EOS, often called the “Ethereum killer,” is backed by a relatively low-profile company: Block.one. In 2018, EOS conducted a year-long ICO that raised more than $4 billion, making it the largest token sale in history. After briefly surging into the top five cryptocurrencies by market cap, EOS’s price fell 75% from its peak, yet the team remains committed to development.
Who Is Block.one?
Block.one describes itself as a “leader in high-performance blockchain solutions.” Headquartered in Hong Kong, it also has offices in the Cayman Islands and the United States, with a global team across Europe and South America. Its two primary products are the EOS blockchain and venture capital arm EOS VC. The company prioritizes enterprise adoption, trading some decentralization for higher speed, scalability, and lower transaction costs. This business-centric approach puts it in direct competition with Ethereum.
The $4 Billion ICO
Unlike typical ICOs that lock tokens in a smart contract until the sale ends, EOS ran a “continuous” ICO where tokens were already trading on exchanges while the offering was still open. By the time it closed, the total raised was more than double the second-largest ICO (Telegram’s TON at $1.7 billion). The price of EOS shot up but later lost most of its gains. Block.one has maintained its commitment to the project despite the drawdown.
Founders: Brendan Blumer and Daniel Larimer
CEO Brendan Blumer started his entrepreneurial journey selling World of Warcraft items before founding Okay.com, Hong Kong’s largest digital property agency. CTO Daniel Larimer is a well-known figure in crypto, co-founding BitShares and Steemit, and authoring the EOS IO protocol. Both have attracted controversy but also industry backing, including investments from Bitmain and early Facebook angel investor Peter Thiel.
Smart Contracts: EOS vs. Ethereum
EOS was designed to address perceived limitations in the entire smart contract paradigm. Block.one provides a development kit that lets programmers create dApps without relying on Solidity (Ethereum’s language). Proponents argue that EOS offers better scalability, zero transaction fees, and higher throughput — citing Ethereum’s CryptoKitties congestion as a counterexample. While the debate over which platform is “better” continues, EOS’s technical metrics have shown competitive results.