Cosmos is the blockchain pioneer of the Hub & Spoke architecture. Hubs act as routers for Zones. “Zones” are Cosmos-speak for “application-specific blockchains”. Each Zone is a spoke connected to a hub. Hubs can be connected with other hubs. Together, this ecosystem of connected Hubs and Zones makes up the Cosmos Network, or what is commonly referred to as the ‘Internet of the Blockchains’. Note that the Cosmos ecosystem is entirely permission-less, meaning that anyone can create a Hub or a Zone, and each blockchain is free to accept or refuse connections with other blockchains.