In this discussion, Michael Rosmer from DeFiYield hosts Nic Z, Co-Founder of Evmos.
The main discussion was around the superiority of Cosmos over Ethereum and Polkadot and Evmos Wallets.
Read our notes below to learn more.
Introduction of Nic Z
Nic is one of the co-founders and core contributors of Evmos.
Michael says that Nic is of the smartest people in crypto and in the Cosmos ecosystem.
Nic has an engineer by background who got into crypto in 2017 out of curiosity
He started teaching a class on developing on top of Ethereum back then and, at the time, there was not much educational content available on the subject.
How he got interested in Cosmos
Nic explains that a lot of the early work on Cosmos was based out of where he went to school. He knew about Cosmos for a while but didn't get it at the time.
He was developing for Ethereum and teaching classes for Ethereum, so he wondered why they needed more application-specific blockchains when Ethereum worked fine.
Nic took a brief break from crypto to work at some big tech companies, but when he came back, he got sucked back into crypto and Cosmos started to make more sense to him.
He says that Cosmos is one of the few things in today's crypto landscape that makes sense, as it allows developers to launch their product, business, community, or protocol without having to worry about paying rent to a central body.
Why does Cosmos make more sense than Ethereum?
Nic argues that Cosmos is one of the few things in today's crypto landscape that makes as much sense as Ethereum's roll-up-centric roadmap.
He explains that the key difference between Cosmos and Ethereum is that Ethereum has a shared state machine, which essentially creates a single ambient layer that runs in the background.
Anyone anywhere can deploy to Ethereum, but this means that there is a slowdown for users of one application if there is a spike in usage from a different application, creating a bridge risk.
In contrast, Cosmos is built on the premise of having application-specific blockchains, which can run in isolation and communicate with other chains as needed.
This means that there is no slowdown for users of one application when another application experiences a surge in usage.
This architecture allows developers to create custom chains that suit their specific use cases while still being able to communicate and interoperate with other chains.
This modular architecture is better suited to the future of blockchain, where users should not have to care about what chain their application lives on. Instead, users should be able to use any application they want without having to worry about the underlying technology or architecture.
By allowing for greater interoperability between chains, Cosmos is seen as a step towards achieving this vision.
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The logic behind the Cosmos ecosystem
The current state of the blockchain landscape is fragmented, with different blockchains existing in isolation and not being able to communicate with each other. This creates inefficiencies and limits the potential of blockchain technology.
Cosmos is built on the premise that there should be an ecosystem of interoperable blockchains that can communicate with each other, allowing for a more seamless user experience and enabling greater innovation. In this ecosystem, each blockchain has its own specific use case and application, but can still interact with other chains as needed.
To achieve this, Cosmos uses a modular architecture, which allows developers to customize their own chains using specific modules for governance, staking, and ledger functionality. These modules are interchangeable, meaning that developers can swap them in and out as needed to suit their specific use case.
The Cosmos ecosystem also includes the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol, which enables communication and the transfer of assets between different chains in the ecosystem. This allows for the creation of dApps that can leverage the functionality of different chains and create new and innovative use cases.
Cosmos vs Polkadot
Cosmos and Polkadot are both platforms that aim to solve the issue of interoperability in the blockchain space. However, they differ in their approach and design.
Cosmos is built on a modular architecture, where each chain in the ecosystem has its own specific use case and application, but can still interact with other chains as needed. This is achieved through the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol, which enables communication and the transfer of assets between different chains in the ecosystem. Cosmos is also designed to be developer-friendly, with a focus on ease of use and fast development.
Polkadot, on the other hand, is a sharded protocol that allows for the creation of multiple parallel blockchains, or shards, that can operate simultaneously. These shards can be customized for specific use cases and applications, but they can also communicate with each other through a central relay chain. Polkadot's design is intended to be more flexible and scalable than Cosmos, with a focus on accommodating a wide range of use cases and blockchain applications.
