What is Coreum? (COREUM)

Layer 1 (L1) smart contract blockchains have become increasingly common in the crypto space. Although Ethereum was the original smart contract-capable chain, others such as Solana, Cardano, Cosmos, Avalanche, and NEAR have been called everything from “Ethereum alternatives” to “Ethereum killers.” They have primarily been designed to improve upon the (relatively) low speeds and costs of using Ethereum’s network.

Coreum was built on Cosmos-based architecture as a L1 blockchain whose primary aims are similar to Ethereum’s and many of its competitors. However, by using Cosmos’ Tendermint consensus engine, it seeks to have faster throughput than Ethereum. Coreum provides smart contract capability to support decentralized applications (dapps), which is driven by an engine called WebAssemply (WASM). It also includes a mechanism for creating, transferring, and building rules around programmable digital assets called Smart Tokens that have flexible functionality.

Coreum is powered by its native COREUM token, which is used just like Ethereum’s ETH to pay for transaction fees, secure the blockchain through staking, and for voting in decentralized governance.

How was Coreum developed?

Coreum came out of the collaboration of two Dubai-based entrepreneurs: Bob Ras and Rezza Bashash. The two founded a company called Sologenic in 2019, and in doing so developed a platform supporting the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs). They also serve as the co-founders and leaders of CoreNest Capital, which funds start-ups and other tech ventures.

Sologenic announced Coreum as an interoperable and scalable layer 1 smart blockchain in December 2021. At launch, other leaders of Coreum included alumni of Celsius, Ripple Labs, and NASA. In order to seed excitement in the new project, Sologenic announced that a snapshot would be taken of SOLO holders, and this would inform an airdrop of COREUM (then called “CORE”) tokens set for February 2022.

Much of Coreum’s main development occurred in 2024, perhaps most notably with its XRPL-Coreum Bridge, connecting the platform to Ripple’s XRP Ledger. This was a major step towards cross-chain compatibility, which was outlined as a focus by the development team.

How does Coreum work?

Coreum is a relatively standard L1 blockchain, with some minor differences. Because it was built using the Cosmos software development kit (SDK), it has many similarities to Cosmos’ other chains.

Architecture - Coreum is based on the Cosmos SDK, which uses the Tendermint Core to provide rules for nodes reaching consensus. This consensus mechanism uses a method by which even if some nodes fail to reach agreement, transactions can still be finalized. Though the result is complex, generally this allows for faster speeds. To connect with other blockchains, Coreum uses the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC).

Staking - Coreum uses Cosmos’ Bonded Proof of Stake (BPoS) mechanism to secure the blockchain. Validators must bond a minimum 20,000 COREUM through staking, and the 32 validators bonding the most tokens are the ones who form consensus. Other users can delegate their COREUM tokens to validators in the form of a stake. Stakers are eligible for rewards paid out according to the value of COREUM bonded to the network.

Smart Tokens - These are like ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, though their programmability is slightly more extensive and includes defining how assets are minted, burned, white-/blacklisted, integrated into smart contracts, frozen in certain situations, and more. Smart Tokens can include fungible assets, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and more.

Smart Contracts - The main engine that runs smart contracts in Coreum is called WebAssembly (WASM). This same engine is used in parts of Polkadot, Cosmos (where it is called CosmWasm), some Ethereum layer 2 solutions (L2s), and many other blockchain platforms. It supports multiple programming languages, is secure, and can be applicable for executing smart contracts in multiple settings. This allows developers to build dapps on Coreum, such as Pulsara.

How is the COREUM token used?

COREUM is used to pay transaction fees, for securing the network through staking, and as a means of community governance. It serves similar roles to native tokens in other major L1 blockchain networks like Ethereum. COREUM is subject to variable inflation, in which the number of tokens issues each block is adjusted based on the percentage of tokens locked by staking.

Token distribution

Of the initial 500 million COREUM tokens, 70% were allocated to the community through airdrops (50%), the validator rewards pool (10%), and dapp developers (10%). The remaining 30% were allocated to Coreum maintenance, operations, developers, teams, and investors. It is worth noting that most established projects publish these allocations with more granularity—especially with regards to advisors and investors—but no such information was published by Coreum’s developers in their whitepaper.

Coreum essentials

• Coreum is a layer 1 blockchain built using the Cosmos SDK that can support smart contracts and multi-functional tokens.

• It was developed by two entrepreneurs based in Dubai and has prioritized building inter-operability with other digital asset networks, starting with the XRP Ledger

• COREUM is the native token of the network, and it is used for staking, rewards, transaction fees, and governance.