Interchain Foundation

Established in Baar, Zug, Interchain Foundation provides research and development support to decentralized networks. The company's focus is on the Cosmos Network's interoperable blockchain technology. It has a grant program for funding and collaborating with different projects with elements of research, engineering, product, social good, and community.

Interchain Foundation states its three major mandates include the following:

1. Fund: development, research, plus teams building and maintenance of the Cosmos Hub, IBC, SDK libraries, and applications

2. Steward: an ecosystem of open source, decentralized technologies through the Cosmos Ecosystem

3. Advance: blockchain technology via advocacy and partnership with researchers, regulatory agencies, and nonprofits

Interchain Foundation raised 16.8 million dollars at the time of sale in bitcoin and ether tokens to fund the Cosmos network in April 2017. After selling its ATOM token, the foundation funded some supporting players, including Agoric Systems Operating Company. The ICF invested in it for traditional equity. They also funded Tendermint, to develop the underpinnings of its interoperable aspirations termed the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol.

In 2022, the foundation introduced The Interchain Developer Academy, a seven-week online training program assisting developers to start or progress in blockchain careers, and attract extra talent to the Cosmos Ecosystem. Interchain Foundation funds the academy and there is no training fee. The participants get access to seventy hours of content developed and taught by blockchain specialists from the Foundation’s education partner, B9lab.