The Cosmos ecosystem enters a new chapter with the acquisition of Skip by the Interchain Foundation (ICF) and the creation of Interchain Inc. The move represents a pivot from the ICF's historical funding of disparate teams towards a more centralized and cohesive approach.
The new subsidiary, led by Skip co-founders Barry Plunkett and Magnus Mareneck, will be responsible for product development, ecosystem strategy and execution, and ICF Announce Earlier this week. Thursday, "Community Town Hall" X space Shedding more light on what to expect in 2025.
Uniform stack
universe It has long been known for its suite of modular technologies, including the Cosmos SDK, IBC, CometBFT, and CosmWasm. However, Plunkett described a lack of coordination in the growth of the ecosystem.
“There wasn't any cohesive overall communication,” Plunkett told Blockworks. “Each of them was going in their own direction.”
Read more: Unifying blockchain ecosystems: Q&A with Cosmos founder Ethan Buchman
Interchain Inc. aims to To bridge these silos, including major “Version 2” upgrades to both IBC – known as Eureka – and the Cosmos SDK. The SDK upgrade promises to boost performance by 10 to 25 times, while IBC Eureka simplifies the Interchain Interop protocol to enable faster integration with non-Cosmos chains such as Ethereum, EVM rollups, and Solana.
“It's a massive simplification of the IBC protocol that will really allow the ecosystem to connect to other chains outside of (Cosmos)... in days or weeks,” Plunkett said during X Space.
In other words, Eureka “is like if IBC Classic and Hyperlane had a baby,” said veteran Cosmos builder Zaki Manian in the latest issue of Eureka magazine. The Bell Curve Podcast.
Another cornerstone of the new strategy is expanding virtual machine (VM) support. An open source EVM tool is currently being worked on, and the team is in discussions with projects like Injective and Cronos to consider adapting it EVM Applications.
“Most Cosmos chains want a simple, reliable, and free path to adding EVM functionality,” Plunkett said, stressing that Solidity contracts will be able to seamlessly interface with the Cosmos SDKs and vice versa.
Cosmos chains will also gain the flexibility to run any virtual machine. "Users shouldn't have to say, 'If I'm going to build the Cosmos series, I can't use any virtual machine I want,'" Plunkett added.
The role of the center of the universe
Addressing cross-chain liquidity fragmentation is a key priority for the Interchain Inc. team. The Cosmos structure, which enables individual chains to operate independently, has inadvertently led to isolated liquidity pools. This harms the overall ecosystem and discourages developers.
Read more: Unified Ethereum? Devcon panelists face segmentation challenges
Liquidity is stuck on one chain and inaccessible from other chains, Marinick said on .
The Cosmos Hub is central to this strategy. By providing liquidity and friction-reducing services to developers, the hub can position itself as an ecosystem growth engine.
Interchain Security (ICS) will make it easier for projects to join the centre. While threads initially had to apply Hub management to take advantage of ICS, this is no longer the case.
Interchain Inc. focuses on It also helps simplify the developer experience, ensuring that Cosmos Hub provides essential services.
“We need to make it easier for builders and make sure the center provides services for growth and scale-up of chains,” Plunkett said.
Read more: Solana had the highest share of new developers in 2024: electric capital
The Skip team's reputation for collaboration will be key to realizing this new Hub vision.
“We have relationships at Skip with a lot of different projects... and we want to continue to do that, working from the Cosmos Hub platform,” Marinic said.
Skip has focused on providing services for builders and useful products for users, such as Skip Go, which now takes up more than half of IBC's total volume, Plunkett said on Bell Curve.
Instead of forcing participation, the team will offer a “carrots, not sticks” policy, to align incentives and promote growth.
By promoting development and focusing on liquidity and accessibility, ICF hopes to create a more unified and dynamic ecosystem, reigniting the vision of Cosmos as the “Internet of Blockchain.”
Outgoing ICF board member Ethan Buchman, one of the founders of Cosmos, sees the move as an opportunity to revitalize the ecosystem and bring the fragmented pieces together.
“We have been struggling with regulatory challenges and fragmentation,” Buchman told Blockworks. This is the first time I think we've taken some sort of revolutionary step to address that.
“It's like I've been trying to put together the pieces of Humpty Dumpty for so many years, and finally we just went and recruited Batman,” he said.
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