EOS (EOS) launched in June 2018 with much fanfare, as it raised an astonishing $4.1 billion in the biggest initial coin offering (ICO) in history, catapulting it into the top 10 of cryptocurrencies by market cap. Led by Bitshares and Steemit founder Dan Larimer, EOS was seen as revolutionary with its delegated proof-of-stake system and EOS Worker Proposals to fund projects that increased the ecosystem. The community, including Goodblock CEO Douglas Horn, was excited about the tech and promises made. However, development dried up, and the community felt left out as some volunteers took on new projects but were not supported, and micro-grants hardly amounted to enough to fund development. Two vanity projects, the Voice decentralized social media platform which became an NFT marketplace, and the Bullish exchange that used the ICO money to provide liquidity, did not help. The community formed the EOS Network Foundation in 2021 to restore the growing ecosystem under the leadership of original block producer Yves La Rose, who left EOS Nation to nurture the foundation.
EOS promised to be a unicorn in the crypto universe with its innovative technology and a massive ICO that aimed to fund projects that grew the ecosystem. The promise bought in $4.1 billion in investment, which was seen as highly suspect by some experts. Horn opined Block.one did a deceitful ICO, and La Rose sees the massive success of the ICO as part of its downfall. The community waits till 2021 to fight back, and La Rose left EOS Nation to form EOS Network Foundation. La Rose knew that all layer ones need a funded Foundation which would work to nurture the ecosystem, foster new development, and oversee continued governance. Without Block.one at the helm, the ecosystem needed direction and leadership. EOS Nation’s Daniel Keyes took over as CEO and was also CEO of Pomelo, which funds projects on the network. The community, led by La Rose, felt that initiatives were killed by Block.one, as they said they were already working on them or were caught up in legal wrangles with SEC.
What went wrong with the $4.1 billion ICO that aimed to future-proof EOS? Horn believes that Block.one did not fulfill any of the promises made in ICO. Larimer became chief technology officer, and Brendan Blumer took on becoming CEO, but development dried up, and the community felt left out. Horn co-founded the Telos Blockchain to combat the absence of any perceptible activity by Block.one on the EOSIO code. Some volunteers took on new projects, but they were not supported, and micro-grants hardly amounted to enough to fund development. Two vanity projects, the Voice decentralized social media platform which became an NFT marketplace, and the Bullish exchange that used the ICO money to provide liquidity, did not help.
La Rose’s EOS Nation was one of the original block producers in EOS, providing the tech to validate nodes, with the top 21 receiving a fee for maintaining the network. He led the formation of the EOS Network Foundation in 2021 to restore the growing ecosystem. La Rose resigned from EOS Nation to form the EOS Network Foundation (ENF) in August 2021, stating that Layer One needed a funded foundation which would work to nurture the ecosystem, foster new development, and oversee continued governance. Without Block.one at the helm, the ecosystem needed direction and leadership. La Rose started creating a developer-friendly platform and building tools to eliminate the difficulties developers face while creating dApps. EOSio developer revenue was an essential part of creating this ecosystem. The original block producers, for instance, set up new worker proposals, such as the DotGove project.
The EOS community is optimistic and energetically working towards making EOS big again. EOS has long been a favorite of Dapp developers and gaming communities due to its high speed, low transaction fees, and ease of use. Alien Worlds and WAX are success stories that indicate the possibility of the resurrection of EOS. Developers view EOS as an exciting platform with futuristic blockchain technology, DPoS consensus mechanism, and EOS Worker Proposals. EOS upgrades to Antelope in 2022, and ENF hopes to turn EOS back to a top 10 cryptocurrency. The EOS community is growing, as ENF hosted Hackathon events and several meetups worldwide in London, Berlin, and Paris, attracting new developers with groundbreaking EOS technology from which the entire blockchain industry will benefit. The foundation supports advanced research and development in high-performance distributed systems and blockchain applications, focusing on EOSIO technology by working on privacy, governance, and scalability issues.
In conclusion, the founding of the EOS Network Foundation under Yves La Rose’s leadership was the community’s response to the derailed development of EOS after its massive ICO. The EOS community hopes to restore the growing ecosystem and fulfills its potential with innovative DPoS technology, EOS Worker Proposals, and developer-friendly platforms like Telos and WAX. La Rose sees himself as a reluctant leader, and the newly energized EOS community sees him as a bit of a hero. The EOS Network Foundation’s aim is to foster an open source, global community of developers, organizations, and enthusiasts collaborating to build blockchain technology for societal benefits. The community-led initiatives with ENF leadership can instill hope for the ecosystem’s restoration to create value and real-world use cases for blockchain technology.
