The Cosmos co-founder said GovGen will demonstrate how governance can be used in blockchain development.
In November 2023, the Cosmos Hub community approved the controversial Proposal 848, which lowered the maximum inflation rate for native token ATOM from 20% to 10%. At the time, ATOM’s actual inflation rate reached 14%.
The proposal was expected to fail. However, the number of votes surged just before the deadline and some validators changed their positions, leading to the proposal passing with 41.1% of the votes. A significant portion of voters (38.5%) voted against it.
A day after the proposal was passed, Cosmos co-founder Jaekwon Kwon, who opposed the vote, decided to fork Cosmos Hub and create Atom One. All in Bits, run by CEO Kwon, is launching GovGen to decentralize decision-making related to the birth of Atom One.
What is GovGen?
Mr. Kwon said. Cryptocurrency:
“The concept of GovGen was born from Cosmos Hub’s need to assess the sentiments of those opposing Proposition 848.”
GovGen is an independent, governance-only chain scheduled to launch on February 27th. Distinct from AtomOne Hub, GovGen is a fork of Cosmos Hub with some modifications. The goal is to “decentralize the origin of the AtomOne chain,” according to Onbloc, a blockchain software development company supporting AtomOne’s infrastructure development.
GOVGEN token holders, essentially a non-transferable staking token, can vote on proposals on the GovGen chain to determine AtomOne’s initial chain parameters and token distribution. GOVGEN tokens will be distributed to all ATOM holders who delegate or inherit a ‘NO’ or ‘NO_WITH_VETO’ vote.
GovGen holders will decide the specifics of the AtomOne chain before it is launched, so everyone who participates in this plan will become a founding member of AtomOne.
Mr. Kwon said this.
“With GovGen, we aim to demonstrate how the governance voting choices of delegators and validators can or *should* be used to shape blockchain development. This may include splitting or forking the proof-of-stake blockchain to preserve its constitutional character. or proposing and introducing new innovations.”
Initially, the GovGen chain will start with 30 validators.
Why does Cosmos fork?
According to All in Bits, Proposition 848 “put ATOM on the path to becoming a fiat token.” According to the company, this is a “significant change from the existing design of the ATOM staking token, which has kept the ecosystem secure since its inception.”
According to Kwon,
“The results of the Proposition 848 vote appear to indicate that a significant portion of the Cosmos Hub community wants to preserve the security properties of Cosmos Hub’s innovative (ATOM) staking model.”
In a blog post explaining its opposition to the proposal, All in Bits noted that the proposal could “threaten” Cosmos’ “fundamental pillars.” That said, opponents of Proposition 848, who constitute a significant minority, believe that the proposal threatens the security of the ecosystem, necessitating a fork.
So AtomOne will not compete with the Cosmos Hub, but will “act as a bridge to make the Cosmos Hub more secure,” according to All in Bits (AIB).