The Vision for the Cosmos Hub in the Post-Interop World
On the Cosmos Hub, IBC v2 and IBC Eureka.
Bridges are everywhere. They were physical first, but now we generally talk about them within a digital context. The Ottomans built the Galata Bridge to enable traders to cross the Golden Horn in Constantinople, a city we now know as modern Istanbul. That bridge functioned as an extension of the Silk Road network that spanned thousands of miles in Asia and the Middle East so that trade could more effectively flow into Africa and Europe.
This led to a huge boom in the cultural and economic prosperity on either side of the bridge. The movement of goods enriched the city and helped it become a financial and cultural powerhouse.
With the expansions to Ethereum and other non-Cosmos chains that we have planned for V2 of the Inter-Blockchain-Communication (IBC) Protocol, Cosmos now faces a similar historic moment.
Hubs, Routing, and a Vision Early for its Time
The original Cosmos Hub whitepaper was ahead of its time. It correctly envisioned we would soon live in a world filled with a plethora of sovereign networks that desire to interact and exchange assets and information. Instead of relying solely on peer-to-peer connections, it was assumed that these networks would route through hubs that functioned as a coordinator to improve the developer and user experience while saving costs.
This world of interconnected decentralized applications is now becoming a reality; we exist in a web of heterogenous blockchains, rollups and applications built on top of wildly different technology stacks. In this world, where hundreds — if not thousands — of networks are spun up each year, the need for a hub that facilitates seamless connectivity finally starts becoming abundantly clear.
The state of Interoperability in 2025 still leaves a lot to be desired. Developers struggle to build multi-chain applications that tap into various networks at the same time, chains continue to run operationally complex peer-to-peer connections, liquidity is fragmented across multiple paths, and how many times have you Googled “How to bridge tokens from X to Y”?
More and more networks need an interoperability Hub to come to life. While the Cosmos Hub was early in its vision, we’re finally having our Eureka moment.
Simplicity for Expansion
The Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol was designed to be the TCP/IP protocol for decentralized networks, enabling the “Internet of Blockchains”. This functioned particularly well within the network of Cosmos SDK-based blockchains. Within this network, we have the safest and most feature-rich interoperability solution currently in existence, easily handling over 2 billion USD per month across 115 chains, without a single hack of its supported versions in its 4-year history.
The complexity and requirements of the protocol prevented a rapid expansion into the blockchains outside of Cosmos. Because of this, we built a much simpler version of IBC that’s significantly easier to implement.
This is IBC v2: a second version of IBC purpose-built for rapid expansion to high-volume networks like Ethereum & Solana.
Eureka: the IBC v2 Service Layer
However, a functioning bridge that people actually use is more than just the underlying protocol.
A bridge requires a service network, and without it, it struggles to scale.
Maintaining an interoperability solution requires a lot of moving pieces. Just for the upcoming IBC connection between the Hub and Ethereum alone we’re leveraging a ZK-proving system to keep verification costs down, a relayer that moves packets between the networks, and IBC smart contracts mint assets in a decentralized way.
And it’s not just about infrastructure either, UX matters. How do you enable your users to easily deposit and withdraw assets to your network from any other network and make sure they have the right gas token when they get there? How do you help them navigate the maze that is the current interoperability landscape, with numerous routes across incompatible bridges all competing with each other?
These aren’t things we could reasonably expect every chain or rollup to build or maintain for themselves. But what if you could connect to one chain and have all of your interoperability needs taken care of for you?
These coordination services on top of IBC V2 are our product, and we’re calling that product IBC Eureka.
The Post-Interop World
When you’re building a Web2 application, it’s easy to pull in external data through an API. When you want to accept payments in your store, you just integrate one of the many payment providers out there and you’re sorted. You don’t have to maintain your own infrastructure to connect to the web, you just sign up for an internet subscription.
At Interchain Labs, we are preparing for a world where any application can permissionlessly tap into any network and access all liquidity, users and services available; where sending and receiving any type of data — payments or otherwise — is easily done by just integrating an API; where users across many networks interact without even having to consider the fact that they’re interoperating.
Eureka starts the post-interop world for Web3.
One where the very concept of a bridge takes a backseat for users and developers alike. One where you pass the Galata bridge without a care in the world and can safely ignore the maze of service providers that enable that reality. One where service hubs take care of the complicated work in the background in order to create cultural and economic prosperity for all its users.
And in order to get there, we’re going to need a Cosmos Hub-powered coordination layer.
The Vision for the Cosmos Hub?
If “blockchains are virtual cities”, and interoperability is a bridge, then the Cosmos Hub is to IBC what Constantinople was to the Galata bridge: a port city, a security provider, a place where bazaars are formed, and services are provided to support the trade. The Hub is a place that brings about cultural and economic prosperity to its network and its citizens.
We see IBC Eureka as the first of many Hub-powered coordination services, set to fit hundreds of protocols and businesses. Like Constantinople, we expect a thriving app and service ecosystem on top of the Hub to flourish once the connection to the proverbial silk road is established.
So, what can we expect from IBC Eureka, then? Just that. One road, to anywhere. IBC v2 allows for the simpler implementation of IBC, on any network, finally breaking it free from Cosmos and into Ethereum, Solana or any chain.
IBC Eureka is a service built on top of v2 that scales by offering the Hub as a router, amassing all connections. Bridging, like no other:
- Simpler: one-click asset routing to any chain.
- Cheaper: With as low as $2 ETH transactions, $10 if fast-transfer. A minimum of 6x cheaper than any bridge.
- Native: IBC powered connectivity to Ethereum first, and next, and soon Solana, L2s, and beyond. Secured by the Hub and ATOM.
- Faster: With under 30s finality in ETH, seconds in L2s, and instant in Cosmos.
- Lean: No integration overhead. If you have IBC, you’ll get it day 1, with no infrastructure needs.
- Flexible: Allowing people to leverage Eureka as aggregated route or run p2p IBC powered by its infrastructure too.
We’ll soon share more details about IBC v2 and Eureka to the Cosmos Hub community, including in depth benchmarks. If you’d like to talk to us about the Hub and the Interchain Labs vision, feel free to schedule a call here. Stay updated on the latest news by following us on X.
About the Author
Noam Cohen is the product manager for the Cosmos Hub at Interchain Labs. You can follow him on X or reach out to him on LinkedIn.
This story was originally published on the Cosmos Hub X.
