Unveiling the Power of Cosmos SDK and Ethereum EVM Fusion in the Evolution of Blockchain Technology

High Rollers:

Get ready to explore the cutting-edge technology that’s making waves in the scaling community – “RollApps”. This innovative approach, combining the best of @cosmos SDK and @ethereum EVM, is set to revolutionize the way we scale modular blockchains.

In this post, we delve into the world of modular blockchains, the unique features of IBC & EVM, and how their fusion is shaping the future of “RollApps”.

Whether you’re a blockchain enthusiast or a curious newcomer, this deep dive into the next big thing in blockchain technology is for you. Let’s embark on this journey together and discover the potential of RollApps.

𝐀 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐝 “𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐬” 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤…

Taking the best elements from the cosmos SDK and Ethereum EVM, RollApps could be a huge milestone of technological improvement for scaling modular blockchains.

As we discussed in yesterdays post, IBC <> EVM interoperability is finally coming to the forefront of the crypto ecosystems.

But, what if we could combine both systems, give teams the choice to use any data availability layer, and allow for maximum scale?

In todays post, you’ll learn how modular blockchains operate, the best aspects of IBC & EVM, and how the combination of these characteristics are leading the charge for “Rollapps” as we know them today 👇

For starters, modular blockchains exist in a more “segmented” approach than monolithic blockchains, offering more optionality.

Where monolithic chains have to conduct the entire stack in one siloed execution environment, modular chains do not.

In modular chains, the execution, settlement, consensus, and data availability are handled by different, specialized chains built specifically for those designated roles.

(𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 @CelestiaOrg)

By dividing and conquering the “work” amongst other top-notch chains, the end result is a much more superior than that of a monolithic chain.

I truly believe monolithic chains will fade to irrelevance over the coming years as the modular ecosystem grows exponentially.

𝐴 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑔𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑠.

As we’ve started to see certain modular stacks win outright, the energy and focus has shifted towards building tooling for this future state.

Tomorrow, I have a long form research post in collab with the top execution layer teams building VMs about this rising narrative that caught Stani Kulechov’s eye:

Make sure to gib follow @ayyyeandy to not miss that one…then keep reading:

The key team building towards a similar modular future by means of creating Rollapps, is @dymension.

𝐀𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬:

1⃣ The Dymension Hub, an L1 with an AMM

2⃣ Settlement layer for rollups

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐈𝐁𝐂 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐮𝐦?

Each rollup on Ethereum is a smart contract with a multi-sig bridge, so if the tech is ‘immutable’ or ‘trustless’ then it comes with inherit risks of bugs and backward incompatibility.

The rollups use IBC rather than a smart contract bridge so there is no multi-sig for confirmation and it just takes a few minutes to build and deploy a rollup with a bridge.

Dymension looks at both Cosmos and Ethereum and tries to pick the good and leave the bad behind. From this Dymension is built with Cosmos in mind but vertically integrated, similar to Ethereum. It’s important to note the goal of Dymension is to have as many rollups as possible.

𝑇𝘩𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝘩𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑢𝑝 𝑡𝘩𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟, 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑛.

The idea is simple, Cosmos SDK made it easier to deploy an L1 but it requires a lot of overhead and it’s not economically sustainable to run many app-chains.

Instead rollups operate differently economically with fees needing to be higher than base layer costs and can incentives users to come with grants, shared fees, and more.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐩𝐩-𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬.

Additionally, the Dymension Hub protocol is built to be DA-agnostic meaning the rollups can publish data to @CelestiaOrg, @AvailProject, @eigenlayer, @zksync porter, or Ethereum, as long as it is verifiable from the Dymension Hub.

What Dymension doesn’t do is order transactions for rollups for example, this is a shared sequencer. Each rollup is its own sequencer and the team will support multi-sequencer set ups in the future.

To make life easier for the rollup deployers the team has worked on Roller, a CLI tool for quick deployment and the Dymension RDK (rollup development kit) which provides a lot of the application logic.

The RDK is built from the Cosmos SDK which was tied to Tendermint in some of the logic. It allows for developers to deploy app-chains as rollups getting the benefits of Cosmos customizability while the economics of a rollup.

Developers can also add EVM and @CosmWasm as that is supported as well.

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐈𝐁𝐂?

It’s the most robust bridging protocol in that you trust another chain via light clients rather than relayers or other game theoretic actors. But, IBC was focused on chain to chain, whereas Dymension does it rollup to chain (Dymension Hub).

This makes Dymension Hub a router for these rollups that are bridging. In essence, for a user there funds are secured by the Dymension Hub validators running on Cosmos SDK/Tendermint.

This is in comparison to an Ethereum rollup that locks funds in a multi-sig smart contract.

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫/𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐄𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐮𝐦?

The team looked at ecosystems like @Starknet, rollups on Celestia (formerly Cevmos) and others, and they didn’t have infrastructure attributes that was necessary to create a decentralized settlement layer from day 1.

At the end, components of Ethereum became a competitor to Dymension because rollup data publication is outsourced for scale to a specialized DA layer (listed above) or really any L1/settlement layer.

So you can look at Ethereum as a bridging hub with liquidity and DA. You can look at Dymension Hub as a bridging hub with liquidity (singular AMM) and DA outsourced for scale.

As we wrap up this mega modular post, I want to emphasize the world we are heading towards is interop maxxxxing and I fully expect to see more and more creative collaborations between IBC <> Ethereum tech.

In addition to this, the beauty of modular designs is that you can create so many unique blockchain structures which can be intelligently positioned for specific use cases.

𝐈𝐭𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐨 𝐏𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐨, 𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐧.

As I mentioned earlier, I have a research piece coming out tomorrow detailing the upcoming VM narrative that you won’t want to miss!

𝐴𝑠 𝑤𝑒 𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑗𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑦 𝑡𝑜𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝑎 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑟 𝑓𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒, 𝑤𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝘩𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑏𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑒𝑝𝑖𝑐 𝑡𝑒𝑐𝘩 𝑤𝑒 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦 𝑤𝑖𝑡𝘩, 𝑑𝑒𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑠. 𝐸𝑛𝑗𝑜𝑦.