Tezos is a self-amending blockchain that can upgrade itself over time. Stakeholders vote on protocol amendments, not limited to any factors involved in reaching consensus on proposals. Similar to Ethereum, Tezos supports smart contracts and provides a platform for others to build decentralized applications (DApps).

It features support for smart contracts and has its own created smart contract language. It was the first to propose code self-governance through mathematical proof, aiming to solve the thorny issue of network upgrades and forks. The projects white paper was published around the same time as Ethereum’s. Its ICO began three years later after test code was released, raising 65,000 BTC and 360,000 ETH, making it the largest ICO at the time. Later, due to conflicts between the management team and the foundation, there were setbacks, but it still received strong community support. The Tezos BetaNet launched on the last day of Q2 2018, with all transactions and assets on the BetaNet being carried over to the subsequent Mainnet, meaning transactions on the BetaNet are permanently valid.

Tezos Dpos Algorithm
To increase TPS and scalability, Tezos adopted the same DPOS algorithm as EOS.
On Tezos, validators are called Bakers. There is no limit to the number of Bakers. To become a Baker, one needs to stake a certain amount of Tezos tokens (XTZ) to participate in consensus. Staked tokens are calculated in units called “rolls,” with each roll representing 10,000 XTZ. Each staked roll of XTZ has a unique ID, which plays a crucial role in selecting validators during the consensus process. On Tezos, block production is measured in "cycles," with one cycle consisting of 4096 blocks. With a block time of one minute, one cycle lasts approximately two days, 20 hours, and 16 minutes. As a reward for participating in consensus and maintaining network stability, Bakers receive XTZ. The reward amounts to 16 XTZ per block produced and 2 XTZ per signature.

Tezos Technical Team and Token Economy
Behind Tezos is a couple: husband Arthur Breitman and wife Kathleen Breitman. Kathleen serves as CEO and previously worked nearly two years at professional services firm Accenture, then served as Senior Strategic Assistant at distributed ledger startup R3CEV. Husband Authur served as Vice President at Morgan Stanley from 2013 to 2016. Both are seasoned Wall Street veterans with considerable insight into traditional economics and finance.

Key Milestones for Tezos
August 2014: Tezos’ Position Paper was published.
September 2014: Tezos’ Whitepaper was released.
August 2015: Arthur and Kathleen Breitman co-founded Dynamic Ledger Solutions, Inc., a U.S.-based company responsible for developing the Tezos blockchain.
September 2016: Tezos’ source code was published on GitHub.
February 2017: A public alphanet was launched.
July 2017: Tezos raised over 65,000 bitcoins and 360,000 ether (valued at about $232 million) during its “ICO.” The Tezos Foundation was formed.
October 2017: The Breitmans wrote to the other two members of the Swiss Foundation controlling Tezos funds, calling for the removal of Foundation Chairman Johann Gevers.
February 2018: Johann Gevers resigned from the Foundation.
June 30, 2018: The initial block of Betanet was launched, becoming the seed of the network.
September 17, 2018: Tezos mainnet launched.

It was noted that in the original Tezos whitepaper, the Tezos network planned to launch in the “summer of 2017.” However, the network did not launch until September 17, 2018, more than a year behind schedule. Part of the delay was due to an internal war among Foundation board members that resulted in “ICO” funds being temporarily unutilized.

Advantages of Tezos

• Tezos’ self-amending feature allows for any disputes to be resolved through on-chain governance, which can help eliminate hard fork issues surrounding some major blockchains. Additionally, on-chain governance allows the network to evolve and improve over time.

• The Tezos Foundation has sufficient resources to support protocol development. It is one of the most well-funded blockchain project foundations and has been actively providing grants to those helping develop the ecosystem.

• The Tezos Shared Fund provides grants to projects aimed at strengthening the Tezos ecosystem.

• In a press release on September 10, 2018, Foundation Chair Ryan Jesperson stated they had committed over $30 million in grants (paid out over multiple years) to various academic institutions, development teams, etc., to support the protocol.

• On October 11, 2018, the foundation announced they had committed to funding the training of over 1,000 new software developers focused on Tezos in 2019.

• According to the foundation’s latest fund and asset management update (released on October 10, 2018), they have around $500 million in assets. • The baking threshold is relatively low, allowing token holders to easily participate in token staking and governance processes. From a decentralization perspective, this is good. For small token holders or those who do not wish to maintain nodes themselves, they can delegate their share of tokens to other bakers for a fee. • Team members, including co-founder Arthur Breitman, frequently post on social media. This provides transparency for the project.

Disadvantages of Tezos

• The throughput of the Tezos network is currently around 40 transactions per second, and many blockchain projects aim for higher throughput. This level of capacity is not yet sufficient for large-scale adoption.

• The project has faced several negative events: delays in distributing tokens after the “ICO” donors provided cryptocurrency to the Tezos Foundation, leading to class-action lawsuits and management crises; restructuring of the Foundation Board due to internal disputes, with unclear use of “ICO” funds. • Some parts of the roadmap in the whitepapers “Mars-shot” section led us to believe that raising $232 million was reasonable, including (1) negotiating with a small country to recognize Tezos as one of its official national currencies and (2) purchasing a banking license and deploying the Tezos blockchain as the backbone of business operations. However, these seem baseless and unlikely to happen. • Tezos has not been successful in building a developer community despite its ambitious goals. Currently, only nine dApps exist on Tezos. Money is not the sole motivator for developers. If developers choose to build on Tezos solely because of the funding they will receive, the likelihood of dApp success would significantly decrease.

Controversies Surrounding Tezos
In January 2018, the Breitmans accused the independent foundation director overseeing the funds in Switzerland of deceiving the committee and awarding himself an exorbitant bonus. The director claimed the Breitmans attempted to bypass Swiss legal structures to directly control the foundation, causing months of delay. Although the conflict within the Tezos Foundation did not impact the projects progress and technical architecture as much as in the case of Aeternity, it had an impact on public perception and the spread of negative publicity.

Related Links:

A few directions to improve Tezos

https://medium.com/tezos/a-few-directions-to-improve-tezos-15359c79ec0f