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XION prioritizes dependability, flexibility, security, speed & community
The purpose of XION is to revolutionize Web3 adoption by addressing the functional and cultural barriers that have hindered its widespread acceptance. By focusing on user experience, accessibility, and scalability, XION aims to create an ecosystem that empowers developers and users alike, unlocking the full potential of blockchain technology.
The technological foundation on which these user applications and experiences can be built requires careful thought and consideration. Here we delve into why the dependability, flexibility, and community of Cosmos contributed to our decision to build a sovereign L1 utilizing its SDK, and how it enables XION to be uniquely purpose-built for wide consumer adoption.
XION is built on the industry's most dependable and secure consensus framework (Comet BFT), inter-chain communication protocol (IBC), and developer toolkit (Cosmos SDK). This battle-tested infrastructure secures over $50 billion in assets, supports millions of transactions, and has stayed steady in extreme market turbulence. It is also trusted by some of the industry’s biggest projects, such as the Binance Chain (BNB), Crypto.com (CRO), Injective (INJ), and DyDx (DYDX) recently transitioning to its own standalone network.
The Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol employed by XION is objectively the industry's most secure, permissionless cross-chain communication protocol. It allows any combination of blockchains to exchange data and value between them, and serves as a cornerstone to XION’s interconnectedness. In addition, the Comet BFT consensus framework allows XION to boast instant finality, fast confirmation times, and high throughput.
While building a platform not only for technologists but also for end users, our top priorities are defending the safety of XION users’ assets while still ensuring the availability of our products. Cosmos SDK-enabled chains have shown to be industry leaders for these metrics.
The Burnt team, the core contributors to XION, realizes the success of the network will not be defined solely by the team, but by those building on top of it. Much in the same way, the Cosmos SDK doesn’t make assumptions for developers but instead provides suggested defaults and options that developers can choose to use, expand, modify, or omit.
XION makes full use of this modularity. It is this modularity that allows XION to be a chain purpose built for consumer adoption, while still remaining interoperable across the entire industry. Through its unique implementation of core modules combined with its own custom-built ones, XION offers developers a robust and comprehensive toolkit upon which to build the next generation of retail-facing apps.
This modularity has other added benefits as well. For example, while we don’t necessarily know what the future holds – or what audiences will demand a week, month, or year from now – we are well positioned to react quickly. The Cosmos SDK, with its modular components and integrations, puts XION in a strong position to remain agile and flexible within a fast-shifting landscape.
The value of the Cosmos community is two-fold.
First, the quality of the engineering talent that has gone into the Cosmos SDK is second to none. We have already received help from and provided help to multiple teams, and wholly embrace the “rising tide lifts all boats” mentality. Cosmos has shown time and again its ability to produce groundbreaking technology that is later adopted by other industry participants.
Second, the IBC framework allows us to rapidly incorporate other app chains and their associated features. For example, if a product calls for a private user state, we can connect to the Secret network. For DeFi, we have the Injective and Osmosis chains. For fiat and non-cosmos assets, we have the Axelar and Noble networks, etc. This community of interconnected chains allows us to make additional features available instantly to our audiences, and paves the way for developers on XION to usher in a new era of adoption through the plethora of new use-cases unlocked.
Our community-oriented ideals permeate all levels of our organization, not only because we are idealists, but because we believe it gives us a competitive advantage. We look forward to working collaboratively with blockchain developers, traditional developers, businesses, and all users (both crypto-native and mentally stable) to propel Web3 into the mainstream.
XION utilizes Comet BFT (previously known as Tendermint), the Cosmos SDK, IBC, and CosmWasm, offering developers a robust and comprehensive toolkit to build their dApps.
Comet BFT is the battle-tested consensus framework used by the XION chain, which allows it to have instant finality. It secures over $50 billion in assets and has never suffered a security breach.
How does it work? First, a validator proposes a new block. Other validators vote on the block in two rounds. If a block receives a two-thirds majority or greater of yes votes in both rounds, it gets added to the blockchain. Validators are chosen to propose based on their staked weight. Check out the Tendermint official documentation for more information.
The Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol employed by XION enables different blockchains to exchange information and transfer data while upholding their independent governance and security characteristics. Such communication serves as a cornerstone for a strong Web3 infrastructure.
IBC exhibits the flexibility to link any combination of blockchains, be they public, private, permissioned, or permissionless, as long as they adhere to the IBC protocol. This capability for cross-chain interoperability facilitates the movement of any data type or asset across distinct chains, thereby establishing an extensive network of interconnected blockchains.
CosmWasm operates as a smart contract platform, tailored to offer developers a secure and efficient medium for crafting smart contracts in Rust and converting them into WebAssembly (Wasm) binaries. Utilizing the robust typing and memory-safeguarding capabilities of Rust, CosmWasm fortifies contract security while also optimizing WebAssembly's efficiency. Inherent compatibility with the Cosmos SDK allows CosmWasm to seamlessly interact with blockchains constructed with it, while its congruity with the IBC stands out as a significant feature. Security and efficiency are further reinforced through Rust's stringent typing and memory safety features, supplemented by the agility and versatility of WebAssembly.
XION employs the Cosmos SDK, a versatile foundation designed to construct secure, interoperable, and tailorable blockchains. This focus on modularity and interoperability by the Cosmos SDK allows XION to modify diverse features of the blockchain and maintain effortless interaction with other chains that are also founded on the Cosmos SDK.
Last modified 14d ago