Cosmos is known for its interoperable ecosystem of L1 app-chains, capable of communicating with each other through the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol. Wormhole Gateway serves as a pivotal connector, facilitating the seamless flow of liquidity and users from Ethereum and beyond into Cosmos chains and applications via an IBC-based liquidity router.

What is Wormhole Gateway?

Wormhole Gateway is a blockchain built using the Cosmos SDK and CosmWasm, designed for optimal composability between the Wormhole Stack and the IBC-powered Cosmos ecosystem. It functions as a decentralized network run by 19 validators, known as Guardians, that enforce a robust set of trust assumptions. This ensures secure and efficient cross-chain communication and asset transfers without incurring additional bridging fees. Gateway uses the ICS-20 standard for IBC-native token bridging, which ensures asset fungibility and ease of integration for Cosmos protocols.

Who Uses Wormhole Gateway?

Applications and blockchains within the Cosmos ecosystem leverage Wormhole Gateway to tap into deep liquidity pools across Ethereum, Solana, and more than 30 other chains. By integrating Gateway, these chains become more accessible as users have a secure way of transferring assets in and out of the Cosmos ecosystem through Wormhole-based bridges. The integrated chains offer builders and users a more vibrant ecosystem with abundant liquidity and powerful multichain use cases.

Why Does Wormhole Gateway Matter?

Wormhole Gateway is critical for several reasons:

• Enhanced Liquidity: It drives liquidity to the Cosmos ecosystem, supporting its growth and vitality.
• Cost Efficiency: Users transfer assets without extra bridge fees, making it more economical than many competing solutions.
• Interchain Composability: Gateway uses ICS-20 for IBC-native token bridging, ensuring maximized composability across ecosystem borders.
• Secure interoperability beyond Cosmos: Wormhole Gateway employs a robust security framework built on the battle-tested Guardian network, ensuring secure cross-chain operations. Additional security features include the Global Accountant module, which maintains a 1:1 parity of native and wrapped assets, and the Governor feature, which monitors and limits asset netflows to mitigate risks of cross-chain contagion.

Interested in integrating with Wormhole Gateway?

Follow these steps to start building:

• Contact Wormhole Contributors: Reach out to the community to initiate the process.
• Approval and Relay Activation: Get your chain approved and set up for relaying.
• Governance Proposal: Submit a Wormhole governance proposal to add your chain.

How to Get Involved with Wormhole

The Wormhole ecosystem is a vibrant, fast-growing community of builders and users that are shaping the future of Web3 together, and you can be a part of it.

If this sounds intriguing, join the Wormhole Discord and engage with the community. It’s the easiest way to get started.

If you want to learn more about interoperability and Wormhole’s technology, check out our Documentation here.

About Wormhole

Wormhole is the leading interoperability platform that powers multichain applications and bridges at scale. Wormhole provides developers access to liquidity and users on over 30 of the leading blockchain networks, enabling use cases that span DeFi, NFTs, governance, and more.

The wider Wormhole network is trusted and used by teams like Circle and Uniswap. To date, the platform has facilitated the transfer of over 40 billion dollars through over 1 billion cross-chain messages. To learn more about Wormhole, Twitter, Discord, or blog.