ATOM 2.0 On-chain Voting Goes Live

Token holders will have two weeks to vote on the latest proposal

article-image

Source: Shutterstock

share

Cosmos revamped its latest roadmap to position its native token, ATOM, as the preferred collateral within its ecosystem.

After a month of deliberation and in the latest instance of the growing business of digital assets activism — the proposal, ATOM 2.0, has gone live for on-chain voting.

Community members have two weeks to vote on the Cosmos proposal. Quorum is set at 40%, lower than the typical pass rate of 50%. Voter turnout was around 7% at the time of publication, with over 90% ratifying the proposal.

ATOM 2.0 is a new vision piece and “counterpart” to the original 2017 Cosmos white paper that focuses on inter-blockchain communication (IBC), interchain security and liquid staking. It “marks the transition to the next phase of the Cosmos Hub as an infrastructure platform,” according to the proposal’s authors. 

The white paper was first unveiled in late September at Cosmoverse — the network’s annual conference — and has since been updated twice to address community concerns.

Disagreements on ATOM issuance

The main point of consternation from Cosmos token holders surrounds ATOM token issuance.

In an earlier interview with Blockworks, Zaki Manian — the co-founder of Sommelier and a key member of the Cosmos ecosystem — said that the first version of the white paper proposed an initial large mint of ATOM for a new treasury, followed by a drop in ATOM staking rewards.

Community members wanted less front-loading of the creation of ATOM. 

The proposal, as such, was adjusted so only 4 million ATOMs will be minted into the community pool — with 10 tentative mints of ATOM into the treasury to follow, at the discretion of ATOM owners. 

These disagreements also led Jae Kwon, the co-founder of Cosmos who drifted away from the blockchain in 2020, to reemerge with a counterproposal. 

Sunny Aggarwal, co-founder of Osmosis Labs — a decentralized exchange protocol on Cosmos — told Blockworks that “ATOM 2.0 proposes inflation on the token, and it’s not yet fully clear on how [ATOM 2.0] is going to be governed and how it will be spent, and I think Jae’s whole point is that it needs to be more clear.”

In Kwon’s counterproposal, ATOM One, he wanted to create a second token, PHOTON, to be the main asset in the Cosmos ecosystem.

“ATOM 2.0 is trying to push for ATOM to be a reserve, monetary asset within the Cosmos ecosystem, while ATOM One is saying ATOM should remain conservative and just be the staking and governance token of the cosmos hub and actually create a second token called PHOTON that can be the money token,” Aggarwal said. 

Although the outcome of the vote remains up in the air, Aggarwal said, “tensions [are] quite high,” adding that there’s a “need for more synthesis first.”


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates (2).png

Research

This reports analyzes the competitive dynamics of the Solana DEX landscape, identifying sustainable moats per protocol. We also find that Raydium (RAY), Orca (ORCA), and Lifinity (LFNTY) are valued very similarly on a P/S basis and what this could mean for Meteroa's (MET) valuation, which is still pre-TGE.

article-image

With $800 million now flowing to creditors, some expect a market boost — yet many remain cautious after years of waiting

article-image

There’s more to do on Solana than memecoins, but the market isn’t seeing it that way

article-image

Galaxy’s Alex Thorn said that the saga, paired with TRUMP and MELANIA, could lead to “further destruction of the memecoin complex”

article-image

Anatoly Yakovenko in 2017 embarked on the technical challenge of solving blockchain’s scalability problem

article-image

Grayscale Investments has historically had a four-stage lifecycle for its products, but there’s an indicator this could be changing

article-image

Brian Quintenz and Jonathan Gould are two recent Cabinet nominees with ties to crypto