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The ICF will leverage Skip’s expertise and technology to internalize development of the Interchain Stack and drive user and liquidity growth for the Cosmos Hub and the wider Cosmos ecosystem.
Zug, Switzerland - December 10, 2024 - The Interchain Foundation (ICF), a Swiss non-profit that advances interoperable, sustainable, and community-owned decentralized software in the Cosmos ecosystem, has acquired Skip, a blockchain solutions provider. This strategic acquisition brings Skip's renowned expertise in product, engineering, and general alignment with the ecosystem and community into the ICF. With this acquisition, the ICF accelerates in its mission to make Cosmos and the Interchain Stack the most accessible, developer-friendly, and widely-adopted blockchain ecosystem.
The Interchain Foundation supports the development and adoption of the Interchain Stack, a software suite for building blockchains used by hundreds of blockchains, securing over 50 billion of dollars in value, and interconnecting over 115 of them natively via IBC.
After the acquisition, Skip will be renamed to Interchain Inc. and become the ICF’s subsidiary, led by Skip co-founders Barry Plunkett and Maghnus Mareneck, tasked to lead all product, protocol and strategy development for the foundation. Its primary objectives will be the growth of interchain-native companies and developers, onboarding new users and capital liquidity, and driving technical achievements that improve the competitiveness of the Interchain Stack. The leadership of the new subsidiary has affirmed their position as strong supporters of the Cosmos Hub blockchain and ATOM, supporting a leading role for these products in the growth of the ecosystem and the adoption of the Interchain Stack, enabled by the development of impactful features and cutting-edge products.
The ICF and Interchain Inc. will internalize Interchain Stack development and treat it as a full-service bundle, focusing on improving developer experience, speeding up user onboarding, and building ground breaking new features. Key initiatives include the support for native VMs like EVM, Rust-based tooling options, faster consensus block times, and enhanced interoperability beyond Cosmos via a redesigned IBC. The new organization will also play an important role in leading ecosystem growth and marketing initiatives for the interchain.
Long-time Foundation Council member and Co-Founder of Cosmos, Ethan Buchman, is stepping down from the council following this acquisition, after facilitating this transitionary period. With new leadership in place, he looks forward to focusing on contributing to Cosmos as its co-founder and a builder in the ecosystem. The ICF will continue to exist as a Swiss Foundation, along with its board, the Foundation Council, and new council members will be named in the coming months.
Josh Cincinnati, President of the ICF’s Foundation Council, said: “Our ecosystem gave us valuable feedback; we listened and acted on it. This acquisition will supercharge the development of the interchain by empowering one of our strongest builders to solve problems with purpose and agility. Skip has a proven track record of creating builder-focused software on every part of the Interchain Stack. Together, we will rebuild the ICF into the beating heart at the center of Cosmos and the broader interchain ecosystem, jumpstarting an era defined by product-driven growth and ecosystem alignment”.
Ethan Buchman, Co-Founder of Cosmos and outgoing member of the ICF’s Foundation Council, said: “Cosmos has been uniquely fragmented. We’ve long been searching for a solution and hit on the best outcome with the acquisition of Skip. Barry, Mag and the Skip team stepped into the Cosmos vortex and rapidly proved their mettle. I’m excited for them to take on a stronger leadership role in reconstituting the ecosystem, the interchain stack, and the Cosmos Hub. In passing the torch, I have full confidence in Josh and Maxime on the ICF Foundation Council and Barry and Mag at the helm of Interchain Inc. I’m excited to continue contributing to Cosmos as its co-founder and to building new products and protocols like Cycles that extend the Cosmos philosophy and technology.”
Barry Plunkett, Co-Founder of Skip, said: “After nearly three years working in the Cosmos ecosystem, we are grateful and honored to be leading the next chapter of the Cosmos and interchain movement. There is substantial work to be done: we need to build a revamped interchain stack, relaunch a true Cosmos Hub, and restart a wide-reaching Go-To-Market for our values and ecosystem. Everyone in the ecosystem is a part of this: we need your help and your contributions to lift Cosmos into its next stage - and there is no community on Earth we’d rather do it with.”
Maghnus Mareneck, Co-Founder of Skip, said: “We face a crisis of both our personal freedoms and the values of our industry. Ecosystems around us are pushing centralized, commercialized systems that lock people into fee-extracting and censorable systems, the very same as systems we’re here to oppose. We decided to spearhead the Cosmos movement - the last true cryptosovereignty movement - to continue and accelerate the original vision of crypto. We are excited to supercharge its development via our dedication to redesigning the stack, rebuilding the Cosmos Hub, and resetting all of our beliefs of what’s possible in the Internet of Blockchains.”
Skip has a strong history of enhancing the Interchain Stack. In 2023, it developed The Block SDK, Skip:Connect (formerly Slinky), and mev-tendermint, improving the functionality of the Cosmos SDK and CometBFT and widening the possibilities for app-chains. Moreover, one of its core products, Skip:Go, facilitates between 25% and 50% of IBC’s monthly transactions on average.
With the acquisition of Skip by the ICF, and under the leadership of Barry Plunkett and Maghnus Mareneck, the new ICF subsidiary, Interchain Inc., will bring exceptional engineering, product innovation, and strategic expertise to the Interchain Stack and the Cosmos Hub, ushering in a new era of liquidity and user growth for Cosmos and its interchain blockchain ecosystem.
Ethan Buchman, Josh Cincinnati, Maghnus Mareneck, and Barry Plunkett are available for comment
About the Interchain Foundation:
The Interchain Foundation is a Swiss non-profit that funds, stewards, and responsibly advances the Cosmos and the broader interchain, an ecosystem of sovereign blockchains. The Interchain Foundation supports the development and adoption of the Interchain Stack, a software suite for building L1 blockchains, including IBC, Cosmos SDK, Comet BFT, CosmWasm, and CosmJS. Interchain Foundation is shaping a new technological paradigm that is open-source, interoperable, and community-owned.
For media queries, please contact: interchain@wachsman.com
