LAST UPDATED: Mar 31st, 2017
The details in this plan override what is currently in the whitepaper,
and all other plans published prior. The Cosmos Fundraiser Contribution Terms
override any information in this plan in case of any conflicts.
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Interchain Foundation (ICF) is a non-profit Switzerland Foundation. Its purpose is to conduct a Fundraiser designed to collect donations, to contract with entities and their agents for the development of the Cosmos Essential Software and Services (CESS), and to help foster a community around the CESS.
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ICF is planning a Fundraiser for future staking tokens, called "atoms", that give the holder limited license to validate the Cosmos Hub and Dex. The contributions made in connection with the Fundraiser will go to the ICF to develop the CESS.
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All in Bits, Inc. (AIB) is a for-profit Delaware C-Corp behind Tendermint. The ICF has contracted with AIB to develop the initial portion of the CESS, including Tendermint v1.
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The ICF has received several commitments for donations from various individuals that will be tied to a portion of future atoms. The ICF’s initial donors committed an amount equal to 5% of ICF’s initial donation goal. Further, the ICF has entered into a number of strategic partnerships and received commitments for donations from interested individuals pre-Fundraiser for an amount equal to $1,329,472 of the ICF fundraising goal.
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Before the first day the Fundraiser is opened, the total number of atoms granted, the total amount of donations received, and a pseudonymous list of distinct persons and entities along with their discount rates, will be published.
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The projected date of the Fundraiser for all other parties, notwithstanding the initial donors and pre-Fundraiser donors, is April 6, 2017 at 6AM PDT.
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The Fundraiser will last for 2 weeks.
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Governance can approve proposals for the creation of new atoms. For further information concerning the proposed on-chain governance mechanism for the creation of more atoms, please see the whitepaper for details.
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The atoms will not be available for use until after genesis day. Genesis day is estimated to be sometime in early Q4 2017.
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AIB's atoms will vest over a priod of two years after Genesis. None of the funders' atoms will need to vest.
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In the first day of the Fundraiser, suggested donations per atom will be $0.10. A discount of 25% for strategic funders implies an atom price of $0.075. A discount of 12% for Pre-Fundraisers implies an atom price of $0.088.
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The ICF’s fundraising goal may be capped. More details will be released soon.
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After the Fundraiser, the total number of atoms distributed multiplied by 1/3 is inflated and allocated for the ICF, AIB, and the Initial Donors.
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On Genesis day, the distribution of atoms will be split between:
- ICF (10%)
- AIB (10%)
- Initial Donors (5%)
- Pre-Fundraiser Donors + Fundraiser Donors (75%)
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Upon completion of the Fundraiser, all atom holders, including the ICF and AIB play the Delegation Game. The top 100 validators after delegation will be chosen as validators on Genesis. More information will be released about the delegation game after the Fundraiser.
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Every validator must participate in governance, or else run the risk that they will become inactivated and eventually unbonded. Delegators who delegate atoms to such validators will also likewise get their delegated atoms inactivated and eventually unbonded.
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Initially, 7% of atoms will be inflated every year and distributed back to the bonded and active atom holders (validators and delegators) for their work validating and securing the ledger. This value will adjust over time to incentivize at least 2/3 of the atoms to be bonded.
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Atoms are not designed to be a medium of exchange nor a store of value.
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The Unbonding Period is 1 month long.
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Inactive or unbonded atom holders do not earn the inflationary atoms, and are thus taxed. This makes atoms ill-suited as a medium of exchange or a store of value. Instead, atoms are a tool, like Bitcoin miners are a tool.
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Bonding atoms and staking them put the atoms at risk of slashing. Validators must run the sanctioned consensus protocol without modification, or risk losing some or all of their atoms. Running the Cosmos sanctioned consensus protocol requires expert ability to run secure servers that must take extraordinary measures to prevent hacking. Delegators must choose who to validate to wisely, or risk losing those portions of atoms delegated to the incompetent, malicious, or hacked validator.
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Tokens are virtual concepts on the blockchain. All mentions of tokens, like atoms, as if they were physical objects, are an approximation of what they actually represent. As we have observed with the ETH/ETC hard-fork, political tensions can cause the ledger to split. Furthermore, there is no central entity that is responsible for the upkeep of the blockchain. Atoms are not a claim to anything or anyone, not even the Cosmos Network Foundation. The software may be buggy, and even its underlying theory may be flawed, causing confusion, contention, and critical network failure for all those participating in the Cosmos network.
