It all started with a Cosmos whitepaper written in 2016, which envisioned an Ethereum Peg-zone as a stand-alone bridge blockchain. The Cosmos ecosystem values many sovereign chains, interconnected through Inter Blockchain Communication. Based on this whitepaper, what would become the Sifchain team, began work on “Peggy” - an Ethereum to Cosmos bridge.
In 2020, a distributed bandwidth platform called Althea started looking into how they could build a bridge between Ethereum and Cosmos chains. They needed stablecoins for their distributed bandwidth network, and they needed them on a sovereign chain to ensure telecom level reliability.
The Cosmos Gravity Bridge as an independent blockchain will add liquidity to and strengthen the entire Cosmos ecosystem, including the hub. Having a gravity module that works for the security and stability of long term hub maintenance is furthered by the launch of Cosmos Gravity Bridge.
- Zaki Manian, co-founder of Iqlusion and Sommelier
Althea created its own design called the Gravity bridge - an Ethereum to Cosmos bridge that focused on simplicity and decentralization. This design had clear value beyond just Althea’s bandwidth network and soon garnered interest from other teams looking for access to Ethereum.
In 2020, Althea and the Iqlusion team partnered to form Peggy JV, and together brought funding and development resources to the project. PeggyJV has now evolved to use the bridge software on the Sommelier blockchain, a Cosmos DeFi project.
The code for the bridge is open-sourced and shared work between many different teams who have a common vision of an interconnected Cosmos-verse with access to stable coins and liquidity of the Ethereum ecosystem.
Firstly, Althea who brought the bridge into existence with 70,000+ lines of code, rigorous testing and supporting the bridge across the projects working on it.
Next, the Sommelier team, with code improvements, feedback, ergonomic improvements, and testing.
The Injective team has also been working on the bridge for their blockchain and has contributed code improvements and bug fixes to the ecosystem.
Althea has been testing the software in 100 validator testnet for over three months, with this awesome Cosmos community of validators. As part of preparation and requirement for a Cosmos hub deployment, Althea is also supporting the implementation of a long-running production environment of Gravity, the Cosmos Gravity Bridge.
Currently, DeFi in Cosmos is ready for an exponential growth period, but main Cosmos blockchains are still looking to access the liquidity the bridge provides. The Cosmos Gravity Bridge gives the Cosmos ecosystem the power it needs to fulfill Cosmos’ true destiny - the leader in the DeFi ecosystem and the community working together to make the Internet of Blockchains a reality.
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