LayerZero And Initia Developing Interoperability Standard For Cosmos

LayerZero Labs is partnering with Initia Labs to develop an interoperability standard for Cosmos, the two blockchain platforms announced on Wednesday.

The goal is to enable Cosmos SDK chains and LayerZero-enabled chains to connect, facilitating omnichain interoperability. This Cosmos related news comes a few days after Flare integrated LayerZero V2 to connect to over 75 blockchains.

Why an interoperability standard for Cosmos?

According to the LayerZero team, the targeted interoperability solution constitutes a Cosmos SDK Module rather than a smart contract. This means LayerZero can support Cosmos chains with both VM and non-VMs.

The new interoperability standard will allow developers to leverage any LayerZero-supported chain to extend both existing and new dApps to and from Cosmos chains. The development aligns with Cosmos’ vision of an “Internet of Blockchains,” Initia Labs’ “interwoven” chains, and LayerZero’s omnichain interoperability.

More about omnichain interoperability

Omnichain interoperability allows blockchains, oracles, bridges, and other networks within the ecosystem to “communicate.” This enables a single transaction to go across multiple blockchains without any user intervention.

While blockchain ecosystems such as Polkadot and Cosmos have mechanisms that allow for interoperability, applications within these ecosystem still need omnichain solutions like LayerZero to communicate with external chains.

Omnichain interoperability means a message can move from Cosmos to Solana and then to Ethereum or another blockchain. The prerequisite is that an end user only needs to sign one transaction.

As an omnichain interoperability protocol, LayerZero has facilitated more than 135 million cross-chain messages. These have covered more than 80 blockchain networks, where over 200 applications use the network for messaging.

The protocol’s technology is critical for applications on chains that cannot achieve native communication.

Meanwhile, the Cosmos SDK supports tailor-made blockchains – also called appchains – for developers. LayerZero’s integration of Cosmos marks a step forward in the quest to achieve full omnichain interoperability.