Unlike practically every alt-coin that has been released in the past two years, Tezos has the potential to change the crypto space and unseat some of the current top dogs. The problems of 2017 are long gone, and 2018 is the year Tezos is unleashed on the world. Based on the technology alone coupled with a dedicated foundation sitting on $1 billion in assets, Tezos will be a name that everyone in the crypto space knows by the end of this year.

1. Technology

The technology used to develop Tezos is geared toward security, efficiency, and safety. When you’re dealing with millions and billions of people’s money, you can’t be too cautious. Tezos is and entirely new blockchain written in OCaml, which is an industrial software language far safer than C++ or most anything else that some of the major chains are written in. OCaml is not widely used, yet, but it is gaining adoption as use-cases cross multiple industry lines. Furthermore, the smart contract language of Tezos, called Michelson, is a stack based, strongly typed machine-level industrial language. There is no question that Tezos is built for security and this is one major aspect that sets is apart from Bitcoin or Ethereum. There are other chains attempting to match these specs but so far none have beaten Tezos to the punch.

2. Governance

When a blockchain forks, lots of people get “forked” in the process, so to speak. Sometimes it can result in holding multiple tokens, such as when Bitcoin split into Bitcoin Cash. That’s well and good, but now there are several competing flavors of Bitcoin which further dilutes the emphasis on pushing a blockchain to mass adoption. In fact, lawsuits are cropping up over the use of “Bitcoin” in the name Bitcoin Cash which just demonstrates how much of a cluster fark this can become.

Tezos solves the forking problem with onchain governance and voting. Some people have attacked this model, usually stemming from their own personal interests in trying to discredit Tezos before it launches, but I entirely disagree with their criticism. The debate over onchain governance versus the current system of hard forks and bitter factions is a debate worth having, but Tezos founder Arthur Breitman has decided to buck the prior way of doing things and build-in governance to the protocol.

In Tezos, if a new feature or need arises, the holders of Tezos tokens can vote on how the protocol evolves. The results of the voting are propagated throughout the network. Of course this can’t eliminate all possibilities of a hard fork, but it makes it far less likely since Tezos is not an either/or game, it’s a platform which can be amended and improved without the need to split the chain in half.

3. Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS)

Where to even begin on this? The days of shelling out $25,000 for a crypto mining rig are over. Done. Finished. The days of using endless amounts of electricity to confirm 1 Bitcoin transaction are over. The days of mining cabals and pools controlling the network are over. Tezos does not mine to secure the network, rather, it bakes. Baking is the term used by Tezos to “mine” the blocks and write new transactions on the ledger. I hesitate to even use the term “mine” but most people can understand the equivalence if you’re at all familiar with how most proof-of-work blockchains function, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Tezos offers rewards, similar to mining, for “bakers” on the network who write the ledger and produce new blocks. The best part about this is that you don’t need any crazy hardware, you only need a computer and an internet connection. In fact, you don’t even need the computer, the RaspberryPi platform is enough power to bake on the Tezos network and earn between 5-10% in baking rewards and block signing.

Don’t want to run your own baking computer? No problem! Tezos has you covered by allowing you to delegate your baking rights to a pool and continue earning rewards while someone else deals with the technical side of things. You always retain ownership of your tokens and can change delegates basically at any time. This is monumental because mining coins will be considered ancient technology once Tezos is launched and users understand how big this can be for the crypto space.

4. Tezos Foundation

Not to be overlooked, but the Swiss foundation setup to shepherd Tezos into the long term is sitting on $1 billion in assets. The fundraiser ICO in July of 2017 raised around $232 million, but then the crypto bull market hit and the value of these assets skyrocketed to a staggering amount. Combine this amount of money with an all-star board and you have the recipe for success. Look at the star power which is heading up the Tezos Foundation:

Ryan Jesperson, President of the Tezos Foundation, experience in FinTech and business administration

Lars Haussmann, Head of Corporate Management and Company Administration at Haussmann Treuhand AG. He has extensive experience in corporate management, administration and accounting matters

Michel Mauny, senior researcher at Inria (Paris, France). Father of OCaml programming language

Olaf Carlson-Wee, founder of Polychain, the largest crypto-focused investment manager in the world

Pascal Cléré, (PhD in Mathematics) is Senior Vice-President of Alstom Digital Mobility, a new global organization that regroups all businesses in Digital Mobility

Marylène Micheloud, the first Swiss woman to receive a Master’s degree in Computer Science

Hubertus Thonhauser, Managing Partner of Enabling Future, an early-stage venture capital firm in Dubai

This list is filled with leaders of finance, technology, business and academia. The board is moving forward at record speed to bring Tezos to launch and create the massive ecosystem that will drive adoption and development for the next few decades.

5. Future proof

I know it’s a lot to claim anything in technology is “future proof,” but Tezos is built to evolve over time. Dovetailing with the governance aspects, Tezos is built to adapt to new technologies and adapt to all levels of computer hardware. Imagine as desktops and laptops are used less and less, Tezos can actually run baking software on your phone or tablet, since it’s not mining or using endless processing power. Consider a pool of bakers using mobile devices to earn Tezos and spend Tezos, mass adoption is far more likely with a coin that does not rely on costly mining to procure rewards.

Consider other concepts like “baker in a box,” where the baking software could be loaded on a small device which plugs into the wall, connects to Wifi, and you forget about it. That is the future when it comes to securing the network and providing a widely decentralized system that runs with thousands of supporting nodes using minimal resources.

Conclusion

You can take issue with any of these points, and some discussion is certainly valid. There are plenty of other chains and other technologies, but based on overall judgment, Tezos is unique and stands to break the norms in 2018. In full disclosure I am an original contributor in the 2017 fundraiser so I have a vested interest in Tezos succeeding. I hope you’ll research more and come to the same conclusion that Tezos is a very strong opportunity and a good bet for the future of cryptocurrency.