Interchain Foundation Unveils $26.4 Million Funding Boost for 2024 Cosmos Ecosystem Expansion

Baar, Switzerland — The Interchain Foundation (ICF), the custodian of the second-largest blockchain ecosystem, is set to embark on a groundbreaking $26.4 million funding initiative in 2024. The program aims to elevate and broaden the horizons of the interchain ecosystem, focusing on key elements of the Interchain Stack.

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The Interchain Foundation, a Swiss non-profit and overseer of the interchain—the extensive network of all Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) connected blockchains—has unveiled its 2024 Funding Program. This significant budget allocation is geared toward the maintenance and advancement of the Interchain Stack, the architectural backbone for constructing scalable, secure, and interconnected blockchains.

In alignment with its 2024 roadmap, the Interchain Foundation’s strategic focus centers on ensuring the optimal functionality of the Interchain Stack. Adopting a distributed development funding model, the Foundation allocates resources to external entities responsible for maintaining and developing specific components of the stack, including Binary Builders, Confio, Cosmology, Informal Systems, Strangelove Ventures, and Zondax.

Breakdown of the 2024 Funding

CometBFT Maintenance: $3,000,000 is dedicated to guarantee the continuous modularity, efficiency, and stability of CometBFT, the Byzantine fault-tolerant engine for state machine replication.
Cosmos SDK Expansion: $4,500,000 is allocated to expand the composability of the Cosmos SDK, the world’s most popular framework for building secure and highly performant application-specific blockchains.
IBC Protocol Development: $7,500,000 is designated for the enhancement of the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol, the leading interoperability protocol enabling secure and permissionless transfer of arbitrary data across blockchain ecosystems.
CosmWasm Improvement: $2,500,000 is set aside for CosmWasm, the smart contract framework focusing on security, performance, and interoperability, aiming to enhance dApp functionality and IBC connectivity.
CosmJS Development: $155,000 will support CosmJS, a library facilitating the integration of JavaScript-based clients with Cosmos SDK blockchain, bridging compatibility gaps.
Security Audits: $1,500,000 is allocated towards security audits for the Interchain Stack.

With more than $53 billion in digital assets secured across 100+ sovereign chains, the Interchain Stack and its technologies stand as the backbone of numerous prominent projects in the blockchain industry.

Having transcended Cosmos SDK chains, successful integrations into Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems have been achieved this year, with future plans for connections to Bitcoin, NEAR Protocol, Avalanche, Hyperledger, and Corda ecosystems in 2024.
The Interchain Foundation reaffirms its commitment to nurturing the interchain ecosystem, adapting strategies to meet the dynamic needs of the growing community.
“Our role as stewards in the ecosystem is to aid the interchain in achieving interoperable sovereignty.”

Maria Gomez, Director of the Board of Management at ICF
“This year’s funding program is designed to fortify the free-to-use, open-source Interchain Stack, acting as a catalyst for enhanced blockchain interconnectedness. I extend my sincere thanks to everyone playing a vital role in the development of interchain infrastructure,” added Maria.

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About The Interchain Foundation

The Interchain Foundation (ICF) is a Swiss non-profit that funds, stewards, and advances the interchain ecosystem. The Interchain Foundation develops and maintains foundational protocols and funds organizations to create an internet of shared resources, security, and value creation. The ICF aims to responsibly shape a new technological paradigm that is open-source, interoperable and community-owned.

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