EOS operates a similar business model as Ethereum in the sense that it is a platform that supports smart contracts and decentralized applications.
As of Q3, 2019- EOS has 13 tokens built on its platform.
Ethereum has over 1,300. One of the ERC20 tokens built on Ethereum, is EOS.
EOS is targeting larger companies that demand more scale and throughput from a blockchain, than Ethereum currently can provide.
EOS is faster and cheaper than Ethereum, but at the price of having a much more centralized (“trusted”) set of nodes supporting the network. Can cause security issues if the nodes collude.
EOS’s delegated proof of stake (dPoS) consensus only allows for 21 nodes to validate the network. These nodes are elected by EOS utility token stakeholders, proportionate to the amount of EOS they hold.
The Ethereum network is designing itself to be more “trustless” where anyone that has enough stake and proper hardware can be a validator.
The proportionate amount of EOS tokens you hold represents how much EOS bandwith you get on the platform, and how much voting you are entitled to.
EOS helps keep fees lower by paying node delegates (miners) the same amount of EOS for every block validated, regardless of the fees attached to each transaction. This gives validators less incentive to build blocks with high fees attached to transactions, because it will not affect how much they get paid.
The EOS platform allows for RAM trading. This free-market approach helps efficiently allocate resources. The EOSIO system contract allows users to buy RAM from the platform and sell RAM back to the platform in exchange for EOS tokens.
EOS allows for its smart contracts to be programmed in C++.
Ethereum developed its own programming language for smart contracts, called Solidity.
EOS account holders can choose a 12 character username; opposed to only relying on complicated wallet addresses.
"EOSIO is a next-generation, open-source blockchain protocol with industry-leading transaction speed and flexible utility. Introduced in May 2017, it has since been widely recognized as the first performant blockchain platform for businesses across the world."
"EOSIO is a blockchain platform designed for the real world. Built for both public and private use cases, EOSIO is customizable to suit a wide range of business needs across industries with rich role-based security permissions, industry-leading speeds and secure application processing. Building on EOSIO follows familiar development patterns and programming languages used by existing non-blockchain applications so developers can create a seamless user experience using development tools they already know and love."
"Scalable & Fast- Industry leading speed and latency in transactions and throughput Cost-Effective- Flexible cost model by resources for operation with zero transaction fees Eco-Friendly- Sustainable and energy-efficient consensus mechanism built for performance"
"EOS.IO is a blockchain protocol powered by the native cryptocurrency EOS. The protocol emulates most of the attributes of a real computer including hardware (CPU(s) & GPU(s) for processing, local/RAM memory, hard-disk storage) with the computing resources distributed equally among EOS cryptocurrency holders. EOSIO operates as a smart contract platform and decentralized operating system intended for the deployment of industrial-scale decentralized applications through a decentralized autonomous corporation model. The smart contract platform claims to eliminate transaction fees and also conduct millions of transactions per second. EOS (EOS) is software that introduces a blockchain architecture designed to enable vertical and horizontal scaling of decentralized applications. The EOS software provides accounts, authentication, databases, asynchronous communication and the scheduling of applications across multiple CPU cores and/or clusters."
Wiki: The EOS utility token provides blockchain bandwith and storage, proportionate to how much EOS a stakeholder owns. Thus, if a user owns 10% of all EOS tokens, they are allowed to use up to !0% of the available blockchain resources. Owning EOS also allows stakeholders to proportionally participate in EOS blockchain governance. A large part of the blockchain governance involves electing the 21 delegate nodes (miners) who are responsible for validating transactions.
From my noggin: Much like Ethereum, EOS is a platform designed to have other projects built on top of it. Unlike Ethereum, EOS uses a different form of consensus, which helps make its network much faster.
EOS is a much faster network than Ethereum, at the expense of centralization. EOS runs on a form of consensus, where validator nodes are selected by EOS token holders, in proportion to the amount of EOS they have. This allows for the wealthiest stakeholders within the EOS platform of have the most influence on what nodes can validate the network. This leads to more centralized control over the network, and opportunities for favoritism, bribery and collusion. Ethereum runs on a trustless form of consensus, where participating validator nodes can be anyone with proper hardware who wants to participate. Users who opt to buy, and build on, EOS are likely companies and individuals who want to run faster applications and are approving of the few validator nodes selected.
EOS helps keep fees lower by paying node delegates (miners) the same amount of EOS for every block validated, regardless of the fees attached to each transaction. This gives validators less incentive to build blocks with high fees attached to transactions, because it will not affect how much they get paid.
EOS is targeting larger companies that demand more scale and throughput from a blockchain, than Ethereum can provide.
TIMELINE
2009- Founder Dan Larimer begins experimenting with the Bitcoin blockchain.
