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What is Tendermint?

Tendermint is software for securely and consistently replicating an application on many machines. At its core, Tendermint is made of two key components; a byzantine fault tolerant (BFT) blockchain engine that handles the networking and consensus, and a generic application interface (ABCI).

The architecture of most blockchain protocols consists of three layers that perform distinct but complementary functions - the networking, consensus, and application layer:

• The Networking layer defines how all of the nodes on the protocol talk to each other about what is happening on the network.
• The Consensus layer defines how the nodes come to agreement on the state of the chain.
• The Application layer is everything else, such as the processing of transactions, that updates the state of the chain.

While one can build all three from the ground up to develop a new blockchain, an open source tool like Tendermint allows developers to build custom chains more quickly.

Tendermint Core, the consensus layer of Tendermint, provides an out-of-the-box consensus design solution for teams that want to develop a new Proof of Stake protocol, while the ABCI allows for the deployment of application logic in any language.

Byzantine fault tolerant consensus mechanisms can continue operating and come to consensus even when a certain percentage (32%) of all participating nodes fail to communicate or act maliciously.

The next stage of evolution for the Tendermint ecosystem has the vision of interoperability between Tendermint chains at its core. To that end, a protocol called Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC) will be used to connect blockchains built with Tendermint with one another. IBC will allow heterogeneous chains to exchange value, particularly tokens, which makes them interoperable.

What are the properties of Tendermint?

1. Tendermint enables the creation of public or private/permissioned blockchains, as developers define how the validator set is constituted on the application layer.
2. Tendermint has high transaction throughput; it enables a block time around 1 second a block and handles up to thousands of transactions per second.
3. Tendermint’s consensus algorithm has instant finality which means that transactions are finalized as soon as blocks are created and can not be changed. Forks of the chain are not possible as long as >33% of the validators are honest.
4. Security on Tendermint is created because it is fault tolerant and accountable.

What is the Cosmos-SDK?

The Cosmos-SDK is a framework to build the application layer for a blockchain on top of Tendermint. It is modular and uses capabilities-based security. Currently you can only code a Cosmos-SDK based application in Go but other programming languages are expected to be implemented in the future.

What protocols have been built with Tendermint?

Cosmos, Binance DEX, Kava, Agoric, Terra, Oasis, Regen Network, Akash Network, Pocket Network, and IRISnet have all been built with Tendermint.

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Bison Trails: Pioneering Blockchain Infrastructure®

Bison Trails is an Infrastructure-as-a-Service company, based in New York City, specifically focused on blockchain participation. We’ve built a platform for anyone who wants to participate in new chains effortlessly (e.g. by running Cosmos Validators, Tezos Bakers, and Libra Validators, etc.)—without having to invest time and resources into developing any of the engineering, protocol, dev ops, or security competencies in-house. Our goal is for the entire blockchain ecosystem to flourish by providing robust infrastructure for the pioneers of tomorrow.