Following the controversial vote on Proposition 848, which led to mixed reactions and impacted the price of ATOM, Cosmos co-founder Jae Kwon has announced the fork of Cosmos Hub. This will lead to AtomOne and an airdrop of the new token, ATOM1. Who will be eligible?
Cosmos Hub co-founder proposes blockchain fork
The entire Cosmos ecosystem is now divided. Indeed, Cosmos co-founder Jae Kwon has announced his intention to fork the Cosmos Hub blockchain in order to give birth to a new chain named AtomOne.
This follows a controversial vote within the Cosmos community on Proposition 848, which aimed to limit inflation of the native ATOM token to 10%. Kwon’s announcement provoked mixed reactions within the community, and also impacted the ATOM share price.
Proposal 848, narrowly accepted with 41.1% of votes in favor and 38.5% against, aims to reduce ATOM’s inflation rate from 14% to a maximum of 10%. A change supported by those who believe that current inflation is higher than necessary to maintain network safety.
Indeed, too much inflation could, over time, give too much power to ATOM stakers. Supporters of this proposal argue that validators remain profitable with a 10% inflation rate, and that they could increase their commission rate to cover operational expenses.
In response, Jae Kwon, co-founder of Cosmos Hub and developer of Tendermint, voiced his opposition to the move due to concerns about the impact of the change on network security.
Now listen up Cosmonauts. Despite our voting NWV 848 has ended up passing, something that isn’t too surprising (though it would be good to know whether the later votes came from newly purchased atoms) @cosmos @Allinbits_inc raptureparty atomone
Now let’s coordinate a split.
– antechristus 343 (@jaekwon) November 25, 2023
Inflexible to the outcome of the vote, he decided to fork the Cosmos Hub, despite requests from many community members not to do so. The Cosmos Hub fork, to be called AtomOne, will retain the same software architecture as the current Cosmos Hub, but with up to 20% inflation on the new token to, he says, adequately reward validators and stakers.
Jae Kwon plans an ATOM1 airdrop
As a result, the Cosmos Hub would undergo a fork creating AtomOne, and its native token the ATOM1. As part of Kwon’s proposed demerger, an airdrop of ATOM1 is planned, with the majority of the initial token offering allocated to those who rejected proposal 848.
On the other hand, participants who approved this proposal will be slashed by the new network, i.e. they will not receive any share of the distributed tokens. It is important to note that the Interchain Foundation (the organization funding the development of Cosmos Hub) is not among the beneficiaries of this airdrop either.
As a result of Kwon’s recent decision, the ATOM token has suffered a sharper devaluation than other crypto-currencies over the past 24 hours, posting a drop of almost 10%, while the crypto-currency market as a whole is experiencing a moderate slowdown.
Despite everything, some see the fork as a beneficial development for the Cosmos Hub ecosystem. They argue that such a fork could improve communication between the 2 opposing camps on the subject of ATOM inflation, but also pave the way for bolder innovations at the heart of Cosmos Hub.
The fork introduces some changes in governance, where from now on, for a decision to be taken via a vote, the agreement of at least 2/3 of participants will be required, instead of the 50% required on the current Cosmos Hub. This change is designed to ensure that any modification truly reflects the will of the community, and avoids the adoption of decisions with only 41% of votes, as was the case with proposal 848.
