Intel Insights: Interchain Accounts on the Cosmos Hub

Key Insights

• The Cosmos Hub will implement the Interchain Accounts module with the activation of the Theta Upgrade on Apr. 12, 2022.
• The introduction of Interchain Accounts is poised to improve interoperability in the Cosmos ecosystem and move the Cosmos Hub closer to attaining its desired status as a "Port City."

Overview

The Cosmos Hub will activate the Theta Upgrade on Apr. 12, 2022. The Theta Upgrade will be the first of four quarterly upgrades planned for the Cosmos Hub this year. This release will most notably introduce the Interchain Account module (IBC 3.0.0), which will allow users to interact with any contracts on supported IBC-integrated blockchains from one unified interface on the hub. Additionally, Theta will introduce a circuit breaker proposal type into the Gravity DEX module to disable adding liquidity, enabling the Gravity DEX to migrate to a standalone chain.

Analysis

The Cosmos SDK has become one of the premier development platforms for general-purpose and application-specific blockchains. The year 2021 saw an explosion of innovation on Cosmos-based blockchains like Osmosis, Terra, Juno, and Secret Network. But how does the Cosmos Hub, the inaugural Cosmos chain, fit into the broader ecosystem? The Hub has long envisioned itself as a “Port City” of the Interchain — a network of interconnected, sovereign blockchains. Today users jump from chain to chain via Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC), often bypassing the Cosmos Hub entirely. The Theta upgrade and the introduction of Interchain Accounts have the potential to cement the Cosmos Hub as a fixture of the broader IBC ecosystem.