Cosmos Advances ATOM Redesign With Revenue-Based Tokenomics Plan

• ATOM tokenomics shifts toward revenue-based, fee-linked inflation and non-circular design.
• Community feedback prompted a clearer research scope and a structured five-step roadmap.
• External researchers will model alternatives, with final changes decided through governance.

The Cosmos community has begun an effort to redesign ATOM’s core tokenomics, initiating a multi-stage research process intended to replace the current system with a revenue-anchored, non-circular design.

The redesign aims to directly connect inflation and supply dynamics to real fee accrual across the Cosmos Stack, creating a model that can adapt to market conditions without relying on artificial scarcity mechanisms. The plan, now entering its first formal phase, introduces a structured roadmap that involves external researchers, extensive community participation, and a governance process to determine ATOM’s long-term economic direction.

Structured Research Framework Introduced

The effort is being centred around a five-step process: Request for Proposals, Research Team Selection, Information Gathering, Research Results and Analysis, and finally Governance. According to project organisers, the objective is to establish a tokenomics framework grounded in measurable revenue rather than speculative design models. The approach is designed to separate core economics from add-on mechanisms and ensure that any future features are built upon a tested foundation.

Before opening the formal process, Cosmos operators held wider community discussions to identify concerns, gather preliminary ideas, and pinpoint gaps in the existing model. Thousands of messages were exchanged in an open Telegram working group, showing strong interest in token design. Participants proposed ideas such as adjusting staking rewards to favour long-term holders, lowering inflation through a phased schedule, and positioning ATOM as a unified reserve and settlement asset.

Community Input Signals Beed For Scope Refinement

Organizers noted that early discussions revealed a need to define the boundaries of the research more clearly. Many suggestions focused on mechanisms, such as buy-and-burn programs or staking-linked reward escalations, rather than foundational economic principles.

The upcoming Request for Proposals will therefore require firms to focus specifically on revenue-based models. Under this approach, possible fee streams may derive from enterprise adoption of the Cosmos Stack or from services and applications operating within the ecosystem.

The distinction between fundamentals and mechanisms was clarified with the example of Osmosis, where the base system relies on protocol-level fees. At the same time, other components, such as burns or reward redirects, operate as extensions. Cosmos organizers stated that ATOM needs a similarly structured foundation before any additional mechanisms are added or revived.

The Request for Proposals is the first active step. It will be published on the Cosmos Hub forum for public review while also being sent to research firms specializing in blockchain economics. Additionally, according to the report shared, submissions will be collected privately before being posted publicly to ensure fairness in the bidding process. However, firms will be given roughly three weeks to respond.

Following this, validators and community members are being encouraged to participate by reviewing proposals, joining community calls, and providing feedback on the forum. Research teams will then be selected based on experience, cost, modelling methodology, and familiarity with Cosmos systems. 

Data-driven Modeling and Public Review to Follow

After selection, the process shifts to information gathering. Research groups will conduct interviews with validators, ATOM holders, developers, and partner teams; analyze the current emission structure; map stakeholder dependencies; and simulate alternative token models. Preliminary findings will be shared publicly for community review.

Draft reports from each firm will later be consolidated into a unified framework that reflects the strongest elements of the research. Once refined, the model will enter a governance review period, culminating in an on-chain vote.