Tendermint changes name in light of former CEO Jae Kwon’s new project

Tendermint, a core contributor to the Cosmos project, is rebranding to “Ignite” as its current name is being used for a new project by one of its founders.

Tendermint was set up in 2014 by its then-founder and CEO Jae Kwon. But relations soured over the years and he left the company in early 2020 to work on a new project called Virgo, which was supposed to help the world collaborate on big challenges like climate change.

Now it appears Kwon is taking back ownership of the Tendermint brand in order to launch a new project. Ignite CEO Peng Zhong, who replaced Kwon, told The Block that Kwon plans to launch a new initiative under the Tendermint name. Kwon confirmed to The Block that he’s launching a new platform but wouldn’t provide any further details.

With Kwon using the Tendermint name, Zhong started looking for a new identity – wanting something that made it clearer what his Cosmos-focused project actual does. 

“As far as Ignite goes, it’s much more core to what Cosmos is. It’s about the big bang. An explosion of new products on Cosmos technology,” Zhong said. 

As for the Cosmos ecosystem, it’s continuing to grow, with 38 blockchains now connected through IBC, its standard for making cross-chain transactions. Zhong predicts there will be 200 chains connected through IBC by the end of the year. Yet this technology is still struggling with scaling as IBC transfers remain free, keeping the burden on validators that are processing them.