Version 0.47 of the Cosmos Software Development Kit (SDK) is currently in development and Notional is playing an integral role in building and upgrading its essential components. We are also helping to get many of the blockchains we validate ready for this collection of upgrades. This is mission-critical work because the SDK is the primary codebase for any new and existing chains that want to launch in Cosmos, and there are many moving parts that all need to be vetted and verified. Here are some highlights:

The Cosmos Hub proposal #792 saw the ATOM community overwhelmingly vote in favour of enabling Replicated Security, starting with the Neutron chain. This means that Neutron - a CosmWasm-enabled smart contract platform for DeFi applications - will get its transactions checked by the Cosmos Hub validator set, instead of needing to assemble its own.

The code that allows this functionality to come to life has never existed on a Cosmos chain before, and Notional is deeply involved in its construction alongside the teams at Neutron and Stride. Much of our work here has been to ensure that the Neutron launch is exactly as safe, powerful, and flexible as it can be to enable a vibrant Atom Economic Zone.

Previously, we reported the use of ibc-go v3.0.0 to Informal Systems and the interchain foundation. Their lack of decisive action led to the integration problems that Quicksilver faced. While the recent patches on the hub certainly were not fun for validators, it’s nice to see some action being taken. It is worth noting that Notional patched the bug in ibc-go v3.0.0 in August which led to the issues that Quicksilver faced.

Informal has closed 5/6 pull requests that we have made to the interchain security repository to upgrade to sdk 47. Here are those PRs:

We are still in the process of adjusting to the processes put in place by informal and it stands in stark contrast to the workflows we are use to on other e.g Osmosis, where the 47 upgrade work is frankly much harder due to the use of a forked sdk:

Between those two, 12 PR’s have been merged by osmosis, and questions we ask their team in issues, on PR’s and in slack are answered promptly.

Merged Pull Requests

The following PRs were merged.

Removal of spm. Spm is considered harmful because it results in conflicting version imports in many cases. In the case of the ccv repo, that's almost certainly the case. We should remove spm from this repository and replace it with the standard cmd folder layout.

The pull request also contains various improvements and bug fixes to the Interchain Security module, such as better handling of timeouts and error messages, and more efficient handling of signature verification.

Overall, the changes proposed in the pull request are aimed at enhancing the security and reliability of the Cosmos Network by providing a more robust and fault-tolerant consensus mechanism for securing interchain communication.

Our work with Informal Systems has led to some fruitful developments. ICS seems to be working, commercially. Actually, it is so popular that it is causing resource contention on the hub, which currently uses SDK45. The Cosmos Hub recently approved the liquidity staking module from Iqlusion, Zaki Manian’s company and due to the interactions with the staking and slashing modules in the SDK, a 47 upgrade for the hub is desperately in need.

Notional is working with both Stride and Neutron to ensure that they have smooth Replicated Security launches. Stride in particular requires SDK 47 compatible consumer chain code.

We are happy to report that we’ve been selected for Neutron’s security DAO, and that we have made a fix to the Neutron genesis state about the maximum gas per block.

Notional has made numerous contributions to the liquidity staking module by Iqlusion, approved by Hub Governance and has engaged in planning alongside Stride, Quicksilver, and PersistenceOne.

April has been a big month we are diligently working to get all modules upgraded, tested, and deployed into the Cosmos. We have been met with some difficulties in which we will endeavour to fix, but the majority of our collaborations have been extremely productive and pleasant. The Cosmos continues to grow in a positive direction, and we are excited to be here contributing to it.

As always real time reporting of notional’s work on the hub can be seen here.

https://notion.notional.ventures/notional-ventures-index/cosmos-hub-reporting/tasks

The reporting page is still a work in progress and we welcome all feedback from the community.