Cosmos founder Jae Kwon stirs controversy with AtomOne fork proposal amid inflation cap dispute

Cosmos founder Jae Kwon faces backlash for considering a blockchain fork following the community approval of pegging ATOM’s maximum inflation rate to 10%.

Over the weekend, the Cosmos community approved a contentious proposal that sparked division within the ecosystem. Supporters argued that capping ATOM’s inflation at 10% would prevent overpaying for security. Conversely, Kwon and his allies expressed concerns about this alteration’s potential network security implications.

Kwon’s AtomOne proposal

Because of this, Kwon proposed a new forked network tagged AtomOne that will use the underlying software powering the Cosmoshub and operate autonomously with its governance plan and development team, according to a Nov. 25 post on social media platform X.

A Github document by Kwon furthered that AtomOne would be an alternative network that helps the Cosmos community bypass the divergent views held on “mission, tokenomics, and security philosophy.” It added that the new blockchain would be “equipped to handle contingencies and embody a bastion for diverse political thought.”

The document stated AtomOne’s mission and vision as follows:

“The vision behind this AtomOne fork is to be an alternative minimal fork of Gaia (“cosmoshub4″) running alongside Gaia to prepare for all contingencies, and also to operate as a political party base in relation to Gaia. We strive to complement the broader Cosmos ecosystem while introducing innovative solutions and perspectives. Our goals are not just to resolve current challenges but are also to set a new precedent for adaptive and responsive self-organization in the multichain multitoken universe that we call the Cosmos.”

An Atom1 token would power the new blockchain network. However, Kwon suggested that the old ATOM token could still be integrated into the new network. He said:

“I believe that the final plan should include an integration of $ATOM and $ATOM/$ATOM1 so that instead of mass selling $ATOM and collapsing it all, we allow participation from $ATOM, but what is in the README can be improved.”

Community criticizes Kwon

Kwon’s plan has faced significant criticism from several community members who claimed the move was against the ethos of governance and democracy.

Rua, the founder of Huginn Tech, questioned if Kwon would continue to split the chain if it faced the same dilemma after attracting major players into its ecosystem. Rua advised Kwon to “stick around and try to do some much-needed good” instead of splitting the network.

A core contributor at Milky Way Zone, Joon said:

“Accepting the results of a voting process whether one was against it or not is part of governance / democracy. Yes people do immigrate after an unfavourable outcome but true citizens stay and try to make the most of it.”

Meanwhile, the drama surrounding the Comsos blockchain has led to its native ATOM token falling by around 4% during the last 24 hours, according to CryptoSlate’s data.