Jae Kwon

Type: person Last Updated: 2026-02-16 Status: Active Research Sessions: 1

Executive Summary

Jae Kwon is a blockchain pioneer who created the Tendermint consensus algorithm in 2014, solving Byzantine fault tolerance without Proof-of-Work. He co-founded Cosmos ("Internet of Blockchains") which raised $17M in under 30 minutes during its 2017 ICO. After governance conflicts with the Cosmos community, he forked the Cosmos Hub to launch AtomOne in 2024-2025 and is developing Gno.land, an Ethereum-competitor smart contract platform.

Facts

Education & Early Career

• Bachelor's in Computer Science from Cornell University (2001-2005), minored in Cognitive Studies — Source: https://iq.wiki/wiki/jae-kwon (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Participated in Cornell Robocup team building football-playing robots — Source: https://iq.wiki/wiki/jae-kwon (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Web services engineer at Alexa Internet (2005-2007) — Source: https://iq.wiki/wiki/jae-kwon (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Lead mobile developer at Yelp (2007-2009), created the iPhone app — Source: https://iq.wiki/wiki/jae-kwon (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Co-founded iDoneThis task management app (2011) — Source: https://iq.wiki/wiki/jae-kwon (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Co-developed Scramble.io encrypted email platform (2013) — Source: https://iq.wiki/wiki/jae-kwon (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)

Tendermint & Cosmos

• Discovered Bitcoin around 2012, sought better consensus without Proof-of-Work — Source: https://tradersunion.com/persons/jae-kwon/ (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Created Tendermint consensus algorithm in 2014 — Source: https://cryptoslate.com/people/jae-kwon/ (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Co-founded Tendermint company (All in Bits Inc.) with Ethan Buchman in late 2015 — Source: https://iq.wiki/wiki/jae-kwon (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Released Cosmos whitepaper in 2016, won Most Innovative Project at Shanghai Blockchain Week — Source: https://tradersunion.com/persons/jae-kwon/ (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Cosmos ICO raised $17 million in under 30 minutes (2017) — Source: https://blocking.net/the-man-behind-cosmoss-1-billion-valuation-jae-kwon.html (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• President of the Interchain Foundation — Source: https://iq.wiki/wiki/jae-kwon (confidence: MEDIUM) (discovered: 2026-02-16)

Cosmos Governance Conflict

• Stepped down as Tendermint CEO in 2020 to focus on Gno.land — Source: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/05/25/jae-kwon-returns-to-newtendermint-to-battle-for-the-soul-of-cosmos (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Returned as CEO of NewTendermint in May 2022 after Ignite/Tendermint split — Source: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/05/25/jae-kwon-returns-to-newtendermint-to-battle-for-the-soul-of-cosmos (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Accused former colleagues of "intentionally socially engineering the Cosmos Hub toward failure" — Source: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/05/25/jae-kwon-returns-to-newtendermint-to-battle-for-the-soul-of-cosmos (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Lost vote on Cosmos Proposal 848 (reduce ATOM inflation from 14% to 10%) in November 2023 — Source: https://blockworks.co/news/cosmos-fork-jae-kwon (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Announced AtomOne fork after losing inflation vote — Source: https://cryptoslate.com/cosmos-founder-jae-kwon-stirs-controversy-with-atomone-fork-proposal-amid-inflation-cap-dispute/ (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)

AtomOne Project

• AtomOne is a "minimal fork of the Cosmos Hub" prioritizing security and decentralization — Source: https://atom.one/ (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Mainnet launched with Interchain Security 1.5 in 2024 — Source: https://atomone.valopers.com/ (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Dual-token model: ATONE for staking/governance, PHOTON for transaction fees — Source: https://atom.one/ (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• PHOTON created only by burning ATONE, capped at 1 billion tokens — Source: https://atom.one/ (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• ATONE airdrop: 96,997,800 tokens distributed to 1,128,299 Cosmos Hub addresses — Source: https://atom.one/faq/ (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Current supply: 131.82M ATONE with 51.76% staking APR and 20% inflation — Source: https://atomone.valopers.com/ (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)

Gno.land & Gnolang

• Founded Gno.land in 2020 as a smart contract platform — Source: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/gno-land (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Gno is "~99% identical to Go" allowing Go developers to write smart contracts — Source: https://docs.gno.land/ (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Smart contracts are deterministic, auto-persisted, and auto-Merkle-ized — Source: https://docs.gno.land/ (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Positioned as Ethereum competitor emphasizing censorship resistance — Source: https://tradersunion.com/persons/jae-kwon/ (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Gno.land headquartered in Stevenson Ranch, California — Source: https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/593068-87 (confidence: MEDIUM) (discovered: 2026-02-16)

Personal

• Twitter/X: @jaekwon — Source: https://twitter.com/jaekwon (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yjkwon/ — Source: https://iq.wiki/wiki/jae-kwon (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• No publicly available reliable information on net worth as of 2025 — Source: https://tradersunion.com/persons/jae-kwon/ (confidence: HIGH) (discovered: 2026-02-16)

Related Entities

• Gno.land - Founder (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Manfred Touron - Gno.land co-founder (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Tendermint - Founder (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Cosmos - Co-founder (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• AtomOne - Founder (discovered: 2026-02-16)
• Ethan Buchman - Tendermint/Cosmos co-founder (discovered: 2026-02-16)

Sources

1. https://iq.wiki/wiki/jae-kwon - IQ.wiki biography
2. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/05/25/jae-kwon-returns-to-newtendermint-to-battle-for-the-soul-of-cosmos - CoinDesk NewTendermint coverage
3. https://atom.one/ - AtomOne official site
4. https://docs.gno.land/ - Gno.land documentation
5. https://tradersunion.com/persons/jae-kwon/ - TradersUnion profile
6. https://blockworks.co/news/cosmos-fork-jae-kwon - Blockworks AtomOne coverage

Research History

• 2026-02-16: Initial research covering education, Tendermint/Cosmos, governance conflict, AtomOne, Gno.land (1 iteration, 12+ sources)