2013-2015-Dan Larimer viewed seizing of Mt. Gox assets by government authorities as a big vulnerability in operating centralized exchanges, so he created the BitShares decentralized exchange. Primary goals behind BitShares were to achieve faster transaction times so blockchain tech could scale better, make the process more user-friendly. provide on-chain governance, and create mechanisms for organizations to self-fund on the blockchain.
2016- BitShares began running out of money to pay for development. Users of BitShares were not as inclined to use the platform, especially because they had to pay fees to place buy and sell orders, even if those orders were not executed. A relative blockchain recession was also happening. So, Dan Larimer decided to create the social media platform, Steemit, where content creators are rewarded with micro-payments in STEEM, and content would drive organic search results to Google. The Steemit platform also makes for easier ways for micro-voting (up-voting) to allocate funds, within the system.
2017- Dan Larimer (with the company block.one) helps develop EOS. Link to white paper. Released original test nets of Dawn 1.0 and Dawn 2.0.
2018- EOS releases open-source software. block.one raised over four billion USD to support the blockchain during the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) period. Test nets of Dawn 3.0 and Dawn 4.0 were released. EOSIO's Dawn 1.0 was brought to main net.
TECH
EOSIO is designed to be a decentralized operating system. The EOSIO platform is multi-threaded. This sharing of resources (code, data, and files) allows for faster and more economical processing, especially if threads have access to multiple CPUs to run on.
The EOS platform allows for RAM trading. This free-market approach helps efficiently allocate resources. The EOSIO system contract allows users to buy RAM from the platform and sell RAM back to the platform in exchange for EOS tokens. This provides liquidity in the RAM market while facilitating price discovery. Thus, when there's not as much unallocated RAM available, holding demand constant, market prices move up.
SUPPLY & INFLATIONARY CONTROLS
As of Q3 2019, over 90% of EOS tokens are part of the circulating supply. There are over 1.03 billion EOS in the total supply, and 9.38 million in the circulating supply.
The initial EOS offering was a 7 day window where everyone who contributed funds got an equal percentage of 200 million EOS (ERC20 based tokens; built on the Ethereum network). Every 23 hours after the initial 7 day window, there are another 2 million EOS distributed proportionately to total Ether received during each of those days. Thus, the number of people contributing ETH that day, determines the price of EOS, and no contributor knows what the final price of EOS will be on a given day.
As I mention for supply of EVERY asset, ever- "The supply only matters as much as there is demand to outpace it, and by how much. This is what determines price."
CONSENSUS MECHANISM
EOS uses a Byzantine fault tolerant, delegated Proof of Stake (dPoS) form of consensus, where certain stakeholders (node participants) in the network are selected to produce the next block. In EOS' delegated Proof of Stake, all producers are paid the same reward per block, so there is no incentive for producers to include (or not include) a transaction based on how many fees are attached to it. This helps keep transaction fees lower.
Much like in Bitcoin's Proof of Work, consensus is determined by the longest block generated. EOS uses a "last irreversible block" rule where a an irreversible block is considered one that 2/3 of the other producers have built on. So in order for that chain to contain malicious transactions, 2/3 of the participants would have had to collude. All blocks after last irreversible block are still considered "pending".
At EOS, the 21 "block producers" are usually well known elected entities with high amounts of trust; such as exchanges, universities, small governments, etc. Every 3 seconds a different block producer is scheduled to construct the next block and no other block producers can construct a block during this time period. This design helps eliminate contention among competing miners, and orphan blocks that result from contention. This also lends to predicable timing of block creation.
SECURITY
Because EOS consensus is not trustless, there becomes more opportunities for collusion, thus corruption in the system, because all participating nodes can easily identify and contact each other. Ideally, EOS voters are only selecting trustworthy validators to perform block creation, but this cannot be certain. Also, because the highest EOS stakeholders are selecting delegate nodes to validate each block, the process is more centralized with the wealthiest participants, providing more opportunities for favoritism, and making the process less democratic; not all network stakeholders have an opportunity to participate (like in the Bitcoin network). More centralized networks detract from the original mission that blochchain and cryptographic currencies were trying to solve, which is to provide a service that is not reliant on a central party (i.e. central bank). Networks are most democratic and representative of all stakeholders, when everyone who wants to participate in validating the network is able to do so.
Every time an EOS validator node signs a transaction, they are also signing a hash of the EOSIO constitution, which holds the validator accountable (possibly having to pay damages) if they transmit a false state of the blockchain. This incentivizes more honst and secure participation.
As of Q3 2019, EOS has 13 tokens built on its blockchain. This is competitive, relative to the 24 other platforms that exist, however is nowhere close to the model leader Ethereum, with over 1,300 tokens built on its platform. One of the over 1,300 ERC20 tokens built on Ethereum, is EOS.
MAJOR INVESTORS & PARTNERSHIPS
As of Q3 2019, EOS has over 100 projects built on its platform.
SOCIAL MEDIA & MARKETING
See Github, Twitter, and Reddit Data sections, under "Crypt Keeper By Criteria", for more details on each project's marketing and social media presence.