New Cosmos whitepaper repurposes ATOM token and refines vision

cointelegraph.com:

Interoperability-focused blockchain network Cosmos has dropped a new whitepaper proposing a revamped Cosmos Hub aimed at strengthening interoperability and security, along with key changes to its native ATOM token. 

The new Cosmos whitepaper was released on Monday at the Cosmoverse conference in Medellin, Colombia. The upgrades outlined in the whitepaper are still technically in “proposal” status but changes are expected to be made on-chain on Oct. 3.

Cosmos is an ecosystem of blockchains designed to scale and interoperate with each other. Cosmos Hub was the first blockchain to be built on Cosmos, which initially served as an intermediary between other interconnected blockchains.

The ATOM token is used to transact within the Cosmos ecosystem, which can also be used for governance and staking purposes.

Under the proposed changes, Cosmos will become a more interoperable, decentralized, and secure ecosystem.

One of the changes outlined is the reinvention of the Cosmos Hub as the “Interchain” web, which will enable other Cosmos blockchains to borrow the Hub’s validator pool to secure its network rather than having to find their own.

Billy Rennekamp, the Cosmos Hub Product Lead added that the value proposition behind this transition to Interchain Security would also make the Cosmos network “legally, defensibly decentralized.”

According to the whitepaper, Interchain Security will also enable Cosmos Hub to “host a novel category of applications with complementary functionality,” stating:

The whitepaper also proposes a new issuance model for the native ATOM token, with the aim to strike a better balance between ecosystem growth and interchain adoption “while still preserving the security afforded by the original regime,” according to