Tezos

Tezos is a decentralized blockchain whose protocol allows for stakeholders to approve any amendments to the protocol led by Kathleen and Arthur Breitman. It is a platform for smart contracts which facilitates formal verification of the mathematical properties of the code governing transactions with the intention of being a true digital commonwealth. The currency the native to the Tezos blockchain is called tezzie (XTZ). Governance of Tezos is designed to be a commonwealth such that token holders vote and determine future upgrades to the protocol. This is called on-chain governance, which prioritizes voting for soft-fork upgrades to the network rather than the network splits that occur via hard forks in other blockchain networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

History

The Tezos position paper (August 3, 2014) and white paper (September 2, 2014) were written by L.M. Goodman.

Fundraising

The Tezos token sale or ICO raised 361,122 ether and 65,703 bitcoins which at the time of sale (29 June - 12 July 2017) was worth approximately $232 million dollars, making it the largest initial coin offering ever at that time.

Design

Consensus

While amendments by the community may alter the consensus mechanism in the future, the seed protocol for Tezos employs a delegated proof-of-stake system. Token holders are able to designate one or more individuals to create blocks on their behalf. These block creators, often called validators or witnesses, generate blocks and are financially rewarded in proportion to the amount of the network that has designated them as validator.

Smart contracts

Tezos smart contracts are written in a functional programming language called Michelson. Michelson was designed with the intention of facilitating formal verification of smart contracts such that the behavior and correctness of the contracts is mathematically proven.