Altcoin Rundown: What Is EOS

Here’s a rundown of what EOS is all about.

EOS aims to be the new operating system of blockchain.

An operating system is a computer software that allows users to run other applications. An example of an operating system is Microsoft’s Windows 10. An operating system allows you to run other computer applications like games or browsers (Chrome, Firefox). This is what EOS aims to do: allowing users to run other applications on its blockchain platform.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

What EOS sees as its advantage compared to other blockchain platforms is scalability – a problem EOS sees as a hindrance for blockchain into going mainstream.

According to Visa Inc., its network is capable of handling more than 24,000 transactions per second. EOS in its technical white paper, on the other hand, claims to be able to handle “millions of transactions per second”.

Using the EOS software, developers can create high-performance applications.

Real-World Applications of EOS
1. Everipedia
Everipedia is a decentralized application (dapp) – digital application or program – that’s expected to run on the EOS blockchain platform.

Everipedia is a platform similar to Wikipedia. The difference between these two is that while contributors to Wikipedia aren't given incentives for contributing encyclopedia articles, on Everipedia, contributors will be given incentives in the form of tokens for contributing articles to the platform.

2.EOSfinex
EOSfinex is another dapp that’s expected to run on the EOS platform.

In February 2018, cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex announced EOSfinex, a decentralized currency exchange to be built on the EOS platform. According to Bitfinex, EOSfinex will combine the scalability and speed of EOS and Bitfinex’s experience as a cryptocurrency exchange since 2012.

EOS Team
Block.one, a company based in the Cayman Islands, is the organization behind the building of the EOS software. Daniel Larimer, co-founder of Steemit, is the core developer of EOS. He’s also the chief technology officer (CTO) of Block.one.

Early this year, Richard Jung, former CEO of Bithumb joined Block.one to lead the development of the EOS community in Korea. Prior to Bithumb, Jung served in senior executive positions at Alipay, Alibaba’s payment arm.

Last March 21, leading European tech investor FinLab AG and Block.one announced their $100-million joint venture to hasten the development of EOS projects in Europe.

EOS Current Status
To date, EOS is at its initial coin offering (ICO) stage. ICO is a means for a new cryptocurrency venture to raise funds. EOS has one of the longest initial coin offering periods, totaling 341 days. The initial coin offering started on June 26, 2017.

Unlike other ICOs that offer fixed price for their tokens, the EOS tokens have no pre-determined price. As a cryptocurrency investor, you’ve to buy EOS tokens set by market demand, for instance, via cryptocurrency exchanges.

Last December, Block.one released the code for EOS Dawn 2.0, allowing developers to build and test applications in a public environment. Two months ago, Block.one released the code for EOS Dawn 3.0, but this is still in early Alpha and isn’t compatible with the current publicly available TestNet, the EOS Dawn 2.0.

Note: The author doesn’t promote the cryptocurrency mentioned on this post. This post is for information purposes only.