- Jae Kwon founded Tendermint and co-created Cosmos to enable blockchain interoperability with BFT-based consensus.
- Despite stepping down, Kwon returned with NewTendermint and remains vocal about Cosmos governance and vision.
Not every computer engineering graduate from a top university jumps straight into crypto and creates one of the most influential consensus technologies. But Jae Kwon is no ordinary graduate.
After graduating from Cornell and joining the robot soccer team, he took a more “established” path — working at Alexa Internet, then as a developer at Yelp. But like many people who are too smart to follow the crowd, Kwon opted to go off the beaten path.
Jae Kwon: From Consensus Breakthrough to Cross-Chain Visionary
While many developers are focused on building social or e-commerce apps, he decided to create a new consensus system. It wasn’t just for fun — it was a manifestation of his concern about the energy waste of proof-of-work systems like the one used by Bitcoin. Thus was born Tendermint, a Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT)-based consensus system that is faster, more efficient, and… let’s be honest, a little hard to explain to your parents.
With Tendermint in his hands, Kwon didn’t stop. He then teamed up with Ethan Buchman to build the Cosmos Network—a blockchain ecosystem that can communicate with each other using Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) technology.
One easy analogy is that if blockchain is usually like islands that cannot greet each other, Cosmos is like a bridge that connects them all. Amid the increasingly crowded crypto hype, this project is considered one of the most visionary.
Disputes, Comebacks, and a Founder Who Won’t Stay Quiet
However, Kwon’s journey was not always smooth. In 2020, he stepped down as CEO of Tendermint and began to focus on a new project called Gno.land—a smart contract platform based on a unique programming language. But not long after that, Kwon reappeared, this time with a new entity called NewTendermint.
Many were confused, some even said this was like copying himself. But that’s how Kwon is. When one idea feels stagnant, he jumps to the next version.
On the other hand, tension also arose from within. One case that attracted quite a lot of attention was a lawsuit against his former colleague. Some of the community regretted this step, feeling that it was not the collaborative spirit that had been the basis of the Cosmos project from the start. But Kwon stuck to his guns.
Now, even though many new faces have emerged in the crypto industry, Jae Kwon’s name still has a place. On social media, he is still actively talking about blockchain technicalities, sometimes slipping in sharp criticism about the direction of his own ecosystem’s development. His communication style? Sometimes quirky, sometimes philosophical. But clearly, he is not the typical founder who only appears when the token price goes up.
Furthermore, the Gno.land project he developed reflects his obsession with efficiency and simplicity. His goal is simple: to create smart contracts that are more human, easy to read, and closer to the programming logic that developers use every day.
It may look technical, but if you’ve ever been frustrated reading smart contracts on Ethereum, you’ll understand why this is important.
In a crypto industry filled with promises and temporary trends, Jae Kwon remains one figure who — while not always liked — cannot be ignored.
He is not just the founder of a big project. He is the type of person who, if you give him a pile of boring whitepapers, he can read them, laugh at them, and then create a new system that changes the direction of the industry. Sometimes it’s a bit difficult to compromise, but who wants to be mediocre in a world this fast?
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