Ignite is now a “product-first” firm, focusing on the development of its Cosmos portfolio manager and blockchain development platform, according to the company.
Tendermint, the startup behind the Cosmos blockchain interoperability protocol, said on Wednesday that it is changing its name to “Ignite.”
Ignite CEO Peng Zhong told that the rebranding will have no significant impact on the company’s goals or leadership. Instead, the rebranding is designed to represent a shift to a “product-first approach,” with the word “Ignite” conjuring up images of “transformation and action.” Tendermint’s previous focus was on back-end Cosmos infrastructure development.
The update comes as the market value of ATOM, the Cosmos blockchain’s native token, approaches $7 billion. The native token of the Cosmos-based Terra blockchain, LUNA, has risen to a market valuation of $44 billion, implying that many of Tendermint’s initial objectives have already been met.
Ignite’s move is framed by Zhong, who has a background in front-end programming, as a method to play to his team’s design and product abilities. The team’s new expansion plan entails improving the user experience of Ignite’s portfolio manager, Emeris, in order to better enrol fresh users into Cosmos, as well as developing its developer platform, Stargate, into a tool that enables non-coders to quickly create blockchains and DAOs.
The history of the universe
Cosmos was launched by Ignite in 2017 to promote its vision of a multi-chain future in which multiple blockchains coexist to suit unique use cases.
Today, cross-chain “bridges” may be used to transfer assets between blockchains like Ethereum and Solana, but the recent $326 million hack of the Wormhole bridge indicates that transmitting assets between different blockchains can be risky. Cosmos allows developers to instantly create blockchains that can communicate with one another without the use of specialist software.
The Cosmos network has grown to contain 38 separate blockchains with a combined market cap of over $122 billion since its launch, and Ignite’s tools have been used and forked by prominent projects such as Terra, Binance Smart Chain, and Facebook’s doomed Libra stablecoin.
The Ignite team was in charge of developing Cosmos’ fundamental infrastructure, however the project’s development has gradually transitioned away from Ignite and toward Cosmos’ broader development community.
Despite the fact that Ignite is nearly eight years old – practically ancient in crypto terms – Zhong argues that the company is only getting started.
“We’ll see tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and potentially millions of [blockchains] connected to each other in the future,” Zhong predicted in an interview. “We can only help educate, excite, and galvanise people to build and be a part of this ecosystem together if we help educate, excite, and galvanise people to build and be a part of this ecosystem together.”
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.
