We are very pleased to announce that Timpi has started the development of its blockchain on the Cosmos network.
The Cosmos network currently has over $62 Billion of assets in its ecosystem across 312 applications and services. These include giants such as Crypto.com. The Cosmos ecosystem is growing rapidly, thanks in part to the support community and SDK toolsets that are available. This enables application owners to rapidly develop their blockchain in a tried and tested environment.
With such a strong toolset at hand, projects wishing to join the Timpi Chain will also have the same advantages for rapid and tested development procedures. We can grow our ecosystem of applications with flexibility and speed.
Cosmos also has a powerful tool called Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol which facilities connectivity to other blockchains and provides a huge advantage for the Timpi Chain.
KADENA BRIDGE
A major deciding factor in using Cosmos for the Timpi Chain is that the Kadena/Cosmos IBC bridge is part of the 2022 Kadena Roadmap. For full details of the 2022 kadena roadmap please see:
With Timpi’s continued support of the Kadena network, this bridge will allow seamless functionality between Kadena, the Timpi Chain and the token’s utility.
COSMOS SDK
The Cosmos Software Development Kit (SDK), is a friendlier and more customizable solution for developers, where they only have to concentrate on the development of the applications and not on the layers below. With the SDK Cosmos reduces the development time of a blockchain from years to weeks.
The SDK is based on two main principles: Modularity and performance-based security. Modularity means that the Cosmos SDK creates an ecosystem of modules that allows developers to easily create application-specific blockchains without having to re-program every functionality from scratch. Performance-based security means the ability to limit the security boundaries between modules so that developers can limit unexpected (harmful) interactions.
ADOPTION RATE
Cosmos has now attracted over 312 decentralized applications onto its blockchain. One reason for this growth is that it has become easier for smaller teams to build on Cosmos since an upgrade in April 2021 called the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol in tandem with the Cosmos Software Development Kit (SDK).
ECOSYSTEM OF BLOCKCHAINS
Cosmos is an ecosystem of blockchains that can scale and interoperate with each other. Before Cosmos, blockchains were siloed and unable to communicate with each other. They were hard to build and could only handle a small number of transactions per second. Cosmos solves these problems with a new technical vision. In order to understand this vision, we need to go back to the fundamentals of blockchain technology.
A blockchain can be described as a digital ledger maintained by a set of validators that remains correct even if some of the validators (less than a third) are malicious. Each party stores a copy of the ledger on their computer and updates it according to the rules defined by the protocol when they receive blocks of transactions. The goal of blockchain technology is to make sure the ledger is correctly replicated, meaning that each honest party sees the same version of the ledger at any given moment.
The main benefit of blockchain technology is the ability for parties to share a ledger without having to rely on a central authority. Blockchains are decentralized. The first and most famous application of blockchain technology today is Bitcoin, a decentralized currency.
A blockchain is a deterministic state machine replicated on full-nodes that retains consensus safety as long as less than a third of its maintainers are Byzantine.
THE BITCOIN STORY (BLOCKCHAIN 1.0)
To understand how Cosmos fits in the blockchain ecosystem, we need to go back to the beginning of the blockchain story. The first blockchain was Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer digital currency created in 2008 that used a novel consensus mechanism known as Proof-of-Work (PoW).
It was the first decentralized application on a blockchain. Soon, people started to realize the potential of decentralized applications and the desire to build new ones emerged in the community.
THE ETHEREUM STORY (BLOCKCHAIN 2.0)
In 2014, Ethereum came up with a new proposition for building decentralized applications. There would be a single blockchain where people would be able to deploy any kind of program. Ethereum achieved this by turning the Application layer into a virtual machine called the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This virtual machine was able to process programs called smart contracts that any developer could deploy to the Ethereum blockchain in a permissionless fashion. This new approach allowed thousands of developers to start building decentralized applications (dApps). However, limitations to this approach soon became apparent and still persist to this day.
Limitation #1: Scalability
Decentralized applications built on top of Ethereum are inhibited by a shared rate of 15 transactions per second.
