What is Gaia?

gaia is the name of the Cosmos SDK application for the Cosmos Hub. It comes with 2 main entrypoints:

gaiad: The Gaia Daemon, runs a full-node of the gaia application.
gaiacli: The Gaia command-line interface, which enables interraction with a Gaia full-node.

gaia is built on the Cosmos SDK using the following modules:

x/auth: Accounts and signatures.
x/bank: Token transfers.
x/staking: Staking logic.
x/mint: Inflation logic.
x/distribution: Fee distribution logic.
x/slashing: Slashing logic.
x/gov: Governance logic.
x/ibc: Inter-blockchain transfers.
x/params: Handles app-level parameters.

About the Cosmos Hub: The Cosmos Hub is the first Hub to be launched in the Cosmos Network. The role of a Hub is to facilitate transfers between blockchains. If a blockchain connects to a Hub via IBC, it automatically gains access to all the other blockchains that are connected to it. The Cosmos Hub is a public Proof-of-Stake chain. Its staking token is called the Atom.

Next, learn how to install Gaia.