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“Fitting is a failure in a crowded market,” noted CEO Seth Godin during the dot-com era. It’s a cliché, but accurate: Few of today’s major krypto names are likely to have a long-term future. Most will simply fizzle out if not enough users are drawn in.
But Arthur Breitman, the founder of Tezos (XTZ), is confident that his project will not suffer the same fate. Many still associate Tezos with controversy, but Breitman argues that it is a truly unique product.
Crypto Briefing met with Breitman at Paris Blockchain Week. Dressed informally in a maroon t-shirt with the Tezos logo on the chest, he explained that Tezos is unique when it comes to being a truly driverless, smart contract platform.
The Schelling Point *
Rival platforms have been different from the cryptocurrencies they’re actually good at, Breitman says. Instead of focusing on the asset class’s natural strengths, Ethereum is pinned by its 60,000-strong development team, while Bitcoiners keep repeating that they have the highest hashrate.
“It’s like all hash power counts,” he said. It only matters when people are actually using it, he argues.
In Breitman’s view, what ultimately draws users in is a project’s ability and its message to last for a long time. “You need a coherent narrative about your existence,” he said. “That is the main shilling point.”
The Tezos message is simple: “It’s the only chain you need. it calibrated to do everything. “Breitman refuses to be a figurehead or lead behind the development and hopes to allow community members, the real users, to determine what Tezos should look like.
In his view, this shows how important governance is for a blockchain platform.
“Meta rules”
According to Breitman, Tezos is the first project to take governance seriously. Every Tezos baker – a block producer with a minimum roll size of 10,000 XTZ in the network – can submit proposals after a three-month change period, on which other bakers can vote.
In order for a proposal to be accepted, it must be 80% quorate. Breitman believes he is “very thorough” and is a natural barrier to implementing inferior, silly, or dangerous proposals.
Not only does Breitman believe that governance can also allow Tezos to adjust over time. “Governance ensures the platform’s longevity,” he says, and a number of “meta rules” keep it from becoming obsolete.
User requirements are likely to change, especially in a sector where technology advancement is already rapid. Tezos stays relevant and competitive with “Rules to Change the Rules”.
Of course, community governance is no guarantee that Tezos will be sabotaged. However, Breitman believes that the underlying technology can improve even in the event of a crisis without resorting to a fork.
These “meta rules” are already under way. The first proposal under discussion is to reduce the roll size to 8,000 XTZ. This is the first time the voting mechanism has been used and Breitman, the founder, has not been consulted.
According to Breitman, this shows that the community is already becoming autonomous.
“It’s great that Vitalik thinks on-chain governance is a bad idea,” added Breitman. “It means it probably won’t happen on Ethereum, which is fantastic.” As technology advances, he believes Tezos can adapt and keep up with the times.
Take me to your leading users
The sector is used to treating various functions as mutually exclusive: you can have a smart contract platform or a privacy coin, but not both.
But that’s the wrong approach, says Breitman. Developers are currently working on bringing Tezos new privacy policy payment features and setting up credit lines, as is possible with Stellar (XLM).
What the Tezos platform offers, according to Breitman, is a strong governance model that rewards developers for submitting good ideas without becoming entrenched in the underlying infrastructure.
In a way, Breitman’s relationship with the platform is a microcosm of what Tezos has to offer to the world. “I want to be helpful,” he says. His influence and expertise can fuel the platform, but it’s the community that actually builds the platform and adapts it to whatever it wants to do.
The role of the Tezos founder is ultimately “unimportant”. It’s a supporting role, but not the main driver of development. “The product may speak with a French accent,” stressed Breitman, “but it really is an international, distributed project.”
Breitman is not an active agent of Tezos’ success, and he does not run from scratch like Buterin. A death hoax against Breitman is unlikely to have nearly the same impact as the one that hit Ethereum in 2017.
Breitman believes that Tezos will gradually replace its competitors as there is no market leader. Buterin has said that he will leave Ethereum at some point in the future; Breitman has already started moving away.
While many blockchain creators are treated like messiah in their communities, Tezos’ founder seems intent on maintaining the opposite image.
* This article has been updated to use “Schelling Point” instead of “Shilling Point”. We apologize for the mistake.
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