What are EOS and EOS.IO?
At this time of the article, EOS has been ranked at number 8 among cryptocurrencies. It was designed to support large-scale applications. It provides zero-fee to send or receive EOS. Instead, the protocol rewards the entities that run the network periodically with new EOS, effectively substituting inflation for transaction fees. The company behind the EOS software is called Block. One, who is also involved in lots of different blockchain and business projects.
EOS.IO is a next-generation, open-source blockchain protocol with industry-leading transaction speed and flexible utility powered by the native cryptocurrency EOS. Introduced in May 2017, it has since been widely recognized as the first performant blockchain platform for businesses across the world.
The EOS’ Initial Coin Offering (ICO) started on June 26, 2017, and will run until June 1, 2018. That’s a total of 350 days, making it the longest ICO of all time!
The aim of EOS is to build a decentralized blockchain that can process fast and free transactions. It will also allow smart contracts to be built on top of it, which will allow developers to release dApps, the future of the Internet. Not only this, but EOS wants to build a platform that functions like an operating system, which will make it really easy to use!
Another aim of EOS is to be able to process millions of transactions per second. This would solve a big problem, as other blockchains can recognize smart contracts, none of them can perform that quickly!
The different between BTC and EOS
1. Purpose and use
Bitcoin and EOS have differences in their designs. Bitcoin is a digital currency designed to allow peer-to-peer transactions without the need for an intermediary. As well as being used in transactions to pay for goods and services, it’s also shown its strengths as a store of value.
While EOS coins are designed for use within the EOS ecosystem. Developers need them to generate tokens for the applications they launch on the EOS platform. EOS holders will also be able to vote on whether or not an app should be accepted on the EOS network.
2. Consensus mechanism
Bitcoin relies on a proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm to achieve network consensus. With this, miners compete against each other to verify transactions, solving complicated mathematical problems to earn a block reward in BTC.
PoW does lead to some major problems. One of those is extremely energy-intensive mining, another is that the development of expensive and sophisticated mining hardware has seen mining become centralized among a handful of large mining pools and companies.
EOS uses a system known as delegated proof-of-stake (PoS). Using a continuous approval voting system, EOS coin holders are able to vote for 21 block producers. These block producers verify transactions and secure the network, and they’re rewarded for their efforts.
New blocks are produced every 0.5 seconds and the system is designed to make it easier to upgrade the network and to also increase scalability. However, the early stages of the voting process have been beset by problems.
3. Total supply
Bitcoin’s total supply is written into its code. The maximum limit is 21 million coins, with approximately 17.1 million BTC (or approximately 81% of the total supply) circulating at the time of this writing. It’s also worth pointing out that bitcoin is divisible down to one-millionth of a BTC (or 0.00000001 BTC), so you can transact in much smaller amounts than just a single coin.
EOS tokens were offered as part of a unique token distribution event that began in June 2017 and ran for 341 days. The maximum supply of EOS is much larger than bitcoin and is set at 1 billion, with approximately 896 million tokens circulating at the time of this writing. 10% of the coin supply was not included in the public sale and were instead reserved for block.one, the company that built the EOS software.
Pros and cons of using EOS
Pros: As for EOS, it’s certainly a project with plenty of potentials. While Ethereum is currently the largest Dapp platform in the world, it’s still working on solutions to a host of scaling issues. In the meantime, EOS is launching a network designed to scale to 1 million transactions per second, plus a host of features designed to offer a user-friendly experience.
Cons: EOS’s biggest disadvantage is that it’s still very early days in the project’s development. The launch of its mainnet in early June 2018 encountered its fair share of teething issues, and while the platform’s features and functionality sound good in theory, whether or not it can deliver on its undoubted promise is still uncertain.
The Team Behind EOS Blockchain
The core team behind EOS is “Block.one”, which is based in the Cayman Islands. Brendon Blumer, the CEO, has been involved in blockchain since 2014. He has previously been involved in companies which dealt with currency exchanges in MMORPGs and in the real estate.
Dan Larimer, is the CTO. He is the creator of delegated proof-of-stake and decentralized autonomous organizations aka DAOs. He is the also the man behind BitShares and Steem.
Conclusion
There’s no winner when comparing Bitcoin and EOS, the fact that they both serve very different purposes. If you want access to the EOS ecosystem to create and deploy Dapps, you’ll obviously need EOS coins. If you’re looking for a payment currency that acts as a store of value, bitcoin is better. And, if you’re looking to buy crypto to hold for the long-term, both are worth considering.
EOS has the potential to become one of the most important blockchains of the future, with fast, free and scalable transactions.
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