Tezos is a blockchain network that hosts the digital token Tez (XTZ), also known as tezzie. It facilitates user participation in decentralized finance, decentralized applications, and non-fungible token (NFT) projects. Tezos’ governance is based on economic stakes and precludes hard forks, with a blockchain-based governance mechanism that adopts and implements protocol upgrades chosen by voting proportional to users’ economic stake in Tezos.

The Tezos Foundation, led by Swiss entrepreneur Johann Gevers, organized an initial coin offering (ICO) for Tezos in July 2017, which was the most successful to date. The ICO was valued at $232 million and the Tezos Foundation reported assets of $471 million as of Dec. 31, 2026.

Tezos is a decentralized ledger that uses blockchain technology and smart contracts. Staking 8,000 Tez allows the owner to operate a network node earning a proportional share of Tez rewards for validating blockchain transactions. Decisions on adopting protocol upgrades depend on voting by bakers in proportion to the size of their stakes, and the changes are automatically implemented throughout the blockchain.

Tezos’ governance protocols distinguish it from Bitcoin and Ethereum, which lack formal governance systems. The proof of stakes model for blockchain validation consumes less energy than Bitcoin mining. However, it remains to be seen whether Tezos’ inflation mechanism can protect stakeholders over the long run by issuing additional tokens.