cosmos/cosmos-sdk

★ 6,995GoAudience · developerComplexity · 5/5LicenseSetup · hard

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((cosmos-sdk))
    What it does
      Build blockchains
      Composable modules
      Sovereign chains
    Key features
      IBC cross-chain
      CometBFT consensus
      Cosmos EVM support
    Built-in modules
      Accounts and tokens
      Governance voting
      Permissions staking
    Ecosystem
      200 plus live chains
      Apache 2 licensed
      Interchain Foundation

mindmap root((cosmos-sdk)) What it does Build blockchains Composable modules Sovereign chains Key features IBC cross-chain CometBFT consensus Cosmos EVM support Built-in modules Accounts and tokens Governance voting Permissions staking Ecosystem 200 plus live chains Apache 2 licensed Interchain Foundation

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Build a custom sovereign blockchain with its own token economy, governance rules, and staking from pre-built modules

USE CASE 2

Add cross-chain asset transfers between blockchains using the built-in IBC protocol

USE CASE 3

Run Ethereum-compatible smart contracts on a custom chain using the Cosmos EVM extension

Tech stack

Getting it running

Difficulty · hard Time to first run · 1day+

Building a custom blockchain requires solid Go expertise and distributed systems knowledge, full documentation and tutorials are at docs.cosmos.network.

Use freely for any purpose including commercial use as long as you keep the copyright and license notice, enterprise modules in this repo have separate licensing terms.

In plain English

Cosmos SDK is an open-source framework for building your own blockchain from scratch. Instead of starting from zero, developers use this toolkit to assemble a custom blockchain by combining pre-built modules, each one handling a specific area like accounts, token transfers, governance voting, or permissions. More than 200 blockchains are running in production on top of it, making it one of the more established foundations in the blockchain space. The main idea is that each blockchain built with this SDK is sovereign, meaning it runs its own chain with its own rules rather than living as a contract on someone else's network. Developers can pick the built-in modules they need and write custom ones for anything specific to their application. The architecture is designed so these pieces can be swapped or extended without rewriting everything else. One of the built-in capabilities is interoperability: any chain built with this SDK can communicate and transfer assets with other compatible chains using a protocol called IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol). This is integrated directly, so builders get cross-chain connectivity without having to add it separately. The consensus engine (the part that decides which transactions are valid and in what order) is a separate component. The README recommends CometBFT, which is a battle-tested system capable of handling thousands of transactions per second. A newer addition called Cosmos EVM lets SDK chains also run Ethereum-compatible smart contracts natively. The SDK is written in Go and maintained by Cosmos Labs, a subsidiary of the Interchain Foundation. Documentation lives at docs.cosmos.network, and there are tutorials for anyone who wants to build a custom chain. The project is licensed under Apache 2.0, though the enterprise modules in the repository have separate licensing terms.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

Using the Cosmos SDK, show me how to create a minimal custom blockchain with a native token and a simple transfer module in Go

Prompt 2

Explain how IBC works in the Cosmos SDK and walk me through the steps to enable cross-chain token transfers between two SDK chains

Prompt 3

I want to add a custom governance proposal type to a Cosmos SDK chain, show me how to define the message, handler, and module wiring

Prompt 4

What are the key differences between Cosmos SDK modules and Ethereum smart contracts, and when should I choose one over the other?

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