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The ICF, AIB, all donors as well as any atom token holders or any Cosmos network participant, understand and accept that the Cosmos Network is still in an early development stage, and its application is experimental in nature that carries significant operational, technological, regulatory, reputational risk. Nothing contained herein represents any form of warranty. All participants in the Cosmos Network understand and agree, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, that no Cosmos Network participant will hold any of the developers, contractors, third parties or any other Cosmos Network participant liable for any and all damages or injury caused by or related to the use of, or inability to use, the Cosmos Network and the CESS under any cause of action in all jurisdictions, including, but not limited to, actions for breach of warranty, breach of contract, negligence, Nor shall any developers, contractors, third parties or Cosmos Network participants be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, exemplary or consequential damages, including for loss of profits, goodwill or data, in any way arising out of the use of, or the inability to use of the Cosmos Network and the CESS
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All atom holders are free to fork, slash, and hack each other in accordance with the spirit of the Cosmos Constitution.
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All validators and delegators must abide by the Cosmos Constitution.
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A more fleshed out list of risks will be published soon.
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A roadmap and the constitution will be released soon.
Activate Atoms: Atoms that are staked by active validators (or delegators that delegate to active validators). A validator that goes offline or fails to participate in governance will become inactivated. Their atoms and delegated atoms then become inactive, before eventually becoming unbonded. Inactive atoms do not earn transaction fees or inflationary atoms. Inactive atoms may become reactivated by fixing the infraction.
Bonded Atoms: Atoms that have been posted as collateral and are “at stake”, either directly as a validator, or indirectly as a delegator delegating to another validator. Bonded atoms are at risk of being slashed partially or completely if the validator gets hacked or is used to coordinate an attack on the network.
Cosmos Constitution: A plainly written document that includes the social contract of the Cosmos Network. All bonded validators and delegators must abide by the Cosmos Constitution.
Cosmos Dex: A distributed exchange zone that connects to the hub zone. The Cosmos Dex provides fast centralized matching with distributed custody of funds.
Cosmos Hub: A zone that connects to many other zones. The hub acts as a root custodian and facilitates token movement between zones.
Cosmos Hub Block Reward: The blockchain will reward the Validators and Delegators in proportion to their bonded atoms, and afterwards account for any commissions that delegators pay to the delegated validators. The reward will consist of two types -- transaction fees, and inflationary atoms. The transaction fees will be any fee collected by a validator. In addition, there will be inflationary atoms at a rate of 1/5 of the total number of atoms per year. Cosmos holders who do not put their atoms at stake by being a validator or delegating to a validator will not receive any of the Cosmos Hub Block Rewards.
Cosmos Network: Includes the Cosmos Hub, Dex, and all other connected zones.
Cosmos Network Participant: any party, individual, enterprise, blockchain or network that uses, develops, creates or interacts with any aspect of the Cosmos Network or any component that constitutes the CESS.
Delegator: An atom holder who puts their atoms at stake by delegating its validating power and voting power to a validator. Delegators risk losing their tokens if the delegated validator gets hacked or participates in an attack.
Governance: An ongoing process where the bonded atom holders can vote to ratify or reject proposals as proposed by any atom holder. Proposals can change preset parameters, amend the Constitution, inflate the atom supply, and more.
Unbonding Period: A fixed amount of time. Previously bonded atoms must post a special UnbondTx transaction and wait the unbonding period before atoms become freely transferrable.
Validator: Validators are full nodes of a Cosmos zone that have the responsibility of committing blocks in that zone. The Cosmos Hub will start with 100 validator spots. Due to the limited number of validator spots, not everyone who has atoms can be a validator. Instead, everyone else can bond atoms and delegate their consensus voting power to any of the 100 validators. Before Genesis, the Cosmos Crowdfund funders will play the Delegation Game to determine the top 100 bonded delegates who will become the genesis validators. Validators can lose some or all their stake if they get hacked, deviate from the sanctioned protocol, or otherwise collude to disrupt the network.
See the Cosmos Roadmap for more info.
- Tendermint
- Basecoin Framework
- Hub (IBC, PoS/Delegation, Governance)
- Bitcoin and Ethereum bridges
- DEX
- Ethermint
- Blockchain Explorer
- Fluidity Smart Contract Framework
- Community Events and Support
- Additional Zones
- Cosmic Grants
The development timeline for Cosmos is split across five eras: Synthesis, Atomic Era, Galactic Era, Planetary Era, and Lunar Era.