Understanding the modular architecture of the Cosmos blockchain stack
Performant, customizable, and EVM-compatible, the Cosmos stack offers builders full control of their blockchain infrastructure and implementation. Its stable and secure open-source codebase enables blockchains to achieve high throughput and fast finality.The stack is modular: leverage pre-built components or integrate custom features for your specific use case, from consensus mechanisms to governance and compliance. The components of the stack work together to create a complete blockchain network solution that is secure, performant, scalable, and endlessly customizable.At its core, the Cosmos stack is composed of several interoperable layers: the Cosmos SDK for application logic, CometBFT for consensus and networking, Cosmos EVM for Ethereum compatibility, and IBC for trust-minimized cross-chain communication.For teams running production systems, Cosmos Enterprise offers hardened protocol modules, production-ready infrastructure, and direct engineering support for Cosmos-based networks.Together, these components form a flexible, battle-tested stack for building purpose-built blockchains without sacrificing security, customizability, or interoperability.
The Cosmos SDK is the business logic layer of the Cosmos stack. It provides a customizable base layer for building blockchains and decentralized ledgers, made up of interoperable modules that work together to define how a blockchain behaves, from accounts and transactions to tokenization, compliance, and custom application logic. Builders can compose pre-built modules and develop bespoke ones to embed their unique business logic directly into the foundation of the chain, rather than deploying it as isolated smart contracts.This approach enables a level of customization, interoperability, and performance that traditional smart contract platforms and Layer-2 blockchains cannot offer. Developers gain access to block lifecycle hooks (BeginBlocker and EndBlocker), fine-grained state separation, and scoped permissions through a security-first Object Capability Model. Native execution alongside CometBFT consensus unlocks significantly higher throughput and deterministic behavior, while upgrade tools like Cosmovisor make chains easy to maintain and evolve over time.Explore the Cosmos SDK →
Cosmos Enterprise: Enterprise-Grade Infrastructure & Support
Cosmos Enterprise is a comprehensive enterprise subscription designed for teams operating production-grade Cosmos-based blockchain networks. It combines hardened protocol modules, on-premises and managed infrastructure components, and direct access to the engineers building the Cosmos technology stack.Cosmos Enterprise is built for organizations that require reliability, security, and operational confidence as they scale critical blockchain infrastructure in production environments.Learn about Cosmos Enterprise →
Cosmos EVM enables plug-and-play Ethereum Virtual Machine compatibility for Cosmos SDK–based chains. It allows developers to deploy Solidity smart contracts, use familiar Ethereum tooling, and interact with native Cosmos modules (including IBC) through precompiles and extensions. Builders can run existing Ethereum contracts without modification while also extending the EVM with new capabilities at the chain level, enabling functionality beyond the standard EVM.Learn about Cosmos EVM →
The Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol is part of the interoperability layer of the Cosmos stack, enabling blockchains to securely transfer tokens, messages, and arbitrary data. IBC connects independent blockchains into an interoperable network through trust-minimized communication with configurable permissioning while maintaining secure, independent execution.Explore IBC Documentation →
CometBFT is the consensus layer of the Cosmos stack and one of the most widely adopted, battle-tested consensus engines for building blockchains and decentralized ledger networks. It is a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) middleware that takes a deterministic state transition machine (which can be written in any programming language) and securely replicates it across a distributed set of nodes. By separating consensus from application logic, CometBFT allows developers to build custom blockchains without implementing their own networking or consensus protocols.Responsible for proposing blocks, ordering transactions, and finalizing state transitions, CometBFT ensures that all nodes reach agreement on the canonical state of the chain. Highly performant and deterministic, it provides fast finality and can achieve throughput of up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS), making it well-suited for high-performance, application-specific blockchains.Learn about CometBFT →
