What is Telos (TLOS)?

What is Telos (TLOS)?

Telos is a Layer-1 EVM blockchain. Its mainnet launched in December 2018, and operates with a DPoS (delegated proof of stake) consensus mechanism.

It is an EVM-compatible blockchain built on AntelopeIO, a software layer which also powers the Antelope Coalition, a group consisting of EOS, Telos, Wax, and UX Network.

Recent marketing materials highlight the blockchain’s four key features as being:

1. Scalable
2. Interoperable
3. Secure
4. Environmentally friendly

What does the TLOS token do?

TLOS is the Telos blockchain’s native token.

It is used as a governance token, as a currency within its ecosystem of dApps, to execute smart contracts, as well as as a reward for staking.

Brief project background

Telos is a community-run project.

Launched in 2018, Telos was developed to provide speed, stability and decentralized governance. 

Telos was founded by a group of 30+ community members from various backgrounds, including software developers, blockchain enthusiasts, and business leaders. This community collaborated to create a network designed to offer more equitable token distribution, eliminate undue influence by large stakeholders, and foster more effective community decision-making.

Telos started off with no ICO funding and no VC investments. As a result, the project has been community driven, with a huge emphasis on decentralization since its inception.

Governance on Telos is centered around smart-contract-based protocols. Features include:

• Telos Decide: a voting and governance engine that allows anyone to create a fully customizable governance structure for their project, DAO, or community.
•  Telos Resolve: enables on-chain dispute resolution, which is supposed to enhance the network's trustworthiness and reliability.
• In 2021, the project launched Telos EVM. The Telos EVM exists as a smart contract on top of the Telos blockchain. This means that the Telos EVM inherits all of the network benefits and features of its native layer. 
• In 2023, Telos integrated Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) with the Antelope Coalition, which allows for horizontal scaling across Antelope networks in a bridge-less manner. The project believes this integration is potentially infinitely scalable. 

What makes Telos (TLOS) different?

Some of the main features of Telos which distinguish us from other networks are:

• The network is decentralized. The Telos ecosystem has grown organically, with no external funding received to help grow and develop the network. TLOS was originally distributed to initial community members at the genesis snapshot with a maximum of 40 thousand tokens per wallet to avoid centralization. 
• As of July 2023, the network claims to have never experienced any downtime in the five years since its launch.
• Telos is carbon-neutral. The project claims to offset its carbon footprint every two years. Due to the Telos base layer running C++,  Telos transactions are energy efficient, consuming 0.0004 wH per transaction (versus 40 wH on Ethereum).
• Telos claims to be able to support over 15,200 transactions per second. More information on how this was tested is below. https://hellotelos.medium.com/telos-breaking-evm-transaction-records-f7a2a2de098d
• Fixed gas costs: Telos gas price does not change with increased/decreased activity, it remains the same day over day. 
• A full software stack of leading block explorers, wallets, indexers, and EVM runtime/remote call procedure (“RPC”) that are all built and maintained in-house, enabling the platform to continuously innovate and adapt to the evolving needs of the network.
• Entrenched governance processes for the underlying block producers/validators and token holders to have a voice in dictating and deciding the direction of the network.
• All governance documents are managed via smart contract with reference to IPFS hashes. All network decisions are managed via on-chain vote. 

Where Telos (TLOS) sees itself going - in their own words

As frequently noted across their channels, Telos believes the blockchain gaming sector presents significant opportunities. The project hopes to capture a share of the 3 billion gamers worldwide who have not yet adopted blockchain technology.

• In May 2023, the Telos community voted in favor of the Telos Foundation (TF) and Telos Core Developers’ (TCD) TEDP4 proposal to position Telos as the default blockchain for GameFi applications.
• In order to achieve mass adoption of the Telos Network over time, TEDP4 identified the need to become an industry leader in Web3 gaming and a pioneer in terms of scalability and interoperability as the project’s two most important growth drivers moving forward.
• Telos’ Business Development team has taken significant action towards making the project’s ambitions in gaming a reality as of late, striking partnerships with several strategic GameFi partners, including GameStop, Altura and Arcus, amongst others. 

Another key differentiator for Telos and its tech stack is the extent to which it can be leveraged for DeFi projects. Here are some of the project’s recent and future-looking DeFi initiatives:

• Following Telos’ recent partnership with IceCreamSwap, the two organizations recently announced the introduction of TLOS Reward Farms on the DEX. More developments are on the way from the partner organizations in Q3. 
• Telos introduced its new Head of DeFi in Q2, Nicky Chalabi. With a wealth of experience across different DeFi projects, Nicky’s aim is to continue to steward the growth and development of Telos’ DeFi ecosystem. 
• Telos also announced a recent partnership with ChangeNOW, a cross-chain swaps service with bridge functionality. The partnership will extend into Q3 and continue to evolve over time. 
• TCD publishes monthly recap reports of all project-related development progress on the Telos blog, which includes ways in which the Telos tech stack is being upgraded for DeFi compatibility and interoperability use cases. All updates can be found here. 

Telos’ real life use-cases and partnerships

• The student-run organization ‘The Blockchain Collaborative’ from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, tested Telos’ transaction speeds in June 2023. They found Telos could handle up to 15,200 tps (transactions per second) and 1,826 swap tps - details on how they set up their experiment can be found here.
• Over 200 applications have been built on Telos’ infrastructure so far. You can check them out here.
• Telos produces blog posts on every major partnership it launches. In order to stay up to date with the project’s newest collaborations, you can follow Telos on Medium here. 
• Telos aims to ensure it has a robust presence at IRL events around the world, and has also launched strategic partnerships with different blockchain clubs and organizations that host educational and collaborative events. In July 2023, Telos announced its partnership with NFTO, a Web3 social club that started in Toronto but has since gone global. 

About the founders

• Justin Giudici (CEO) is one of the co-founders of the Telos Network and currently leads products for the Foundation. He brings over a decade of experience in product design & marketing and has founded and nurtured multiple companies in the emerging technology space. 
• Jesse Schulman (CTO) has over two decades of experience in product infrastructure engineering, design, and automation, with a focus on cloud-based software solutions. For the last four years, Jesse has been the lead engineer and architect of the Telos Blockchain Network.  Previously, Jesse was employed by ServiceNow (employee #126 of what is now over 15k person company) and Dreamtsoft (employee #1 of a startup that is still operating). 
• J.T. Buice (Systems Manager) co-founded Kainos Technologies LLC in 2015 to serve the Central Texas area with IT Services, communications, and automation aiming to bring a vast knowledge base of enterprise IT to his customer base. Before Kainos, J.T. was an IT Operations Manager at SpaceX delivering always-on IT that enabled SpaceX to serve commercial and government entities in furthering the exploration of space. 
• George Vernon (COO) has over eight years of experience as a software development project manager. He has been active within the Blockchain industry as an investor for the last six years, with the last two focused on the growth of the Telos Network. 
• Sukesh Tedla (Director of Liquidity & Exchanges) has over six years of experience in the Blockchain industry, creating AI/crypto and Crypto-specific Tax Software. Sukesh has a background in the IT industry and is currently Chairman of the Swedish Blockchain Association. 
• AJ Dinger (Head of Business Development) has 16+ years of business and finance experience, was a founding member of the Jefferies CleanTech Investment Banking practice, and has led strategy and business development for a variety of Silicon Valley tech companies. 
• Peter Nguyen (CMO) has over 10+ years of experience in traditional marketing working with Fortune 500 Brands such as Nike, Coca-Cola, and American Express. He has extensive knowledge of brand development, product marketing, and partnership building within Web3.

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