Coin of the month: EOS

EOS was one of the best performing coins this month. The price soared up to an all-time-high of $ 21.71 what is an increase of 289.5 % compared to April 1. Currently EOS is trading for $ 19.36 (at the moment of writing), what makes it the 5th biggest cryptocurrency in the market with a total market capitalization of ~16 billion dollars, only Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Bitcoin Cash are more valuable.

What exactlly is EOS ?

EOS is a new blockchain platform with the use of the delegated proof of stake. It is launched by Block.one, a company registered in the Cayman islands. At the moment the project is going through an ongoing ICO,which started on June 26, 2017 and will end on Jun 1, 2018. The goal of EOS is to become a “better” Ethereum, as the Ethereum network suffers from severe congestion issues, due to the popularity of ICOs and dApps as Cryptokitties. Scalability is extremely important for mass adoption of blockchain technologies, hence many crypto experts believe EOS is well-positioned to become a major blockchain and smart contract platform in the future.

There are many experts that believe EOS can do the same to Ethereum, what Facebook did to Myspace, but there are also many critical voices in the blockchain space. According to Tone Vays, a blockchain consultant, in both of Larimer’s former projects, admonished the cryptocurrencies at work were controlled predominantly by a small inner circle. “Dan Larimer has started several proof-of-stake projects and they all have been shady in nature. Both Bitshares and Steemit allowed insiders to create lots of tokens for themselves, and after that, the proof-of-stake nature of the project allowed those insiders to point tokens of value for themselves on perpetuity”, Vays said.

Let us have a look what arguments are in favor of EOS and what speaks against it.

PRO:

Faster transactions (parallel processing)
Very well funded
Dan Larimer (proven track record, Bitshares and Steemit)
User Friendly
Constitution (set of rules everybody agrees upon)
Self Sufficiency (current modell allows 5 % inflation for the development of network)
Zero transaction costs (Ethereum users need to pay Ether and NEO Users GAS for transactions)
Better Scalability
Inter Blockchain Communication (enables one blockchain to verify the authenticity of an event on another blockchain)

CONTRA:

Strong Competition (Ethereum has the first mover advantage besides that there are other competitors as NEO,
Cardano, ETC, RChain, RSK, etc.)
More Centralized (DPOS consensus protocol, relies on only 21 block producers to confirm all transactions)
Dan Larimer (he is known for moving quickly to another project)
Structure of the ICO (there was no cap + ongoing auction)
Overfunding (focusing on things that ultimately don’t matter)
Uncertainty if they can deliver all their promises

CONCLUSION:

EOS is well on its way to become a major player in the blockchain space. If it succeeds to replace Ethereum as the number one smart contract platform will be more than uncertain, but this is the one billion dollar question. We believe there is room for several projects, but only future can tell. It is definitely an exciting project, please keep in mind this is not an investing advise and never forget to do your own research.