What makes Tezos different?
Here are some of the features that make Tezos different from other blockchains:
Tezos can upgrade itself
Tezos has a built-in capability to upgrade itself, which allows the network to evolve without requiring a hard fork. Anyone can propose an upgrade to the protocol and have it adopted by the network without compromising the platform's stability or causing fragmentation. This feature allows Tezos to adapt to new technologies and to address user needs rapidly.
Stakeholders participate in governance
Anyone who holds XTZ — the chain's native token — can propose changes to how Tezos works, such as changes to gas fees and block times, new features such as Smart Rollups, or even major changes like how the consensus mechanism works.
Formal verification ensures trust and code quality
Formal verification is a process that ensures that a smart contract does what it says it does and has no side effects. Formal verification reduces errors, bugs, and security vulnerabilities in contracts and allows users to trust them. For more information, see Formal Verification on opentezos.com.
Tezos uses proof of stake
The proof-of-stake consensus model eliminates the need for high energy use, making it the "green" choice for blockchains. Instead of competing to achieve consensus as in proof-of-work models, Tezos nodes (called bakers) stake Tezos tokens to earn the right to create blocks and receive rewards. Users who want to participate without running a node themselves can delegate tokens to a baker for a share of the rewards. The bakers and delegators keep control of their tokens and can remove them at any time. Tezos's approach to consensus has been described as Liquid Proof of Stake.
The proof-of-stake model improves scalability and encourages incentive alignment. It also increases the cost of 51% attacks and avoids environmentally wasteful proof-of-work. Tezos launched in June 2018 as one of the first major proof-of-stake networks.
For more information about how Tezos handles proof of stake, see https://tezos.gitlab.io/alpha/proof_of_stake.html.
Tezos accepts multiple languages
Tezos lets developers use languages that make sense for their use case, including versions of Python and JavaScript/TypeScript. For more information, see An Introduction to Smart Contracts.