What Is EOS (EOS)?

EOS is an open-source blockchain built to support and operate decentralized applications (DApps). As per the whitepaper, the EOS blockchain can support thousands of DApps without experiencing slow confirmation times and high fees. The blockchain aims to be fast, flexible, and forward-driven and aims to enable developers, entrepreneurs, and institutions to build and innovate with confidence. 

Today, the existing blockchains are burdened by large fees and limited computational capacity. Developers and businesses face issues like clogged capacity and limited DApp support, resulting in performance issues. This limits the widespread adoption of blockchain technology. To address these issues, EOS was created to be easy for developers, businesses, and end users to adopt. Built and run by the community, EOS aims to solve problems developers face, particularly related to speed, scalability, and flexibility. 

According to the whitepaper, the EOS blockchain is high-performance and offers features that set it apart from competing blockchains. Firstly, the blockchain is highly configurable, and the developers can develop DApps using simple languages like C++, Java, and Python. Secondly, the blockchain supports fast transactions, with settlement speeds of under 0.5 seconds with a 99.9% certainty. Lastly, the blockchain maintains data integrity and security by verification standards and end-to-end authentication.

Talking about the architecture of the EOS blockchain, it is designed to mirror the performance of a real computer. There are three types of resources required to power the EOS blockchain:

• Bandwidth: It is needed for the transmission of information across the network.

• Computation: This is the processing power required to run a DApp.

• State storage: It is used to store data on the blockchain.

Coming to the token, EOS is the native token of the blockchain and is the platform’s cryptocurrency. The token is required to purchase all the resources, i.e., bandwidth, computation, and state storage. This means the developers require the EOS token to run the DApps they launch. The token further finds its utility as a governance token. The holders can vote, and the community as a whole decides the future of the EOS blockchain. In simpler words, the EOS token is necessary for running DApps and the governance of the EOS blockchain. Moreover, there is no fee to send or receive the EOS token. Instead, the protocol regularly rewards the entities that run the network with new EOS tokens.

History of EOS

Daniel Larimer and Brendan Blumer cofounded Block.One in 2017, which is the parent company of the EOS blockchain. 

Daniel Larimer, CTO at Block.One, is an entrepreneur. He is a popular blockchain developer and has run three companies in the past. He designed the architecture of EOS and developed the delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) consensus for the blockchain.

Brendan Blumer is currently the CEO of Block.One. Before this, he founded okay.com, which is one of the largest property agencies in Hong Kong. 

The initial coin offering (ICO) of EOS managed to raise $196 million in June 2017.

How Are New EOS Tokens Created?

As per the whitepaper, the EOS blockchain deploys the delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism to validate transactions and secure the blockchain. 

Under this, the holders of the token can select the block producers through a continuous voting mechanism. Any holder can choose to participate in the block production and is provided with the opportunity to persuade others to vote for them. The participants have to stake their tokens to get this opportunity.

Of all the participants, 21 unique stakers are chosen. These chosen ones can produce the blocks and, therefore, are rewarded with new EOS tokens. The more tokens one stakes, the higher the probability of being chosen by the software.

The holders of tokens can stake their tokens to participate in the platform’s governance. Stakers can earn staking rewards for voting on proposals and deciding the platform’s future.

How Many EOS Tokens Are There?

There is no cap on the maximum number of EOS tokens to be issued. Instead, the protocol can issue as much as 5% of the then-existing supply as new EOS tokens every year.