What is Tezos (XTZ) and what is it used for?

Tezos is a proof-of-stake blockchain that runs smart contracts and changes its own rules through on-chain voting. Its coin is called tez, with the ticker XTZ. As of October 2026, the network has adopted 21 protocol upgrades this way, the latest of which, Ushuaia, went live on June 30, 2026.

What does Tezos do?

Like Ethereum, Tezos lets developers deploy smart contracts and build applications such as token systems and decentralized finance tools. It also runs Etherlink, an environment compatible with Ethereum's tools that publishes its data through the main Tezos chain.

What sets Tezos apart is how it changes. On most blockchains, a rule change means new software that everyone must choose to install, and a dispute can split the chain, as explained in hard fork vs soft fork. Tezos writes the upgrade process into the protocol itself.

How does Tezos governance work?

An upgrade passes through five periods, each about 14 days long:

1. Proposal. Delegates submit and upvote proposals.
2. Exploration. A vote on the top proposal. It needs a quorum and more than 80% yes votes, not counting abstentions.
3. Cooldown. The code is tested on test networks.
4. Promotion. A second vote with the same thresholds.
5. Adoption. Software is prepared, and the new protocol activates automatically at the end.

Voting power equals the tez a delegate has staked plus the tez delegated to it. Tallinn, the 20th upgrade, cut block time from 8 to 6 seconds in January 2026. Ushuaia raised the capacity of the network's data layer about 15 times.

What is Tezos baking?

Baking is Tezos's name for producing and confirming blocks. A baker runs a Tezos node and must have at least 6,000 tez staked, from its own account or delegated to it, as a security deposit. Bakers earn rewards for creating blocks and for attesting to other bakers' blocks.

People who do not run a node can delegate their tez to a baker. Delegated coins stay in the owner's account and can be spent at any time, but they count toward the baker's weight, and the delegator receives a share of the rewards. Older guides cite an 8,000 XTZ minimum, a figure that has since been lowered. The general model is covered in proof of work vs proof of stake and what is crypto staking.

Who created the Tezos blockchain?

Arthur and Kathleen Breitman began working on Tezos in 2014. In July 2017 the project raised about $232 million in bitcoin and ether, then one of the largest initial coin offerings. The Tezos Foundation, based in Switzerland, was set up after the sale to support the launch, and the network went live in 2018.

No single company controls upgrades. Teams write proposals, but bakers decide by vote whether they activate.