1/ As Tezos begins its next wave of price discovery, I want to talk about how similar it seems to me compared to where Ethereum was in its development when I entered this space in 2016. @jebus911 has referred to it as "next cycles Ethereum" and I think it's an accurate comparison
2/ I initially stumbled upon Ethereum while searching “for the next Bitcoin” looking to strike e-gold as many newbies in the space do. I was entranced by its decentralized structure and promises of “unstoppable applications” through the usage of smart contracts
3/ I delved deeper into my research and quickly realized that I had hit the digital gold mine. Not only did Ethereum have the largest Bitcoin crowd sale to date, but they established their own international developers conference with companies like IBM and Microsoft in attendance
4/ Microsoft had even begun offering Ethereum Blockchain as a Service, giving developers the ability to create smart contract apps through their cloud platform Azure. I was sold. I bought as much Ethereum as I could, and my interest in blockchain ballooned to an obsession
5/ Nearly four years later, I'm filled with the same level of excitement about Tezos that I originally felt when I discovered Ethereum. Much like Ethereum, Tezos is a smart contract protocol, designed with the goal of creating a self-amending blockchain
6/ What this means is that stakeholders of Tezos can propose changes or "amendments" to the Tezos protocol, and even to the amendment process itself. This allows Tezos to adopt innovations from other cryptocurrencies, and gives stakeholders a say in how the blockchain evolves
7/ Other than the innovative amendment protocol, Tezos had the most successful Initial Coin Offering since Ethereum raised 31,591 Bitcoin, around $18 million at that time. After the sale ended, Tezos had raised 65,000 Bitcoin and 360,000 Ethereum, worth about $232 million
8/ The Tezos Foundation has not squandered their capital, and as of July 2019 holds assets with a value of $652 million, including a stability fund of assets like bonds. For comparison, Ethereum holds ~600k ETH with a value of $93 million, and ~$80 million in fiat as of May 2019
9/ One of the ways Tezos is utilizing this massive war chest is by offering grants to the Tezos community for research and development. Tezos invested $37.4 million in grants in the past 2 years, with Ethereum planning on investing $30 million for the rest of 2019 and into 2020
10/ Most importantly, Tezos has already achieved real world applications in several areas. Brazil's fifth largest bank BTG Pactual, plans on offering Security Token Offerings on the Tezos blockchain, after a successful STO for an Ethereum-based token earlier this year
11/ Additionally, the French national police cyber crime division is currently using the Tezos blockchain to record judicial expenses, which is one of the first times a government entity has successfully deployed an operational smart contract
12/ All in all, Tezos is clearly developing into a world-class blockchain ecosystem capable of competing with Ethereum. I'm incredibly excited to see how @tezos continues to develop over the next couple of years, but remember, Athens wasn't built in a day
