Since its launch in 2018, the Tezos project has overcome challenges and made tremendous strides. And as we focus on the path forward, I have never felt more excited for its future than I do today.
Tezos is founded on a bold idea: that a decentralized cryptocurrency could support upgrades ratified by token holders without sacrificing network effects, effectively “future-proofing” itself. That vision exists in its current instantiation. Technical innovations are “folded” in, rather than realized through bulky hard forks. It is this truly democratic framework — the consent from a supermajority of token holders rather than diktat by a handful of engineers — that separates Tezos from other tokens. And it is because of this strong foundation and steadfast support from the community that the blockchain has upgraded seamlessly six times in the last three years — far more than any of its competitors.
In some ways though, our thesis has not yet been tested. The original Tezos vision assumes a world in which technical features have an impact on network usage, which is why a formal governance process for instantiating these upgrades plays a key role. Usage means trade-offs and trade-offs means decisions carry weight. But the reality is that very few people have used cryptocurrencies until today, so technical differentiation hasn’t made a huge difference — yet. Fast technical upgrades don’t mean much in a world where technology isn’t tested.
For all the hype around cryptocurrencies, there have been very few mainstream applications that have tested the limits of their designs. Most successful gaming companies would consider the statistics on users of applications on a platform like Ethereum to be failure. There is a massive drop off in engagement with these networks once tokens which effectively facilitate speculation are eliminated from consideration.
But this is changing now. The limitations of first generation blockchains are being tested by newfound popularity in mainstream applications like gaming and collectibles. Tezos matters more when cryptocurrencies aren’t just cults of personality, but pillars of global commerce.
Technical demands aside, there is a cultural component to Tezos that is finally being tested now. For the last three years, I’ve been reluctant to involve myself in anything construed as “business development” knowing that there were no teams in the ecosystem that had proven to deliver for the use cases I think are most promising. Now, there are three areas that excite me in this way.
My last company, Coase, recently entered into a licensing agreement with Interpop, a company in the Tezos ecosystem. Through this, several gaming initiatives are being launched on the Tezos blockchain, including a collectible card game (Emergents), a comic series, and a platform for simple skill games. Supporting these capabilities opened up conversations with licensors of established franchises and created opportunities with successful gaming companies.
Games are important because they represent new social spaces. I think the metaverse is the next land grab on the Internet today. Acting on this belief, I’ve been working closely with an AR/VR art studio in London called Acute Art.
Acute Art collaborates with famous contemporary artists to create original digital works. They began housing art on the Tezos blockchain in April. This is exciting because “the art of a people is a true mirror into their minds,” yet, it’s been largely left out of the conversation about which industries could be improved by cryptocurrencies.
Of course, Acute represents only a portion of the burgeoning ecosystem on Tezos. Hic et Nunc has already brought a tremendous amount of success to the Tezos ecosystem, becoming the largest NFT platform by daily active users and far surpassing its venture-backed peers on other networks. Its recent “hicathon” was an example of the best parts of open source communities: self-improvement and tinkering. The internet is at its best when it helps people find their tribe, and I’m proud that some of that magic exists on the Tezos chain.
The latest NFT art craze has many markings of amateurism, but it gets to the heart of what cryptocurrencies should do by creating a viable alternative to traditional intermediaries. Having artistic assets tied to a blockchain is also a cool way for Tezos to have cultural relevance, not only utility.
And, finally, the largest initiative in the Tezos ecosystem right now is a NFT-based music collection platform called OneOf. A technical team has been assembled to leapfrog in support of an application with millions of potential users.
The NFT-based music opportunity is possible in part through a grant from the Tezos Foundation for adoption and technical support. This platform is a forcing function to build a scaling solution for Tezos for which there was no clear market demand before. I’m happy to see the Tezos Foundation making an ambitious bet. Concentrating on one or two high-profile use cases helps forge the type of product thinking that leads to better technological proposals and upgrades.
These initiatives will harness the power of the Tezos technology in new and exciting ways. I look forward to seeing how opportunities in gaming, art, and music will truly test our thesis — and I believe the future of the cryptocurrency space will be better for it.
