EOS is a cryptocurrency token based on EOSIO — a blockchain that operates as a smart contract platform for the deployment of decentralized applications and decentralized autonomous corporations. ^[1]

History

Based on a white paper published in 2017^[7], the EOSIO platform was developed by the private company Block.one^[6] and released as open-source software on June 1, 2018. At the launch of the blockchain, one billion tokens were distributed as ERC-20 tokens by Block.one^[6]. The CEO of Block.one, Brendan Blumer, announced that the company would support the EOSIO blockchain with over one billion USD in funding from the token sale, and ultimately Block.one raised over four billion USD to support the blockchain during the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) period. ^[8]

In September 2019, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered Block.one to pay a $24 Million penalty for an unregistered ICO. The SEC’s order found that Block.one violated the registration provisions of the federal securities laws and requires it to pay a $24 million civil monetary penalty.  Block.one^[6] consented to the order without admitting or denying its findings. ^[10]

EOSIO’s initial testnet, Dawn 1.0, was launched on September 3, 2017, and the project went on to release four subsequent versions of Dawn before the official launch of EOSIO 1.0 on June 1, 2018. On January 10, 2020, the company launched EOSIO 2.0. ^[9]

Tokenomics

Block.one began the EOS token sale on June 26, 2017, it sold 200 million tokens over a five-day period, raising a total of $172 million. Over the next 350 days, 2 million tokens were sold per day ($700 million total) raising a total of $4.02 billion. The final 100 million EOS tokens were reserved for Block.one. This allocation is set to be released linearly to Block.one every second over a period of 10 years starting from the Genesis Block on June 6, 2019. ^[11]

Supply Details

The EOS network's inflation rate is 1%, split between the Block Producers (BPs) and Standby Producers, who received 0.25% and 0.75% of the annual inflation rate respectively. While BPs must share a smaller piece of the total reward pool, there are only 21 BPs; thus, they receive more daily EOS rewards on average than their counterparts. Standby Producers represent potential block producers ranked outside of the top 21 that have enough voting support from token holders to receive a minimum daily reward of 100 EOS. ^[12]

Utility

EOS users purchase or rent the token to access network bandwidth, computational and storage capacity, and voting rights. The level of voting or computational power is proportional to the number of tokens held or staked. Unlike Ethereum or Bitcoin, EOS token transfers do not require a fee, as users do not need to entice miners to include their transaction(s) in the next block. EOS block producers earn new tokens only through the creation of new blocks. But transactions are not entirely free because users and developers need to acquire network resources in proportion to their intended on-chain activity levels. ^[13]

Technology

EOS was built by Block.one and it employs a delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism, Graphene technology, and parallel processing to maximize performance.

Graphene technology is an open-course software toolkit developed by Dan Larimer that helps improve transaction processing capabilities. It is used by previous Larimer creations; Bitshares and Steem, as well as MUSE and Peerplay.

Parallel computation is a technology that divides transactions and smart contract execution among multiple processors to reduce the run time of a program. The first protocol version will operate on a single thread (i.e., a single processor) but will shift to a multithreaded platform in the future. ^[14]

EOS requires users to obtain resources (CPU, NET, RAM) to submit transactions and run decentralized applications. EOS holders receive CPU and NET by staking their tokens and receiving a proportional amount of the network resources. As a result, the network utilizes a no-direct fee model where tokens give holders access to their pro-rata share of network resources. Any operation needing storage or to create an account requires RAM to be purchased separately.

EOS utilizes the WebAssembly Virtual Machine (WASM) to offer high speed and performance as well as support for different programming languages such as C, C++, and Rust. ^[14]

Governance

EOS features on-chain governance that processes voting through its delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) system. Similar to how EOS stakeholders vote on block producers, this model allows token holders to vote on protocol decisions that are automatically implemented or rejected depending on the final vote tally. Votes are weighted by the number of tokens held, and holders can opt to delegate their votes to another holder on their behalf. Protocol decisions can consist of changes to the system parameters, updates to the User Agreement, or alterations on the inflation rate, among others. ^[15]

Block.one

Block.one is a publisher of decentralized applications as well as open source software where decentralized applications can be built on top of (EOSIO). It is a company registered in the Cayman Islands and was the original developer of the EOS network. In 2018, the company sold 900 million EOS tokens for proceeds of over $4 billion in an initial coin offering (ICO), the largest in the world at the time, despite not having a functional product. It is led by Brendan Blumer who co-founded the company in 2016 alongside Dan Larimer. ^[6]

ENF vs Block.one

The EOS Network Foundation (ENF) is the organization set up to support the development of the EOS ecosystem. At a virtual event on November 3, 2021, ENF CEO Yves La Rose^[17] claimed that “EOS, as it stands, is a failure,”. The speech placed much of the blame on backer and former developer Block.one, and says that the EOS Foundation is set to step up, as the project can “no longer rely on” the Cayman Islands-based blockchain software company for guidance. Members of the EOS ecosystem also voiced their dissatisfaction with former developer Block.one. ^[19][20]

$4.1B Lawsuit Against Block.one

On February 10, 2022, CEO Yves La Rose tweeted that the foundation was taking steps to hold Block.one:

"..accountable for its past actions and broken promises. Review of ALL possible legal recourse to seek $4.1B in damages underway." ^[21]

The EOS community felt Block.one shifted its focus and funding – including its vested EOS tokens – to crypto exchange Bullish, which was unveiled in May 2021 with PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and digital asset management company Galaxy Digital among its backers. ^[23]

The EOS Foundation enlisted a Canadian law firm to investigate Block.one's actions and pledged to the EOS community and investors to determine whether options were available for legal proceedings. ^[22]

"In November and December 2021 we engaged in negotiations with Block.one to attempt to arrange a fair and reasonable resolution with Block.one that would position the EOS community for future success. Unfortunately Block.one decided to walk away from the negotiations and as a result the EOS Block Producers determined it was in the best interest of the community to freeze the vesting of all the EOS tokens that Block.one was to earn in the future." - La Rose said. ^[23]

Switch to Antelope

Following the decision to pursue legal action against Block.one, the EOS Network Foundation (ENF) on August 17, 2022, said that Antelope will be used as the underlying protocol for EOSIO-based blockchains. ^[25]

During the fall of 2021, the ENF organized to fork the EOSIO code base to initiate a project labeled “Mandel.” Mandel was handed over to EOSIO developers to work on technical improvements and formalize a consensus upgrade. Mandel came to be a placeholder for the yet-to-be-decided brand to replace EOSIO. When the ENF introduced Antelope as this project, it retired Mandel.

“The code was already forked back in February by the ENF and we've already added many new features and capabilities to that code, which today became known as Antelope.” -
Zack Gall, vice president of communications at the ENF told Coindesk

Antelope

Antelope is an open framework blockchain and a community-run codebase. It uses a Delegated Proof-of-stake (DPoS) consensus model, which evolved from proof-of-stake, where users of the network vote and elect delegates to validate the next block. Under DPoS, delegates are referred to as block producers. ^[24][25]

Developers use Antelope for a diverse range of applications, from decentralized finance (DeFi) and supply chain management to non-fungible tokens (NFT) and games. The Antelope Coalition made Requests for Proposals, including proposals addressing faster finality, software development kits (SDKs), and peer-to-peer code improvements. ^[25]

In a press release, Yves La Rose, CEO and executive director of the EOS Network Foundation said,

“We are building upon over four years of battle-hardened code, and the cumulative knowledge of four [layer 1 blockchains] leveraging each other’s strengths, all united behind the Antelope protocol.” ^[25]