Cosmos (ATOM) arrives on Ledger

Ledger, the manufacturer of the hardware wallet of the same name, has announced that it has integrated Cosmos (ATOM).

New integration: @cosmos step 2 🚀🚀

You can now manage and grow your #ATOM's on Ledger Live.

Thanks @_zondax_ for helping us in this new integration.

Full details here: https://t.co/YvSvPbgDzd pic.twitter.com/mRrcYj9MrD

— Ledger (@Ledger) June 23, 2020

Before delving into the news, it’s worth saying a few words about the Cosmos blockchain and its ATOM token. 

How does Cosmos work?

The aim of this project is to create a single hub for connecting several blockchains and creating a network for their interoperability.

For this reason, Cosmos is often referred to as the “Internet of blockchains”.

Cosmos has also developed a platform for businesses and its consensus system, similar to the PoS (Proof of Stake) or DPoS (Delegated Proof of Stake) that uses EOS, allows 125 validators to vote, making them responsible for the network.

In the event that a validator behaves incorrectly, then a slashing occurs, i.e. a punishment mechanism that causes both the validator and the delegator to lose tokens.

Considering that in this case, this is a blockchain that allows doing staking, we see how the availability offered by Ledger to manage ATOM also opens the possibility to use this token for staking.

Staking blockchains and Ledger’s decentralization

There are several blockchains with which it is possible to do staking, think for example of Tezos (XTZ), EOS and the upcoming PoS of Ethereum.

With Ledger Live there are up to 26 crypto assets that can be managed and over 1500 ERC20 tokens that are based on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain.

Several exchanges already offer staking services for ATOM and other cryptocurrencies, but the substantial difference to keep in mind is that the staking is performed by centralized exchanges, where users must comply with the rules and risks involved.

In the case of Ledger, on the other hand, users have their own private keys and can therefore manage their own crypto assets in a completely autonomous way.

Finally, it is worth recalling that on Ledger Live it is possible to buy cryptocurrencies directly from the platform.