Tezos Commons :: A Quick Look At The Evolution of Tezos
March 19, 2024A Look Into Some of The Key Milestones and Upgrades Of Tezos.
Tezos isn’t just about the buzzwords or the hype; it’s about a continuous quest to improve, to innovate, and to meet the constantly evolving demands of the blockchain world while sticking to core values like decentralization, censorship resistance, and being permissionless. To achieve that, Tezos has gone through a journey of adaptation, growth, and resilience that’s quite remarkable.
To date (March 2024), with 15 protocol upgrades total, this journey has been punctuated by key milestones and updates that have not only kept Tezos relevant but has also pushed the boundaries of what’s possible with blockchain technology, and in this article, we will look at exactly that. The evolution of Tezos!
Origins and launch
Tezos was founded by Arthur and Kathleen Breitman with the vision of creating a blockchain that could evolve by itself over time, circumventing the disruptive hard forks that plagued other networks. This vision materialized into a blockchain where stakeholders actively participate in a defined governance process which precipitates the blockchain’s evolution.
The mainnet launch of Tezos in 2018 was marked by its novel approach to consensus, combining proof-of-stake (PoS) with a unique on-chain governance mechanism that empowered the community. This innovative start set Tezos apart as a platform built on the principles of collaboration and continuous improvement.
Since then and through its on-chain governance, Tezos has gone through 15 protocol upgrades, named after historical cities, in alphabetical order and you can find them all listed here. These upgrades have brought major improvements to the protocol. To maintain brevity in this article, rather than looking into each upgrade individually, I will highlight key areas of evolution and improvement within Tezos, alongside the specific upgrades where these changes were implemented.
Key Upgrades and Milestones
Adapting to Needs: Roll Size
In the early stages of Tezos, a “roll” was defined as the minimum quantity of tez required to obtain baking (validation) rights, initially set at 10,000 tez. This threshold underwent reductions: first to 8,000 tez with the Athens upgrade, and then to 6,000 tez following the Ithaca upgrade. The Ithaca upgrade not only adjusted the roll size but also revamped the baking rewards system, transitioning from a roll-based to a stake-based framework.
Under the original system, a baker’s (Tezos validator) stake was quantified solely by the number of rolls they held. For instance, possessing 11,000 tez would still categorize a baker as having just one roll under the protocol’s view. The introduction of Ithaca refined this approach, ensuring every additional tez contributed towards a baker’s total stake, thereby influencing their rewards more granularly.
The subsequent Jakarta upgrade further evolved the Tezos ecosystem by eliminating the roll concept from the governance process. As a result, a baker’s stake and voting weight are now denominated in mutez, the smallest unit of tez, equivalent to 0.000001 tez, enhancing the precision and flexibility of stake and governance participation.
Consensus Algorithm Evolution and Reduced Block Times
With the Babylon upgrade, improvements were made to the Emmy+ consensus algorithm to boost network efficiency. Following that, Granada marked a transition from Emmy* to Emmy+, which also halved block times from 60 seconds to 30 seconds. Then after Granada, another large change in the consensus algorithm occurred with the adoption of Tenderbake during the Ithaca upgrade that introduced deterministic finality which enhanced the security of transactions. Finally, in Mumbai, block times were further reduced from 30 seconds to 15 seconds making the user experience even faster.
Achieving Efficiency: A Focus on Reducing Costs
Tezos has also set a benchmark in operational efficiency, as evidenced by the substantial reductions in gas and storage fees across various upgrades. Delphi marked a significant milestone by reducing gas fees by up to ten times and slashing storage fees by a factor of four. Florence followed with enhancements in the Michelson interpreter, which lowered gas consumption for smart contract execution thereby making interactions with complex smart contracts substantially cheaper.
In the Granada upgrade, gas consumption related to the execution of deployed smart contracts saw reductions by a factor of three to six, further lowering the cost for developers to deploy and interact with their smart contracts. Nairobi introduced another major reduction in gas consumption for various operations, including simple tez transfers and smart contract calls, paving the way for an up to 8x increase in the transactions per second (TPS) capabilities of Tezos.
Feature Innovations: Expanding Tezos’ Capabilities
Tezos has consistently introduced features that expand the platform’s capabilities, addressing both specific user needs and broader market demands. Some of these features are the introduction of privacy-preserving transactions and on-chain permissions (a.k.a. Tickets) with the Edo upgrade, the launch of “Liquidity Baking” in Granada, and the highly anticipated Enshrined Smart Rollups in Mumbai that enable Tezos to scale in one of the most decentralized ways across the industry. These kind of features reflect Tezos’ commitment to technological excellence, scalability, and innovation.
Never Stop Evolving.
With 15 major upgrades where each upgrade sets the foundations for future ones, it’s clear that Tezos isn’t just keeping up; it’s bringing new ideas and improvements that matter. From making it easier for more people to participate, to speeding things up and cutting costs when interacting with the blockchain, to paving the way of truly decentralized scalability, all of these upgrades are showcasing the flexibility and evolutionary capabilities of Tezos.
However, this journey is far from over. Even though the past upgrades have introduced huge improvements, I feel like we are just getting started and the best is still ahead of us. A brief glance at the forthcoming upgrades and features will make this clear. Innovations such as the Data Availability Layer, Adaptive Issuance, Etherlink, and additional reductions in block time are just a few examples of what’s on the horizon (for more details, refer to my article “Tezos in 2024: A Few Things To Be Excited About!”).
So if you are interested in a blockchain that doesn’t just talk the talk but walks the walk, then dive into the Tezos universe and explore the blockchain that always adapts, innovates, and — Never Stops Evolving!
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