Crypto.com is introducing the new testnet of Cronos, the Crypto.org Ethereum Virtual Machine or EVM chain, today on July 20, 2021.
As noted in an update shared with CI, Cronos is the EVM chain that is running in parallel to the Crypto.org Chain. It has been designed to “massively” scale the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, by offering application developers with the ability to quickly port apps from Ethereum and EVM-compatible chains, with “funding from Particle B’s $100m EVM fund and access to the 10M+ user base of the Crypto.com ecosystem.”
Cronos is being powered by Ethermint, which allows rapid porting of applications and smart contracts from Ethereum (ETH) and EVM-compatible chains. Cronos base settlement currency will be CRO, which is the native digital currency of the Crypto.org Chain, the announcement revealed.
The release further noted that the Inter Blockchain Communications (IBC) protocol “enables interoperability and bridging to the Crypto.org Chain – a fully decentralised, open-source, energy efficient public chain with high speed and extremely low fees.” It also “allows interoperating with other IBC-enabled chains (e.g., Cosmos Hub).”
Kris Marszalek, Co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com, stated:
“We are going to provide full support for developers building on Cronos: technical, funding, marketing— everything you need to turn your idea into reality. Combined with easy dapp portability, I’m confident we will see an explosion of activity on Cronos.”
Cronos runs on Proof of Authority (POA), which is describes as being a “more streamlined and scalable” blockchain or distributed ledger tech (DLT) consensus mechanism. The Cronos team has reportedly received “massive” support from the community and industry partners with currently more than validators that have committed to supporting Cronos.
The Cronos testnet is open-source, the announcement confirmed. The Crypto.org Chain software engineers have been working cooperatively with the Ethermint’s core team (Tharsis) “contributing to the same codebase on Github.”
