7 Reasons why Tezos is the Best Smart-Contract Platform
I want to point out the following reasons why I switched from Ethereum to Tezos for future projects as the smart-contract platform of choice.
1. Security
The code you write is the exact code that will be executed on the chain. You don’t have to trust the compiler which might compile your code down to something you did not intended for. Plus the smart-contracts can be formally verified. This reduces the odds for unwanted bugs significantly. Whenever money is at stake, security should be the primary concern.
2. Developers, developers, developers
The total number of developers for the Tezos platform increases by the day. They managed to set up their own resource site on StackExchange. The only other coins which managed to do this are: Bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS, Stellar, Monero, IOTA and Augur.
The development teams around the globe are working hard on the core protocol. Updates are frequent and well-tested. The trust from the community towards the dev teams is strong. If you meet a Tezos developer, don’t offer to buy him a beer, offer a Taco instead. Developers get hungry after a long coding session. 🌮
3. Foundation
Tezos has a non profit foundation set up in Switzerland — just like Ethereum. They’ve collected the funds from the token generation event and spend that money solely for the purpose to grow the Tezos ecosystem. Do you have a good idea for a project that helps the Tezos ecosystem grow? Send them your ideas and you just might get funded and receive grants. Don’t worry, they don’t bite.
4. On-chain governance
I want to be sure, that my time is well spent and that the smart-contract platform I choose will exist in the future. I don’t want to risk having multiple forks or worse, the splitting of the community, developers and network effects. With the on-chain governance mechanism, Tezos can come to a final and binding decision and upgrade itself with changes the majority of the community decided upon.
5. Liquid proof-of-stake
Everyone can participate, even with 1 XTZ you get your equal share percentage wise. Unlike proof-of-work where you need to purchase a lot of hardware including ASICs for no other reason than to waste that energy to mine new coins. Tezos has baking (Tezos lingo for staking). You can bake yourself or delegate your funds and receive rewards. Check out my other article which explains that your coins are not at risk when delegating.
6. OCaml
The tools that make the Tezos blockchain run are written in OCaml. This is next to Haskell one of the best programming languages to select for such a project. OCaml is fast and has imperative, object-oriented and functional features. It is often used in safety-critical areas. It is open-source and maintained by the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (INRIA) — which is a huge Tezos supporter.
7. Foresight and the future
Tezos released its whitepaper in 2014, closely after Ethereum released its white-and yellowpaper. But Tezos has pointed out flaws in current protocols, namely Bitcoin, which no other project has seen as an issue at that time. The problem of not having a decision-making process for a decentralized project. Fast forward we have Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Cash SV, Bitcoin Cash ABC etc. and Ethereum Classic. This is very confusing for new cryptocurrency participants and hinders adaption.
Smart contracts had to be secure as they would handle an insane amount of money. Which is one of the reasons why Tezos focuses so heavily on security. Fast forward again, we had many security issues due to unintended behavior in Solidity.
Arthur articulated early on that with the introduction for SNARKs the TPS (transactions per second) would increase. Tada, Ethereum made the same statement months after Arthur posted his article on Medium. Another example: Futarchy. 🔮
For me this forward thinking which reminds me of other brilliant minds that made Google, Tesla, Microsoft, Apple possible.
