Ignite (formerly Tendermint), the company originally behind the Cosmos blockchain ecosystem, announced in February after a sensational rebranding that it will split into two entities: Ignite and NewTendermint.
Ignite's original co-founder, Jae Kwon, is joining his old team as CEO of NewTendermint. Ignite's current CEO, Peng Zhong, will remain as CEO of the newly formed Ignite.
Kwon co-founded Ignite (then Tendermint) in 2014, but stepped down as CEO of the company in 2020 to focus on Gno.Land, its competitor to Ethereum. CoinDesk reported at the time that Kwon's exit also came after several high-ranking employees left the company in protest of his leadership.
Kwon's return to NewTendermint comes as the controversial founder has continued his feud with his former Tendermint colleagues. Kwon claims they are "intentionally socially engineering" Cosmos' failure and conspiring to oust him from the ecosystem altogether.
NewTendermint's new mission
According to a statement from Ignite and NewTendermint, the two companies will be "completely independent of each other, with their own team, equity and funds." Both companies will operate under the umbrella of All in Bits Inc, Ignite's parent company, in which Kwon holds a majority stake.
Ignite, according to the statement, will "continue the growth trajectory it has embarked on since the official rebranding" that changed the company's name from "Tendermint" in early 2022. That means Ignite will continue to focus on developing Ignite's flagship products: the Emeris Portfolio Manager and the Ignite CLI developer toolkit.
Kwon's NewTendermint will focus on core blockchain infrastructure development. In addition to helping develop Tendermint Core and the Cosmos SDK - tools for building Cosmos blockchains - NewTendermint will focus on developing Kwon's new Gno.Land smart contracting platform.
"I see a lack of a coherent vision focused on keeping [Cosmos Hub] minimal, finishing Tendermint [Core] according to the original vision, and developing a better smart contracting platform," Kwon told CoinDesk. "These are all still part of the core infrastructure. So that's what it is. We are refocusing on core technology."
Zhong told CoinDesk that Kwon had always planned to return to Ignite in some form.
"Jae has been communicating with us for over six months about this project," Zhong said. "It was always the plan that some of Jae's treasure would be retained so he could focus on launching the Gno protocol, his new version of Tendermint [Core] and so on."
Cosmos and Gno.Land
Cosmos is a family of blockchains specifically designed to work together. The ecosystem, which began with the Cosmos Hub (ATOM) blockchain, has grown to include a list of notable chains, including Binance's BNB chain, Osmosis, and the ill-fated Terra blockchain (which was at the center of a $40 billion token crash earlier this month).
Each Cosmos blockchain is built using the Cosmos SDK and consensus engine Tendermint Core - tools first developed by Ignite that make it easy to get a blockchain up and running.
Kwon says his censorship-resistant smart-contract platform, Gno.Land, is built with Tendermint 2, an improved version of the consensus engine he introduced for Cosmos.
The broader background
Kwon's return to Ignite/NewTendermint comes at a time when he claims his former colleagues have conspired against him - and the network.
Kwon co-founded Tendermint and launched Cosmos with Ethan Buckman in 2014. However, the relationship between Kwon and Buckman and much of the early Tendermint team deteriorated around 2020, at which time Kwon's behavior led to an exodus of several Tendermint employees, many of whom continue to contribute to the network through other projects, according to some former employees.
When Kwon's number two at Tendermint, Zaki Manian, left the company, he wrote a Twitter post (since deleted) stating that "Jae subjected every internal communication channel to religious discrimination, loyalty tests, and abusive tirades."
To this day, Kwon alleges that Manian, Buchman, and other Cosmos community leaders are secretly plotting against the network - possibly as part of a larger conspiracy.
While Ignite's Zhong admitted to CoinDesk that Kwon was "not the easiest employee to work with," he praised the new NewTendermint CEO as a "brilliant leader."
"He has very strong opinions. But, you know, opinions, in other words, is a strong vision. So if you believe in Jae, he will take you very far. And as the creator of the Cosmos ecosystem, he has tremendous influence," Zhong said.
Struggle for the soul of Cosmos
Kwon's battle with his former colleagues came to a head this month with "Proposal 69," a proposal to upgrade Cosmos Hub that Kwon said threatened to open up the network to security vulnerabilities. (The Cosmos Hub, similar to other Cosmos-based blockchains, allows users to vote on upgrades to the network by using the hub's native ATOM token).
Proposal 69, which ultimately failed, was backed by the Interchain Foundation (ICF), an organization responsible for developing the Cosmos ecosystem and formerly led by Kwon himself. (The ICF and Tendermint both received 10% of the initial ATOM token distribution from the Cosmos Hub.)
The role of ICF president now belongs to Buchman, and Proposition 69 was also supported by Kwon's former Tendermint colleagues - and main Cosmos opponents - Zaki Manian and Jack Zampolin.
As an incentive for users to vote against the ICF-backed proposal, Kwon said he would add "no" voters to the Gno.Land token airdrop.