The origins of Cosmos can be traced back to 2014 with the founding of Tendermint, a core contributor to the network. In 2016, a white paper for Cosmos was published, and a token sale was held the following year. The co-founders of Tendermint, Jae Kwon, Zarko Milosevic, and Ethan Buchman, played a significant role in the development of the Cosmos ecosystem. Kwon, who stepped down as CEO in 2020 but remains as principal architect, was replaced by Peng Zhong. The Cosmos Hub, the first blockchain established on the Cosmos network, was designed to function as a mediator for all the unique blockchains within the network, known as "zones". The Cosmos software development kit (SDK) was also created, allowing developers to use Tendermint's consensus algorithm to create blockchains.