The role of validators and the importance of decentralization of power
- Validator market economics, related inherent issues, and centralization risks
- The Cosmos SDK and how it differs from Substrate
- The Cosmos Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) Protocol
- The role of the Interchain Foundation moving forward

Links mentioned in this episode:
- Cosmos website: http://bit.ly/2iVTXvp
- Cosmos SDK websitt: http://bit.ly/2YJPcd0
- Cosmos SDK (GitHub): http://bit.ly/2UeC5C0
- Cosmos blog: http://bit.ly/2YMmxEf
- Sunny Aggarwal on Twitter: http://bit.ly/2YNhIdU
- Ethan Buchman on Twitter: http://bit.ly/2UcFyRj

Sponsors:
- Azure: Deploy enterprise-ready consortium blockchain networks that scale in just a few clicks - http://aka.ms/epicenter

This episode is also available on :
- Epicenter.tv: https://epicenter.tv/281
- YouTube: http://youtu.be/hvoEW6T2Ydk
- Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-281

Watch or listen, Epicenter is available wherever podcasts are distributed.

Epicenter is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain, Sébastien Couture, Meher Roy, Sunny Aggarwal & Friederike Ernst.