The Cosmos Builders Foundation Launches to Support the Growth of the Interchain Ecosystem

The foundation will fund the development and maintenance of IBC infrastructure as well as the Cosmos Stack

COSMOS, Minn.--()--The Cosmos Builders Foundation today launches its federation of crypto-native organizations collaborating toward a more vibrant, egalitarian, and resilient Interchain economy. In coordination with the Interchain Foundation, the Cosmos Builders Foundation is focused on supporting the maintenance and development of infrastructural public goods for the long term growth of the Interchain ecosystem.

“The Interchain is rapidly expanding, with over 250 apps and services having launched, largely since the start of last year, and it’s vital that the infrastructure supporting interoperability in this ecosystem is well funded for the long-term sustainability of the Cosmos,” said Jack Zampolin, Founder of Strangelove Ventures and Member of the Cosmos Builders Foundation Governing Council.

The Interchain ecosystem relies on robust inter-blockchain communication (IBC) infrastructure and the Cosmos Stack that makes it as simple as possible for builders to launch new interoperable chains. The Cosmos Builders Foundation’s core objective is to ensure that these ecosystem foundations are appropriately developed and maintained.

The Foundation’s first step is to implement a grants program that will provide funding for IBC infrastructure and for incentivizing relayers. This will support the scalability of IBC connections that are essential for the functioning of the Interchain. To date, the financial burden for supporting this infrastructure has fallen on the Interchain Foundation, and considering their vital importance to the Cosmos ecosystem, the Cosmos Builders Foundation is making it a priority to provide supplementary funding.

“Interchain-native projects like Sommelier are dependent on a robust Cosmos Stack and could not exist without IBC functioning securely and reliably,” said Kristi Poldsam, Co-Founder at Sommelier. “That’s why we’re joining many of the other leading communities in the Cosmos ecosystem to provide funding to the Cosmos Builders Foundation and invest in the future of the Interchain.”

At a later stage, the foundation will also deploy funds for the development of the Cosmos Stack, including Tendermint, CosmosSDK, and CosmWasm. Through funding grants, the foundation is keen to support projects that work on the core tech to improve accountability and user privacy in the Interchain while helping to scale the ecosystem in a decentralized manner.

The foundation will also implement an alignment strategy between teams who build in the ecosystem and the core contributors to the Interchain infrastructure. These contributors are often overlooked in the process of launching new blockchains. The Cosmos Builders Foundation will spur projects to look beyond their team, early supporters, and prospective users to also allocate a portion of their project tokens to ensure that the public good infrastructure they’re reliant upon is well-maintained.

The Cosmos Builders Foundation is structured as a DAO with Strangelove and Binary Builders spearheading implementation. A Main Committee will comprise the governing body of the DAO and includes Zaki Manian (Sommelier), Jack Zampolin (Strangelove Ventures), Sunny Aggarwal (Osmosis), Jessy Irwin (Agoric), Marko Baricevic (Interchain), Ismail Khoffi (Celestia), Ethan Frey (Confio), Adi Seredinschi (Informal Systems), and Cory Levinson (Regen Network).

Visit cosmosbuilders.org to learn more.