Baar, Switzerland, June 9, 2020 — Interchain Foundation (ICF), a Swiss foundation, supporting, promoting, and advancing open and decentralized systems, has announced that it is awarding funding to leading blockchain architects; Althea, Chainsafe, Confio, Lunie, Iqlusion and Regen Network. This funding will help the projects build the software, applications, and ideas to galvanize the success of the interoperable blockchain ecosystem, Cosmos.
The latest projects will join Agoric, Interchain GmbH, Informal Systems, and Tendermint Inc, as core contributors to the Cosmos ecosystem. Together, they will spearhead the development of the open-source decentralized toolkits and protocols — Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC), Tendermint Core, and the Cosmos SDK.
Billy Rennekamp, Grant Manager of Interchain Foundation:
“Last year, the Cosmos community made history with the successful decentralized launch of the Cosmos Hub resulting in an explosion of development activity, new business models, and emerging use cases. This latest expansion of the ecosystem and collaboration between networks will only propel innovation. Driving further decentralization of the Cosmos ecosystem is extremely important to the Interchain Foundation.
By expanding the ecosystem of core contributors to the Cosmos stack we’re one step closer to making the vision of the ‘Internet of Blockchains’ a reality. As an open source project to its core, the enthusiasm of the Cosmos community has made the ecosystem what it is today — a sovereign, secure, and sustainable ecosystem of decentralized networks. I’m really excited to see what happens next.”
Althea will receive funding from ICF to productionize Peggy, an Ethereum Peg zone. The team will focus on building the Cosmos SDK application for moving assets on and off Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) based Proof of Work chains. Peggy will enable an anti-fragile array of interchain routes with certain features and security assumptions being operated by various entities.
Chainsafe, a major contributor on the project to date, received funds to build Ethermint to a production-ready stage, enabling current EVM based projects to migrate to Cosmos based architecture.
Confio received funding from ICF to support its work on the CosmWasm Smart Contract Module for the Cosmos SDK as it related to IBC. This will further support features such as Dynamic IBC and a Javascript light client.
Lunie will continue the development of the flagship open-source wallet in the Cosmos ecosystem and to expand the platform to support more networks.
Iqlusion will use funds to develop and maintain Inter-Blockchain Communication with work on the Relayer Client
Regen Network will lead maintenance and community engagement for the Cosmos SDK.
ICF is the key coordinator ensuring the growth and collaboration between the multitude of entities that support the Cosmos ecosystem. ICF has funded a wide diversity of organizations in the Blockchain ecosystem to help deliver diverse options for network interoperability and self-sovereign, application-specific architecture. All projects funded by ICF are aligned in their mission to advance the development of open, decentralized network technologies for greater sovereignty, security, and sustainability in economic networks.