Amid multiple departures, Cosmos core contributor Tendermint Inc. restructures the company

Top Cosmos contributor, All in Bits Inc. (DBA Tendermint Inc.), announced it would “part ways” with its IBC (Inter-Blockchain Protocol) and Tendermint Core teams. The two groups of engineers will team up to form a new Germany-based company backed by the Interchain Foundation (ICF) to continue their work on Cosmos. Tendermint also said Director Zaki Manian, Director of Product Jack Zampolin, and Director of Security Jessy Irwin have resigned from their positions.

Why it matters:

• This company-wide restructuring likely means Tendermint will no longer be the primary contributor to Cosmos’ future direction, especially regarding IBC. However, Tendermint will remain a contractor to the ICF and help support the development of the Cosmos SDK. The company also plans to shift part of its focus to Virgo, a Cosmos-based project backed by Tendermint CEO Jae Kwon.
• Some suggest the split and departures were due to months of “bitter infighting” at Tendermint. Zaki vocalized some of these frustrations a few weeks ago when he claimed Jae Kwon neglected and under-resourced the development of IBC. How this event will impact the release of IBC, which has already been slow to launch, remains uncertain.