EOS: a new blockchain or a new order
We enjoyed watching the – somewhat protracted – launch of the EOSIO platform at the start of June, with the event representing both an interesting technical and social experiment, and we will continue to watch with interest.
Block.one raised a phenomenal $4 billion for EOS, in the largest and longest running ICO to date – again demonstrating the dynamic nature of this new market for investment capital. Many investors were likely drawn in by some of the big names behind Block.one, the company that developed EOS, namely CEO Brendon Blumer and CTO Dan Larimer, a veteran innovator in the cryptocurrency world.
EOS is significantly different from previous blockchains in technical specification and particularly in terms of governance. EOS has a ‘constitution’ and is run 21 nodes, elected by holders of the EOS tokens. In terms of its functionality, EOS claims to be able to eliminate transaction fees and scale the platform to more than one million transactions per second – substantially more than existing blockchains.
Regardless, EOS represents very early stage technology and as we are unlikely to see any meaningful applications on this blockchain for 12 months, meaning the community will reserve its final judgement for now.
Josh Toshack