In this post, MOBIX presents Inter-Blockchain Communication IBC and its purpose in the Cosmos Network. The Cosmos Network is heavily focusing on promoting highly specialized blockchains, for instance for smart contracts, decentralized exchanges, or digital agents.
Since no blockchain will be able to do everything by itself, there needs to be a general communication protocol between them to exchange messages or funds. This is where the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol comes into play.
The IBC protocol aims to provide a standardized communication protocol between distinct blockchains. IBC can be imported as a module to the Cosmos SDK for each chain and enables a high degree of interoperability. With IBC, it is possible to send funds and messages from one chain to the other or in the not so distant future also cross-chain remote smart contract calls.
IBC is already widely enabled in many blockchains written in the Cosmos SDK. The Cosmos Hub, Osmosis, or Juno were among the first. Furthermore, IBC can also be integrated to blockchains that don’t build upon the Cosmos SDK, like Ethereum, as accomplished by the Gravity Bridge chain. A complete list and nice visualization can be found on the Map of Zones application.
The MOBIX team is excited to be part of the Fetch.ai blockchain that enables IBC with the Capricorn upgrade, taking place on Tuesday, February 8th, 2022.