Peng Zhong, the chief executive officer of Ignite — formerly Tendermint and backer of the Cosmos ecosystem — has announced he will be leaving the firm. In a Friday tweet to his more than 20,000 followers, Zhong said Friday will be his last day at Ignite, where he has been working as CEO since May 2020. Prior to that, the now-former Ignite CEO was chief design officer at the firm’s Kuala Lumpur and Toronto offices since he started in 2015. It’s unclear what led to his decision to leave the company. Today is my last day at Ignite. Thank you …

On Wednesday, the Interchain Foundation, a Swiss non-profit serving as a steward of the Cosmos (ATOM) ecosystem, announced the launch of Gravity Bridge as built by decentralized internet service provider Althea. Gravity Bridge enables the transfer of ERC-20 tokens between Ethereum (ETH) and Cosmos blockchains. During its initial stages, Gravity Bridge will operate as a standalone chain before migrating to Cosmos Hub early next year. Key technical features include interchangeable token issuance across both chains and the support of Ethereum to Cosmos oracles. Simpier issued the following statement regarding the launch: In this interoperable ecosystem, Gravity Bridge’s place is a …

On Tuesday, pSTAKE, a liquid staking protocol from decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Persistence, announced in a statement provided to Cointelegraph that it had closed a $10 million strategic funding round from venture capital firms. Tendermint, the core developer behind the Cosmos network, powers Persistence blockchain with its consensus engine. Liquid staking is the practice of users “double-dipping” with their crypto assets — i.e., allowing them to stake their crypto in one pool and use their staked assets to farm yields in a liquidity provider pool, or vice versa. The process enables higher compounded yields, as assets generate returns in two …

Ever since the launch of the inter-blockchain communications, or IBC, protocol in March, which enabled the communication and transfer of digital assets across different blockchains, development activity seems to have picked up pace on the Cosmos (ATOM) network. Transaction volumes, the creation of decentralized applications, and the number of chains connected via IBC have all been trending upwards in recent months. Speakers at the Cosmoverse Conference, which took place last week, presented many of the latest technologies under development on the blockchain. Its biggest-ever hackathon will also take place in Lisbon tomorrow. #HackAtomVI is trending in the dev community! 1000+ …

Sommelier, a co-processing protocol to the Ethereum Virtual Machine, or EVM, announced a research and development partnership with Mysten Labs to increase liquidity transaction speeds and launch smart contract applications on the Cosmos blockchain on Tuesday. Founded in 2020 by Zaki Manian, a core developer on the Cosmos protocol, Sommelier is a test-net protocol designed to deliver enterprise-grade automated financial transactions such as limit orders, batched orders and portfolio rebalancing to decentralized finance, or DeFi, traders and liquidity providers, or LPs. The blockchain, which combines the Tendermint consensus layer, Cosmos Stargate SDK, and dual-way Ethereum bridge, will work with Mysten …

The price of Cosmos' ATOM has increased 240% since the beginning of February as excitement builds for the approaching Stargate upgrade on Feb. 18 that will help connect all Cosmos-based chains together using Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC). Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that ATOM was trading at a price of $7.83 on Feb. 1 before a series of positive announcements, including the ability to stake ATOM on Binance, helped lift the token to a new all-time high of $26.68 on Feb. 16. Stargate has been a much-anticipated upgrade for the Cosmos community, as the introduction of IBC will enable …

Australian-based blockchain company ShareRing has partnered with Tripadvisor experience marketplace Viator to allow users to pay for almost 400,000 tourism experiences with a variety of cryptocurrencies. The ShareRing platform, built on Tendermint, will allow users to book, register, and pay for Viator’s 395,000 global activities and experiences, using local fiat currencies or major crypto assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and its native SharePay token (SHRP). The platform uses the ShareRing ID system to ensure that sensitive personal and financial information is securely handled, and has contact tracing features to help with tourism safety during the pandemic. “We're very happy …

In a forum post published on Oct. 1 blockchain interoperability platform Cosmos has disclosed a “high-severity security vulnerability” that was found in consensus engine Tendermint Core. According to the announcement, an update patch was released the following morning. The vulnerability reportedly affected all versions of Tendermint, on which Cosmos is built. All validators and service providers on Tendermint-powered networks are encouraged to update their software as soon as possible. Blockchain to blockchain communication The Cosmos platform allows individual blockchains to communicate and transact with each other. Developed by the Tendermint team, it employs an inter-blockchain communication protocol to establish blockchain …