CanonCosmos
Cosmos: paper, then practice.
Cosmos, in the paper, is sovereign chains that pass messages. Each chain keeps its own validator set. That is not shared security.
Jae Kwon and Ethan Buchman. 2016. Status: Design paper. Last reviewed: 1 October 2026.
- The paper. The Cosmos paper: independent zones running a BFT consensus, connected by a hub, speaking a packet protocol that later became IBC. Unlike Polkadot's shared-security vision, zones here are sovereign. They choose their own validator sets.
- Bridge.
- Cosmos profile.
- Cosmos and Polkadot.
- Where bridges fail.
What this chain does not claim
It does not rank a network, quote a yield, or say the live client still matches the paper. The full study keeps the limits. Primary source: Cosmos white paper.