EOS for "blondes"

Everybody here are talking about EOS and you might wondering what's that and why it's so popular. I'll explain everything in simple words for blondes like me 😉

What's all the rush about? Why another coin? There are plenty of them already!

Well, it's not only about the cryptocurrency here, but about the technology it brings.

Lots of people were forking Bitcoin to create other tokens. When Ethereum got traction, the trend about recreating Bitcoin changed to creating new tokens via smart-contracts. Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum stores not only the information about the balance, but also some executable code, which was called smart contract. So, instead of sending money to someone, you can send no money (0 ETH), but with a command which the smart command would execute. It's like a message you send to a remote computer (but here you have lots of distributed computers). If you think about that, there's nothing new from what we already have here on Steem. Yes, Steemit is also blockchain based, even though it looks like a regular web site (which is one of its advantages!). However, if we'd try to develop Steem on Etherem blockchain, depending on how many users are accessing the site, you'd have to wait several minutes to open a post. What is even worse, you'll have to pay for every page you open. There are lots of other problems that @dantheman describes here. So, why people aren't using the tech behind Steem instead? Because all the data is common. Here EOS.IO comes, which offers everything a dev would want: the storage, command execution and everything that Steem and Bitshares are using already. Also it should be rather easy to use.

Sounds promising, but don't get it! What's that... how you said? EOS?

EOS is usually referred to distribution tokens on Ethereum blockchain, which, @dan said, may have no value (huh?).

EOS.IO is the software, the "operating system" for applications. Unlike operating systems you know, it's decentralized (remember the explanation about remote computers?). So it would allow building decentralized applications like Steem, Bitshares, and much more.

Still don't understand... why that EOS is a thing? Why everybody are buying it? You said that it might have no value???

EOS token is deployed on Ethereum blockchain (being ERC-20 compatible) only for ICO. ICO means that tokens are distributed before the product is created, so it's not possible to use EOS.IO blockchain for that. When ICO is ended, those distributed tokens will be frozen and converted to cryptographic tokens on a new launched blockchain. In this way you are investing in the development, even though there's no product yet, just because you believe in it.

OK, but when it will be ready?

You know that even Steemit isn't ready yet, it's still in beta. And there's an infinite space for changes and improvements. However, there's a roadmap, according to which there will be already a Minimal Viable Testing Environment this summer.

So then better to wait when there's something to see, no?

Yes, but then the price can increase significantly. More risk, more gain could be obtained.

How can I be sure that the product would worth investing? And what if there will be no product released whatsoever! Those people buying should be crazy!

Yes, there's nothing yet released, but there's experience with proven concepts and best practices. There's a technical white paper which describes in detail the future product and all the innovation around it.

I know there's a lot there and it's difficult to grasp everything. If it will be interest, I'll write the part 2 of this blog post about the technical details explained simple.

Alright, how to get some EOS tokens?

EOS ICO is ongoing on eos.io, but the price depends on how many participants are in a 24 hour window. The price for the last window was $3.5 and for the previous one was almost $6. However, on the exchanges the current price is $2.8. So, obviously, it's better to buy on exchanges, it's easier and without restrictions like on ICO. Just use Bitfinex or Kraken. For Bitfinex you can use the ref-link or code lHqsKnJOQ1 to get a bonus after registering an account.

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