Six years after raising $4.1 billion in an ICO, the EOS blockchain has set its sights on becoming a major player in the Web3 scene with the forthcoming launch of its EVM mainnet.
Touted for an April 14 release, the EVM will, according to EOS Network Foundation CEO Yves La Rose, combine “the performance of EOS with the familiarity of Ethereum.”
Although the EVM could well be a game-changer for EOS, enabling developers to create dApps and DeFi applications just as they would on Ethereum, this recent announcement is merely the latest in a long line of positive EOS developments dating back to last August when the price of EOS jumped 17% following a court ruling against ex-parent company Block.one’s proposed settlement.
EOS Aims to Attract Top Talent
Now free of Block.one and managed by the nonprofit ENF, EOS is aiming to make 2023 its biggest year yet. Yes, bigger even than in 2017, when it became the undisputable bellwether of the ICO scene before everything went south.
Deploying the Ethereum Virtual Machine will be key to such lofty ambitions. In a recent blog post, EOS called EVM compatibility “essential to the potential of EOS, not just technically but also from a business perspective. Ultimately, it is essential that we welcome more Solidity developers and users to EOS, and an EVM on EOS is an excellent bridge to do just that.”
Making EOS an attractive environment in which to build is one thing, but the ENF also aims to compel the best developers to come to the party via its grants program, which disburses pay-outs ranging from $10,000 to over $50,000 for those who can bring impactful protocols to EOS.
Although over $120 million is currently locked in EOS-based DeFi applications, that is a mere fraction of the industry’s total value locked (TVL). Ethereum, for example, dominates with over $28.6 billion; the TVL for the entire DeFi space exceeds $48 billion, though it once peaked at around $180 billion in late 2021.
The EOS Network Foundation hopes to make EOS the place to be ahead of the next DeFi bull run, for users as well as developers. But it will need to back a few winners to gain serious traction; Ethereum is practically synonymous with decentralized finance, although the likes of Polygon, Tron, Avalanche, BSC, and Arbitrum have chipped away at its market share.
Fresh EOS products are already shipping. One of them, Antelope, is a community-run blockchain protocol for creating and deploying next-generation smart contracts and distributed applications. As well as EOS, it’s supported by Telos, WAX and UX Network, with the coalition committed to providing the project $8m in annual funding.
Antelope is viewed as the vehicle by which EOS can deliver inter-blockchain communication (IBC), an innovation that will enable cross-chain transfers and horizontal scaling. The Antelope IBC debuted on the EOS mainnet in January and can facilitate asset transfers across all Antelope-powered chains.
On the back of such developments, ENF boss Yves La Rose was recently named one of CoinTelegraph’s Top 100 influencers in crypto and blockchain for 2023, coming in at number 43. If EOS can make good on its roadmap, expect to see him breeze into the top 10 next year.
Next month, all eyes will be on EOS as the EVM goes live. Whatever happens thereafter, it will be watershed moment for a project that’s never been far from the headlines.