The History of Tezos (XTZ)

Tezos (XTZ) is an open-source blockchain platform designed to support decentralized applications and smart contracts. Its development began in 2014, led by Arthur Breitman and Kathleen Breitman. Arthur, a former analyst and mathematician, wrote two position papers laying out the concepts behind Tezos under the pseudonym "L.M. Goodman." He published the first whitepaper in 2014, emphasizing governance and the blockchain's ability to evolve itself.

In 2017, the Tezos Foundation was established to support the development and promotion of the project. Tezos gained significant attention during its Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in July 2017. The platform’s ICO became one of the largest at that time, raising around $232 million in a short period. This moved XTZ to the forefront of blockchain projects eager to bring innovative solutions to the industry.

One of the distinguishing features of Tezos is its governance model, which allows stakeholders to vote on proposed changes directly on the blockchain. This distinctive approach was promoted as a way to make Tezos more adaptable than other blockchains. Unlike systems where a central team makes updates, Tezos could theoretically update itself without hard forks, creating more cohesion within its network architecture over time.

However, after the successful ICO, disputes at the management level of the Tezos Foundation led to internal delays in getting the platform up and running. Conflicts between its founders and the then-president of the Tezos Foundation, Johann Gevers, stalled development for several months, resulting in frustration among backers and legal disputes. Eventually, the governance issues were resolved, and Tezos officially launched its mainnet in 2018.

Tezos quickly positioned itself as a competitor to Ethereum, emphasizing formal verification of smart contracts and its adaptive nature. While Ethereum has often experienced contentious hard forks, Tezos aims for continuous upgrades without causing disruptions. Its on-chain governance model enables developers to submit protocol upgrades, which XTZ stakeholders can vote on through a decentralized process. This self-amending function is the cornerstone of the Tezos blockchain’s identity.

Since its launch, Tezos has seen several protocol upgrades as a direct result of this decentralized governance model. These upgrades have tended to focus on improving the scalability, functionality, and speed of transactions, while avoiding the need for contentious forks that have divided other blockchain communities in the past.