EOS.IO is a blockchain protocol that is based on the cryptocurrency EOS. Similar to Cardano, I am bringing this blockchain up because it is actually being used by people for important uses for society instead of simply existing as a crypto for rich people to try and get even richer. EOS was originally released in January of 2018 as a distributed ledger to be used for smart contracts, though the blockchain was based on a white paper that was published a year earlier in 2017. It was, and still is, written in the C++ programming language with a design which allows the software & its nodes to run on multiple operating systems like MacOS, Windows, Linux, and Solaris. Like a lot of other blockchains, the code for EOS is open source, so anyone else can use it to create their own distributed, immutable, trustless database for free & modify the code as you wish. It was developed by a company called block.one and according to the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Brendan Blumer, over one billion US Dollars were originally poured into the project before raising over 4 billion US Dollars during the Initial Coin Offering period for EOS.
In December 2014, an online encyclopedia was founded named Everipedia that was originally launched as a fork of Wikipedia and launched to the public in January 2015. By 2017, Everipedia made plans to store their encyclopedia on a blockchain so it could be a truly decentralized repo of knowledge and so it would be more difficult for nations like Turkey & Iran who block Wikipedia to block Everipedia from being read by their people. This peer-to-peer wiki was eventually put on the EOS.IO blockchain as information was moved to be stored on the blockchain. Since blockchains are truly decentralized without some kind of admin account to potentially give a hacker full access to the database, EOS allowed the creators of Everipedia to eliminate server costs of maintaining the encyclopedia cheaper. According to the creators of Everipedia, the blockchain truly makes it impossible for governments to censor the encyclopedia as long as some nodes/computers continue to regularly back up the blockchain. On November 3rd, 2020, the Associated Press began to publish the results of the 2020 United States presidential election on the EOS blockchain using the Everipedia OraQle program, adding another permanent piece of information to the platform for future generations to read uncensored.
An Irish company that is one of the leading blockchain software developers in Ireland named EOS Dublin is working with the digisited company ConsolFreight. This project they are working on is a Proof of Concept (or POC for short) for a digital freight forwarding program powered by the EOS blockchain. This system will track the transport and movement of goods across international borders with the EOS blockchain allowing the transaction to remain secure and low risk through smart contracts and the Internet of Things (IoT). The CEO of EOS Dublin (Sharif Douktila) describes the real-world usage of the program like so: “We are doing some pretty interesting stuff with the EOS.IO smart contracts, facilitating the workflow and tracking asset ownership. Using a non-fungible token (NFT) contact we will create, issue, transfer and burn NFTs. These NFTs will be used to track asset ownership throughout the workflow and will also provide escrow functionality for the tokens. Ultimately a smart contract will store the details of the contract thereby issuing pay-outs based on received data. At the end of the day Freight Forwarders want an easy to use, fail proof system. We are offering them just that – and at a much-reduced cost”.
