If it wasn’t clear by now, then let’s make it clear — the future is a multi-chain one. Gone are the days when most people were confined to a single chain. Nowadays most people are using several chains to maximise yield, find new gems and much more.
So, let’s take a deep dive into the world of EVMOS and what this means for interoperability, cross-chain communication and modularity.
Unsurprisingly, fast finality has quickly accumulated a lot of traction in the Ethereum community, even Vitalik has written about the need for a Tendermint-like consensus model for Ethereum.
EVMOS
Now that we have established the background for Evmos, and the basic concepts – It is time to go more in-depth into the protocol, what it’s trying to achieve, and much more.
Evmos will be a sovereign application-specific chain that will be interoperable with Ethereum, EVM-compatible environments, and other BFT chains via IBC, making it easy for users and developers to move between them. But the vision expands beyond that too, as Evmos plans to support the development of application-specific chains that utilize the Ethermint library (scalable and interoperable Ethereum library that can create PoS chains with fast-finality using the Cosmos SDK).
As a result, Evmos allows for running Ethereum as a Cosmos SDK application-specific blockchain. This allows for developers to have all the desired features of Ethereum, while at the same time, benefiting from Tendermint’s Proof-of-Stake consensus engine.
This means that Evmos enables:
- EVM compatibility
- High throughput via Tendermint’s Consensus Engine
- Horizontal scalability via IBC (performance increases by adding more nodes)
- Fast transaction finality
Now you may be wondering, how is all this possible? This is possible because Evmos implements Tendermint, Cosmos SDK, as well as utilizing the go-Ethereum (geth) library (command-line interface for running Ethereum in Go(lang) — Which Cosmos SDK is written in). Now if that wasn’t enough to make you excited, this next part surely will.
Evmos also enables a fully compatible JSON-RPC layer which means that Evmos can interact with existing Ethereum clients and tools such as Metamask.
As grazed upon earlier, Evmos will also enable users of IBC-enabled chains to access the type of protocols seen on Ethereum, including, but not limited to — decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, NFT applications, and much more.
So why should Ethereum-based applications deploy on Evmos?
- Access to PoS consensus
- Faster transactions
- Lower Fees
- The IBC userbase
To summarize, EVMOS will be the first IBC enabled EVM blockchain, built with Cosmos SDK and Tendermint as the consensus engine. This will allow new and existing EVM applications to integrate with Cosmos.
Here are some examples:
Aave has already proposed and voted for the implementation of Evmos, which means that there will be lending markets for Cosmos and Ethereum based assets on Evmos.
Furthermore, Evmos will also enable Osmosis to have pools with Ethereum assets, consequently, we might very well see Osmosis’ goal of implementing a wide variety of financial instruments become reality soon.
Evmos facilitates the connection of over $100B in assets as well as a myriad of EVM based protocols, to connect to the Cosmos Hub, which will open up a new era for decentralized applications and finance in the IBC ecosystem.
Now that we have established the main focal points of what Evmos will bring to the table, let’s take a look at some of the fundamental technical aspects:
Routing
For Evmos to be able to handle transactions for both EVM and Cosmos modules it has to be able to mimic Ethereum’s transaction structure. It does this by emulating geth’s transaction structure and treating it as a Cosmos SDK message type. In a single message, all the relevant Ethereum information is incorporated, such as signature, gas, amounts etc.
Pending State
On Ethereum, pending blocks are sired when they are queued for creation by miners. These blocks include pending transactions that are determined by miners, based on the highest gas reward.
Why is this? This is because, on Ethereum, block finality is not possible. Blocks are executed with what we call probabilistic finality, which means that transactions and as a result blocks become less likely to be reverted as more time passes by.
On the other hand, Evmos is designed quite differently as there is no concept of a “pending/probabilistic state”. This is because Evmos uses Tendermint consensus which provides instant(fast) finality for transactions. For this reason, Evmos does not require a pending state mechanism, as all transactions will be executed in the next block (currently, the average block time on Cosmos is around 8s, but it can get as low as 1s on Tendermint chains).
ERC-20 Module
Now, for Evmos to be able to handle and transact with EVM it needs an ERC-20 module.
The basis of the module is that it enables users to convert their ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum, into assets on Cosmos, and the other way around. This module thus enables interoperability between EVM and the Cosmos Hub.
The module also enables developers to write smart contracts that function on Evmos and to use EVM assets on other applications within the Cosmos ecosystem.
Also, since Evmos is also governed by the holders of the token, it will enable validators and applications to define fees in any ERC-20 token deployed on the Evmos chain.
After all that, you might have one question— how?
The module records affiliation between an ERC20-token contract address and a Cosmos token, this is known as a token pair. These token pairs then enable users to convert their ERC20 tokens into their Cosmos token representation, and vice versa. This means that the module translates the ERC20 token address into a Cosmos denomination or version.
To create new pairs, token holders of Evmos will have to create a governance proposal. If the governance proposal passes, the token pair will then be added to the module. When this happens, anyone can then convert that ERC20 token into its Cosmos counterpart.
This module, therefore, enables developers to build applications that experiment and innovate with multi-chain composability between application-specific blockchains.
Token (-omics)
Finally, we’ve arrived at what, to many, might be the most interesting part of this entire article, the Evmos token — and its functionality.
On blockchains, there are typically three actors: Developers, Users, and Block proposers (Validators or Miners). Every single actor has an important role in creating and maintaining value for the network
However, a lot of chains have fallen short of accruing sustainable value equally to these three important actors. Generally, block proposers accumulate the biggest stake of a network while users and developers — are left with less, despite being a lot more prevalent and active in the network.
So, how do we try to right this wrong?
In the case of Evmos, this is how they plan to rectify this:
Evmos will work not just as a fee and staking token, but it will be the first token on an EVM that drives governance outcomes for the chain. Furthermore, it may also assist to determine future economic developments that connect and benefit the three main actors.
To help further this cause, there are five primary use cases at launch:
- Paying developers and network operators
- Voting on protocol upgrades
- Registering tokens on the ERC20 module
- Deciding usage incentives for applications build on Evmos
- Enabling high priority functionality
These usage incentives will further be added upon, as validators and holders vote on incentives to accrue more value to token holders.
Evmos hopes that this will cause a domino effect, as seen above.
Genesis
At launch, on the 28th, 40% of the initial supply of 200 million tokens will be airdropped (Rektdrop). The other 60% are committed to the community pool & strategic reserve, which will function as an accelerator for the Evmos ecosystem.