In terms of governance, Cosmos uses a governance module that allows token holders to vote on proposals for the ecosystem, while Polkadot uses a nominated proof-of-stake consensus mechanism that allows token holders to elect validators to the network.
Can Cosmos SDK's Elements (Tendermint, IBC, etc) be Changed by Developers?
The Cosmos SDK's modular design allows developers to customize and build their own blockchains using various elements such as Tendermint, IBC, governance modules, staking modules, and other custom modules.
The SDK provides a framework and building blocks for developers to create their own blockchain applications with their desired functionalities and specifications, without having to build everything from scratch.
This modular design allows for flexibility and adaptability, enabling developers to choose and use only the components that they need, rather than being restricted by a rigid and inflexible protocol.
Additionally, the open-source nature of the Cosmos SDK means that developers can contribute to and collaborate on its ongoing development, improving and refining the components over time.
Is the architecture of Cosmos-built dApps Open Source?
The architecture of dApps built on Cosmos is open-source. The Cosmos ecosystem, including its Software Development Kit (SDK), is open-source, meaning that developers can use the code and build upon it to create their own decentralized applications.
This open-source architecture allows for transparency, collaboration, and innovation within the Cosmos community.
By sharing their work, developers can learn from each other, contribute to the ecosystem, and improve the quality of their applications.
Additionally, open-source architecture provides security benefits, as the code can be reviewed and audited by the wider community to identify and fix potential security issues.
Interoperability within Cosmos ecosystem
Cosmos uses the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol to enable communication and transactions between different blockchains.
With IBC, a Cosmos-based blockchain can communicate and transact with any other IBC-compatible blockchain, even if they were not originally designed to work together.
This interoperability is achieved through the use of a common set of protocols and standards, which allows for seamless integration between different blockchains. This is important for several reasons.
It allows developers to build more complex applications that can utilize features and resources from multiple blockchains. For example, a DeFi platform built on Cosmos could access liquidity from different blockchains to provide users with more options for trading and investing.
Also, it enables greater security and decentralization, as IBC allows for the creation of multiple specialized blockchains that can work together in a decentralized network.
Additionally, it promotes innovation and collaboration, as developers can share resources, knowledge, and ideas to create new applications and tools within the ecosystem.
Restrictions of EVM when building a dApp
One of the key restrictions is that the EVM is a single-state machine, meaning that all the smart contracts run on the same state machine. This can cause problems when one dApp becomes too popular and starts clogging up the network, which in turn affects the performance of all other dApps running on the same state machine.
Another restriction of the EVM is that it does not allow for cross-chain communication, which means that dApps running on different blockchains cannot communicate with each other directly. This is where the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol in the Cosmos ecosystem comes in, which enables cross-chain communication between different blockchains.
EVM has some limitations in terms of programming languages, as it mainly supports Solidity. This can be a problem for developers who want to use other programming languages or who prefer different syntax.
However, there are some solutions being developed to address this issue, such as the CosmWasm smart contract engine, which enables developers to write smart contracts in Rust.
Replaceability of the elements within the Cosmos ecosystem
Developers can customize these modules to fit their specific needs, or even replace them entirely with their own modules.
This flexibility is a key aspect of the Cosmos ecosystem, as it allows for greater innovation and creativity in building decentralized applications.
Additionally, Nic notes that the Cosmos SDK is open source, meaning that the architecture of Cosmos-built dApps is also open source.
This allows other developers to learn from and build upon the work of others in the ecosystem, further promoting innovation and collaboration.
Evmos Wallets
In the video, there was no specific discussion about Evmos' wallets. However, as a blockchain network, Evmos should have its own native wallets for users to manage their tokens and interact with the network.
These wallets should be designed to be user-friendly and secure, with features such as private key encryption, two-factor authentication, and easy token transfers. The wallets should also support various platforms such as desktop, mobile, and web, to cater to a wider range of users.
Evmos may also integrate with existing popular wallets in the market such as MetaMask and Trust Wallet to provide users with more options.
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