EOS is one of the top cryptocurrencies, and it was also one of the biggest ICOs in the history of crypto. The project is often dubbed as a ‘more scalable’ or ‘better’ Ethereum by its supporters. Different from Ethereum that previously utilized Proof of Work (now transitioning to Proof of Stake), EOS utilize DPoS or Delegated Proof of Stake.

Along with some other improvements compared to Ethereum, EOS core developers often tout the ability of its blockchain network to be more scalable and usable for real-life implementation of decentralized applications. So, what is EOS exactly? Let’s learn more about EOS, its history, and how it works compared to the competitors in the blockchain industry.

History of EOS



Image source: https://eos.io/



EOS launched its Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in 2017, and the ICO stayed for a full year until June 2018. EOS project was created by a team called Block.one. Block.one CEO Brendon Blumer was previously involved in different projects such as in real estate business and even in MMORPG business. Meanwhile, Block.one CTO Dan Larimer was involved in Steem and BitShares. Dan Larimer is the original founder of the Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) concept which is now used by many other cryptocurrency projects and not just EOS. Due to all these notable achievements, Dan Larimer actually has more fame than Brendon Blumer in the eyes of crypto community.

The ICO itself was a huge success. EOS successfully sold 1 billion tokens and raised over $4 billion USD in the long-year ICO. It was considered the most successful ICO in the history of cryptocurrencies. After the launch of the mainnet, EOS has successfully attracted people’s attention, and now it has a lot of strong support from different crypto communities.





The Purpose of EOS



Image source: https://steemit.com/eos/@maestroq/eos-from-mainnet-to-mainstream

The main purpose of EOS is to build a much more scalable, faster, and more efficient version of Ethereum. In other words, EOS is designed to be the all-in-one decentralized apps (dApps) solution in the blockchain world. EOS core developers often see EOS as the only way for blockchain mainstream adoption because other dApps platforms are not as scalable as EOS.

With DPoS consensus algorithm and security model, EOS believes its blockchain will be both secure and fast enough to support real-life finance applications.

For your information, DPoS stands for Delegated Proof of Stake. Different from standard Proof of Stake (PoS), DPoS only needs 21 block producers in the network. These 21 block producers get voted in by EOS token holders. The idea is that it takes a much shorter time for each transaction to be approved by 21 block producers. With Proof of Work or standard Proof of Stake, you need hundreds or even thousands of people agreeing to the same transaction.



That’s why DPoS is much more scalable and much faster than more traditional blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. And with a ‘better’ consensus algorithm, the hope is that the blockchain can support a mass amount of transactions.

EOS and Scalability

Block.one team often boast EOS scalability to support thousands of transactions per second (TPS). Well, according to EOS Network Monitor, EOS’ maximum transaction per second is 3996. That’s much higher than both Ethereum and Bitcoin. While some of the newer blockchain platforms can achieve even more TPS than EOS but at least EOS has a working product and real dApps inside the network. It’s already tested and proven.



Image source: https://eosnetworkmonitor.io

EOS and Controversies

Unfortunately, EOS is not one of those “good guys” stories without any controversy. EOS has been involved in various headlines due to controversies. One of the biggest controversies happened when the famous late night host John Oliver attacked Brock Pierce in one of his segments. Brock Pierce was well-known for his works in the crypto industry, and he made significant contributions to the EOS project. He was one of the early advisors to the Block.one team.



Image source: https://youtube.com

According to John Oliver, Brock Pierce was involved in the Hollywood pedophile ring scandal. After the whole story blew up in the mainstream media, Block.one team decided to cut off all relationships with Brock Pierce. Brock Pierce name couldn’t be found anywhere in EOS official website nor in EOS youtube videos ever since.

The controversy about EOS does not stop just at Brock Pierce. The project itself has been criticized many times due to its huge ICO funding. Many people have been questioning if Block.one really needed billions of dollars to start EOS. Many newer blockchain platforms could have achieved what EOS has been doing with a much smaller capital.

Another controversy worth to be discussed is when Block.one announced the launch of a new social media platform called Voice. This new social media will be built on top of EOS blockchain. The announcement about Voice was met with skepticism, and many crypto enthusiasts accuse Dan Larimer (CTO of Block.one) for trying to reinvent the wheel and overhype the announcement. Dan Larimer was the co-founder of Steemit, and these skeptics believe Dan is just trying to create another Steemit but this time it will be on the top of EOS blockchain.

The Role of EOS token In The Blockchain

Talking about EOS blockchain feels incomplete if we skip the part of the native token itself. Well, after all, EOS gained popularity because they successfully sold a billion of EOS tokens. So, let’s talk more about the token and its role in EOS blockchain.

First of all, EOS token is the native cryptocurrency in the EOS blockchain. The biggest use cases for EOS token are to be used as network resources and dApp creation. Developers who are interested in creating a dApp on EOS blockchain will need to loan some resources such as bandwidth. On the other hand, EOS token holders who have more than enough EOS tokens can allocate their bandwidth to these developers.

Apart from network resources and dApp creation, people also need to use EOS tokens to send their votes to the network. To start voting, the users need to stake their EOS tokens for three days. The influence one EOS token holder has on the network is proportional to the number of EOS tokens that he owns.



Working Products And Adoption:

EOS is one of the most successful dApp platforms on the market. Together with Ethereum and Tron, EOS dApps have been the most active, according to dappradar.com. Most of the successful dApps on EOS are usually about videogames and gambling websites. Some notable EOS dApps are EOS Knights, EOS Dynasty, and Hold’em Poker King. There are also some decentralized exchanges on EOS such as NewDex.

From the three top EOS dApps alone, there have been more than 1 million transactions in the past seven days at the time of this post writing. It seems EOS has been doing well in comparison to most other dApp platforms.

Image source: https://voice.com

Apart from the decent success in the dApps market, EOS also tries to enter the social media platform as we have mentioned above. Block.one team is creating ‘Voice’ to compete directly with social media giant, none other than Facebook itself. While the competition will be hard but Block.one team has enough resources to create a really good social network app. If Voice successfully gains some market shares in the social network market, it will be considered a huge win for EOS and even for the entire blockchain industry.

From crypto exchanges perspective, EOS also has been ‘winning’. EOS is featured in almost all decent crypto exchanges. You can easily find and trade EOS token on Binance, Coinbase, Huobi, OKEx, Bitfinex, and other big names in the crypto exchanges. At the time of this post writing, EOS has over $1.8 billion daily trading volume. It’s very liquid, and its trading volume can easily supports plenty of newcomers in the crypto industry who want to buy EOS token.



Competitors:



The competition of EOS involves other dApps platforms such as Ethereum, NEO, Tron, Ontology, IOST, and others. However, if we want to reduce the numbers to only the strongest competitors, Ethereum and Tron are the closest ones. Again, according to dappradar.com, both Ethereum and Tron have decent numbers and activities for their dApp statistics.

While Ethereum will fully utilize proof of stake once it completes the transition, Tron actually ‘borrows’ EOS concept of DPoS. It’s interesting to see which dApp platform will get the most users and activities in the next 5-10 years.

Conclusion:

Image source: https://cryptovest.com

EOS is one of the strongest blockchain platforms in the crypto industry. With massive funding that involves billions of dollars, Block.one has all the right tools to be one or even two steps ahead of its competitions. It seems EOS will remain in the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap in the foreseeable future. EOS is not going anywhere, and it will gain even more popularity and adoption when crypto market matures. If its biggest ambition, Voice, can be successful and steal some market shares from Facebook, EOS will become much more mainstream.