It's a blockchain that upgrades itself. Most blockchains can split their community in two during a big change (a hard fork), but Tezos is designed to decide code changes by on-chain vote, so it evolves without splitting. It's an L1 that also supports smart contracts.

What does a hard fork split mean?

When a blockchain needs a big change and people disagree, the chain can split into two. Tezos has everyone decide changes by vote, so instead of fighting and splitting apart, it upgrades as one body, like shedding its skin.

On Tezos, putting up XTZ to produce blocks and earn rewards is called baking, like baking bread, but with blocks. If running a node yourself is too much, you can delegate your XTZ to another baker instead. It's a form of proof-of-stake (PoS).

Is there a cap on how many coins exist?

No. Bitcoin stops at 21 million, but Tezos has no cap, it's inflationary, so new XTZ keeps being issued as rewards. If you just hold without staking, your share can slowly get diluted. (The exact issuance rate changes with each upgrade.)

No.133

📒 Codex L1 · Smart Contracts · On-chain Governance

Tezos XTZ

The self-evolving blockchain that sheds its skin by voting, never by fighting

🎭 A gentle, evolving friend who, instead of squabbling, gathers everyone to vote, sheds the old shell, and comes out brand new

⚡ L1📜 Smart Contract🌱 PoS

ALTROOKIE CODEX

💬 “My story has chapters. Each time the village voted, I shed a skin and turned the page. I'm still writing it. 🦎”

💬 TL;DR

A blockchain that upgrades itself. Code changes are settled by an on-chain vote (self-amendment).
That vote is why a big change never tears it into two chains (a hard fork).
It runs on proof-of-stake. Staking XTZ to make blocks goes by a tasty nickname: “baking.”

📖 The Story

This is a saga told in chapters, and each chapter ends the same way: a vote, then a shed skin.

2014. A whitepaper appeared, signed by someone named “L. M. Goodman.” The name was a mask. Behind it stood a married couple, Arthur & Kathleen Breitman, with one stubborn idea. Every blockchain they knew settled its big arguments by splitting in two: a “hard fork,” with neighbors walking off to start a rival village under the same name. Goodman's pitch was the opposite. Let the whole village vote, and let the chain rewrite its own rules. Self-amendment. A lizard that could peel off old code and slip into new code without anyone leaving.

July 1, 2017. The fundraise opened, and the money poured in: roughly $232 million, one of the largest crowd-sales the young industry had ever seen. The next chapter turned dark almost at once. By October the founders and the foundation's chairman were locked in a control fight; the launch stalled and class-action suits followed.

September 2018. Mainnet finally went live. The skin-shedding could begin for real. In 2020 the old lawsuit was settled for around $25 million, and the saga rolled on through upgrade after upgrade, each one named, voted in, and swapped onto the live chain. The 2024 “Paris” chapter split the rewards into two paths: lighter staking with no lock, or heavier staking that freezes your coins for about two weeks. The story keeps adding pages. Sliiip—

📊 Stats

🗳️Self-governance Upgrades by on-chain vote

🔀Fork-resistance Built to avoid hard-fork splits

🍞Staking depth Baking + delegation, LPoS

🌐Ecosystem Outgunned by ETH · SOL

🪨Track record Mainnet live since Sept 2018

🧩 How it works

Here is how a chapter of the saga actually gets written. Someone proposes a change: “let's fix this part like so.” The villagers vote on it on-chain, in stages. If the vote carries, Tezos swaps itself onto the new code with no human stepping in, and nobody has to walk off to start a rival chain. That move has a name: self-amendment. Meanwhile the day-to-day block-making falls to “bakers,” who stake XTZ to take a turn, and that staking is what people call the baking.

📝 Propose a change, 🗳️ everyone votes, and if it passes 🦎 Tezos slips into the new code by itself, no splitting.

🌗 Light & Shadow

🌕 Light

A big change carries it forward as one chain instead of cracking it in two (the whole point of self-amendment)
One of the earliest names in on-chain governance, with a live track record since 2018
Proof-of-stake means low electricity, and you can earn by delegating to a baker without running anything yourself

🌑 Shadow

No supply cap. New XTZ keeps printing as rewards, so just holding without staking lets your share quietly dilute (unlike Bitcoin's fixed 21 million)
The ecosystem sits well behind giants like Ethereum and Solana in apps and attention
The origin chapter was rough: that $232M raise was followed by a leadership feud and class-action suits, dragging the launch out and ending in a roughly $25M settlement in 2020

🧬 Evolution tree

Tezos isn't a fork or a sibling of any other coin. It didn't split off from Bitcoin or Ethereum, it's an independently designed L1, so on the tree it stands alone as its own independent node. It's a pioneer of the “self-amending” governance lineage.

🦎 Tezos 🌱 self-amending governance lineage (independent node)

Unlike Bitcoin Cash (a Bitcoin fork) or Stellar (an XRP sibling), Tezos has no direct bloodline relatives. For other “L1 · smart contract” friends, take a look below.

🧭 Meet other friends

Ξ Ethereum ◎ Solana 💎 Toncoin

See the whole codex →

❓ FAQ

What is Tezos?: It's a blockchain that upgrades itself. Most blockchains can split their community in two during a big change (a hard fork), but Tezos is designed to decide code changes by on-chain vote, so it evolves without splitting. It's an L1 that also supports smart contracts.
What does a “hard fork split” mean?: When a blockchain needs a big change and people disagree, the chain can split into two. Tezos has everyone decide changes by vote, so instead of fighting and splitting apart, it upgrades as one body, like “shedding its skin.”
What is “baking”?: On Tezos, putting up XTZ to produce blocks and earn rewards is called “baking”, like baking bread, but with blocks. If running a node yourself is too much, you can delegate your XTZ to another “baker” instead. (It's a form of proof-of-stake, PoS.)
Is there a cap on the number of coins?: No. Bitcoin stops issuing at 21 million, but Tezos has no cap, it's inflationary, so new XTZ keeps being issued as rewards. If you just hold it without staking, your share can slowly get diluted. (The exact issuance rate changes with each upgrade.)

⚠️ Not investment advice. All figures are for information only (MOCK · 2026-06-04).