Limitation #2: Usability
Because the EVM is a sandbox that needs to accommodate all use cases, it optimizes for the average use case. This means that developers have to make compromises on the design and efficiency of their application
Limitation #3: Sovereignty
The limitation in sovereignty, because they all share the same underlying environment. Essentially, this creates two layers of governance: that of the application, and that of the underlying environment. The former is limited by the latter.
THE VISION OF COSMOS (BLOCKCHAIN 3.0)
The vision of Cosmos is to make it easy for developers to build blockchains and break the barriers between blockchains by allowing them to transact with each other. The end goal is to create an Internet of Blockchains, a network of blockchains able to communicate with each other in a decentralized way. With Cosmos, blockchains can maintain sovereignty, process transactions quickly and communicate with other blockchains in the ecosystem, making it optimal for a variety of use cases
HUBS AND ZONES
A hub is a blockchain whose purpose is to connect zones with each other. Zones, on the other hand, are application-specific blockchains in the Cosmos network that can communicate with each other. This usually works by connecting to hubs via the IBC protocol. When a zone establishes an IBC connection with a hub, it can automatically access any other zone connected to it. As a result, each zone only needs to establish a limited number of connections with a limited set of hubs.
Hubs also prevent double spending between zones. Thus, the hubs act as the main sources of trust among the blockchains, rather than forcing the blockchains to a common consensus by going through the same consensus mechanism as the tokens for transmission. This means that when a zone receives a token from a hub, it must only trust the origin zone of that token and the hub. In addition, each blockchain can select and operate its own governance model (proof-of-work, proof-of-stake, delegated proof-of-stake, …).
This creates a series of interconnected zones and hubs that operate independently but share a common system architecture.
Timpi Chain will start off as a Zone within the Cosmos Hub, then at a later stage, when we are ready to grow the suite of TImpi applications we will move to our own Hub.
VALIDATOR NODES
The Timpi Blockchain is based on Tendermint which relies on a set of validators to secure the network. The role of validators is to run a full node and participate in consensus by broadcasting votes that contain cryptographic signatures signed by the validator’s private key. Validators commit new blocks in the blockchain and receive revenue in exchange for their work. Validators must also participate in governance by voting on proposals. Validators are weighted according to their total stake.
WHAT IS STAKING?
Timpi is a public Proof-Of-Stake (PoS) blockchain, meaning that the weight of validators is determined by the amount of staking tokens (TIMPI) bonded as collateral. These TIMPI tokens can be self-delegated directly by the validator or delegated to the validator by other TIMPI holders.
Any user in the system can declare their intention to become a validator by sending a create-validator transaction to become validator candidates.
The weight (i.e. voting power) of a validator determines whether they are an active validator. The active validator set is limited to an amount that changes over time.
WHAT IS A FULL NODE?
A full node is a server running a chain’s binary (its software) that fully validates transactions and blocks of a blockchain and keeps a full record of all historic activity. A full node is distinct from a pruned node that processes only block headers and a small subset of transactions. Running a full node requires more resources than a pruned node. Validators can decide to run either a full node or a pruned node, but they need to make sure they retain enough blocks to be able to validate new blocks.
Of course, it is possible and encouraged for users to run full nodes even if they do not plan to be validators.
WHAT IS A DELEGATOR?
Delegators are TIMPI holders who cannot, or do not want to, run a validator themselves. TIMPI holders can delegate TIMPI to a validator and obtain a part of their revenue in exchange.
Because delegators share revenue with their validators, they also share risks. If a validator misbehaves, each of their delegators are partially slashed in proportion to their delegated stake. This penalty is one of the reasons why delegators must perform due diligence on validators before delegating. Spreading their stake over multiple validators is another layer of protection.
Delegators play a critical role in the system, as they are responsible for choosing validators. Being a delegator is not a passive role. Delegators must actively monitor the actions of their validators and participate in governance.
THANK YOU
Thank you for everyone’s continued support of Timpi. The development of the Timpi Chain represents a significant step in Timpi’s rapid growth. Please stay tuned on the social channels for more updates on the Timpi Chain.
