What is EOS?

EOS is a delegated proof-of-stake layer-1 blockchain launched in June 2018 by Block.one following what was at the time the largest initial coin offering in crypto history — a year-long token sale that raised approximately $4.1 billion. The network uses a delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) consensus model with asynchronous Byzantine fault-tolerant (aBFT) finality and 21 elected block producers (BPs) who take turns producing blocks every 0.5 seconds, enabling high transaction throughput and zero user-facing transaction fees subsidized by resource staking. The EOS Network Foundation (ENF) assumed stewardship of the chain in 2022 after a public dispute with Block.one over development funding obligations.

EOS was designed to solve Ethereum's gas fee and throughput limitations by introducing a resource model where users stake EOS to access CPU time and network bandwidth, eliminating per-transaction fees for end users. At launch, it achieved the highest advertised transaction throughput of any public blockchain, attracting significant developer interest. Its Delegated Proof of Stake model allows any EOS holder to vote for up to 30 block producers, with the top 21 by vote weight producing blocks. This design concentrated enormous economic and governance power in a small group of BPs, which quickly became dominated by coordinated voting arrangements among large token holders.

The gap between Block.one's $4.1 billion fundraise and its delivery on the EOS ecosystem has become a canonical case study in ICO accountability failures. Block.one was fined $24 million by the SEC in 2019 for conducting an unregistered securities offering — a fine widely criticized as negligible relative to the amount raised. A subsequent lawsuit by EOS token holders alleged Block.one committed to investing ICO proceeds in the EOS ecosystem but instead deployed capital into other ventures. In 2022, the EOS Network Foundation coordinated a community vote to effectively cut Block.one out of scheduled token distributions. The ENF has since overseen a technical overhaul (Leap client, Antelope protocol shared with WAX and Telos) and attempted a relaunch as a general-purpose developer platform, but EOS has not regained the developer community prominence it briefly held in 2018-2019.

Reviewed by the 2Bitcoins Editorial Team · Updated June 2026. Not financial advice.