Tezos is a technology for deploying a blockchain capable of modifying its own set of rules with minimal disruption to the network through an on-chain governance model. Unlike Bitcoin, Tezos does not rely on mining, but instead utilizes a Proof-of-Stake based consensus model. In August 2014, the project's founders released a paper called the "Position Paper", and in September of the same year the Tezos whitepaper was released. In 2017, the Tezos Foundation, a Switzerland based non-profit, raised $232 million in a fundraiser and became one of the biggest ICOs of the 2017 cryptocurrency boom. At Tezos, all stakeholders can participate in managing the protocol. The selection cycle offers a formal and systematic procedure for stakeholders to agree on proposed protocol changes. By combining this in-chain mechanism with self-change, Tezos can change this initial selection process to adopt better management mechanisms as soon as it is realized. The core change allows Tezos to take it to the next level without having to "fork" it into two different block chains.
Design
The primary protocol of Tezos utilizes proof of stake and supports Turing completesmart contracts in a domain specific language called Michelson. In Tezo's PoS model, users can lend money to validators to earn partial staking rewards without validating blocks directly, not to be confused with being a validator. The Tezos protocol allows itself to be amended by a staged process performed by committing operations to the stored blockchain to submit proposals and to vote on those changes. If a proposal receives enough votes the protocol updates itself to incorporate the code changes.
Use cases
In July 2019, Banco BTG Pactual S.A. together with Dalma Capital, a Dubai based asset manager, announced plans to utilize the Tezos blockchain for Security Token Offerings. In February 2019, Elevated Returns, a financial group focused on digitizing traditional financial assets and best known for its tokenization of the St. Regis resort in Aspen, announced that it selected Tezos as the blockchain on which it will offer fully compliant tokenized real-estate offerings to qualified investors.
Reliability
In March 2019, the audit company Least Authority published the results of 5 checks, performed for Tezos Foundation during 2018. With high probability, Tezos protects against chain reorganizations and selfish-baking, which are 2 common issues in blockchains using Nakamoto style consensus. A subsequent analysis confirms that selfish baking in Tezos results in insignificant profits, even when the baker attempting it has a very large portion of the stake
Tezos Foundation
The Tezos Foundation faced a management controversy about the use of raised funds by foundation president Johann Gevers. Johann Gevers resigned on February 22, 2018. The current Tezos Foundation Council has five members: Ryan Jesperson, Michel Mauny, Marylène Micheloud, Lars Haussmann, and Hubertus Thonhauser. Ryan Lackey was appointed in July 2019 as the 6th member of the Council.
