What Is Going On With Jae Kwon and Cosmos?

Jae Kwon speaks at Construct 2017."If something should happen to me, be critical and share your opinions respectfully. But everything I'm doing is in fact making me a target," Jae Kwon, the main architect of the Cosmos protocol, wrote on Twitter on Jan. 21.Kwon's varied fixations have been a topic of conversation among crypto-community insiders.

Internal tensions have begun to spill out into public view, precipitated by a story from Decrypt on Jan. 29 reporting Kwon was stepping down as CEO to focus on a new project.

A source with knowledge of the matter tells CoinDesk Kwon is not only the CEO of Tendermint, he is also the sole board member.

Amid the Kwon drama, Anchorage, a crypto-custodian affiliated with Facebook's Libra project, announced Tuesday it would provide custody services for ATOM, the Cosmos token, and allow its users to earn returns by participating in staking.

Is Kwon still leading the project? Has he been distracted by other interests? Is everything OK?Kwon responded to Decrypt's report by calling it "FUD" in a GitHub post the following day.

"Tendermint Inc. organizational structure today comprises a sole decision factor, which is Jae Kwon, in his role of company's CEO. Jae and company has decided that moving forward the company will adopt a more decentralized corporate 'Process' that is being developed along with the Virgo project."

Little noticed before last week, Kwon has been at work on a new project he describes as complementary to the Cosmos blockchain: Virgo.

A month later, Kwon would decide to adopt a new persona on Twitter to supplement the one associated with him as a company founder.

Manian is probably the best-known person in the Cosmos project outside of Kwon himself, frequently speaking about the network at conferences and on panels.

A source within the company corroborated Manian's view, describing an adversarial environment at Tendermint and a staff beset by a series of crises Kwon refuses to address.