Written by: Sanqing
Introduction
On May 22, 2025, Maghnus Mareneck, co-CEO of Interchain Labs, revealed that the Colombian government is collaborating with a bank alliance to test a CBDC for cross-border payment scenarios on the Cosmos network, selecting a private, permissioned node mode and the IBC Eureka technology stack. [Source: news.bitcoin.com]
Without a DAO, without on-chain governance, only permissioned nodes and a distributed ledger. Who would have thought that Cosmos, known as the "decentralized Lego," would become the ideal partner for central bank digital currency?
Cosmos: Blockchain Building Blocks, A Perfectly Fitted Power Jacket
Cosmos is not a public chain, but a complete "chain-building + inter-chain" toolbox, designed specifically for a multi-chain architecture. Compared to the standardized, open Ethereum, Cosmos's flexibility and controllability provide an ideal template for "sovereign ledger customization" for central banks.
Cosmos SDK: Assembling Sovereign Chains Like Lego
Cosmos SDK is a modular development framework that central banks can assemble as needed:
Add account permissions and KYC modules
Disable smart contract virtual machines to prevent "uncontrollable" contract deployments
Add regulatory audit and targeted payment plugins
Tendermint BFT: Taking Turns as the "Central Bank"
Cosmos uses Tendermint consensus, which does not rely on computing power for mining, but instead allows authorized validators to take turns producing blocks. Node members are controllable, with extremely low latency and strong block finality, naturally adapting to CBDC's real-time payment scenarios.
IBC: The "TCP/IP" Between Chains
IBC is Cosmos's cross-chain communication protocol:
Supports state proof and cross-chain asset transfer
Zone chains are independent, exchanging authentication data packets when necessary
Implements chain-level whitelisting and packet inspection, enabling "controlled interoperability" rather than unordered interaction
Using this protocol and the ICS-20 standard, tokens like ATOM and OSMO can circulate freely among multiple Zones in the Cosmos ecosystem without bridging.
Hub-and-Zone: Rejecting Redundant L2 Wheel Reinvention
Cosmos's architecture is based on "Hub and Zone":
Cosmos Hub is the earliest chain in the ecosystem, but not the "supreme commander"
Zones are independent chains, such as Osmosis and Juno, each with its own ledger and validators
They communicate through IBC without Hub intermediation
Each Zone is a "pluggable, self-maintained" sovereign chain that can interoperate without subordination.
Colombian Path: Sovereign Calculations Behind Technology Selection
Colombia's CBDC chain is actually a Zone using Cosmos technology.
Not dependent on Cosmos Hub
Not directly interoperable with other DeFi ecosystems
A closed permissioned chain, only borrowing Cosmos SDK, Tendermint, and IBC components
For the Colombian Central Bank, this is not "idealistic" decentralization, but a "instrumentalist" choice.
Cosmos and mBridge Crossroads: Balancing Cost, Efficiency, and Control
In the infrastructure selection for central bank digital currencies, Cosmos might not have anticipated becoming one of the routes.
The currently leading route is mBridge, led by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) with multiple cooperating countries—a consortium chain network connecting CBDC networks (including central banks and international organizations, with 5 members and over 32 observer members), where each member country's central bank establishes an Operator Node, somewhat resembling a joint central bank, and allows commercially licensed banks or other clearing institutions to run nodes for currency exchange.
The author compares mBridge, Cosmos, and mainstream cross-chain bridges as follows:
Why Did Colombia Choose Cosmos Over mBridge?
On one hand, mBridge is a product of great power competition, with slow technological update pace and high access barriers. On the other hand, Cosmos provides "out-of-the-box" technical components, allowing the construction of a local permissioned chain without complex negotiations or diplomatic coordination, while reserving future interoperability through IBC.
This better aligns with the current practical needs of Latin American economies:
Limited budget, need for quick construction
Unwillingness to completely depend on alliances led by specific major powers
Desire to find a balance between compliance control and blockchain innovation
If Colombia's pilot is successful, Cosmos might become a new path for small and medium-sized economies to build sovereign digital currencies. A controllable, cost-acceptable, and technologically independent route could be replicated by more sovereign states in South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. This is a typical victory of "technological pragmatism".
Conclusion
What Cosmos provides is a technical "neutrality" and "trimmability": it does not preset governance answers, nor does it reject centralized deployment.
Colombia has not joined Web3; it has merely borrowed Cosmos. Without open nodes, without on-chain governance, without connection to the public chain ecosystem—this CBDC chain based on Cosmos is more like a refined and modified "sovereign monetary machine".
However, this "cooling adaptation" of Web3 technology in real-world scenarios is also a certain acknowledgment of its engineering value.
