Technology VS Sovereignty: Cosmos is "quietly adopted" by Central Bank Digital Currency

Cosmos' modular blockchain architecture has actually become the technical foundation of central bank digital currency? (Synopsis: Celestia vs Cosmos: Comparing Core Architecture, Application Scenarios and Token Value) (Background supplement: The rise of the Cosmos ecosystem, what opportunities on Berachain are worth paying attention to?) Introduction On May 22, 2025, Maghnus Mareneck, co-CEO of Interchain Labs, revealed that the Colombian government is working with a banking consortium to test a CBDC for cross-border payment scenarios on the Cosmos network, and has selected a private, permissioned node model and IBC Eureka technology stack. [Source: news.bitcoin.com] There is no DAO, no on-chain governance, only permissioned nodes and distributed ledgers. Who would have thought that Cosmos, known as "decentralized Lego", would become an ideal partner for central bank digital currencies? Cosmos: Chain-building blocks, a power jacket that just fits Cosmos is not a public chain, but a complete set of "chain + through-chain" toolbox, born for multi-chain architecture. Compared with standardized and open Ethereum, Cosmos' flexibility and controllability provide an ideal template for central banks to "customize sovereign ledgers". Cosmos SDK: Build sovereign chains like LEGO The Cosmos SDK is a modular development framework that central banks can assemble on demand: Add account permissions and KYC module Disable smart contract virtual machines to eliminate "uncontrollable" contract deployment Add regulatory plugins such as regulatory audit and directional payment Tendermint BFT: Take turns as a "central bank" Cosmos uses Tendermint consensus, which does not rely on computing power mining, but by authorized validators taking turns to produce blocks. The node members are controllable, the latency is extremely low, and the block generation is highly deterministic, which is naturally suitable for the real-time payment scenario of CBDC. IBC: "TCP/IP" between chains IBC is Cosmos' cross-chain communication protocol: Support state proof and asset cross-chain Zone chains are independent, and authentication packets are exchanged when necessary Implement chain-level whitelist and packet review, "controllable interoperability" instead of disorderly interoperability With the help of this protocol and the ICS-20 standard, tokens such as ATOM and OSMO can circulate freely among multiple zones of the Cosmos ecosystem without bridging. Hub-and-Zone: Refuse to repeat the wheel L2 Cosmos' architecture is based on "Hub and Zone": Cosmos Hub is the earliest chain in the ecosystem, but not the "chief commander" Zone refers to independent chains, such as Osmosis, Juno, each chain has an independent ledger and validators Communication between them through IBC, no hub transit required Each zone is a "pluggable, autonomous operation and maintenance" sovereign chain, which is interoperable but does not need to obey. The Colombian Path: The Sovereign Abacus Behind Technology Selection Colombia's CBDC chain is actually a zone using Cosmos technology. Does not rely on Cosmos Hub and does not directly interoperate with other DeFi ecosystems It is a closed license chain that only borrows the three major components of Cosmos SDK, Tendermint, and IBC For the Central Bank of Colombia, this is not a decentralized "idealism", but an "instrumental" choice. The Bifurcation of Cosmos and mBridge: The Trade-off of Cost, Efficiency and Control In the choice of infrastructure for central bank digital currency, Cosmos may not have thought that it would become one of the routes. At present, the leading route is also the Bank for International Settlements (BIS)-led mBridge with many cooperative countries - a consortium chain network that connects the CBDC networks of various countries (including central banks and international organizations, a total of 5 members, and more than 32 observer members), where the central banks of member countries set up Operator Nodes, a bit of a joint central bank, and allow commercial banks or other clearing and clearing institutions licensed by various countries to execute nodes for currency exchange. The author compares mBridge, Cosmos, and mainstream cross-chain bridges as follows: Why didn't Columbia choose mBridge, but instead switch to Cosmos? On the one hand, mBridge is a product of the game of big countries, with a slow pace of technology update and a high access threshold; Cosmos, on the other hand, provides "out-of-the-box" technology components to build a local licensing chain without complex negotiations or diplomatic coordination, while opening up the possibility of future interoperability through the IBC. This is more in line with the current realistic demands of Latin American economies: Limited budget, fast construction Unwilling to rely entirely on alliances dominated by specific powers Hope to find a balance between compliance control and blockchain innovation If the pilot in Colombia goes well, Cosmos may become a new path for small and medium-sized economies to build sovereign digital currencies. A manageable, cost-acceptable, technology-dedependent path could be replicated by more sovereign states in South America, Africa, and even Southeast Asia. This is a classic triumph of "technological pragmatism". Conclusion Cosmos provides a technical "neutrality" and "tailorability": it does not presuppose governance answers, nor does it reject centralized deployment. Colombia didn't join Web3, it just borrowed Cosmos. There are no open nodes, no on-chain governance, and no connection to the public chain ecology - this CBDC chain based on Cosmos is more like a streamlined and modified "sovereign currency machine". However, this "cooling adaptation" of Web3 technology in real-world scenarios is also a certain recognition of its engineering value. 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