During bullish crypto cycles, prevalent trends carry the price to new all-time highs. In 2021, the success of meme coins, NFTs, and interoperability were driving mainstream consumers to the market.
However, only some of these concepts prevailed, and interoperability is one of them. Blockchains like Near and Cosmos that focus on interoperability are bound to make a comeback once the market is more favorable.
In this article, we take a look at NEAR vs ATOM to see which network has a stronger fundamental value. We will discuss their technology, consensus mechanisms, and growing ecosystems.
Diving into Technology
So, Near and Cosmos try to address the issue of interoperability between blockchains. With a growing user base, it has become clear that relying on a single, successful network like Ethereum doesn’t play well in the long term.
Instead, the blockchain industry might develop into an internet of blockchains. These series of specialized networks can easily communicate and exchange assets.
NEAR Technological Background
Near aims to solve the scalability issues of competing networks. For this, it has come up with the Nightshade technology. Validators can confirm transactions across many sharded chains, each with its own purpose.
The technology enables theoretical throughput of more than 100,000 tps, regardless of the number of users.
Near uses human-readable addresses, making the onboarding process of mainstream users much easier. Instead of cryptographic addresses, Near proposes a streamlined registration process, similar to Web2.
ATOM Technological Background
The Cosmos blockchain penned the concept of the “Internet of Blockchains” (IBC). The idea behind it is to make blockchain technology much more streamlined. This can be achieved by providing developers with the needed tools to build scalable networks.
Blockchains built with the Cosmos SDK can easily communicate with each other and exchange assets seamlessly. For example, a decentralized exchange running on an IBC-enabled chain can host all the assets from the Cosmos network. As a result, there’s no need for bridges, which are often a liability in the crypto industry.
What About Consensus Mechanism?
Although Near and Cosmos focus on interoperability, they use vastly different consensus mechanisms to achieve this.
NEAR Consensus Mechanism
Near is a PoS blockchain that uses a novel mechanism called Doomslug. In this environment, validators confirm transactions on multiple sharded chains at once. These chunks are only some portions of the next block. This allows the network to achieve extremely high transaction speed at very low costs.
ATOM Consensus Mechanism
Cosmos uses a BFT PoS consensus mechanism for all of the blockchains using the SDK of the platform. This Tendermint consensus mechanism allows each chain to execute transactions separately from the Cosmos blockchain, removing saturation issues.
Crypto Ecosystem
One of the most important concepts in interoperability is the ecosystem of networks within Near and Cosmos.
NEAR Ecosystem
Since 2020, the Near Ecosystem has drawn in over 750 projects that build on its technology. From NFT projects, DeFi, or financial apps, the ecosystem has a lot to offer for users and developers alike.
Near Horizon is the branch of the project that gathers all the developers in one place. This makes it easy for users to explore its ecosystem.
ATOM Ecosystem
The Cosmos ecosystem has grown into hundreds of different app-specific chains. They focus on various aspects, including finances, games, infrastructure, privacy, etc.
The chains can communicate and take advantage of each other’s benefits to the ecosystem as a whole. The Cosmos ecosystem is set up nicely, making it a great opportunity to exchange SOL to ATOM in this market.
NEAR vs ATOM: Who Is the Winner?
It has become clear that the future of Web3 lies in the interoperability of blockchains. While Near allows its dApps to communicate, Cosmos adds another layer to the concept. ATOM creates a genuine internet of blockchains that can run specific apps. These chains conserve their sovereignty and can exchange their tokens with each other.
As such, Cosmos might have an edge, considering that the Web3 industry is bound to grow exponentially in the future.
