Magmar, Co-CEO of Cosmos Labs, shared insights on the growing trend of purpose-built Layer 1 blockchains (L1s). He explained that many of the most successful blockchain launches in 2024 and 2025, including Story Protocol, Berachain, and the XRP sidechain, were L1 projects. According to him, more companies and governments are now developing their own networks to achieve greater decentralization and control over their infrastructure.
Magmar emphasized the importance of interoperability in the expanding multi-chain landscape and identified IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication) as the most secure, open-source, and cost-efficient protocol for cross-chain connectivity. He noted that IBC remains safer and more reliable than other alternatives such as LayerZero and Axelar.
He also expressed admiration for TOKI, praising its strong presence in Japan and its role in promoting Cosmos and IBC technology. Magmar acknowledged TOKI’s valuable contributions to ecosystem growth and expressed interest in future collaboration opportunities
Magmar:
The projects in Cosmos are higher quality when it comes to effort and teams than the ones you see on Ethereum or Solana, which makes me really happy to work with those kinds of teams.
Ed:
That's great. We can definitely speak on that as well, from the marketing side of the foundation. We are always in close contact with them, they give us full support, promotion, and are very responsive.
Speaking about building new chains on Cosmos and the effort it takes, we’ve been talking recently about purpose-built chains, highly specific Layer 1s. These purpose-built L1s are becoming a strong trend, and of course that makes interoperability and cross-chain even more important. We'd love to hear your view, is this a hype or a real long-term trend?
Magmar:
With purpose-built L1s, the largest and most successful launches in 2024 and 2025 have all been L1s, like Stori Protocol, Berachain, or the new XRP sidechain. For years now, the most successful crypto projects are almost always L1s: Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, Ripple, etc.
More companies, governments, and institutions are now building their own chains, like Arkham Chain from Circle, Tempo Chain from Stripe, and even Google. They prefer L1s because they can run their own infrastructure, maintain decentralization, and control their ecosystem.
In this multi-chain world, strong interoperability is essential, and IBC is the best option. It’s open-source, decentralized, never hacked, cheap, and fast, far better than LayerZero or Axelar. We believe IBC will become the standard way different blockchains connect.
Ed:
That's perfect. You’re basically pitching for us as well when you talk about IBC, hahaha. We hope to help grow the IBC volume together. Also, could you share your impressions of Toki from an outside perspective?
Magmar:
Thank you for having me. I’m honestly very impressed with Toki. I met Moto, Daiki, and you in Tokyo. The event was great, with interesting speakers and an institutional audience.
I was impressed by how knowledgeable people in Japan are about IBC and Cosmos. I think that’s thanks to your work. You’ve been doing an incredible job educating the Japanese market and helping expand the technology, including the IBC connection to Optimism.
We’re eager to collaborate more with Toki, technically, in business, and in community growth. We’re all working on the same goal, expanding IBC and Cosmos, bringing the world on-chain safely, effectively, and enjoyably. In the near future, we’re helping several big companies and governments build their own Cosmos chains, including a major Japanese company that will soon be announced.