# What is Kima?

Kima is the world’s first infrastructure-agnostic money transfer protocol. The Kima platform is comprised of a blockchain and a toolkit that allows the seamless transfer of assets between different protocols and platforms.

### Challenges in Blockchain Interoperability <a href="#challenges-in-blockchain-interoperability" id="challenges-in-blockchain-interoperability"></a>

Blockchains are siloed. Web3 apps built within those ecosystems are constrained by their on-chain liquidity. Many solutions developed for these challenges, known as bridges, suffer from flaws and vulnerabilities: security, user experience, complexity, and poor capital efficiency.

### How Kima Solves These Challenges <a href="#how-kima-solves-these-challenges" id="how-kima-solves-these-challenges"></a>

Kima addresses these challenges in a unique way, by creating a Web3 settlement layer which enables interchain transactions. This approach allows liquidity to be transferred between chains in a safe, secure, and cost-effective manner, enabling a reliable omnichain solution.

### Key Concepts of Kima <a href="#key-concepts-of-kima" id="key-concepts-of-kima"></a>

*Security:* Kima achieves unique security by eliminating all known attack vectors (no smart contracts, no oracles, no external relayers) and adding multiple layers of security (e.g., using a Trusted Execution Environment with Intel SGX and decoupled validation). The protocol uses game theory and financial incentives to maintain liquidity equilibrium and maximize capital efficiency.

*Infrastructure:* Kima simplifies and accelerates the creation of secure Omnichain applications, tackling interoperability problems without causing additional liquidity fragmentation. It provides a mechanism for users to perform cross-chain atomic swaps without token-wrapping.

### Kima's Blockchain Architecture <a href="#kimas-blockchain-architecture" id="kimas-blockchain-architecture"></a>

The Kima blockchain, built using the Cosmos SDK, employs a committee-based consensus. "Wardens" in a rotating committee ensure asset pool synchronization and authorize withdrawals based on corresponding deposits. This structure uses Threshold Signature Schemes (TSS) and operates within a Trusted Execution Environment for enhanced security.

### Liquidity Management <a href="#liquidity-management" id="liquidity-management"></a>

Kima maintains liquidity pools on each integrated layer-1 blockchain (e.g., Ethereum, Polygon, Solana) and synchronizes assets across these platforms without creating synthetic ("wrapped") tokens.

### Permission Layers <a href="#permission-layers" id="permission-layers"></a>

*Permissioned Layer:* Includes validators known for reliability (e.g., funds, banks, organizations). *Permissionless Layer:* Allows anyone with sufficient stake to become a block producer and warden, facilitating regular changes in the warden set.

### Consensus and Goals <a href="#consensus-and-goals" id="consensus-and-goals"></a>

The two-layer consensus mechanism ensures stability, security, and decentralization, with four main goals:

* Manage and update the warden set.
* Execute platform governance (e.g., selecting blockchains and tokens, setting fees).
* Create an auditable record for accountability. -Enable cross-chain messaging for interacting with contracts across blockchains.

### Cross-Chain Transfers <a href="#cross-chain-transfers" id="cross-chain-transfers"></a>

When users request cross-chain transfers, the warden committee is responsible for:

* Recording the request and monitoring the deposit on the source chain.
* Completing a threshold signature to release funds on the destination chain.
* Recording the finalized process, providing an auditable record of validator actions.

This architecture, proven in other Cosmos SDK-built systems, ensures a secure, decentralized, and efficient cross-chain transfer system.

To read a more detailed account of Kima's architecture and approach, read the [White Paper](https://docs.kima.network/kima-whitepaper-1/).

### How can you participate? <a href="#how-can-you-participate" id="how-can-you-participate"></a>

This documentation shows how to:

* Use Kima as an end user
* Become a validator for the Kima blockchain
* Leverage Kima's SDK to effortlessly integrate all Kima's functionality into your application