Today there are a number of NFT projects in development or deployment in the Cosmos ecosystem, but work remains to be done before the Cosmos projects have a robust and fully operational NFT protocol. To that end, Gravity Bridge has been working closely with one prominent project, Stargaze, to enable NFT bridging between the Cosmos and Ethereum ecosystem via Gravity Bridge.
So while it is currently possible to mint NFTs, and even bridge EVM/ERC721 NFTs into Cosmos, a standard to transfer NFTs between chains via IBC has yet to be implemented, severely restricting Cosmos NFT adoption and utilization.
ICS721 is a proposed standardization of Cosmos-based NFTs similar to the ERC721 standard for Ethereum. It was created by the IRISnet development team and describes the requirements needed for NFT cross-chain interaction.
Thus far Gravity Bridge and Stargaze have worked together closely on interoperability between ERC721 and ICS721 standards, including establishing a framework and initial test transactions for sending ERC721 NFTs across the bridge to Cosmo.
Nevertheless, further work on the ICS721 standard is needed for cross-chain implementation, proper utilization of Cosmos NFTs, and to send ERC721 NFTs across the Cosmos ecosystem in an interoperable way.
Continued development and implementation of the ICS721 standard will empower Cosmos projects within the Cosmos ecosystem–not only with Cosmos NFTS but by taking advantage of interoperability with EVM ecosystems–benefitting established Cosmos NFT projects today and opening up the Cosmos for new innovation in the future.
For this reason, Gravity Bridge is spearheading the formation of the NFT ICS721 working group, with the goal of bringing together representatives from NFT projects across the Cosmos ecosystem, to strategize and implement the ICS721 standard.
Gravity Bridge is calling for interested developers to join and contribute to the establishment of this standard for the benefit of the Cosmos ecosystem.
If you would like to take part, we would warmly invite you to fill out and submit the form below: ICS721 Workgroup sign-up form