Cosmos

What is Cosmos?

Cosmos, or the so-called Internet of Blockchains, is an inter-chain ecosystem of tools for constructing interoperable application-specific chains. Its main components are the SDK (Cosmos Software Development Kit), Tendermint, the IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol), and the Cosmos Hub.

All blockchains built on Tendermint and the Cosmos tech stack can communicate and exchange assets and data thanks to the IBC. The Cosmos Hub is the main Cosmos blockchain, and other Cosmos SDK blockchains can communicate with it through IBC which serves as the main economic center among the IBC-connected chains.

ATOM is the native token of the Cosmos Hub blockchain used for trading, staking, and governance. By staking ATOM, stakers earn inflationary rewards as well as tokens of chains secured through interchain security, such as Neutron.

What is Cosmos staking?

Staking is a great way for long-term crypto investors to earn passive income on their Proof-of-Stake cryptocurrency assets (such as ATOM) while taking part in securing the network.

Stakers, by delegating tokens to validators, give voting rights to these to validate transactions on the blockchain and propose new blocks. The more stake is attributed to a validator, the more it will be able to take part in the network consensus and earn rewards for its stakers.

A quick example: Suppose a blockchain network offers a 5% reward rate for a staking period of 1 year (5% APR). You decide to lock up and stake 100 tokens on the network. After a year, you can access your staked tokens, and you receive 5 additional tokens as your reward – minus eventual fees charged by the staking provider.

Staking Proof-of-Stake (PoS) cryptocurrencies such as ATOM does not require stakers to transfer their tokens to validators. It is a non-custodial process.

Why is Stakin a great choice for Cosmos staking?

Staking your assets on your own is operationally challenging as it requires specialist expertise to set up nodes and ensure constant uptime to maximize rewards or prevent so-called slashing: partial loss of your staked cryptocurrencies due to prolonged downtime, or inappropriate/malicious behavior by the node operator.

Stakin is an excellent choice for staking your Cosmos (ATOM) tokens, as we have a strong expertise and track record of reliable operations on this network. Stakin has been a Cosmos blockchain node operator since cosmoshub-1, which launched in March 2019. As a community contribution, Stakin provides public RPC nodes and IBC Relayers connecting the IBC ecosystem of networks together. By delegating to Stakin, you also contribute to network decentralization by choosing a smaller validator.

There are several advantages when staking your Cosmos (ATOM) tokens with Stakin, such as:

• Triple AAA-rated institutional staking provider by Staking Rewards

• ISO 27001 certified staking provider

• Tracking dashboard, to easily track and generate reports for the performance of your staked assets

• Dedicated support for all your staking, unstaking, and network-related questions

• Reliable infrastructure - We distribute our servers across various geographical locations and partner with premier bare metal and cloud providers

• Live operations on Consumer Chains such as Neutron and Stride which enables our Cosmos stakers to benefit from higher yield and airdrops

What kind of institutional services does Stakin offer for Cosmos (ATOM) Staking?

As an institutional-grade Cosmos Hub node operator, Stakin has a full range of staking services and advantages to cater to the needs of enterprises and investors, such as asset managers, company treasuries, exchanges, VCs and hedge funds, wallets, custodians, and liquid staking services.

• Institutional grade SLAs with 99.5%+ uptime guarantees and slashing guarantees, which covers both Cosmos Hub infrastructure as well as consumer chains such as Neutron and Stride

• Integration with custodians, such as Fireblocks (via raw signing)

• Information about potential airdrops that you may be eligible for by staking with us so that stakers can maximize your staking yield

• Dedicated Account Manager to answer all your technical and commercial questions

• Custom integrations and solutions such as custom performance reporting via API or CSV with the possibility to match your backend requirements

• Whitelabel and dedicated nodes with dedicated infrastructure which can be deployed in your preferred region to fit decentralization or compliance needs

• Automated commission and reward management with clear reporting

• 24/7 monitoring and alerting with a private dashboard for dedicated and whitelabel nodes

• Free premium access to Stakin Dashboard which includes staking data visualization across any validator and premium historical data features (on selected networks)