Tezos refers to itself as a blockchain designed to evolve. It is an open-source platform that addresses some of the main roadblocks deterring a more widespread embrace of cryptocurrency. In an effort to distinguish itself from early blockchain techs, such as the proof-of-work concept used by Bitcoin and Ethereum, Tezos uses a proof-of-stake method. This reduces the amount of energy and money needed to operate, thus making it more energy-efficient. This is key for scalability as Web 3 becomes a more widely embraced aspect of life. The network is self-upgrading, which means it is designed to evolve over time without having to hard fork.
What is Tezos?
Tezos is a self-amending decentralized platform for building dApps. It’s similar to Ethereum in the way that both blockchains support dApps built using smart contracts. Tezos, however, has a few unique features that distinguish it from Ethereum. The most notable one is the network’s on-chain governance, which allows holders of XTZ, Tezos’ native coin, to vote on the network’s future direction.
The voting feature is designed to avoid the splitting of the community that usually results in hard forks or the depreciation of its cryptocurrency. The self-amending nature of Tezos’ protocol means that the blockchain is much easier to upgrade and is always open to adding the latest innovations to its network.
Who is the founder of Tezos?
Tezos was founded by a husband and wife team – Arthur Breitman and Kathleen Breitman. While the project was Arthur Breitman’s idea, the two have now joined forces and are working from a San Francisco office.
Tezos project has also received some significant funding. Tim Draper, a well-known venture capitalist, contributed $1.5 million to help the network pay for the operating fees and now holds a 10% stake in Dynamic Ledger Solutions (DLS), a company founded by Arthur Breitman that owns the rights to Tezos’ code. On top of that, Polychain Capital has also assigned some of its $10 million cryptocurrency funds to the project. Tezos ICO has raised $252 million worth of bitcoins and ether.
Tezos’ Past Performance
Tezos saw major growth in the second half of 2021. As the need for NFT platforms grew, Tezos’ “Smarter Smart Contract” technology became extremely valuable. These contracts are also secure and reliable, using formal verification that mathematically verifies each one. And because Tezos is designed to self-amend, new upgrades improve transaction fluidity and speed, seamlessly. Coin Metrics cited the Granada upgrade as the main factor toward Tezos growth last year saying, “Daily transactions jumped in August of 2021 as Tezos launched an upgrade that cut average block times in half.”
That’s right, the upgrades reduced the block time from 60 seconds down to 30 seconds, and reduced the smart contract gas consumption by 3-6 times. This came at a key point when NFT sales were skyrocketing.
This was when Tezos had its most dramatic growth, going from $3.3455 on Aug. 11, 2021, to its all-time high of $8.703 less than two months later on Oct. 2, 2021. The eco-friendly algorithm, smarter smart contracts, and scalability attracted not only validators, researchers, and builders, but also a community of artists and collaborators looking to trade on the platform.
The Future of Tezos
However, these gains and successes were last years and this year has been a tough one for cryptocurrencies across the board. Tezos saw its 2022 high on Jan. 4 at $5.2056, but more recently on May 12, it hit its low at $1.5789.
Today it went up 13% to hit $2.1316. So although it may be only a slight rise, overall Tezos is experiencing the bear market like other companies. Many people are hopeful for Tezos to be a key player in the next bull run because of its efficient and scalable technology, but it is certainly not seeing any record highs at this time.